Chapter 7 DEP 3053

The old saying "There's more than one way to skin a cat" reflects which level of cognition?

postformal thinking

guided participation

A process in which children learn by actively participating in culturally relevant activities with the aid and support of their parents and other knowledgeable individuals.

The Sunnyside Day Care Center is abuzz with children babbling away and creating colorful chaos with the center's ample stock of toys. Which of the following terms best reflects the children's experience in the center's playroom?

symbolic

Baby Tuan loves to stand at the window and watch cars drive past. When he wants to play with his toy cars, Tuan will make engine noises until his mother gets them out of the toy box. Piaget would say that Tuan has acquired the cognitive concept of ________.

symbols

Which of the following utilizes the concept of Vygotsky's zone of proximal development?

having a fourth grade student tutor a third grader in math

Which of the following terms best describes adult thought?

nuanced

Four invariant stages of cognitive development

1. The sensorimotor stage (birth to roughly 2 years) 2. The preoperational stage (roughly 2-7 years) 3. The concrete operations stage (roughly 7-11 years) 4. The formal operations stage (roughly 11 years and beyond)

imaginary companion

A play companion invented by a child in the preoperational stage who has developed the capacity for symbolic thought.

adolescent egocentrism

A characteristic of adolescent thought that involves difficulty differentiating between the person's own thoughts and feelings and those of other people; evident in the personal fable and imaginary audience phenomena.

scheme (or schema; plural: schemes or schemata)

A cognitive structure or organized pattern of action or thought used to deal with experiences.

imaginary audience

A form of adolescent egocentrism that involves confusing one's own thoughts with the thoughts of a hypothesized audience for behavior and concluding that others share these preoccupations.

personal fable

A form of adolescent egocentrism that involves thinking that oneself and one's thoughts and feelings are unique or special.

relativistic thinking

A form of postformal operational thought in which it is understood that there are multiple ways of viewing a problem and that the solutions people arrive at will depend on their starting assumptions and perspective.

hypothetical-deductive reasoning

A form of problem solving in which a person starts with general or abstract ideas and deduces or traces their specific implications; "if-then" thinking.

seriation

A logical operation that allows a person to mentally order a set of stimuli along a quantifiable dimension such as height or weight.

dialectical thinking

An advanced form of thought that involves detecting paradoxes and inconsistencies among ideas and trying to reconcile them.

clinical method

An unstandardized interviewing procedure used by Piaget in which a child's response to each successive question (or problem) determines what the investigator will ask next.

neuroconstructivism theory

Approach that explains the construction of new knowledge by the child in terms of changes in neural structures in response to experience.

Which of the following T-shirts would a teenager wear to support Piaget's concept of formal operational thinking?

Believe in yourself.

coordination of secondary schemes

During Piaget's sensorimotor period, the infant's combining of actions to solve problems, using one scheme as a means to an end, as in batting aside a barrier in order to grasp a toy.

tertiary circular reaction

During Piaget's sensorimotor period, the infant's experimenting with actions to find new ways to solve problems or produce interesting effects.

primary circular reaction

During Piaget's sensorimotor period, the infant's repetition of interacting acts centered on his or her own body (for example, repeatedly kicking).

secondary circular reaction

During Piaget's sensorimotor period, the infant's repetition of interesting actions on objects (for example, repeatedly shaking a rattle to make a noise).

skill

In Fischer's dynamic skill framework, a person's ability to perform a particular task in a specific context.

developmental range

In Fischer's dynamic skill framework, the concept that people's abilities vary depending on the context, from optimal levels in highly supportive contexts to lower levels in unsupportive situations.

dynamic

In Fischer's dynamic skill framework, the idea that human performance changes in response to changes in context.

adaptation

In Piaget's cognitive developmental theory, a person's inborn tendency to adjust to the demands of the environment, consisting of the complementary processes of assimilation and accommodation.

organization

In Piaget's cognitive developmental theory, a person's inborn tendency to combine and integrate available schemes into more coherent and complex systems or bodies of knowledge; as a memory strategy, a technique that involves grouping or classifying stimuli into meaningful clusters.

accommodation

In Piaget's cognitive developmental theory, the process of modifying existing schemes to incorporate or adapt to new experiences. Contrast with assimilation. In vision, a change in the shape of the eye's lens to bring objects at differing distances into focus.

