Chapter 2- Cognitive Development

Question 1

development

Answer 1

orderly, adaptive changes that humans go through from conception to death

Question 2

physical development

Answer 2

changes in body structure that take place as one grows

Question 3

personal development

Answer 3

changes in personality that take place as one grows

Question 4

social development

Answer 4

changes over time in the ways in which one relates to others

Question 5

cognitive development

Answer 5

gradual, orderly changes by which mental processes become more complex and sophisticated

Question 6

maturation

Answer 6

genetically programmed, naturally occurring changes over time

Question 7

coactions

Answer 7

joint actions of individual biology and environment- each shapes and influences the other

Question 8

sensitive periods

Answer 8

times when a person is especially ready for or responsive to certain experiences

Question 9

lateralization

Answer 9

the specialization of the two hemispheres of the brain cortex

Question 10

plasticity

Answer 10

the brain’s tendency to remain somewhat adaptable or flexible

Question 11

organization

Answer 11

ongoing process of arranging information and experience into mental systems or categories

Question 12

adaptation

Answer 12

adjustment to the environment

Question 13

schemes

Answer 13

mental systems or categories of perception and experience

Question 14

assimilation

Answer 14

fitting new information into exisiting schemes (same schema)

Question 15

accommodation

Answer 15

altering existing schemes or creating new ones in response to new information (create, change)

Question 16

equilibration

Answer 16

search for mental balance between cognitive schemes and information from the environment

Question 17

disequilibrium

Answer 17

in piaget’s theory, the “out-of-balance” state that occurs when a person realizes that his or her current ways of thinking are not working to solve a problem or understand a situation

Question 18

executive functioning

Answer 18

the processes used to organize, coordinate, and perform goal-directed, intentional actions, including focusing attention, inhibiting impulsive responses, making and changing plans, and using memory to hold and manipulate information

Question 19

neo-piagetian theories

Answer 19

more recent theories that integrate findings about attention, memory, and strategy use with Piaget’s insights about children’s thinking and the construction of knowledge

Question 20

sociocultural theory

Answer 20

theory that emphasizes the role in development of cooperative dialogues between children and more knowledgeable members of society; children learn the culture of their community (ways of thinking and behaving) through these interactions

Question 21

co-constructed

Answer 21

constructed through a social process in which people interact and negotiate (usually verbally) to create an understanding or to solve a problem; the final product is shaped by all participants

Question 22

cultural tools

Answer 22

the real tools and symbol systems that alow people in a society to communicate, think, solve problems, and create knowledge

Question 23

collective monologue

Answer 23

form of speech in which children in a group talk but do not really interact or communicate

Question 24

private speech

Answer 24

children’s self-talk, which guides their thinking and action; eventually these verbalizations are internalized as silent inner speech

Question 25

zone of proximal development

Answer 25

phase at which a child can master a task if given appropriate help and support

Question 26

scaffolding

Answer 26

support for learning and problem solving; the support could be clues, reminders, encouragement, breaking the problem down into steps, providing an example, or anything else that allows the student to grow in independence as a learner

Question 27

assisted learning

Answer 27

learning by having strategic help provided in the initial stages; the help gradually diminishes as students gain independence