Cognitive Development

Question 1

What is Piaget’s Contructivist Theory?

Answer 1

Piaget’s theory assumes that cognitive development relies on a combination of biological maturation and experience and describes it as an active process in which a child constructs knowledge by interacting with the environment.

Question 2

According to Piaget, what is the source of motivation for cognitive development?

Answer 2

According to Piaget, the source of motivation for cognitive development is equilibration, which is an innate drive toward a state of equilibrium between one’s current ways of thinking and the environment.

Question 3

According to Piaget, when disequilibrium occurs what happens?

Answer 3

When a child is motivated to restore equilibrium through adaptation, which consists of two processes: Assimilation and Accommodation

Question 4

When does Piaget’s concept of assimilation happen?

Answer 4

Assimilation occurs when a child attempts to understand a new object or situation using an existing cognitive schema.

Question 5

When does Piaget’s theory of accommodation occur?
Accommodation occurs when a child modifies an existing cognitive schema or creates a new schema to fit the new object or situation.

Answer 5

For example, when a young child who’s familiar with dogs sees a cow for the first time, she might attempt to assimilate the cow into her dog schema because the cow has four legs and is the same color as a neighbor’s dog. But, when the cow moos instead of barks, the child will experience disequilibrium and will create a new cow schema with the help of a parent who says the animal is a cow and points out that cows are bigger than dogs and say “moo” instead of “woof.”

Question 6

When does Piaget’s theory of assimilation occur?

Answer 6

Assimilation occurs when a child attempts to understand a new object or situation using an existing cognitive schema,

Question 7

Piaget also proposed that cognitive development involves _______that emerge in the same order for all children, although the age at which each stage begins is affected by a child’s culture and other environmental factors.

Answer 7

four universal stages

Question 8

How can Piaget’s development stage be classified?

Answer 8

Note that developmental stages can be classified as
continuous or discontinuous and active or passive.

Question 9

Why are Piaget’s stages classified as discontinuos?

Answer 9

Piaget’s stages are classified as discontinuous because each stage involves qualitatively different cognitive processes

Question 10

Why are Piaget’s stages classified as active?

Answer 10

Piaget’s stages are classified as active because Piaget considered cognitive development to be an active process in which children interact with the environment during each stage to construct their own knowledge.

Question 11

When does Piaget’s sensorimotor stage occur?

Answer 11

The sensorimotor stage extends from birth to about 2 years of age. During this stage, cognitive development involves learning about the environment through sensory input and motor actions. It includes six substages:

Question 12

Describe Paiget’s first sensorimotor substage

Answer 12

1: Reflexive Reactions 0-1 mo. Responds to external stimuli with innate reflexes

Question 13

Describe Piaget’s 2nd sensorimotor substage

Answer 13

2: Primary Circular Reactions 1-4 mos. Repeats enjoyable actions involving his/her own body (e.g., sucks thumb, kicks legs)

Question 14

Describe Piaget’s 3rd sensorimotor substage

Answer 14

3: Secondary Circular Reactions 4-8 mos. Reproduces actions involving objects (e.g., shakes rattle to hear sound) and imitates familiar actions of others

Question 15

Describe Piaget’s 4th sensorimotor substage

Answer 15

4: Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions 8-12 mos. Intentionally combines secondary reactions to achieve goals (e.g., drops small toy in a cup and then picks up the cup) and imitates actions of others that aren’t in their repertoire

Question 16

Describe Piaget’s 5th sensorimotor substage

Answer 16

Tertiary Circular Reactions 12-18 mos. Deliberately experiments to discover consequences (e.g., drops ball from different heights) and find new ways to achieve goals

Question 17

Describe Piaget’s 6th sensorimotor substage

Answer 17

Internalization of Schemas 18-24 mos. Develops mental representations of reality and solves some problems mentally

Question 18

According to Piaget, what are the accomplishments of the sensorimotor stage?

Answer 18

The accomplishments of the sensorimotor stage include the development of object permanence and representational (symbolic) thought.

Question 19

When does Paiget’s object permanence begin?

Answer 19

Object permanence begins to develop in the _______and is the ability to recognize that people and objects continue to exist even when they can’t be seen or heard.

fourth substage

Question 20

Piaget’s Representational thought emerges in________ and allows children to use mental images, gestures, and words to represent people, objects, and events and engage in make-believe play and deferred imitation: Make-believe play is also known as __________ and involves acting out everyday activities such as pretending to feed toy food to a stuffed animal.

