Week 15

Question 1

Comparative perspective

Answer 1

A comparative perspective focuses on non-human animals to better understand the evolution of behaviour and mental processes

Question 2

Rogue Test

Answer 2

Test used to determine development of a sense of self by using a dot of red colour on the nose of the child or animal

Question 3

Self concept

Answer 3

An individuals perception of self, including knowledge, feelings, ideas about oneself. It is used as bias for how we describe ourselves

Question 4

Autobiographical memory

Answer 4

Memory for the specific experiences that make up a persons life story; influences development of self concept

Question 5

Social comparisions

Answer 5

Evaluating one’s abilities and opinions by comparing oneself and other and consider how we differ

Question 6

Imaginary audience

Answer 6

Adolescents thought processes in which they believe they are constantly on a stage and everyone is watching them, attending to their every move and mistake

Question 7

Theory of mind

Answer 7

Expectations concerning how experience affects mental states, especially those of another. It is a reasoning process that attempts to predict how others might think or behave based on gods/motive/needs

Question 8

False belief problems

Answer 8

Set of tests used to determine children’s theory of mind and false belief understanding

Question 9

Displacement test

Answer 9

False belief task like the Sally Anne task that ecplores how children reason through a change in location from two different perspectives

Question 10

Intersubjectivity

Answer 10

An understanding between 2 individuals of the topic they are understanding

Question 11

Infant habituation

Answer 11

The simplest form of learning in which a given stimulus is presented repeatedly. The child learns not to respond to an unimportant event that occurs repeatedly.

Question 12

Preservation

Answer 12

Inability to switch strategies as new information is presented: the initial strategy might work, but when a change is called for, the strategy often remains the same. Often occurs in young children and individuals with frontal lobe damage.

Question 13

Jean Piaget

Answer 13

• Emphasized the importance of the interaction between environmental and maturation factors in development
• Proposed cognitive abilities in developed stages and children of similar ages had similar abilities

Question 14

Schema

Answer 14

Mental framework or body of knowledge that organizes and synthesizes information about a person/place/thing

Question 15

Assimilation

Answer 15

Process by which new information about the world is incorporated into existing schemata

Question 16

Accomadation

Answer 16

Process of altering one’s existing schemas or ideas as a result of new information or new experiences

Question 17

Equilibrium

Answer 17

Process within Piagets theory that recognizes schemata

Question 18

Sensorimotor Stage

Answer 18

The 1st period in Piagets theory of cognitive developement

Question 19

Object permanence

Answer 19

Feature of Piaget’s sensorimotor period market by the understanding that objects to not disappear when they are out of sight

Question 20

Altruism

Answer 20

A motive to increase another’s welfare without conscious regard for one’s self interest

Question 21

Prosocial behaviour

Answer 21

Positive/constructive, helpful behaviour that is beneficial to others that are usually at cost to oneself

Question 22

Longitudinal studies

Answer 22

Study of development that compare observations of the same individuals at different times in their lives

Question 23

Kohlberg’s Stages

Answer 23

Heteronymous mortality
Instrumental mortality
Good child
Law and order
Social contract
Universe ethical principle
Cosmic orientation

Question 24

Pre-operational stage

Answer 24

The second period in Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, characterized by language development, using symbols, pretend play and mastering the concept of conservation. At this stage children are quite egocentric and also have trouble with conservation

Question 25

Concrete operational stage

Answer 25

3rd period in Piaget’s TOCD during which children come to understand conservation, perspective theory and other concepts such as categorization

Question 26

Formal operational stage

Answer 26

4th period in Piaget’s TOCD during which individuals first become capable of formal abstract thinking and hypothetical reasoning

Question 27

Socio-cultural theory

Answer 27

The TOCD that places emphasis on environmental factors, including cultural influences

Question 28

Joint attention

Answer 28

The ability to share attention with another towards the same object/event

Question 29

Social referencing

Answer 29

The tendency of a person to look to another in an ambiguous situation to obtain clarifying information

Question 30

Core knowledge theory

Answer 30

Speculate that from birth, the brain has mechanisms that predispose humans to learn specific skills very quickly or to understand phenomena in specific ways

Question 31

Theory Theory

Answer 31

Children form coherent and abstract models (system of rules) about the way in which the world functions and then actively experiment to test and revise their models