Chapter 6: Cognitive Development: Piagetian, Core Knowledge, and Vygotskian Perspectives

Question 1

A-not-B search error

Answer 1

The error made by 8- to 12-month-olds who, after an object is moved from one hiding place (A) to another hiding place (B), search for it incorrectly in the first hiding place (A).

Question 2

accommodation

Answer 2

In Piaget’s theory, that part of adaptation in which new schemes are created or old ones adjusted to produce a better fit with the environment. Distinguished from assimilation.

Question 3

adaptation

Answer 3

In Piaget’s theory, the process of building schemes through direct interaction with the environment. Consists of two complementary activities: assimilation and accommodation.

Question 4

analogical problem solving

Answer 4

Applying a solution strategy from one problem

to other relevant problems.

Question 5

assimilation

Answer 5

In Piaget’s theory, that part of adaptation in which the external world is interpreted in terms of current schemes. Distinguished from accommodation

Question 6

centration

Answer 6

In Piaget’s theory, the tendency to focus on one aspect of a situation, neglecting other important features.

Question 7

circular reaction

Answer 7

In Piaget’s theory, a means of adapting schemes in which babies try to repeat a chance event originally caused by their own motor activity.

Question 8

cognition

Answer 8

The inner processes and products of the mind that lead to “knowing,” including all mental activity—attending, remembering, symbolizing, categorizing, planning, reasoning, problem solving, creating, and fantasizing.

Question 9

cognitive maps

Answer 9

Mental representations of familiar large-scale spaces, such as school or neighborhood.

Question 10

concrete operational stage

Answer 10

Piaget’s third stage, extending from about 7 to 11 years, during which thought becomes logical, flexible, and organized in its application to concrete information.

Question 11

conservation

Answer 11

The understanding that certain physical characteristics of objects remain the same, even when their outward appearance changes.

Question 12

constructivist approach

Answer 12

Piaget’s view of cognitive development, in which children discover, or construct, virtually all knowledge about their world through their own activity.

Question 13

cooperative learning

Answer 13

Collaboration on a task by a small group of peers who work toward common goals by resolving differences of opinion, sharing responsibilities, and providing one another with sufficient explanations to correct misunderstandings. (

Question 14

core knowledge perspective

Answer 14

A perspective that states that infants begin life with innate, special-purpose knowledge systems, or core domains of thought, each of which permits a ready grasp of new, related information and therefore supports early, rapid development of certain aspects of cognition.

Question 15

deferred imitation

Answer 15

The ability to remember and copy the behavior of models who are not present.

Question 16

displaced reference

Answer 16

The realization that words can be used to cue mental images of things that are not physically present.

Question 17

dual representation

Answer 17

The ability to view a symbolic object as both an object in its own right and a symbol.

Question 18

egocentrism

Answer 18

Failure to distinguish others’ symbolic viewpoints from one’s own.

Question 19

equilibration

Answer 19

In Piaget’s theory, the back-and-forth movement between

equilibrium and disequilibrium that produces more effective schemes.

Question 20

formal operational stage

Answer 20

Piaget’s highest stage, beginning around age 11, in which adolescents develop the capacity for abstract, systematic, scientific thinking.

Question 21

guided participation

Answer 21

Shared endeavors between more expert and less expert participants, regardless of the precise features of communication. A broader concept than scaffolding.

Question 22

hierarchical classification

Answer 22

The organization of objects into classes and subclasses on the basis of similarities and differences.

Question 23

hypothetico-deductive reasoning

Answer 23

A formal operational problem-solving strategy in which adolescents begin with a hypothesis, or prediction, about variables that might affect an outcome. From the hypothesis, they deduce logical, testable inferences. Then they systematically isolate and combine variables to see which of those inferences are confirmed in the real world.

Question 24

imaginary audience

Answer 24

Adolescents’ belief that they are the focus of everyone else’s attention and concern.

Question 25

intentional, or goal-directed, behavior

Answer 25

A sequence of actions in which schemes are deliberately coordinated to solve a problem.

Question 26

intersubjectivity

Answer 26

The process whereby two participants who begin a task with different understandings arrive at a shared understanding.

Question 27

logical necessity

Answer 27

A basic property of propositional thought, which specifies that the accuracy of conclusions drawn from premises rests on the rules of logic, not on real-world confirmation.

Question 28

make-believe play

Answer 28

A type of play in which children act out everyday and imaginary activities.

Question 29

mental representation

Answer 29

An internal depiction of information that the mind

can manipulate, including images and concepts

Question 30

object permanence

Answer 30

The understanding that objects continue to exist when they are out of sight.

Question 31

operations

Answer 31

In Piaget’s theory, mental representations of actions that obey logical rules.

Question 32

organization

Answer 32

In Piaget’s theory, the internal rearrangement and linking together of schemes so that they form a strongly interconnected cognitive system. In information processing, a memory strategy that involves grouping related information to improve recall.

Question 33

personal fable

Answer 33

Adolescents’ inflated opinion of their own importance—the belief that they are special and unique and that others cannot possibly understand their thoughts and feelings.

Question 34

preoperational stage

Answer 34

Piaget’s second stage, extending from about 2 to 7 years of age, in which children undergo an extraordinary increase in representational, or symbolic, activity, although thought is not yet logical.

Question 35

private speech

Answer 35

Self-directed speech that children use to guide their own thinking and behavior.

Question 36

propositional thought

Answer 36

A type of formal operational reasoning involving the ability to evaluate the logic of propositions (verbal statements) without referring to real-world circumstances.

Question 37

reciprocal teaching

Answer 37

A teaching method in which a teacher and two to four
students form a cooperative group and take turns leading dialogues, creating a zone of proximal development in which children scaffold one another’s progress.

Question 38

reversibility

Answer 38

The ability to go through a series of steps in a problem and then mentally reverse direction, returning to the starting point. In Piaget’s theory, part of every logical operation.

Question 39

scaffolding

Answer 39

Adjusting the support offered during a teaching session to fit the child’s current level of performance. As competence increases, the adult gradually and sensitively withdraws support, turning responsibility over to the child.

Question 40

schemes

Answer 40

In Piaget’s theory, specific psychological structures, or organized ways of making sense of experience, that change with age.

Question 41

sensorimotor stage

Answer 41

Piaget’s first stage, spanning the first two years of life, in
which infants and toddlers “think” with their eyes, ears, hands, and other sensorimotor equipment but cannot yet carry out many activities mentally.

Question 42

seriation

Answer 42

The ability to order items along a quantitative dimension, such as length or weight.

Question 43

sociodramatic play

Answer 43

The make-believe play with others that is under way around age 2 and increases rapidly in complexity during early childhood.

Question 44

theory theory

Answer 44

A theory that assumes that children draw on innate concepts to form naïve theories, or explanations of events, that differ among core domains of thought. Then they test their theory against experience, revising it when it cannot adequately account for new information.

Question 45

transitive inference

Answer 45

The ability to seriate, or arrange items along a quantitative dimension, mentally.

Question 46

video deficit effect

Answer 46

In toddlers, poorer performance on a task after watching a video than a live demonstration.

Question 47

violation-of-expectation method

Answer 47

A method in which researchers show babies an expected event (one that follows physical laws) and an unexpected event (a variation of the first event that violates physical laws). Heightened attention to the unexpected event suggests that the infant is “surprised” by a deviation from physical reality and, therefore, is aware of that aspect of the physical world.

Question 48

zone of proximal development

Answer 48

In Vygotsky’s theory, a range of tasks too difficult for the child to do alone but possible with the help of adults and more skilled peers.