7. Learning to Think on Their Own

Question 1

Adaptive strategy choice model

Answer 1

Siegler’s model to describe how strategies change over time: the view that multiple strategies exist within a child’s cognitive repertoire at any one time, with these strategies competing with one another for use

Question 2

Analogical reasoning

Answer 2

Reasoning that involves using something one already knows to help reason about something not known yet

Question 3

Articulatory loop

Answer 3

In Baddeley and Hitch’s model of the short-term store, a system that stores phonological information

Question 4

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

Answer 4

An inability to sustain attention, believed to be caused by deficits in behavioral inhibition. People with ADHD display hyperactivity, exhibit impulsiveness, show great difficulty sustaining attention, and are at high risk for academic difficulties

Question 5

Automatic processes

Answer 5

Cognitive processes that require no mental effort (or mental space) for their execution and are hypothesized (a) to occur without intention and without conscious awareness, (b) not to interfere with the execution of other processes, (c) not to improve with practice, and (d) not to be influenced by individual differences in intelligence, motivation, or education; contrast with effortful processes

Question 6

Bottom-up processing

Answer 6

Processing that begins with sensory input or is stimulus driven, as opposed to top-down processing

Question 7

Cognitive flexibility

Answer 7

The ability to shift between sets of tasks or rules

Question 8

Cumulative (active) rehearsal

Answer 8

In memory research, type of rehearsal in which a person repeats the most recently presented word and then rehearses it with as many different words as possible; contrast with passive rehearsal

Question 9

Declarative metacognition

Answer 9

The explicit, conscious, and factual knowledge a person has about the characteristics of the task he or she is performing, one’s own weak and strong points with respect to performing the task, and the possible strategies that could be used on the task; contrast with procedural metacognition

Question 10

Effortful processes

Answer 10

Cognitive processes that consume some of the information-processing system’s limited capacity and are hypothesized to (a) be available to conscious awareness, (b) interfere with the execution of other processes, (c) improve with practice, and (d) be influenced by individual differences in intelligence, motivation, or education; contrast with automatic processes

Question 11

Executive function

Answer 11

The processes involved in regulating attention and in determining what to do with information just gathered or retrieved from long-term memory

Question 12

Goal-directed behavior

Answer 12

Means-end problem solving, seen first in the latter part of the first year

Question 13

Inhibition

Answer 13

The ability to prevent one from making some cognitive or behavioral response

Question 14

Knowledge base

Answer 14

The general background knowledge a person possesses, which influences most cognitive task performance

Question 15

Limited resource capacity

Answer 15

The concept that one’s information-processing ability is restricted (that people can only do so many things at any single time). Metaphors for capacity include mental space, mental energy or effort, and time

Question 16

Long-term memory

Answer 16

In information-processing approaches to cognition, the large and presumable permanent repository of information in the brain

Question 17

Memory span

Answer 17

The number of items a person can hold in the short-term store, assessed by testing in number of (usually) unrelated items that can be recalled in exact order

Question 18

Meta-attention

Answer 18

Knowledge of factors that influence one’s attention

Question 19

Metacognition

Answer 19

Knowledge about one’s own thoughts and the factors that influence thinking

Question 20

Metamemory

Answer 20

Knowledge of one’s own memory abilities and the factors that influence memory

Question 21

Mnemonics (or memory strategies)

Answer 21

Effortful techniques used to improve memory, including rehearsal, organization, and elaboration

Question 22

Organization (in memory research)

Answer 22

The structure discovered or imposed upon a set of items that is used to guide memory performance

Question 23

Passive rehearsal

Answer 23

Style of rehearsing in which a person includes few (usually one) unique items per rehearsal set; contrast with cumulative rehearsal

Question 24

Problem solving

Answer 24

Process in which someone has a specific goal in mind that cannot be attained immediately because of the presence of one or more obstacles; problem solving involves a goal, obstacles to that goal, strategies for overcoming the obstacles, and an evaluation of the results

Question 25

Procedural metacognition

Answer 25

The knowledge about when strategies are necessary as well as monitoring how well one is performing on a task; contrast with declarative metacognition

Question 26

Production deficiency

Answer 26

Children’s tendency not to use spontaneously a strategy that they are capable of using when instructed; contrast with utilization deficiency

Question 27

Reasoning

Answer 27

A particular type of problem solving that involves making inferences

Question 28

Rehearsal

Answer 28

A memory strategy in which target information is repeated; see also cumulative rehearsal, passive rehearsal

Question 29

Relational mapping

Answer 29

The application of what one knows about one set of elements (the relation of A to B) to relations about different elements (the relation of C to D)

Question 30

Relational shift

Answer 30

In analogical reasoning, the proposal that there is in development a shift from focusing on perceptual similarity to relational similarity to solve problems

Question 31

Resistance to interference

Answer 31

The ability to ignore irrelevant information so that it does not impede task performance; its inverse is interference sensitivity

Question 32

Scientific reasoning

Answer 32

A type of reasoning that involves the generation of hypotheses and the systematic testing of those hypotheses

Question 33

Selective attention

Answer 33

Concentration on chosen stimuli without distraction by non target stimuli

Question 34

Short-term/working memory (STWM)

Answer 34

Memory store that can hold a limited amount of information for a matter of seconds; cognitive operations are executed in the short-term store and information can be maintained indefinitely in the short-term store through operations such as rehearsal; see also working memory

Question 35

Span of apprehension

Answer 35

The number of items that people can keep in mind at any one time, or the amount of information that people can attend to at a single time

Question 36

Strategies

Answer 36

Goal-directed and deliberately implemented mental operations used to facilitate task performance; see also mnemonics

Question 37

Utilization deficiency

Answer 37

The inability of children to benefit from strategies they are able to implement; contrast with production deficiency

Question 38

Visuospatial scratch pad

Answer 38

In Baddeley and Hitch’s model of the short-term store, a system that stores visual information

Question 39

Working memory

Answer 39

The capacity to store and transform information being held om the short-term system. See also short-term/working memory