chapter 6

Question 1

assimilation piaget

Answer 1

occurs when new experiences are readily incorporated into a child’s existing theories

Question 2

accommodation piaget

Answer 2

occurs when a child’s theories are modified based on experience

Question 3

assimilation example

Answer 3

child has a family dog that licks their face and barks. when seeing a relatives dog and it does the same thing, it makes sense to the child

Question 4

accommodation example

Answer 4

child sees at cat that somewhat resembles a dog but meows instead and rubs up against the child instead of licking. child revives original theory

Question 5

equilibration piaget

Answer 5

the process by which children recognize their schemas and in the process move to the next developmental stage

Question 6

according to piaget, these revolutionary changes in thought occur three times over the life span

Answer 6

at approximately 2, 7, and 11 and divides cognitive development into four stages

Question 7

sensorimotor stage

Answer 7

spans birth to 2 years old, a period during which the infant progresses from simple reflex actions to symbolic processing

Question 8

preoperational stage

Answer 8

spans ages 2 to 7 and marked by the child’s use of symbols to represent objects and events

Question 9

concrete operational stage

Answer 9

spans ages 7 to 11, children being to use mental operations to solve problems and to reason

Question 10

formal operational stage

Answer 10

extends from age 11 into adulthood, children and adolescents apply mental operations to abstract entities; they think hypothetically and reason deductively

Question 11

object performance

Answer 11

the understanding, acquired in infancy, that objects exist independently of oneself

Question 12

infants understanding for objects could be summarized

Answer 12

as out of sight out of mind

Question 13

at about 8 months infants search for an

Answer 13

object that an experimenter has covered with a cloth but object permanence is still incomplete at this time

Question 14

A not B error

Answer 14

if you hide an object under 1 container several times then see it hid under another container they usually look for the toy under the first container

Question 15

egocentrism

Answer 15

refers to young children’s difficulty in seeing the world from another’s viewpoint

Question 16

animism

Answer 16

a phenomenon common in preschool children in which they attribute life and lifelike properties to inanimate objects

Question 17

centration

Answer 17

piagets term for narrowly focused thought that characterizes preoperational children (they get tunnel vision)

Question 18

centration example

Answer 18

juice in glass example. where kids are focused on the level of juice in a couple and can see that in the same two glasses the juice level is the same but when one is poured into a tall glass they say that cup has more juice

Question 19

mental operations

Answer 19

are strategies and rules that make thinking more systematic and more powerful

Question 20

what drives us toward higher stages in piagets theory is

Answer 20

our need to make sense of our experiences, children’s constructions of reality depend on the knowledge available to them at that point in time

Question 21

schemes

Answer 21

cognitive, mental structures that we create to represent, organize, and interpret our experiences

Question 22

sensorimotor substances

Answer 22

stage 1 reflex activity 0-1 months
stage 2 primary circular reactions (repetitive behaviours focused on the infants own body 1-4months)
stage 3 secondary circular reactions (repetitive behaviours focused on external objects 4-8 months)
stage 4 coordination of secondary schemata (combination of different schemes to achieve specific goals)
stage 5 tertiary circular reactions (experimenting with properties of external objects 12-18 months)
stage 6 inventing new means by mental combination (combining schemes mentally, relying less on physical trial and error 18-24months)

Question 23

concrete operational thinking’s is limited to

Answer 23

the tangible and real and the here and now. thinking abstractly and hypothetically is beyond

Question 24

deductive reasoning

Answer 24

the ability to draw appropriate conclusions from facts

Question 25

constructivism

Answer 25

the view that children are active participants in their own development who systematically construct ever more sophisticated understandings of their worlds

Question 26

sociocultural perspective

Answer 26

the view that children’s cognitive development is not only brought about by social interaction but is also inseparable from the sociocultural contexts in which they live

Question 27

cultural contexts organize cognitive development in several ways

Answer 27

culture often defined which cognitive activities are valued
culture provides tools that shape the way children think
higher level cultural practices help children to organize their knowledge and communicate to other

Question 28

vygotsky saw development as

Answer 28

an apprenticeship in which children advance when they collaborate with others who are more skilled

Question 29

intersubjectivity

Answer 29

mutual, shared understanding among people who are participating in an activity together

Question 30

guided participation

Answer 30

cognitive growth results from children’s involvement in structured activities with others who are more skilled than they

Question 31

zone of proximal development

Answer 31

the difference between what children can do with assistance and what they can do alone

Question 32

scaffolding

Answer 32

a teaching style in which adults adjust the amount of assistance that they offer based on the learners needs

Question 33

private speech

Answer 33

comments not directed at others but intended to help children regulate their own behaviour

Question 34

inner speech

Answer 34

as children gain greater skill private speech becomes inner speech which is their thoughts

Question 35

learning happens first through

Answer 35

interaction then through internalization

Question 36

children gain the same knowledge on two levels

Answer 36

first: the social level - by experiencing it with others, maybe more experienced others
second: the psychological level - by making mental maps of what has been understood

Question 37

information processing theory

Answer 37

a view that human cognition consists of mental hardware and mental software

Question 38

mental hardware has 3 components

Answer 38

sensory memory, working memory, and long term memory

Question 39

sensory memory

Answer 39

is where info is held very briefly in raw, unanalyzed form (no longer than a few seconds)

Question 40

working memory

Answer 40

is the site of ongoing cognitive activity

Question 41

long term memory

Answer 41

is a limitless, permanent storehouse of knowledge of the world

Question 42

central executive (executive functioning)

Answer 42

refers to the executive network of attention and resembles a computers operating system

Question 43

executive function includes three related components

Answer 43

inhibiting inappropriate thoughts and actions, shifting from one action, thought or task to another, and updating the contents of working memory

Question 44

connectionist theories

Answer 44

information processing theories that view the mind as a system of network processors

Question 45

core knowledge theories

Answer 45

the view that infants are born with basic knowledge of the world that is elaborated upon based on children’s experiences