Module 5: Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

Question 1

animism

Answer 1

the belief that inanimate objects are capable of actions and have lifelike qualities

Question 2

artificialism

Answer 2

the belief that environmental characteristics can be attributed to human actions or interventions

Question 3

centration

Answer 3

the act of focusing all attention on one characteristic or dimension of a situation, while disregarding all others

Question 4

egocentrism

Answer 4

the tendency of young children to think that everyone sees things in the same way as the child

Question 5

irreversibility

Answer 5

when a person is unable to mentally reverse a sequence of events

Question 6

preoperational stage

Answer 6

the second stage in Piaget’s theory of cognitive development; describes the development in children ages 2-7

Question 7

operations

Answer 7

the term used by Piaget to mean the logical rules that children develop with time

Question 8

syncretism

Answer 8

the tendency to think that if two events occur simultaneously, one caused the other

Question 9

transductive reasoning

Answer 9

a failure in understanding cause and effect relationships which happens when a child reasons from specific to specific; drawing a relationship between two separate events that are otherwise unrelated