Me 3.4 Cognitive Development Across the Lifespan

Question 1

cognition

Answer 1

al the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

Question 2

schema

Answer 2

A concept or framework that organises and interprets information.

Question 3

assimilation

Answer 3

Interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas.

Question 4

accommodation

Answer 4

adapting our current schemas (understandings) to incorporate new information.

Question 5

sensorimotor stage

Answer 5

the stage (from birth to nearly 2 years of age) at which infants know the world
mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities.

Question 6

object permanence

Answer 6

the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived.

Question 7

preoperational stage

Answer 7

the stage (from about 2 to 6 or 7 years of age) at which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic.

Question 8

conservation

Answer 8

the principle (which Piaget believed to be a part of concrete operational reasoning) that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects.

Question 9

Pretend play

Answer 9

Being able to think of things as symbols. Occurs in the preoperational stage

Question 9

egocentrism

Answer 9

he preoperational child’s difficulty taking another’s point of view.

Question 9

animism

Answer 9

a belief that inanimate objects are alive or have lifelike feelings and motivations. Occurs in preoperational children.

Question 10

concrete operational stage

Answer 10

the stage of cognitive development (from about 7 to 1 years of age) at which children can perform the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete (actual, physical) events.

Question 11

scaffold

Answer 11

in Vygotsky’s theory, a framework that offers children temporary support as they develop higher levels of thinking.

Question 12

Stranger anxiety

Answer 12

fear and apprehension infants commonly display around those unfamiliar to them (starts at around 8 months of age)

Question 13

zone of proximal development

Answer 13

the zone between what a child can and can’t do—it’s what a child can do with help. Where children learn the best

Question 14

imaginary audience

Answer 14

The belief that a person is under constant, close observation by peers, family, and strangers. Shows in adolescence,

Question 14

Theory of Mind

Answer 14

people’s ideas about their own and other’s mental states (feelings, perceptions, thoughts, etc.) and the behaviours these might predict

Question 15

personal fabel

Answer 15

believing that they are unique and special and what happens to “most people” would never happen to them.

Question 16

Moral Intuitions

Answer 16

the mind makes moral judgments with quick gut feelings, or affectively laden intuitions. Feelings of disgust or of elation trigger moral reasoning, says Haidt.

Question 17

delay gratification

Answer 17

the act of resisting an impulse to take an immediately available reward in the hope of obtaining a more-valued reward in the future

Question 18

Moral Action

Answer 18

Moral actions feed moral behaviour. One must actually do, not just talk.

Question 19

reminiscence bump

Answer 19

increased proportion of autobiographical memories from youth and early adulthood observed in adults over 40

Question 20

terminal decline

Answer 20

the gradual decline in cognitive function that occurs as a function of time before death

Question 21

Neurocognitive disorders

Answer 21

those marked by cognitive deficits, often related to Alzheimer’s disease, brain injury or disease, or substance abuse.

Question 22

Alzheimer’s Disease

Answer 22

a neurocognitive disorder marked by neural plaques and entailing a progressive decline in memory and cognitive abilities.