Answer 20

the sixth substage
pretend play and symbolic play

Question 21

____________is the ability to remember the actions of other people and imitate those actions at a later time.

Answer 21

Deferred imitation

Question 22

Note that research has found that some of the accomplishments of the __________than Piaget proposed. For example, Piaget concluded that deferred imitation doesn’t occur until substage 6, but there’s evidence that infants show deferred imitation of facial expressions after a brief delay by 6 weeks of age (substage 2) and deferred imitation of very simple behaviors after a brief delay as early as substage 4 but don’t exhibit deferred imitation of complex behavioral sequences until substage 6 (Berk, 2013; Shaffer & Kipp, 2010).

Answer 22

sensorimotor stage occur earlier

Question 23

What comes after the sensorimotor stage?

Answer 23

Preoperational stage

Question 24

At which age does the preoperational stage extend? What does this stage involve?

Answer 24

2-7 years of age.During this stage, representational thought increases and allows children to think about the past and future and about things that aren’t in the immediate environment. Preoperational children also engage in more sophisticated forms of make-believe play and use one object to represent another (e.g., pretend that a cardboard box is a race car), invent imaginary playmates, and participate in role-playing with other children. Preoperational thought is limited, however, by several factors including transductive (precausal) reasoning and egocentrism.

Question 25

What is Egocentrism, magical thinking (preoperational stage)? Name the two characteristics that make it hard to conserve?

Answer 25

. Preoperational thought is limited, however, by several factors including transductive (precausal) reasoning and egocentrism. Transductive reasoning leads preoperational children to think that unrelated events that occur at the same time are causally related, egocentrism limits their ability to understand that other people don’t experience things the same way they do. Magical thinking and animism are two outcomes of the limitations of this stage: Magical thinking is the belief that just thinking about something can make it happen, and animism is the belief that inanimate objects have lifelike qualities. In addition, children in this stage cannot conserve, which means they don’t understand that certain physical characteristics of an object stay the same when the object’s outward appearance changes. For example, when two identical short glasses containing the same amount of water are placed in front of a child, the child will agree that the glasses contain the same amount of water. However, after the child observes water from one of the short glasses being poured into a tall narrow glass, the child will say the tall narrow glass (which has a higher water level) has more water. The inability to conserve is due primarily to two characteristics of preoperational thinking: centration, which is the tendency to focus on one aspect of an object or situation to the exclusion of all other aspects, and irreversibility, which is the inability to understand that an action or process can be reversed.

Question 26

Describe the Concrete operational stage
What age does it start? concrete operational stage)
What is decentration? concrete operational stage)
What is reversibility? concrete operational stage)
What is consersation? concrete operational stage)
What is horizontal decalage? (concrete operational stage)

Answer 26

Extends from about 7 to 12 years of age.

During this stage, children use logical operations, which are mental activities that allow them to think logically about concrete situations. As a result, they’re able to classify objects according to their physical characteristics; order items in terms of length or other quantitative dimension; perform number operations such as adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing; and conserve. Conservation depends on the operations of decentration and reversibility: Decentration is the ability to focus on more than one aspect of an object or situation at the same time, and reversibility is the ability to understand that actions and processes can be reversed. Conservation develops in a predictable order during this stage: Conservation of number occurs first and is followed, in order, by conservation of length, liquid quantity, mass, weight, and volume. The sequential emergence of conservation skills is an example of horizontal decalage, which is the gradual development of a skill within a single stage of development.

Question 27

When does Piaget’s the formal operational stage begin?
What is hypothetical-deductive reasoning
What is propositional thought?
How does Elkind identify the adolescent egocentrism?
What is the imaginary audience?
What is the personal fable?

Answer 27

(d) Finally, the formal operational stage begins at about 12 years of age and continues into adulthood. Individuals in this stage can think abstractly, which allows them to think about abstract principles (such as democracy and equality) and engage in hypothetical-deductive reasoning and propositional thought: Hypothetical-deductive reasoning is the ability to derive and test alternative hypotheses to determine the solution to a problem, and propositional thought is the ability to evaluate the logic of verbal statements (propositions) without having concrete examples. The beginning of this stage is characterized by renewed egocentrism, which involves an inability to separate one’s own abstract thoughts from those of other people. Elkind (1981) identified the imaginary audience and personal fable as two characteristics of adolescent egocentrism: The imaginary audience is an adolescent’s belief that he or she is always the subject of other people’s attention and concern. The personal fable is an adolescent’s beliefs that he or she is special and unique, can’t be understood by others, and is omnipotent and invulnerable to harm.

Question 28

Why was Piaget’s theory challenged?

