Developmental Psychology 2

Question 1

Name Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development.

Answer 1

Sensorimotor (0-2 years), preoperational (2-7 years), concrete operational (7-12 years), and formal operational (12+ years).

Question 2

What are the key achievements of Piaget’s sensorimotor stage?

Answer 2

Object permanence, deferred imitation, which represent the beginning of symbolic thought.

Question 3

What is deferred imitation?

Answer 3

Ability to imitate an observed act at a later time.

Question 4

What are circular reactions?

Answer 4

The means by which, according to Piaget, learning occurs, wherein behaviors are performed to reproduce events that happened initially by chance.

Question 5

What is the key achievement of Piaget’s preoperational stage?

Answer 5

Dramatic increase in symbolic thought, e.g., language, substitute pretend play. Emergence of intuitive thought.

Question 6

What is substitute pretend play?

Answer 6

Objects stand in for something else.

Question 7

What is intuitive thought for Piaget?

Answer 7

Substage of preoperational stage in which children begin reasoning and become aware that they have knowledge, but don’t know where it came from.

Question 8

What are some limitations of Piaget’s preoperational stage?

Answer 8

Egocentrism, magical thinking, animism, lack of conservation, centration, irreversibility.

Question 9

What is centration?

Answer 9

Tendency to focus on one detail to the neglect of other important ones.

Question 10

What is irreversibility?

Answer 10

Lack of understanding that some actions can be reversed.

Question 11

What are the key achievements of the concrete operational stage?

Answer 11

Development of reversibility and decentration, allowing child to conserve; transivity and hierarchical classification.

Question 12

What is conservation and how does it develop?

Answer 12

Understanding that the properties of an object don’t change, even if its physical appearance does. Conservation of number develops first, then length, liquid, mass, area, weight, and volume.

Question 13

What is horizontal decalage?

Answer 13

Piaget’s term for sequential mastery of concepts within a given stage of development.

Question 14

What is transivity?

Answer 14

Piaget’s term for being able to sort objects mentally (think working memory).

Question 15

What are the key achievements of the formal operational stage?

Answer 15

Process of abstract concepts, e.g., using hypothetical-deductive reasoning and propositional thought.

Question 16

What is hypothetical-deductive reasoning?

Answer 16

Piaget’s term for the ability to arrive at and test alternative explanations.

Question 17

What is propositional thought?

Answer 17

Piaget’s term for critical thinking, the ability to evaluate the logical validity of verbal assertions abstractly (without concrete references).

Question 18

What is formal operational egocentrism?

Answer 18

The naive belief, prevalent among adolescents with new abstract reasoning powers, that the world can become a better place through implementation of the adolescent’s idealized schemes.

Question 19

What is the imaginary audience?

Answer 19

The adolescent belief that others are as concerned about her/his behavior as her/himself.

Question 20

What is the personal fable?

Answer 20

The adolescent’s belief that s/he is unique and indestructible and that rules are excepted for them.

Question 21

What has research shown about Piaget’s theories?

Answer 21

Confirmed invariant sequence of development. Piaget appears to have underestimated the cognitive abilities of children. Only about half of adults reach formal operational thought; of them many only use it in their areas of expertise.

Question 22

What is the information processing theory of development?

Answer 22

Cognitive processes are analogous to computer processes, operating through rules and logic, with limited qualitative and quantitative capacities. Children become better information processors (thinkers) as brain capacities expand and rules and logic improve.

Question 23

What are the key concepts of Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development?

Answer 23

Cognition depends on social, cultural, and historical context. Development occurs as children intrapersonally apply knowledge that was gained interpersonally.

Question 24

What is Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development?

Answer 24

A metaphorical gap between what a child can do alone and what s/he can do with help from more competent others. Learning occurs more rapidly in the zone.

Question 25

What is scaffolding?

Answer 25

Vygotsky’s term for the help provided to learning children by competent others; involves providing cues and encouraging novel solutions.

Question 26

What is infantile amnesia?

Answer 26

Adults’ loss of episodic memory prior to about age three. Theorized to result from lack of schematic organization and as a consequence of language development, specifically self-talk and reason.

Question 27

What are the reasons for the surge in memory around age seven?

Answer 27

Increased short-term memory capacity, consistent use of rehearsal and other memory strategies, increased knowledge about things to be remembered, and development of metamemory.

Question 28

What are the four types of cry babies make and when do they arise?

Answer 28

Shortly after birth are the basic cry (hunger), a pain cry, and an angry cry. Around three weeks, a cry for attention can be distinguished. The pain cry is generally experienced by adults as the most arousing.

Question 29

What are the key features of language?

Answer 29

It is a system of words that act as symbols; it is rule-governed, but creative within those rules.

Question 30

What are the seven stages of language development?

Answer 30

Cooing (1-2 mos), babbling (4-6 mos), first words (10-16 mos), holophrastic speech (12-18 mos), telegraphic speech (18 to 24 mos), rapid vocabulary growth (30-36 mos), complex grammatical forms (3-6 years).

Question 31

What is holophrastic speech?

Answer 31

Combining a single word with gestures and inflection to express a full thought.

Question 32

What is telegraphic speech?

Answer 32

Two-word sentences comprised of the most critical words.

Question 33

What are the three principle theories of language development?

Answer 33

Behavioral, nativist, and cognitive.

Question 34

What does the cognitive theory of language development argue?

Answer 34

Language is a consequence of cognitive development. Children are motivated to acquire language because they wish to express meaning, i.e., meaning comes first, then children find words to hang on the meaning.

Question 35

Why might a bilingual speaker code switch (change language in mid-conversation)?

Answer 35

• inadequate expressiveness of the abandon language
• to indicate solidarity with the interlocutor
• to express an attitude.

Question 36

What is “Ferberizing?”

Answer 36

An infant sleep-training technique developed by Richard Ferber (1985) in which parents, beginning at about 5-6 months, systematically increase the amount of time to respond to a cry when an infant is put to bed. Research supports this approach with non-anxious children.

Question 37

What is social referencing?

Answer 37

When an infant begins “reading” her/his caregiver’s emotions as a guide for action. Begins about 6 months. Reference: visual cliff.

Question 38

What is separation anxiety?

Answer 38

Infant’s distress at separation from caregiver. Begins about 6 months, but peaks around 14-18 months, diminishing through preschool years.

Question 39

What is stranger anxiety?

Answer 39

Infant’s strong negative reaction to unfamiliar persons. Typically begins 8-10 months, but can start ~6 months, peaking around 18 months and declining during second year. Moderated by caregiver’s presence.

Question 40

What are the behaviors associated with prolonged response to separation by 15-30 month olds?

Answer 40

Protest, despair, detachment.