week 3: Piaget

Question 1

Object Permanence

Answer 1

concrete objects are not “out of sight, out of mind”, in other words things still continue to exist even when they are out of your sight.

Question 2

What concept does the game “peek a boo” represent?

Answer 2

object permanence

Question 3

Why would Piaget say the older (but not younger) baby reaches for the object

A. The older baby is more interested in the object
B. The older baby knows that the object is still there, even when it is hidden.
C. The older baby has better motor abilities that allow her to search more effectively.

Answer 3

B. The older baby knows that the object is still there, even when it is hidden.

Question 4

At what age does object permanence failure still occur?

At what age does A not B error keep occurring?

Answer 4

Younger than 8-months: object permanence failure

Younger than 12-15 months: A not B error

Question 5

What is A not B error?

Answer 5

After seeing an object hidden at (A) multiple times, infants search for it at (A: old location), even when they watch it being hidden at (B: new location).
-Do not fully represent the object

Question 6

What are the two classical failures in the pre-operational stage?

Answer 6

1) Egocentrism: See things only from their perspective

2) Conservation Tasks: Centration (focus on one feature at the exclusion of other important ones)

Question 7

What is the #1 classical failure in the concrete operational stage?

Answer 7

1) Reasoning about illogically impossible rules

Question 8

What do infants/todddlers continue to lack in the concrete operational stage?
A. Hypothetical General Logic
B. Logical Operations
C. Ability to think outside of personal (concrete) experiences
D. A & B
E. A & C

Answer 8

E. A & C

Question 9

What do infants/toddlers possess when they are in the formal operational stage?

Answer 9

• Mental Representations
• Logical Operations
• Formal Logical Reasoning (outside own experience)

Question 10

Define Epigenesis

Answer 10

Process of learning & development: moving between stages (Piaget called this “Epigenesis”)

Question 11

What is assimilation and accommodation?

Answer 11

Assimilation: add information to existing theory
Accommodation: change theory to match new evidence

Question 12

What is Equilibration?

Answer 12

Process to accommodate when new evidence does not match understanding
-Initial equilibrium: Theory A
Disequilibrium: New evidence doesn’t fit Theory A
-New equilibrium: Theory B

Question 13

T or F:

You can train a kid to move stages before s/he is “ready to learn”

Answer 13

F.

You CANNOT train a kid to do so

Question 14

Infants are habituated to a car that runs down a ramp, goes behind a screen, and comes out on the other side. Then, an infant sees that a block is placed in the path of the car. The screen is lowered, and infants are surprised when the car follows the same path of motion. This shows that:

A. Infants know that hidden objects continue to exist.
B. Infants can learn better from events they find surprising.
C. Infants like to look at cars that move farther distances.
D. Infants know that objects need to supported in order to not fall.

Answer 14

A. Infants know that hidden objects continue to exist.

Question 15

Why would changing an infant’s posture between training and test trials decrease A not B error rates?
A. Changing posture helps infants override their tendency to reach to the same place they were reaching before.
B. Changing posture helps infants ignore the social aspects of the task.
C. Changing posture helps infants pay better attention to where the object is hidden.
D. Changing posture helps infants better remember where the hidden object is.

Answer 15

A. Changing posture helps infants override their tendency to reach to the same place they were reaching before.
Reasoning: One reason infants may make the A not B error is due to motor repetition and practice. Breaking up their ability to reach in the same exact way (by changing postures) seems to help.

Question 16

A ten-year-old is presented with two identical cups of juice that have the same amount. An experimenter pours one cup into a taller, skinnier cup, and asks which has more. The child will likely answer:
A. The new cup contains more (because the water level is higher).
B. They are the same (because nothing was added/removed).
C. It will depend on the orientation of the cups (because children pick the closer cup).
D. It will depend on whether the child was trained in conservation or not.

Answer 16

B. They are the same (because nothing was added/removed).

Question 17

According to Piaget, what process do children go through when they change a theory upon encountering a new piece of information that does not fit into their current theory? 
A. Assimilation
B. Epigenesis 
C. Accommodation
D. Equilibrium

Answer 17

C. Accommodation