Answer 28

Note that Piaget’s theory has been challenged for several reasons (Sigelman & Rider, 2012). For example, some studies have found that it underestimates the abilities of infants and young children: As noted above, there’s evidence that deferred imitation occurs earlier in the sensorimotor stage than predicted by Piaget. In addition, some investigators have found that, in certain conditions, children as young as three or four years of age can be taught to conserve. Another criticism is that Piaget did not adequately consider the impact of social interactions on cognitive development. Although he acknowledged the role of peers in helping children reach new conclusions and adopt new perspectives, he did not think that children’s cognitive development was affected very much by their interactions with adults.

Question 29

Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory:

Answer 29

Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory views cognitive development as being influenced by

Social and cultural factors

Question 30

Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory proposes that cognitive development always occurs ____ on an interpersonal level and then on an intrapersonal level.

Answer 30

first

Question 31

For example, when helping a child understand how to solve a math word problem, a teacher might provide the child with verbal prompts that help the child solve the problem. Then, when solving similar problems alone, the child will verbalize the teacher’s prompts to guide his or her own behavior.

Answer 31

Vygotsky referred to the speech that children utter aloud to guide their actions as __________ , and research has shown that the frequent use of private speech is associated with more ___________.

private speech
effective problem-solving

Question 32

The studies have also found that, as predicted by Vygotsky, private speech begins to be replaced by __________. However, older children, adolescents, and adults may revert to private speech when faced with difficult tasks (Bergin & Bergin, 2015).

Answer 32

inner (silent) speech by about 7 years of age

Question 33

According to Vygotsky, learning precedes and facilitates cognitive development and learning is most rapid when it occurs within a child’s _____________which is the between what a child can currently do independently and what he or she can do with assistance from an adult or more competent peer.

Answer 33

zone of proximal development
gap

Question 34

According to Vygotsky, the assistance provided to a child by another person is referred to as ________and is more effective when it involves the use of prompts, questions, and feedback rather than providing correct answers and solutions.

Answer 34

scaffolding

Question 35

Vygotsky also proposed that _________ creates a zone of proximal development that enables children to practice new social roles and behaviors.

Answer 35

make-believe (symbolic) play

Question 36

1. Childhood Amnesia: The studies have confirmed that infants have some ________ and that the length of time that events are remembered increases substantially during infancy and toddlerhood. For example, six-month-old infants can remember information for about 24 hours, while 20-month-old infants can remember information for up to 12 months (Bauer, 2006).

Answer 36

infants have some long-term memory

Question 37

However, most adults cannot recall events they experienced before they were _______(Tustin & Hayne, 2010). There’s no consensus about the cause of this childhood amnesia, but several explanations have been proposed. One explanation is that _____ allows memories to be encoded and children less than ________of age have limited skills. Another explanation is that a sense of self is necessary for developing personal memories and very young children have not yet developed a stable, coherent sense of _____.

Answer 37

3 or 4 years old
Language
3 or 4 years old
self

Question 38

Research has found that, when older adults are asked to recall important events from their lives, the largest number of recalled events occurred during the –______________and the second largest number of recalled events occurred when they were between the ages of about __________.

Answer 38

ten-year period prior to being tested, 15 and 25

Question 39

The increased memory for events that occurred from mid-adolescence to the mid-20s is referred to as the _____________, and it’s been attributed to several factors including __________In other words, it’s during this period that many ________________occur that are important for adult identity formation (Wang)

Answer 39

reminiscence bump
identity formation
memorable events (e.g., events related to life transitions)

Question 40

Some aspects of memory are affected more than others by increasing age. Specifically, the studies have consistently found that older adults experience the greatest age-related decline in ___________________aspect of short-term memory.

Answer 40

recent long-term (secondary) memory, followed by the working memory

Question 41

In contrast, the storage aspect of ____________ (also known as primary memory) and ___________(also known as tertiary memory) are relatively unaffected by increasing age.

Answer 41

short-term memory
remote long-term memory

Question 42

The research has also found that age-related declines in ___________ often occur because older adults are less likely than younger adults to use effective _______strategies and that older adults benefit from training in the use of memory strategies (e.g., Gross & Rebok, 2011).

Answer 42

recent long-term memory
encoding

Question 43

Other studies have looked at the effects of increasing age on __________________memory, which are described by some experts as the primary aspects of _______memory.

Answer 43

declarative and nondeclarative
long-term

Question 44

_________________is also sometimes referred to as explicit memory and consists of memories that are retrieved consciously and intentionally. It includes ___________ memories which are, respectively, memories for autobiographical events and memories for facts, concepts, and other kinds of knowledge.

Answer 44

Declarative memory
episodic and semantic

Question 45

_____________is also sometimes referred to as implicit memory and consists of memories that are retrieved automatically or with little effort. It includes ________ (memories for learned skills and actions), memories created by _______ (conditioned associations between two stimuli), and memories affected by _______ (in which prior exposure to a certain stimulus affects how a person responds to a subsequent stimulus).

