Cognition

Question 1

The activity of knowing and the processes through which knowledge is acquired (for example, attending, perceiving, remembering,
and thinking).

Answer 1

cognition

Question 2

An unstandardized interviewing procedure used by Piaget in which a child’s response to each successive question (or problem) determines what the investigator will ask next.

Answer 2

clinical method

Question 3

A cognitive structure or organized pattern of action or thought used to deal with experiences.

Answer 3

scheme (or schema; plural: schemes or

schemata)

Question 4

In Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory, a person’s inborn tendency to combine and integrate available schemes into more coherent and complex systems or bodies of knowledge; as a memory strategy, a technique that involves grouping or classifying stimuli into meaningful clusters.

Answer 4

organization

Question 5

In Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory, a person’s inborn tendency to adjust to the demands of the environment, consisting of the complementary processes of assimilation and accommodation.

Answer 5

adaptation

Question 6

In Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory, the process of modifying existing schemes to incorporate or adapt to new experiences.

Answer 6

accommodation

Question 7

Piaget’s term for the process by which children interpret new experiences in terms of their existing schemata.

Answer 7

assimilation

Question 8

In Piaget’s theory, the process of seeking a state of mental stability in which our thoughts (schemes) are consistent with the information we receive from the external world.

Answer 8

equilibration

Question 9

During Piaget’s sensorimotor period, the infant’s repetition of interacting acts centered on his or her own body (e.g., repeatedly kicking).

Answer 9

primary circular reaction

Question 10

During Piaget’s sensorimotor period, the infant’s repetition of interesting actions on objects (e.g., repeatedly shaking a rattle to make a noise).

Answer 10

secondary circular reaction

Question 11

During Piaget’s sensorimotor period, the infant’s combining of actions to solve problems, using one scheme as a means to an end, as in batting aside a barrier in order to grasp a toy.

Answer 11

coordination of secondary schemes

Question 12

During Piaget’s sensorimotor period, the infant’s experimenting with actions to find new ways to solve problems or produce interesting effects.

Answer 12

tertiary circular reaction

Question 13

The understanding that objects continue to exist when they are no longer visible or otherwise detectable to the senses; fully mastered by the end of infancy.

Answer 13

object permanence

Question 14

The tendency of 8- to 12- month-old infants to search for a hidden object in the place they last found it (A) rather than in its new hiding place (B).

Answer 14

A-not-B error

Question 15

The capacity to use symbols such as words, images, or actions to represent or stand for objects and experiences; representational thought.

Answer 15

symbolic capacity

Question 16

A play companion invented by a child in the preoperational stage who has developed the capacity for symbolic thought.

Answer 16

imaginary companion

Question 17

Phenomenon in which the most obvious features of an object or situation have disproportionate influence on the perceptions and thought of young children.

Answer 17

perceptual salience

Question 18

The recognition that certain properties of an object or substance do not change when its appearance is altered in some superficial way.

Answer 18

conservation

Question 19

The ability to focus on two or more dimensions of a problem at one time.

Answer 19

decentration

Question 20

In Piaget’s theory, the tendency to focus on only one aspect of a problem when two or more aspects are relevant.

Answer 20

centration

Question 21

In Piaget’s theory, the ability to reverse
or negate an action by mentally performing
the opposite action.

Answer 21

reversibility

Question 22

In Piaget’s theory, the ability to conceptualize transformations, or processes of change from one state to another, which appears in the stage of concrete operations.

Answer 22

transformational thought

Question 23

In Piaget’s theory, the thought characteristic of the preoperational period that is fixed on end states rather than on the changes that transform one state into another.

Answer 23

static thought

Question 24

The tendency to view the world from the person’s own perspective and fail to recognize that others may have different points of view.

Answer 24

egocentrism

Question 25

The logical understanding that parts or subclasses are included in the whole class and that the whole is therefore greater than any of its parts.

Answer 25

class inclusion

Question 26

A term used by Piaget to characterize that different cognitive skills related to the same stage of cognitive development emerge at different times.

Answer 26

horizontal décalage

Question 27

A logical operation that allows a person to mentally order a set of stimuli along a quantifiable dimension such as height or weight.

Answer 27

seriation

Question 28

The ability to recognize the necessary or logical relations among elements in a serial order (for example, that if A is taller than B, and B is taller than C, then A must be taller than C).

Answer 28

transitivity

Question 29

A form of problem solving in which a person starts with general or abstract ideas and deduces or traces their specific implications; “if–then” thinking.

Answer 29

hypothetical-deductive reasoning

Question 30

To separate the demands of a task at hand from prior beliefs and knowledge.

Answer 30

decontextualize

Question 31

A characteristic of adolescent thought that involves difficulty differentiating between the person’s own thoughts and feelings and those of other people; evident in the personal fable and imaginary audience phenomena.

Answer 31

adolescent egocentrism

Question 32

A form of adolescent egocentrism that involves confusing one’s own thoughts with the thoughts of a hypothesized audience for behavior and concluding that others share these preoccupations.

Answer 32

imaginary audience

Question 33

A form of adolescent egocentrism that involves thinking that oneself and one’s thoughts and feelings are unique or special.

Answer 33

personal fable

Question 34

Proposed stages of cognitive development that lie beyond formal operations.

Answer 34

postformal thought

Question 35

A form of postformal operational thought in which it is understood that there are multiple ways of viewing a problem and that the solutions people arrive at will depend on their starting assumptions and perspective.

Answer 35

relativistic thinking

Question 36

An advanced form of thought that involves detecting paradoxes and inconsistencies among ideas and trying to reconcile them.

Answer 36

dialectical thinking

Question 37

Vygotsky’sterm for the difference between what a learnercan accomplish independently and what a learner can accomplish with the guidance and encouragement of a more skilled partner.

Answer 37

zone of proximal development

Question 38

A process in which children learn by actively participating in culturally relevant activities with the aid and support of their parents and other knowledgeable individuals.

Answer 38

guided participation

Question 39

Jerome Bruner’s term for providing structure to a less skilled learner to encourage advancement.

Answer 39

scaffolding

Question 40

Nonsocial speech, or speech for the self, commonly used by preschoolers to guide their activities and believed by Vygotsky to be the forerunner of inner speech, or silent thinking in words.

Answer 40

private speech