Chapter Four: The Emergence of Though and Language

Question 1

scheme

Answer 1

according to Piaget, a mental structure that organizes information and regulates behavior

Question 2

assimilation

Answer 2

according to Piaget, taking in information that is compatible with what one already knows

Question 3

accommodation

Answer 3

according to Piaget, changing existing knowledge based on new knowledge

Question 4

equilibration

Answer 4

according to Piaget, a process by which children reorganize their schemes to return to a state of equilibrium when disequilibrium occurs

Question 5

sensorimotor period

Answer 5

first of Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development that lasts from birth-2 years

• adapting to/exploring environment (ex. sucking thumb)
• understanding objects (ex. object permanence)
• using symbols (ex. waving)

Question 6

Preoperational period

Answer 6

second of Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development that lasts from 2-7 years

• egocentrism
• centration
• appearance as reality

Question 7

egocentrism

Answer 7

difficulty in seeing the world from another’s point of view; typical of children in the preoperational period

Question 8

core knowledge hypothesis

Answer 8

infants are born with rudimentary knowledge of the world, which is elaborated based on experiences

Question 9

teleological explanations

Answer 9

children’s belief that living things and parts of living things exist for a purpose

Question 10

essentialism

Answer 10

children’s belief that all living things have an essence that can’t be seen but gives living things their identity

Question 11

The term, ________, refers to modification of schemes based on experience.

Answer 11

accommodation

Question 12

According to Piaget, ______ are psychological structures that organize experience.

Answer 12

schemes

Question 13

Piaget believed that infants’ understanding of objects could be summarized as _________.

Answer 13

“out of sight out of mind”

Question 14

By 18 months, most infants talk and gesture, which shows they have the capacity ______________.

Answer 14

to use symbols

Question 15

Preschoolers are often __________, meaning that they are unable to take another person’s viewpoint.

Answer 15

egocentric

Question 16

One criticism of PIaget’s theory is that it underestimates cognitive competence in _________________.

Answer 16

infants and young children

Question 17

Most 4-year-olds know that living things move, __________, have internal parts, resemble their parents, and heal when injured.

Answer 17

grow

Question 18

mental hardware

Answer 18

mental and neural structures that are built in and that allow the mind to operate

Question 19

mental software

Answer 19

mental “programs” that are the basis for performing particular tasks

Question 20

orienting response

Answer 20

an individual views a strong or unfamiliar stimulus, and changes in heart rate and brain-wave activity occur

Question 21

habituation

Answer 21

becoming unresponsive to a stimulus that is presented repeatedly

Question 22

classical conditioning

Answer 22

a form of learning that involves pairing a neutral stimulus and a response originally produced by another stimulus

Question 23

operant conditioning

Answer 23

view of learning, proposed by BF Skinner, that emphasizes reward and punishment

Question 24

stable-order principle

Answer 24

counting principle that states that number names must always be counted in the same order

Question 25

cardinality principle

Answer 25

counting principle that the last number name denotes the number of objects being counted

Question 26

One way to improve preschool children’s attention is to make irrelevant stimuli ____________.

Answer 26

less noticeable

Question 27

Four-month-old Tanya has forgotten that kicking moves a mobile. To remind her of the link between kicking and the mobile’s movement, we could ____________.

Answer 27

let her view a moving mobile

Question 28

Preschoolers may be particularly suggestible because they are less skilled at ___________.

Answer 28

monitoring the sources of their memories

Question 29

When a child who is counting a set of objects repeats the last number, usually with emphasis, this indicates the child’s understanding of the _________ principle of counting.

Answer 29

cardinality

Question 30

intersubjectivity

Answer 30

mutual, shared understanding among participants in an activity

Question 31

zone of proximal development

Answer 31

difference between what children can do with assistance and what they can do alone

Question 32

scaffolding

Answer 32

a style in which teachers gauge the amount of assistance they offer to match the learner’s needs

Question 33

The _____ is the difference between the level of performance that youngsters can achieve with assistance and they level they can achieve alone.

Answer 33

zone of proximal development

Question 34

The term, _______, refers to a style in which teachers adjust their assistance to match a child’s needs.

Answer 34

scaffolding

Question 35

phonemes

Answer 35

unique sounds used to create words; the basic building blocks of language

Question 36

fast mapping

Answer 36

a child’s connections between words and referents that are made so quickly that he or she cannot consider all possible meanings of the word

Question 37

underextension

Answer 37

when children define words more narrowly than adults do

Question 38

overextension

Answer 38

when children define words more broadly than adults do

Question 39

phonological memory

Answer 39

ability to remember speech sounds briefly; an important skill in acquiring vocabulary

Question 40

referential style

Answer 40

language-learning style of children whose vocabularies are dominated by names of objects, persons, or actions

Question 41

expressive style

Answer 41

language-learning style of children whose vocabularies include many social phrases that are used like one word (ex. “go away”)

Question 42

overregularization

Answer 42

grammatical usage that results from applying rules to words that are exceptions to the rule (ex. “two mans” not “two men”)

Question 43

_______ are fundamental sounds used to create words.

Answer 43

phonemes

Question 44

Infants’ mastery of language sounds may be fostered by ______, in which adults speak slowly and exaggeratate changes in pitch and loudness.

Answer 44

infant-directed speech

Question 45

Older infants’ babbling often includes __________, a patter of rising and falling pitch that distinguishes statements from questions.

Answer 45

intonation

Question 46

Youngsters with a _________ style have early vocabularies dominated by words that are names and use language primarily as an intellectual tool.

Answer 46

referential

Question 47

In ________, a young child’s meaning of a word is broader than an adult’s meaning.

Answer 47

overextension

Question 48

Answers to the question, “How do children acquire grammar?” include linguistic, cognitive, and ________ influences.

Answer 48

social-interaction

Question 49

When talking to listeners who lack critical information, preschoolers ____________.

Answer 49

provide more elaborate messages

Question 50

Object Permanence

Answer 50

Understanding, acquired in infancy, that objects exist independently of oneself

Question 51

Animism

Answer 51

Crediting inanimate objects with life and lifelike properties such as feelings

Question 52

Centration

Answer 52

According to Piaget, narrowly focused type of thought characteristic of preoperational children

Question 53

Attention

Answer 53

Processes that determine which information will be processed further by an individual

Question 54

Autobiographical Memory

Answer 54

Memories of the significant events and experiences of one’s own life

Question 55

One-to-One Principle

Answer 55

Counting principle that states that there must be one and only one number name for each object counted

Question 56

Guided Participation

Answer 56

Children’s involvement in structured activities with others who are more skilled, typically producing cognitive growth

Question 57

Telegraphic Speech

Answer 57

Speech used by young children that contains only the words necessary to convey a message

Question 58

Grammatical Morphemes

Answer 58

Words or endings of words that make a sentence grammatical