Answer 45

Nondeclarative memory
procedural memories
classical conditioning
priming

Question 46

The research has consistently found that episodic memory _________with increasing age in adulthood while semantic memory shows ___________decline.

Answer 46

Declines
little or no age-related

Question 47

However, the research has provided ________results for nondeclarative memory: Some studies suggest that nondeclarative memory remains relatively stable during the adult years, while others have found that some aspects of nondeclarative memory decline with increasing age in adulthood, with the decline being less than that associated with episodic memory (Brickman & Stern, 2009; Ward et al., 2020; Ward & Shanks, 2018). [Note that some investigators define explicit memory as consisting of memories that require conscious effort to recall and do not distinguish between _________. When this definition is used, explicit memory is described as decreasing with increasing age during adulthood (e.g., Ward, et al., 2020).]

Answer 47

inconsistent in regards to nondecarlative memory
episodic and semantic memory

Question 48

Research on the ________ has confirmed that there are age-related differences with regard to the _______ for successful performance on various visual and verbal memory tasks, problem-solving tasks, and other cognitive tasks, especially tasks that depend on the ability to ___________response. Specifically, the studies have found that the optimal time is related to differences in ____________and that peak circadian arousal and task performance is in the _________ for older adults and in the late afternoon and evening for younger adults (May & Hasher, 1998)

Answer 48

synchrony effect
optimal time
inhibit a prepotent
circadian rhythms
morning

Question 49

Studies investigating sex differences in cognitive abilities and personality traits have found that reliable differences are _____and that, when differences occur, they’re relatively _____. Sex differences that have been most consistently found include the following (Berk, 2013; Shaffer & Kipp, 2013):

Answer 49

rare
small

1. Mathematical Abilities
2. Verbal Abilities
3. Visual/Spatial Abilities
4. Aggression
5. Self-Esteem
6. Developmental Vulnerability

Question 50

By adolescence, girls outperform boys on measures of __________skills, while boys outperform girls on measures of __________reasoning and have acquired more mathematical problem-solving strategies.

Answer 50

Computational
mathematical

Question 51

Girls obtain higher scores on many measures of verbal ability throughout childhood and adolescence, including______________. However, boys outperform girls on measures of _________.

Answer 51

speech fluency and reading and writing achievement
verbal analogies

Question 52

Boys obtain higher scores on measures of _________, especially on tasks requiring mental rotation.

Answer 52

visual/spatial abilities

Question 53

Research has consistently found that boys engage in more _________ than girls do as early as 2 years of age. However, studies have been inconsistent with regard to _____________which involves engaging in behaviors that have the goal of harming social relationships by, for example, spreading rumors and social exclusion: A number of early studies found that girls engage in more relational aggression than boys do, but some more recent studies have found that boys engage in more relational aggression or that there are no significant gender differences. The inconsistency in research results has been attributed to several factors including the ___________ of research participants and the methods used to assess relational aggression (Merrell, Buchanan, & Tran, 2006; Voulgaridou & Kokkinos, 2015).

Answer 53

physical aggression
relational aggression
ages and cultures

Question 54

Boys score slightly higher on measures of global _________, and this difference increases in early _________ and persists throughout ____________.

Answer 54

self-esteem
adolescence
adulthood

Question 55

Beginning at conception, boys are more vulnerable than girls to pre- and _____________and diseases and are more likely to have developmental problems such as ______________.

Answer 55

perinatal hazards
autism spectrum disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, intellectual disability, and speech defects

Question 56

Research has confirmed that sex differences in cognitive abilities and personality traits are not due solely to innate biological differences but are also the result of ____________, including gender-role stereotypes that create a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Answer 56

Social and cultural factors

Question 57

Research on mathematical abilities has found the following: (a) Parents are influenced by __________stereotypes and expect sons to outperform daughters in math and attribute their sons’ successes in math to ability but their daughters’ successes to effort. (b) Children ______their parents’ views, so that boys feel confident about their math skills while girls are more likely to underestimate and feel anxious about them. (c) Because girls believe they lack math ability, they tend to be uninterested in math and are less likely to take math classes and pursue careers that involve math.
Finally, while gender stereotypes have declined somewhat in recent decades, mothers and fathers continue to perceive and treat sons and daughters differently beginning when their offspring are in early infancy. For instance, mothers and fathers often describe their newborn daughters as being soft, delicate, little, and pretty or cute and newborn sons as being strong, alert, and well-coordinated (Lindsey, 2015). In addition, mothers and fathers purchase gender-stereotyped toys for their infant sons and daughters and decorate their rooms in gender-consistent ways (Pomerleu, Bolduc, Malcuit, & Cossette, 1990).

Answer 57

gender-role
internalize