chapter 12 vocab

Question 1

concrete operational stage

Answer 1

Piagetian stage between ages 7 and 12 when children can think logically about concrete situations but not engage in systematic scientific reasoning

Question 2

conservation problems

Answer 2

problems pioneered by Piaget in which physical transformation of an object or set of objects changes a perceptually salient dimension but not the quantity that is being asked about

Question 3

continuous development

Answer 3

ways in which development occurs in a gradual incremental manner, rather than through sudden jumps

Question 4

depth perception

Answer 4

the ability to actively perceive the distance from oneself to objects in the environment

Question 5

formal operations stage

Answer 5

Piagetian stage starting at age 12 years and continuing for the rest of life, in which adolescents may gain the reasoning powers of educated adults

Question 6

information processing theories

Answer 6

theories that focus on describing the cognitive processes that underlie thinking at any one age and cognitive growth over time

Question 7

nature

Answer 7

the genes that children bring with them to life and that influence all aspects of their development

Question 8

nurture

Answer 8

the environments, starting with the womb, that influence all aspects of development

Question 9

objective permanence task

Answer 9

the Piagetian task in which infants below about 9 months of age fail to search for an object that is removed from their sight and, if not allowed to search immediately for the object, act as if they don’t know that it continues to exist

Question 10

phonemic awareness

Answer 10

awareness of the component sounds within words

Question 11

Piaget’s theory

Answer 11

theory that development occurs through a sequence of discontinuous stages: the sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational stages

Question 12

preoperational reasoning stage

Answer 12

period within Piagetian theory from age 2 to 7 years, in which children can represent objects through drawing and language but cannot solve logical reasoning problems, such as conservation problems

Question 13

qualitative changes

Answer 13

large, fundamental changes. Stage theories such as Piaget’s posit that each stage reflects qualitative change relative to previous stages

Question 14

quantitative changes

Answer 14

gradual, incremental changes

Question 15

sensorimotor stage

Answer 15

period within Piagetian theory from birth to age 2 years, during which children come to represent the enduring reality of objects

Question 16

sociocultural theories

Answer 16

theory founded largely in part by Lev Vygotsky that emphasizes how other people and the attitudes, values, and beliefs of the surrounding culture influence children’s development