Chapter 4 Flashcards
Sensorimotor Intelligence
Piaget’s term for the way infants think by using their senses and motor skills to gain information about the world (Sensorimotor Stage - Ages Birth to 2).
A-Not-B-Task
Tendency to reach for a hidden object where it was last found, rather than in the new location where it was last hidden (Piaget)
Symbolic Representation
Use of one object to stand for another (Preoperational Stage - Ages 2 to 7).
Centration
Focusing on a single, perceptually striking feature of an object or event to the exclusion of other relevant but less striking features (Preoperational Stage - Ages 2 to 7).
Egocentrism
Perceiving the world solely from one’s own point of view (Preoperational Stage - Ages 2 to 7).
Conservation Concept
Changing the appearance of objects does not necessarily change the properties (Preoperational Stage - Ages 2 to 7).
Concrete Operational Stage
Children begin to reason logically about concrete features of the world. (Limited to concrete situations). Systematic and hypothetical thinking are difficult.
Children become able to think logically, not just intuitively. They now can understand that events are influenced by multiple factors, not just one.
Formal Operational Stage
Children begin to think abstractly and hypothetically and to reason hypothetically. Piaget believed this stage was not universal (not all adolescents reach it). Adolescent thinking expands and enriches intellectual life.
Adolescents can think systematically and reason about what might be, as well as what is. This allows them to understand politics, ethics, and science fiction about alternative political and ethical systems, as well as to engage in scientific reasoning.
Preoperational Stage
Toddlers and young children acquire the ability to internally represent the world through language and mental imagery. They also begin to see the world from other people’s perspectives, not just their own.
Sensorimotor Stage
Infants know the world through their senses and through their actions. For example, they learn what dogs look like and what petting them feels like.
Information-Processing Theories
Theories that focus on the structure of cognitive systems and the mental activities used to deploy attention and memory to solve problems.
Model of Thought Process (David Klahr)
Suggests that children’s thinking operates like a computer, processing information through a sequence of steps, including encoding, storing, and retrieving information to solve problems.
Task Analysis
Method used to break down complex activities into smaller, more manageable components.
Child as limited-capacity processing system
Cognitive development arises from children’s gradually surmounting processing limitations (Expanding amount of information processed at a time, increasing processing speeds, acquiring new strategies and knowledge).
Child as problem solver
Active problem-solving aids in attaining a goal by using strategy to overcome an obstacle.
Working Memory
Actively attending to, gathering, maintaining, storing, and processing information is limited in both capacity (amount of information that can be stored) and length of time information can be retained.
Long Term Memory
Knowledge that people accumulate over their lifetime.
Executive Functioning
Controls of cognition, primarily via prefrontal cortex.
Applications of Executive Functioning
Inhibiting tempting actions that can cause difficulties.
Enhancing working memory through use of strategies such as repeating a phone number.
Being cognitively flexible and taking another person’s perspective in an argument.
Rehearsal
Process of repeating information multiple times to aid memory of it.
Selective Attention
Process of intentionally focusing on information that is most relevant to the current goal.
Content Knowledge
Increased knowledge improves recall and integration of new information. Prior content knowledge improves encoding, provides useful associations, and guides memory in useful directions.
Overlapping Waves Theory
Information-processing approach that emphasizes the variability of children’s thinking.
Planning
Problem solving is more successful if people plan before acting. Children are not good at planning; planning improves as prefrontal cortex matures.
Core-Knowledge Theories
Views children as having some innate knowledge in domains of special evolutionary importance. Domain-specific learning mechanisms for rapidly and effortlessly acquiring additional information in those domains.
Nativism
Infants have a substantial innate knowledge of important evolutionary domains.
Constructivism
Infants build increasingly advanced understanding by combining rudimentary innate knowledge with subsequent experiences.
Sociocultural Theories
Emphasize that other people and the surrounding culture contribute greatly to children’s development.
Intersubjectivity
Refers to the shared understanding that develops between people during communication. Allows individuals to connect mentally and emotionally, facilitating learning.
Joint Attention
Occurs when two individuals focus on the same object or event while being aware that they are sharing that focus.
Dynamic-Systems Theories
Theories focus on how change occurs over varying time periods in complex systems.
The Centrality of Action
Children’s specific actions contribute to development throughout life.
Self-Organization
Involves integrating attention, memory, emotions, and actions to adapt to changing environment.
Variation
Use of different behaviors to pursue the same goal.
Selection
Increasing frequent choice of relatively successful behaviors in reaching goals.
Deferred Imitation
The repetition of other people’s behavior that takes place a substantial amount of time after it originally occurred.
Accommodation
Occurs when an individual adjusts their existing mental frameworks (or schemas) to incorporate new information or experiences.
