Module 3.4

Question 1

Piaget

Answer 1

developed stages of cognitive development that children progress through at certain ages

Question 2

Schemas

Answer 2

a cognitive structure representing a person’s knowledge about some entity or situation, including its qualities and the relationships between these

Question 3

Sensorimotor stage

Answer 3

characterized by the development of sensory and motor processes and by the infant’s first knowledge of the world acquired by interacting with the environment

Question 4

Preoperational stage

Answer 4

occurring approximately between the ages of 2 and 7, when the child becomes able to record experience in a symbolic fashion and to represent an object, event, or feeling in speech, movement, drawing, and the like. The child’s thought processes tend to be intuitive and prelogical. During the later 2 years of the preoperational stage, egocentrism diminishes noticeably with the emerging ability to adopt the point of view of others

Question 5

Conservation

Answer 5

the awareness that physical quantities do not change in amount when they are altered in appearance, such as when water is poured from a wide, short beaker into a thin, tall one.

Question 6

reversibility

Answer 6

a mental operation that reverses a sequence of events or restores a changed state of affairs to the original condition. It is exemplified by the ability to realize that a glass of milk poured into a bottle can be poured back into the glass and remain unchanged

Question 7

Animism

Answer 7

the belief that natural phenomena or inanimate objects are alive or possess lifelike characteristics, such as intentions, desires, and feelings.

Question 8

Egocentrism

Answer 8

the tendency to perceive the situation from one’s own perspective, believing that others see things from the same point of view as oneself and that events will elicit the same thoughts, feelings, and behavior in others as in oneself

Question 9

Theory of mind

Answer 9

the understanding that others have intentions, desires, beliefs, perceptions, and emotions different from one’s own and that such intentions, desires, and so forth affect people’s actions and behaviors

Question 10

Concrete operational stage

Answer 10

the third major stage of cognitive development, occurring approximately from 7 to 12 years of age, in which children can decenter their perception, are less egocentric, and can think logically about physical objects and about specific situations or experiences involving those objects

Question 11

Formal operational stage

Answer 11

fourth and final stage of cognitive development, beginning around age 12, during which complex intellectual functions, such as abstract thinking, logical processes, conceptualization, and judgment, develop

Question 12

Abstract thinking

Answer 12

thinking characterized by the use of general ideas or concepts

Question 13

Hypothetical thinking

Answer 13

imagining possibilities and exploring their consequences through a process of mental simulation

Question 14

Vygotsky

Answer 14

psychologist who thought children were social learners who learn through interacting with and scaffolding by other people within sociocultural contexts

Question 15

Scaffolding

Answer 15

supports and facilitates the child as they learn a new skill or concept, with the ultimate goal of the student becoming self-reliant

Question 16

Zone of proximal development

Answer 16

the difference between a child’s actual level of ability and the level of ability that they can achieve when assisted by, or working in cooperation with, older or more experienced partners

Question 17

Crystalized intelligence

Answer 17

which is the sum of one’s knowledge and is measured by tests of vocabulary, general information

Question 18

Dementia

Answer 18

a generalized, pervasive deterioration of memory and at least one other cognitive function, such as language and an executive function, due to a variety of causes