Chapter 7 Conceptual development

Question 1

Concepts

Answer 1

general ideas or understandings that can be used to group together objects, events, qualities, or abstractions that are similar in some way

Question 2

Why are concepts useful?

Answer 2

Help us understand the world and act effectively in it by allowing us to generalize from prior experience, if we didn’t use them every thing we did would feel like a new experience and we wouldn’t be able to live effectively

Question 3

Category Hierarchy

Answer 3

a category that id organized by set-subset relations such as animal/dog/poodle. Greatly simplify the world for children by allowing them to draw accurate inferences

Question 4

Perceptual Organization

Answer 4

the grouping together of objects that have similar appearances

Question 5

Superordinate level

Answer 5

the general level within a category hierarchy, such as an ‘animal’ in the animal/dog/poodle example.

Question 6

Subordinate level

Answer 6

the most specific level within a category hierarchy, such as the ‘poodle’ in the animal/dog/poodle example

Question 7

Basic level

Answer 7

the middle level, and often the first level learned, within a category hierarchy, such as ‘dog’ in the animal/dog/poodle example

Question 8

Naive Psychology and the 3 concepts used to understand human behaviour

Answer 8

a common sense level of understanding of other people and oneself, and we use desires, beliefs, and actions to understand others.

Question 9

Theory of mind

Answer 9

an organized understanding of how mental processes such as intentions, desires, beliefs, perceptions, and emotions influence behaviour

Question 10

False-belief problems

Answer 10

tasks that test a child’s understanding that other people will act in accord with their own beliefs even when the child knows that those beliefs are incorrect
(children with autism are very bad at these)

Question 11

Theory of mind module (TOMM)

Answer 11

a hypothesized brain mechanism devoted to understanding other human beings

Question 12

Essentialism

Answer 12

the view that living things have an essence inside them that makes them what they are (viewed as being inherited from one’s parents)

-can make it hard to understand evolution

Question 13

Nativists 3 main arguments as to why people have a biology module

Answer 13

1. During earlier periods of our evolution, it was crucial for human survival that children learn quickly about animals and plants
2. Children throughout the world are fascinated by plants and animals and learn about them fast and easily
3. Children throughout the world organize information about plants and animals in very similar ways