Cognition Flashcards
The activity of knowing and the processes through which knowledge is acquired (for example, attending, perceiving, remembering,
and thinking).
cognition
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.
clinical method
A cognitive structure or organized pattern of action or thought used to deal with experiences.
scheme (or schema; plural: schemes or
schemata)
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.
organization
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.
adaptation
In Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory, the process of modifying existing schemes to incorporate or adapt to new experiences.
accommodation
Piaget’s term for the process by which children interpret new experiences in terms of their existing schemata.
assimilation
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.
equilibration
During Piaget’s sensorimotor period, the infant’s repetition of interacting acts centered on his or her own body (e.g., repeatedly kicking).
primary circular reaction
During Piaget’s sensorimotor period, the infant’s repetition of interesting actions on objects (e.g., repeatedly shaking a rattle to make a noise).
secondary circular reaction
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.
coordination of secondary schemes
During Piaget’s sensorimotor period, the infant’s experimenting with actions to find new ways to solve problems or produce interesting effects.
tertiary circular reaction
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.
object permanence
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).
A-not-B error
The capacity to use symbols such as words, images, or actions to represent or stand for objects and experiences; representational thought.
symbolic capacity
A play companion invented by a child in the preoperational stage who has developed the capacity for symbolic thought.
imaginary companion
Phenomenon in which the most obvious features of an object or situation have disproportionate influence on the perceptions and thought of young children.
perceptual salience
The recognition that certain properties of an object or substance do not change when its appearance is altered in some superficial way.
conservation
The ability to focus on two or more dimensions of a problem at one time.
decentration
In Piaget’s theory, the tendency to focus on only one aspect of a problem when two or more aspects are relevant.
centration
In Piaget’s theory, the ability to reverse
or negate an action by mentally performing
the opposite action.
reversibility
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.
transformational thought
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.
static thought
The tendency to view the world from the person’s own perspective and fail to recognize that others may have different points of view.
egocentrism
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.
class inclusion
A term used by Piaget to characterize that different cognitive skills related to the same stage of cognitive development emerge at different times.
horizontal décalage
A logical operation that allows a person to mentally order a set of stimuli along a quantifiable dimension such as height or weight.
seriation
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).
transitivity
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.
hypothetical-deductive reasoning
To separate the demands of a task at hand from prior beliefs and knowledge.
decontextualize
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.
adolescent egocentrism
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.
imaginary audience
A form of adolescent egocentrism that involves thinking that oneself and one’s thoughts and feelings are unique or special.
personal fable
Proposed stages of cognitive development that lie beyond formal operations.
postformal thought
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.
relativistic thinking
An advanced form of thought that involves detecting paradoxes and inconsistencies among ideas and trying to reconcile them.
dialectical thinking
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.
zone of proximal development
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.
guided participation
Jerome Bruner’s term for providing structure to a less skilled learner to encourage advancement.
scaffolding
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.
private speech
