Cognitive development

Question 1

Piaget’s constructivist theory assumes that cognitive development relies on a combination of ________ and ________ and describes it as an ________ in which a child constructs knowledge by interacting with the environment.

Answer 1

• biological maturation
• experience
• active process

Question 2

According to Piaget, the source of motivation for cognitive development is ________, which is an innate drive toward a state of equilibrium between ________. When disequilibrium occurs, a child is motivated to restore equilibrium through ________, which consists of two processes:

Answer 2

• equilibration
• one’s current ways of thinking and the environment
• adaptation
• assimilation: understand a new object or situation using an existing cognitive schema,
• accommodation: modifies an existing cognitive schema or creates a new schema to fit the new object or situation

Question 3

What are the 4 stages of Piaget’s constructivist theory of cognitive development?

Answer 3

1) Sensorimotor: birth to 2 years
2) Preoperational: 2 to 7 years
3) Concrete operational: 7 to 12 years
4) Formal operational: 12 to adulthood

Question 4

What are the 6 substages of the sensorimotor stage of Piaget’s constructivist theory of cognitive development?

Answer 4

1) Reflexive Reactions: 0 to 1 month
2) Primary Circular Reactions: 1 to 4 months
3) Secondary Circular Reactions: 4 to 8 months
4) Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions: 8 to 12 months
5) Tertiary Circular Reactions: 12 to 18 months
6) Internalization of Schemas: 18 to 24 months

Question 5

The accomplishments of the sensorimotor stage include the development of ________ and ________.

Answer 5

• object permanence
• representational (symbolic) thought

Question 6

Object permanence begins to develop in the ________ substage and is the ability to ________.

Answer 6

• fourth
• recognize that people and objects continue to exist even when they can’t be seen or heard

Question 7

Representational thought emerges in the ________ substage and allows children to use ________ to represent people, objects, and events and engage in ________.

Answer 7

• sixth
• mental images, gestures, and words
• make-believe play and deferred imitation

Question 8

Note that research has found that some of the accomplishments of the sensorimotor stage occur ________ than Piaget proposed.

Answer 8

earlier

Question 9

During the preoperational stage, ________ increases and allows children to think about ________ and about things ________.

Answer 9

• representational thought
• the past and future
• that aren’t in the immediate environment

Question 10

Preoperational thought is limited by several factors including:

Answer 10

• transductive (precausal) reasoning
• egocentrism

Question 11

Transductive reasoning leads preoperational children to think that ________, while egocentrism limits their ability to understand that ________.

Answer 11

• unrelated events that occur at the same time are causally related
• other people don’t experience things the same way they do

Question 12

Children in the preoperational stage cannot ________, which means they don’t understand that certain physical characteristics of an object stay the same when the object’s outward appearance changes.

Answer 12

conserve

Question 13

The inability to conserve is due primarily to two characteristics of preoperational thinking: ________, which is the tendency to focus on one aspect of an object or situation to the exclusion of all other aspects, and ________, which is the inability to understand that an action or process can be reversed.

Answer 13

• centration
• irreversibility

Question 14

During the concrete operational stage, children use ________, which are mental activities that allow them to think logically about concrete situations. As a result, they’re able to:

Answer 14

• logical operations
• classify objects according to their physical characteristics
• order items in terms of length or other quantitative dimension
• perform number operations such as adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing
• conserve.

Question 15

Conservation depends on the operations of ________ and ________.

Answer 15

• decentration
• reversibility

Question 16

Conservation develops in a predictable order during the concrete operational stage: Conservation of ________ occurs first and is followed, in order, by conservation of length, liquid quantity, mass, weight, and volume. The sequential emergence of conservation skills is an example of ________, which is the gradual development of a skill within a single stage of development.

Answer 16

• number
• horizontal decalage

Question 17

Individuals in the formal operational stage can think ________, which allows them to think about ________ (such as democracy and equality) and engage in ________ reasoning and ________ thought:

Answer 17

• abstractly
• abstract principles
• hypothetical-deductive
• propositional

Question 18

Hypothetical-deductive reasoning is the ability to ________, and propositional thought is the ability to ________ without having concrete examples

Answer 18

• derive and test alternative hypotheses to determine the solution to a problem
• evaluate the logic of verbal statements (propositions)

Question 19

The beginning of the formal operational stage is characterized by ________, which involves an inability to separate one’s own abstract thoughts from those of other people. Elkind (1981) identified the ________ and ________ as two characteristics of adolescent egocentrism.

Answer 19

• renewed egocentrism
• imaginary audience
• personal fable

Question 20

What are some criticisms of Piaget’s constructivist theory of cognitive development?

Answer 20

• it underestimates the abilities of infants and young children (ex. deferred imitation occurs earlier, children as young as 3 or 4 years of age can be taught to conserve)
• Piaget did not adequately consider the impact of social interactions on cognitive development (ex. interactions with adults)

Question 21

Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory views cognitive development as being influenced by social and cultural factors. It also proposes that cognitive development always occurs first on an ________ level and then on an ________ level.

Answer 21

• interpersonal (ex. verbal prompts from teacher)
• intrapersonal (ex. internalization of verbal prompts from teacher)

Question 22

Vygotsky referred to the speech that children utter aloud to guide their actions as ________, and research has shown that the frequent use is associated with ________.

Answer 22

• private speech
• more effective problem-solving

Question 23

The studies have also found that, as predicted by Vygotsky, private speech begins to be replaced by inner (silent) speech by about ________ of age. However, older children, adolescents, and adults may revert to private speech when faced with ________.

Answer 23

• 7 years
• difficult tasks

Question 24

The ________ is the gap between what a child can currently do independently and what he or she can do with assistance from an adult or more competent peer.

Answer 24

zone of proximal development

Question 25

The assistance provided to a child by another person is referred to as ________ and is more effective when it involves the use of ________ rather than providing correct answers and solutions.

Answer 25

• scaffolding
• prompts, questions, and feedback

Question 26

Vygotsky also proposed that ________ creates a zone of proximal development that enables children to practice new social roles and behaviors.

Answer 26

make-believe (symbolic) play