Module 47: Childhood Development

Question 1

Cognition

Answer 1

All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

Question 2

Schema

Answer 2

A concept or framework that organizes 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 understanding (schemas) to incorporate new information

Question 5

Sensorimotor Stage

Answer 5

Piaget’s theory: the stage (2yrs) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities

• object permanence
• stranger anxiety

Question 6

Object Permanence

Answer 6

The awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived

Question 7

Preoperational Stage

Answer 7

Piaget’s theory, (2-6/7 yrs)) during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic.

• pretend play
• egocentrism

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

Egocentrism

Answer 9

In Piaget’s theory, the preoperational child’s difficulty taking another’s point of view

Question 10

Theory of Mind

Answer 10

People’s ideas about their own and other’s mental states - about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict

Question 11

Concrete Operational Stage

Answer 11

In Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 6/7-11 yrs) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events

• conservation
• mathematical transformations

Question 12

Formal Operational Stage

Answer 12

In Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts.

• abstract logic
• potential for mature moral reasoning

Question 13

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

Answer 13

Sensorimotor: Birth - 2yrs
Preoperational: 2-6/7 yrs
Concrete Operational: 6/7-11yrs
Formal Operational: 12yrs - Adult

Question 14

Maturation

Answer 14

Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience.

The orderly sequence of biological growth

Question 15

In 28 weeks, how many brain cells have formed?

Answer 15

23 million

Question 16

What are the association areas?

Answer 16

Those linked with thinking, memory, & language are the last cortical areas to develope

Question 17

What is the pruning process?

Answer 17

Shutting down unused links and strengthening others (neural connections)

Question 18

What is Back to Sleep Method?

Answer 18

Lying a baby’s back on his/her bed, which avoids smothering crib death

Question 19

What is infantile amnesia?

Answer 19

The inability of adults to remember episodic experiences that occurred during the first few years of life (0-3yrs) & sparse recollection of episodic experienced that occurred before age 10

• could be caused by the rapid birth of cells in the hippocampus during infancy (responsible for episodic memory

Question 20

What is Autism Spectrum Disorder?

Answer 20

A disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by significant deficiencies in communication & social interactions, and rigidly fixated interest, and repetitive behaviors.

Question 21

What is the underlying source of ASD’s symptoms?

Answer 21

Poor communication among brain regions that normally work together to let us take another’s viewpoint.