midterm 2 Flashcards
occurs when new experiences are readily incorporated into a child’s existing theories
Assimilation
occurs when a child’s theories are modified based on experience
Accommodation
refers to cognitive structures
schemas
age of sensorimotor
0-2 years
age of preoperational
2-6 years
age of concrete operational
7-11 years
age of formal operational
age 11+
objects exist independently of our actions and thoughts concerning them
object permanence
refers to young children’s difficulty in seeing the world form another’s viewpoint
Egocentrism
credit inanimate objects with life and lifelike properties
animism
narrowly focused thought
centration
are strategies and rules that make thinking more systematic and more powerful
mental operations
ability to draw appropriate conclusions from facts
deductive reasoning
view that children are active participants in their own development
constructivism
mutual, shared understanding among participants in an activity
inter-subjectivity
cognitive growth results from the children’s involvement in structured activities with others who are more skilled than they
guided participation
refers to the difference between the level of performance a child can achieve when working alone and the higher level of performance that is possible when working under the guidance of more skilled peers
zone of proximal development
refers to a teaching style that matches the amount of assistance to the learner’s needs
scaffolding
comments not directed to others but intended to help children regulate their own behaviour
private speech
Vygotsky’s term for thought
inner speech
where information is held very briefly in raw, unanalyzed form
sensory memory
is the site of ongoing cognitive activity
working memory
a limitless, permanent storehouse of knowledge of the world
long-term memory
moves info from working memory to long term memory, etc.
central executive
prevent task-relevant information from entering working memory
inhibitory processes
inhibitory processes, along with planning and cognitive flexibility
executive functioning
cognitive processes that require virtually no effort
automatic processes
propose distinctive domains of knowledge, some of which are acquired very early in life
core-knowledge theories
children believe that living things and parts of living things exist for a purpose
technological explanations
children believe that all living things have an essence that can’t be seen but gives a living thing its identity
essentialism
refers to our informal beliefs about other people and their behaviour
naive psychology
a naive understanding of the relations between mind and behaviour
theory of mind
an action to promote remembering
memory strategy
a strategy of repeating information that must be remembered
rehearsal
structuring material to be remembered so that related information is placed together
organization
embellishing information to be remembered to make it more memorable
elaboration
process of organizing related items into one meaningful group
chunking
refers to a child’s informal understanding of memory
meta-memory
knowledge and awareness of cognitive processes
metacognitive knowledge
memory structure used to describe the sequence in which events occur
script
most experiences can be stored in memory exactly (vertbatim) or in terms of their basic meaning (gist)
fuzzy trace theory
refers to people’s memory of the significant events and experiences of their own lives
autobiographical memory
refers to the inability to remember events from one’s early life
infantile amnesia
transforms the information in a problem into a mental representation
encoding processes
in which a person describes the difference between the current and desired situations, and then does something to reduce the difference
means-ends analysis
cognitive development is motivated by a sense of discomfort when the balance between what we know and what we experience is disrupted.
disequilibrium
reflex activity; grasping, rooting and sucking
substage 1 (0-1 month)
replicating interesting body-related events
substage 2: primary circular reaction (1-4 months)
replicating interesting object-related events
substage 3: secondary circular reactions (4-8 months)
intentional (planned) behaviour- to accomplish some goal you have; means-end tasks
substage 4: coordination of secondary schemes (8-12 months)
trial and error exploratory schemes
substage 5: tertiary circular reactions (12-18 months)
internal problem solving; no more trial and error
substage 6: problem solving (18-24 months)
beginnings of symbolic thought
capstone accomplishment
when you remove object out of sight, the baby loses interest completely
substage 1-2: no evidence of object permanence
babies will search for a hidden object, but it depends on how hidden it is
substage 3: limited search
Searches for object; A-not-B errors
substage 4: good search
visible displacements are no longer a problem; can’t cope with invisible displacements
substage 5
invisible displacements are no longer an issue; success
substage 6
what is the weakness of preoperational thought?
intuitive thinking
tendency to focus on only one aspect of a problem/situation at a time
centration
the understanding that the quantity of a substance stays the same, even when the appearance changes
conservation
conservation of number
age 5
conservation of volume
1-2 years after number
conservation of mass
1-2 years after number
conservation of length
2-3 years after number
conservation of weight
2-3 years after number
