Chapter 6: The Symbolic Child: Piaget's Theory and Beyond

Question 1

An abstract representation of an object or event

Answer 1

Scheme

Question 2

In Piaget’s theory, types of cognitive schemes that are mental (that is, require symbols), derive from action, exist in organized systems, and follow a set of logical rules, most importantly that of reversibility

Answer 2

Operations

Question 3

The cognitive mechanism that keeps the different mental schemes integrated with one another in a hierarchical nature

Answer 3

Organization

Question 4

The process of adjusting one’s cognitive structures to meet environmental demands; includes the complementary processes of assimilation and accommodation

Answer 4

Adaption

Question 5

The process of incorporating information into already existing cognitive structures

Answer 5

Assimilation

Question 6

The process of changing a mental structure to incorporate new information

Answer 6

Accommodation

Question 7

The process by which balance is restored to the cognitive structure

Answer 7

Equilibration

Question 8

In Piaget’s theory, the first major stage of cognitive development (birth to 2 years old) in which children understand their world through sensory and motor experience

Answer 8

Sensorimotor Period

Question 9

Means-ends (that is, intentional) problem solving, first seen in the latter part of the first year

Answer 9

Goal-directed behavior

Question 10

The second major stage of cognitive development (2-7 years old) characterized by prelogical, intuitive thought

Answer 10

Preoperational Period

Question 11

The knowledge that the quantity of a substance remains the same despite changes in its form

Answer 11

Conservation

Question 12

In Piaget’s theory, the tendency to interpret objects and events from one’s own perspective

Answer 12

Egocentrism

Question 13

In Piaget’s theory, the knowledge that an operation can be reversed, characteristic of the concrete operational period

Answer 13

Reversibility

Question 14

In Piaget’s theory, the tendency of the preoperational children to attend to one aspect of a situation to the exclusion of others

Answer 14

Perceptual Centration

Question 15

The third major stage of cognitive development in Piaget’s theory, in which the children can decenter their perception, are less egocentric, and can think logically about concrete objects

Answer 15

Concrete Operational Period

Question 16

The progressive acquisition of a certain skill within the same intellectual stage

Answer 16

Horizontal decalage

Question 17

The ability to classify items in terms of more than one dimension simultaneously, such as shape and color

Answer 17

Multiple Classifications

Question 18

The knowledge that a subordinate class (dogs) must always be smaller than the superordinate class in which it is contained (animals)

Answer 18

Class inclusion

Question 19

The ability to order objects according to the quantitative dimension of a certain trait

Answer 19

Seriation

Question 20

In Piaget’s theory, the final stage of cognitive development, in which children are able to apply abstract logical rules

Answer 20

Formal Operational Period

Question 21

A formal operational ability to think by generating and testing hypothesis

Answer 21

Hypothetico-deductive reasoning

Question 22

The type of thinking that goes from specific observations to broad generalizations, characteristic of formal operational thought

Answer 22

Inductive Reasoning

Question 23

The ability to reflect upon knowledge one possess, and without the need of additional information from the external environment, to arrive at new knowledge; characteristic of adolescent thought

Answer 23

Reflective abstraction

Question 24

Expression of adolescent egocentrism, without adolescents feeling that they are constantly “on stage” or playing to an imaginary audience

Answer 24

Imaginary Audience

Question 25

A belief in one’s uniqueness and invulnerability, which is an expression of adolescent egocentrism

Answer 25

Personal Fable

Question 26

Approach to cognitive development that combines neonativism and constructivism, proposing that cognitive development progresses by children generating, testing, and changing their naive theories about the physical and social world

Answer 26

Theory Theories

Question 27

Attributing human properties, like hopes, feelings, and thoughts, to inanimate things

Answer 27

Animism

Question 28

Pretending; it involves an ‘if-then’ orientation to objects, actions, and peers

Answer 28

Symbolic (fantasy) play

Question 29

Play in which children take on different roles and follow a story line as if they were in a theatrical performance

Answer 29

Sociodramatic Play

Question 30

In children’s drawing, children’s tendency to draw what they know rather than what they see

Answer 30

Intellectual realism

Question 31

In children’s drawing, children’s tendency to draw what they actually see

Answer 31

Visual realism

Question 32

The awareness of the origins of one’s memories, knowledge, or beliefs

Answer 32

Source Monitoring

Question 33

Make-believe friends

Answer 33

Imaginary friends