Chapter 12: Cognitive Development In Middle And Late Childhood Flashcards
Transitivity
The ability to logically combine relations to understand certain conclusions
Seriation
The concrete operation that involves ordering stimuli along a quantitative dimension (such as length)
Neo-piagetians
Developmentalists who have elaborated on Piaget’s theory, giving more emphasis to information processing, strategies, and precise cognitive steps
Long term memory
A relatively permanent type of memory that holds huge amounts of information for a long period of time
Elaboration
An important strategy that involves engaging in more extensive processing of information
Fuzzy trace theory
A theory stating that memory is best understood by considering two types of memory representations: 1-verbatim memory trace and 2-gist. In this theory, older children’s better memory is attributed to the fuzzy traces created by extracting the gist of information
Critical thinking
The ability to think reflectively and productively, as well as to evaluate the evidence
Mindfulness
Being alert, mentally present, and cognitively flexible while going though life’s everyday activities and tasks
Creative thinking
The ability to think in novel and unusual ways and to come up with unique solutions to problems
Convergent thinking
Thinking that process one correct answer and is characteristic of the kind of thinking tested by standardized intelligence tests
Divergent thinking
Thinking that produces many different answers to the same question and is characteristic of creativity
Metacognition
Cognition about cognition, knowing about knowing
Intelligence
Problem solving skills and the ability to learn from and adapt to the experiences of everyday life
Individual differences
The stable, consistent ways in which people are different from each other
Mental age (MA)
Binet’s measure of an individual’s level of mental development, compared with that of others
Intelligence quotient (IQ)
A persons mental age divided by chronological age, multiplied by 100
Heritability
The fraction of variance in a population that is attributed to genetics and is computed using correlational techniques
Culture-fair tests
Tests of intelligence that are designed to be free of cultural bias
Mental retardation
A condition of limited mental ability in which an individual has a low iq, usually below 70 on a traditional test of intelligence, and has difficulty adapting to everyday life
Organic retardation
Mental retardation that involves some physical damage and is caused by a genetic disorder or brain damage
Cultural-familial retardation
Retardation that is characterized by no evidence of organic brain damage, but the individuals iq generally is between 50 and 70
Gifted
Having above average intelligence (an iq of 130 or higher) and/or superior talent for something
Metalinguistic awareness
Refers to knowledge about language, such as knowing what a preposition is or the ability to discuss the sounds of a language
Whole language approach
An approach to reading instruction based on the idea that instruction should parallel children’s natural language learning. Reading materials should be whole and meaningful
