cognitive development

Question 1

cognition

Answer 1

thinking and memory processes

Question 2

cognitive development

Answer 2

long-term changes in thinking and memory processes

Question 3

Jean Piaget

Answer 3

Swiss psychologist; creator of cognitive stage theory; created and studied an account of how children and youth gradually become able to think logically and scientifically

Question 4

sensorimotor stage

Answer 4

first stage of Piaget’s theory; the period when infants “think” by means of their senses and motor actions

Question 5

object permanence

Answer 5

a belief that objects exist whether or not they are actually present; major achievement of sensorimotor development

Question 6

preoperational stage

Answer 6

children use their new ability to represent objects in a wide variety of activities, but they do not yet do it in ways that are organized or fully logical

Question 7

dramatic play

Answer 7

improvised make-believe of preschool children; early example of metacognition

Question 8

metacognition

Answer 8

reflecting on and monitoring of thinking

Question 9

concrete operational stage

Answer 9

children mentally “operate” on concrete objects and events. they are not yet able to operate or think systematically about representations of objects/events

Question 10

reversibility

Answer 10

the ability to think about the steps of a process in any order

Question 11

decenter

Answer 11

a child’s ability to focus on more than one feature of a problem at a time

Question 12

conservation

Answer 12

the belief that an amount or quantity stays the same even if it changes apparent size or shape

Question 13

formal operational stage

Answer 13

the final of Piaget’s stages of cognitive development; period when the individual can “operate” on “forms” or representations

Question 14

hypothetical reasoning

Answer 14

students must manipulate ideas that vary in several ways at once, and do so entirely in their minds