Ch4

Question 1

What are the Basic Principles of Cognitive Development?

Answer 1

Children are actively exploring their worlds

Children make sense of the world through schemes: categories of related events, objects, and knowledge

Question 2

What is assimilation and accommodation?

Answer 2

Assimilation: fitting new experiences into existing schemes

Accommodation: modifying schemes as a result of new experiences

Question 3

What is Equilibration?

Answer 3

inadequate schemes are reorganized or replaced with more advanced and mature schemes

Question 4

What are the periods of Cognitive Development?

Answer 4

1. Sensorimotor Period (0-2yrs)
2. Preoperational period (2-7yrs)
3. Concrete operational period (7-11yrs)
4. Formal operational period (11+)

Question 5

Sensorimotor Thinking

Answer 5

Deliberate, means ends behavior = 8 months

Object permanence: knowing an object still exists even if not in view = 18 months

Use of symbols = 18-24 months

Question 6

What are the three components of Preoperational Thinking?

Answer 6

Egocentrism - difficulty seeing world from another’s perspective

Animism - crediting inanimate objects with life

Centration - concentrating on only one facet or a problem

Question 7

Piaget’s theory

Answer 7

environments where children can discover the world and its functions

children profit from experience only when they can interpret it with their current cognitive structures

help children discover problems with their thinking

Question 8

Problems with Piaget’s Theory

Answer 8

underestimates cognitive ability of infants and children and overestimates that of adolescents

not enough info on processes of change and variability of kid’s performance

undervalues sociocultural environment’s influence

Question 9

Children’s Naive Theories

Answer 9

children develop specialized theories about much narrower areas than Piaget expected - core knowledge hypothesis

4yr olds understand specific properties of living things - teleological explanations and essentialism

Question 10

What are the general principles of information processing?

Answer 10

mental hardware: neural and mental structures enabling the mind to operate

mental software: mental programs allowing for performance of specific tasks

Question 11

What are the components of Attention

Answer 11

Orienting response: emotional and physical reactions to unfamiliar stimulus

Habituation: lessened reactions to a stimulus after repeated presentations

Question 12

Classical Conditioning

Answer 12

Baby and Rat experiment

Loud Noise becomes associated with rat so rat becomes scary

Question 13

What is operant conditioning?

Answer 13

reinforcement and punishment

Question 14

Rovee-Collier’s experiments reveal what about memory?

Answer 14

an event from the past is remembered until its association is lost

a cue can bring up a memory

age related improvements are related to growth in regions of the brain that support memory

Question 15

What parts of the brain relate to memory?

Answer 15

Hippocampus and Amygdala develop early - 6months old can store new info

Frontal Cortex develops in 2nd year - toddlers begin retrieving info for long term

Question 16

What is autobiographical memory?

Answer 16

exists in preschoolers

for significant memories, appears as a sense of self-image

autobiographical memories are richer when parents talk about past events

early memories can vary by culture

Question 17

How do children’s accuracy of memory improve?

Answer 17

interview soon after, encourage the truth and admitting not knowing

Question 18

What are important things to know when it comes to learning number skills?

Answer 18

infants can distinguish small quantities

5months = basic number skills

preschoolers = 1-1 principle, stable order principle, cardinality principle

principles apply to 9 or fewer items

Question 19

What is the difference between Orienting response and habituation?

Answer 19

Orienting response - emotional and physical reactions to unfamiliar stimulus

Habituation - lessened reactions to a stimulus after repeated presentations

Question 20

Social Learning Theory

Answer 20

imitate others and learn new behaviors from others

Question 21

What is the zone of proximal development?

Answer 21

the difference between what children can do with or without assistance

Question 22

What is scaffolding?

Answer 22

giving just enough assistance to match the learner’s needs

helping with bike riding and learning to write

Question 23

What errors happen with rapid learning?

Answer 23

underextension - limits

overextension - going overboard with labels

Question 24

Expressive Style