Chapter 6 Flashcards
Accommodation
According to Piaget, changing existing knowledge based on new knowledge
Assimilation
According to Piaget, taking in information that is compatible with what one already knows
Equilibration
According to Piaget, the process by which children reorganize their schemes and, in the process, move to the next developmental stage
Sensorimotor Stage
(Birth-2 yrs) 1st of Piaget’s stages. Infants progress from responding reflexively to using symbols
Object Permanence
Understanding that objects exist independently
*According to Piaget, infants do not have full understanding of this until 18 months
Preoperational Stage
(2-7 yrs) Piaget’s 2nd stage. Children use symbols to represent objects and events
Egocentrism
Young children’s difficulty in seeing the world from another’s view point
Animism
When preoperational children sometimes credit inanimate objects with life and lifelike properties
(Ex: child saying her bike is sad because it can’t be ridden today)
Centration
Narrowly focused thinking characteristics of Piaget’s preoperational stage
Concrete Operational Stage
(7-11 yrs) 3rd of Piaget’s stages. Children start using mental operations to solve problems and to reason
Formal Operational Stage
(11-adulthood) 4th of Piaget’s stages. Children and adolescents apply mental operations to abstract entities; they think hypothetically and reason deductively
Mental Operations
Strategies and rules that make thinking more systematic and more powerful
Deductive Reasoning
The ability to draw appropriate conclusions from facts
Constructivism
Children are active participants in their own development who systematically construct ever more sophisticated understandings of their worlds
Sociocultural Perspective
Children are products of their culture: children’s cognitive development is not only brought about by social interaction, it is inseparable from the cultural contexts in which children live
Intersubjectivity
According to Vygotsky, mutual, shared understanding among people who are participating in an activity together
Guided Participation
According to Vygotsky, structured interactions between a child and another more knowledgable person; they are thought to promote cognitive growth
Zone of Proximal Development
The difference between what children can do with assistance and what they can do alone
Scaffolding
A teaching style that matches the amount of assistance to the learner’s needs
Private Speech
Comments that are not intended for others but that help children regulate their own behavior
Inner Speech
Vygotsky’s term for thought
Information-Processing Theory
A view that human cognition consists of mental hardware and mental software
Sensory Memory
A type of memory in which information is held in raw, unanalyzed form very briefly (no longer than a few seconds)
Working Memory
A type of memory in which a smaller number of items can be stored briefly
Long-Term Memory
A permanent storehouse for memories that has unlimited capacity
Central Executive
The component of the information-processing system, analogous to a computer’s operating system, that coordinates the activities of the system
Automatic Processes
Cognitive activities that require virtually no effort
Core-Knowledge Theories
The view that infants are born with rudimentary knowledge of the world that is elaborated based on children’s experiences
Teleological Explanations
As applied to children’s naïve theories of living things, the belief that living thing and parts of living things exist for a purpose
Essentialism
The belief, common among young children, that all living things have an underlying essence that cannot be seen but that gives a living thing it’s identity
Folk Psychology
Our informal beliefs about other people and their behavior
Theory of Mind
An intuitive understanding of the connections among thoughts, beliefs, intentions, and behavior; develops rapidly in the preschool years
