Chapter 7 - Cognitive Development in Early Childhood Flashcards
what stage would Piaget say children are in during early childhood?
preoperational stage
what is egocentrism?
the lack of understanding that other perspectives may exist
what is centration?
when a child can only focus on one situation at a time
what is semiotic/symbolic function?
the understanding that one object/behaviour can represent another (e.g. using a banana as a phone)
what are conservation tasks?
they measure a child’s ability to see that some properties are conserved even after the object underwent transformation
what is identity in terms of conservation tasks?
the idea that amounts don’t change unless you do something to change them
what is compensation in terms of conservation tasks?
all characteristics must be considered before conclusions are made
what is reversibility?
awareness that conditions can be reversed and returned to original states
what is animism?
the assumption that nonliving things are living
at what age can children start solving false belief tests?
around age 4
what are false belief tests?
they test if a child can believe that another person may believe something that is not true
_____ is increased once a child can solve false belief tests
lying
define theory of mind
a set of ideas used to explain behaviours, thoughts, ideas, beliefs, and desires of ones self and others
what is operational efficiency?
the maximum number of schemes that can be processed in working memory at one time
what is metamemory?
knowledge about how memory works and is able to control one’s own memory function
what is megacognition?
knowledge about how the mind works and the ability to control one’s own thought processes
what is Vygotsky’s primitive stage?
mental processes are similar to lower animals
what is Vygotsky’s naive psychology stage?
ability to use language but lacks understanding about its symbolic nature
what is Vygotsky’s egocentric speech stage?
uses language as a way to solve problems (talking to themselves out loud)
what is Vygotsky’s in growth stage?
self-directed speech becomes internalized
what is fast mapping?
the ability to categorically link new words to real-world referents (e.g. knowing what a word means after hearing it only once or twice)
what is overextension?
using words too broadly (e.g. daytimers -> all books are daytimers)
what is underextension?
doesn’t use a word enough
what is a grammar explosion?
when a child’s grammar becomes more adult-like
