Chapter 6 - Cognitive Development Approaches

Question 1

Schemes

Answer 1

Actions or mental representations that organize knowledge

Piaget

Question 2

Assimilation

Answer 2

Incorporation of new information into existing knowledge

Piaget

Question 3

Accommodation

Answer 3

Adjusting schemes to fit new information and experiences

Piaget

Question 4

Organization

Answer 4

Grouping isolated behaviours into a higher-order, more smoothly functioning cognitive system; the grouping or arranging of items into categories

Piaget

Question 5

Equilibration

Answer 5

Explains how children shift from 1 stage of thought to the next. The shift occurs as children experience cognitive conflict, or disequilibrium, in trying to understand the world. Eventually, they resolve the conflict and reach a balance, or equilibrium, of thought

Question 6

6 substages of sensorimotor stage

Answer 6

1. Simple reflexes
2. First habits and primary circular reactions
3. Secondary circular reactions
4. Coordination of secondary circular reactions
5. Tertiary circular reactions, novelty, curiosity
6. Internalization of schemes

Question 7

Object Permanence

Answer 7

Understanding that objects and events continue to exist even when they cannot be directly seen, heard, or touched

Piaget

Question 8

A-not-B error

Answer 8

When infants make the mistake of selecting the familiar hiding place (A) to locate an object, rather than looking in the new hiding place (B), as they progress into sub stage 4 in Piaget’s sensorimotor stage

Question 9

Core Knowledge Approach

Answer 9

Infants are born with domain-specific innate knowledge systems, such as those involving space, number sense, object permanence, and language

Question 10

Operations

Answer 10

Internalized actions that allow children to do mentally what before they had done only physically. Operations also are reversible mental actions

Question 11

2 substages of the preoperational stage

Answer 11

The symbolic function substages, and the intuitive thought substage

Question 12

Symbolic Function Substage

Answer 12

Occurring roughly between the ages of 2 and 4. The young child gains the ability to represent mentally an object that is not present

Question 13

Egocentrism

Answer 13

The inability to distinguish between one’s own and someone else’s perspective

Important feature of preoperational thought

Question 14

Animism

Answer 14

The belief that inanimate objects have lifelike qualities and are capable of action

Facet of preoperational thought

Question 15

Intuitive Thought Substage

Answer 15

2nd preoperational substage

4-7 years old

When children begin to use primitive reasoning and want to know answers to all sorts of questions

Question 16

Centration

Answer 16

Focusing attention on one characteristic to the exclusion of all others

Question 17

Conservation

Answer 17

The realization that altering an object’s or substance’s appearance does not change its basic properties

(Liquid in glass)

Question 18

Horizontal Decalage

Answer 18

Similar abilities do not appear at the same time within a stage of development

Piaget

Question 19

Seriation

Answer 19

The concrete operation that involves ordering stimuli along a quantitative dimension (such as length)

Question 20

Transitivity

Answer 20

If a relation holds between a first object and a second object, and hold between the second object and the third object, then it holds between the first object and the third object.

Understanding of transitivity is a characteristic of concrete operational thought

Question 21

Adolescent Egocentrism

Answer 21

The heightened self-consciousness of adolescents, which is reflected in adolescents’ beliefs that others are as interested in them as they are in themselves, and in adolescents’ sense of personal uniqueness and invulnerability.

Elkind argued that adolescent egocentrism can be dissected into 2 types of social thinking—imaginary audience and personal fable.

Question 22

Imaginary Audience

Answer 22

The aspect of adolescent egocentrism that involves attention-getting behavior motivated by a desire to be noticed, visible, and “onstage.”

Involves feeling one is the center of everyone’s attention and sensing that one is on stage.

An adolescent boy might think that others are as aware of a few hairs that are out of place as he is. An adolescent girl walks into her classroom and thinks that all eyes are riveted on her complexion. Adolescents especially sense that they are “on stage” in early adolescence, believing they are the main actors and all others are the audience.

Question 23

Personal Fable

Answer 23

The part of adolescent egocentrism that involves an adolescent’s sense of uniqueness and invincibility

Adolescents’ sense of personal uniqueness makes them feel that no one can understand how they really feel. For example, an adolescent girl thinks that her mother cannot possibly sense the hurt she feels because her boyfriend has broken up with her. As part of their eff ort to retain a sense of personal uniqueness, adolescents might craft stories about themselves that are filled with fantasy, immersing themselves in a world that is far removed from reality. Personal fables frequently show up in adolescent diaries.

Question 24

neo-Piagetians

Answer 24

Developmentalists who have elaborated on Piaget’s theory, believing that children’s cognitive development is more specific in many respects than Piaget thought and giving more emphasis to how children use memory, attention, and strategies to process information.

Question 25

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

Answer 25

Vygotsky’s term for tasks that are too difficult for children to master alone but can be mastered with assistance from adults or more-skilled children.

Question 26

Scaffolding

Answer 26

The practice of changing the level of support provided over the course of a teaching session, with the more-skilled person adjusting guidance to fit the child’s current performance level.

Vygotsky

Question 27

Social Constructivist Approach

Answer 27

An emphasis on the social contexts of learning and the construction of knowledge through social interaction. Vygotsky’s theory reflects this approach.