Cognitive Development (Piagetian, Core Knowledge, Vygotskian)

Question 1

cognition

Answer 1

inner processes and products of the mind that lead to knowing; it includes all mental activity–attending, remembering, symbolizing, categorizing, planning, reasoning, problem solving, creating and fantasizing

Question 2

constructive approach

Answer 2

children as discovering or constructing, virtually all knowledge about their world through their own activity

Question 3

schemes

Answer 3

organized ways of making sense of experience

Question 4

mental representation

Answer 4

internal depictions of information that the mind can manipulate

Question 5

adaptation

Answer 5

building schemes through direct interaction with the environment

Question 6

assimilation

Answer 6

use of current schemes to interpret the external world

Question 7

accommodation

Answer 7

we create new schemes or adjust old ones after noticing that our current way of thinking does not capture the environment completely

Question 8

equilibration

Answer 8

back and forth movement between equilibrium and disequilibrium

Question 9

organization

Answer 9

process that occurs internally, apart from direct contact with the environment; once children form new schemes, they rearrange them, linking them with other schemes to create a strongly interconnected cognitive system

Question 10

sensorimotor stage

Answer 10

first two years of life, belief that infants and toddlers think with their eyes, ears, hands and other sensorimotor equipment

Question 11

circular reaction

Answer 11

special means of adapting to first schemes; involves stumbling onto a new experience caused by the baby’s own motor activity

Question 12

intentional / goal-directed behavior

Answer 12

coordinating schemes deliberately to solve simple problems

Question 13

object permanence

Answer 13

understanding that objects continue to exist when they are out of sight; BUT A-not-B search error

Question 14

deferred imitation

Answer 14

ability to remember and copy the behavior of models who are not present

Question 15

make-believe play

Answer 15

children act out everyday and imaginary activities

Question 16

violation of expectation method

Answer 16

habituate babies to a physical event (expose them to the event until their looking declines) to familiarize them with a situation in which their knowledge will be tested

Question 17

analogical problem solving

Answer 17

applying a solution strategy from one problem to other relevant problems

Question 18

displaced reference

Answer 18

realization that words can be used to cue mental images of things not physically present–a symbolic capacity called displaced reference that emerges around the first birthday

Question 19

preoperational stage

Answer 19

spans 2-7, extraordinary increase in representational or symbolic activity

Question 20

sociodramatic play

Answer 20

make-believe with others that is under way by the end of the second year and increases rapidly in complexity during early childhood

Question 21

dual representations

Answer 21

viewing a symbolic object as both an object in its own right and a symbol

Question 22

operations

Answer 22

mental representations of actions that obey logical rules

Question 23

egocentrism

Answer 23

failure to distinguish others’ symbolic viewpoints from one’s own

Question 24

conservation

Answer 24

certain physical characteristics of objects remain the same even when their outward appearance changes

Question 25

centration

Answer 25

focus on one aspect of a situation, neglecting other important features

Question 26

reversibility

Answer 26

ability to go through a series of steps in a problem and then mentally reverse direction, returning to the starting point

Question 27

hierarchical classification

Answer 27

organization of objects into classes and subclasses on the basis of similarities and differences

Question 28

concrete operational stage

Answer 28

from 7-11, marks a major turning point in cognitive development; thought becomes far more logical, flexible and organized

Question 29

seriation

Answer 29

ability to order items along a quantitative dimension, such as length or weight

Question 30

transitive inference

Answer 30

concrete operational child can also seriate mentally

Question 31

cognitive maps

Answer 31

mental representation of familiar large-scale spaces, such as the neighborhood or school

Question 32

formal operational stage

Answer 32

they develop the capacity for abstract, systematic, scientific thinking

Question 33

hypothetico-deductive reasoning

Answer 33

when faced with a problem they start with a hypothesis, or prediction about variables that might affect an outcome, from which they deduce logical, testable inferences; systematic isolation of variables

Question 34

propositional thougth

Answer 34

adolescents’ ability to evaluate the logic of propositions (verbal statements) without referring to real-world circumstances

Question 35

imaginary audience

Answer 35

adolescents’ belief that they are the focus of everyone else’s attention and concern

Question 36

personal fable

Answer 36

teenagers developing an inflated opinion of their own importance, a feeling that they are special and unique

Question 37

logical necessity

Answer 37

accuracy of conclusions drawn from premises rests on the rules of logic, not on real-world confirmation

Question 38

core knowledge perspective

Answer 38

infants begin life with innate, specialized purpose knowledge systems referred to as core domains of thought; each prewired understandings permits a ready grasp of new related information

Question 39

theory theory

Answer 39

after children observe an event, they draw on innate concepts to explain or theorize about its cause

Question 40

private speech

Answer 40

self-directed speech

Question 41

zone of proximal development

Answer 41

range of tasks too difficult for the child to do alone but possible with the help of adults and more skilled peers

Question 42

intersubjectivity

Answer 42

process whereby two participants who begin task with different understandings arrive at a shared understanding

Question 43

scaffolding

Answer 43

adjusting the support offered during a teaching session to fit the child’s current level of performance

Question 44

guided participation

Answer 44

broader concept than scaffolding; refers to shared endeavors between more expert and less expert participants without specifying the precise features of communication

Question 45

reciprocal teaching

Answer 45

collaborative group takes turn leading dialogues on the content of a text passage

Question 46

cooperative learning

Answer 46

small groups of classmates work toward common goals