Chapter 4 Flashcards
The process by which people translate incoming information into a form that fits concepts they already understand
Assimilation
The process by which people adapt current knowledge structures in response to new experiences.
Accommodation
The process by which children (or other people) balance assimilation and accommodation to create stable understanding.
Equilibration
the period (from birth to 2 years) within Piaget’s theory in which intelligence is expressed through sensory and motor ability.
Sensorimotor Stage
the period (2 to 7 years ) within Piaget’s theory in which children become able to represent their experiences in language, mental imagery, and symbolic thought.
Pre operational stage
the period (7-12 years) within Piaget’s theory in which children become able to reason logically about concrete objects and eventsStage
Concrete Operational Stage
the period (12 years and beyond) within Piaget’s theory in which people become able to think about abstractions and hypothetical situations
Formal Operational Stage
the knowledge that objects continue to exist even when they are out of view
Object Permanence
the tendency to reach for a hidden object where it was last found rather than in the new location where it was last hidden
A-not-B error
the repetition of other people’s behavior a substantial time after it originally occurred.
Deferred imitation
the use of one object to stand for another
symbolic representation
the tendency to perceive the world sole from one’s own point of view
egocentrism
the tendency to focus on a single, perceptually striking feature of an object or event
centration
the idea that merely changing the appearance of objects does not necessarily change other key properties
conservation concept
a class of theories that focus on the structure of the cognitive system and the mental activities used to deploy attention and memory to solve problems
information-processing theories
the research technique of identifying goals, relevant information in the environment, and potential processing strategies for a problem
task analysis
the process of attaining a goal by using a strategy to overcome an obstacle
problem solving
memory system that involves actively attending to, gathering, maintaining, storing, and processing information
working memory
information retained on an enduring basis
long-term memory
the simplest and most frequently used mental activities
basic processes
the process of representing in memory information that draws attention or is considered important
encoding
the process of repeating information multiple times to aid memory of it
rehearsal
the process of intentionally focusing on the information that is most relevant to the current goal
selective attention
an information-processing approach that emphasizes the variability of children’s thinking
overlapping-waves theory
approaches that emphasize that other people and the surrounding culture contribute greatly to children’s development.
sociocultural theories
a process in which more knowledgeable individuals organize activities in ways that allow less knowledgeable people to learn.
guided participation
the innumerable products of human ingenuity that enhance thinking.
cultural tools
the second phase of Vgotsky’s internalization-of thought process, in which children develop their self-regulation and problem-solving abilities by telling themselves aloud what to do, much as their parents did in the first stage
private speech
the mutual understanding that people share during communication
intersubjectivity
a process in which social partners intentionally focus on a common referent in the external environment
joint attention