transformational thought

In Piaget's theory, the ability to conceptualize transformations, or processes of change from one state to another, which appears in the stage of concrete operations. Contrast with static thought.

reversibility

In Piaget's theory, the ability to reverse or negate an action by mentally performing the opposite action.

equilibration

In Piaget's theory, the process of seeking a state of mental stability in which our thoughts (schemes) are consistent with the information we receive from the external world.

centration

In Piaget's theory, the tendency to focus on only one aspect of a problem when two or more aspects are relevant.

static thought

In Piaget's theory, the thought characteristic of the preoperational period that is fixed on end states rather than on the changes that transform one state into another. Contrast with transformational thought.

scaffolding

Jerome Bruner's term for providing structure to a less skilled learner to encourage advancement.

private speech

Nonsocial speech, or speech for the self, commonly used by preschoolers to guide their activities and believed by Vygotsky to be the forerunner of inner speech, or silent thinking in words.

perceptual salience

Phenomenon in which the most obvious features of an object or situation have disproportionate influence on the perceptions and thoughts of young children.

assimilation

Piaget's term for the process by which children interpret new experiences in terms of their existing schemata. Contrast with accommodation.

postformal thought

Proposed stages of cognitive development that lie beyond formal operations.

decentration

The ability to focus on two or more dimensions of a problem at one time.

transitivity

The ability to recognize the necessary or logical relations among elements in a serial order (for example, that if A is taller than B, and B is taller than C, then A must be taller than C).

cognition

The activity of knowing and the processes through which knowledge is acquired (for example, attending, perceiving, remembering, and thinking).

symbolic capacity

The capacity to use symbols such as words, images, or actions to represent or stand for objects and experiences; representational thought.

reaction time

The interval between the presentation of a stimulus and a response to it.

class inclusion

The logical understanding that parts or subclasses are included in the whole class and that the whole is therefore greater than any of its parts.

conservation

The recognition that certain properties of an object or substance do not change when its appearance is altered in some superficial way.

A-not-B error

The tendency of 8- to 12-month-old infants to search for a hidden object in the place they last found it (A) rather than in its new hiding place (B).

egocentrism

The tendency to view the world from the person's own perspective and fail to recognize that others may have different points of view.

object permanence

The understanding that objects continue to exist when they are no longer visible or otherwise detectable to the senses; fully mastered by the end of infancy.

decontextualize

To separate the demands of a task at hand from prior beliefs and knowledge.

zone of proximal development

Vygotsky's term for the difference between what a learner can accomplish independently and what a learner can accomplish with the guidance and encouragement of a more skilled partner.

Which of Piaget's developmental processes is analogous to trying to fit a square peg into a round hole?

assimilation

Compared to third graders talking on the school bus, eighth graders on the bus will spend more time talking about ________.

concept

Which of the following school activities would likely be difficult for Amir, a fifth grader, but not difficult for his sister Sasha, an eighth grader?

debate club

A middle-aged woman who is wondering whether or not to go back to college - and whether the financial investment will be worthwhile - will likely rely on ________ thinking to make her decision.

dialectical

Which of the following aspects of Piaget's theory is resistant to challenges from current perspectives?

directionality

Yolanda has been an accomplished painter for 25 years and teaches classes in art history at the local college. Yet on a recent cognitive test, she performed poorly on questions related to math and science. Yolanda's low cognition on these questions is likely related to which factor?

domain

Compared to Piaget's stage model, Fischer's view of cognitive development is more ________.

fluid

Jasmine wants her peach cobbler to come out perfect for the bridal shower. She watched her mother make it several times but had never done it on her own. As she goes through the recipe, Jasmine says things like, "Okay, now I cream the butter and sugar. Don't forget the vanilla." What is Jasmine demonstrating?

private speech

Static thought in a preschool-age child ignores which of the following?

process

A child who begins to understand the concept of object permanence is decreasing reliance on ________.

sensation

Which of the following is more easily performed by a second grader than a kindergartener due to cognitive developmental changes?

sharing

Some athletes who always win their events in regular competitions seem to have difficulty winning medals at the Olympics. Fischer would attribute this problem to which of the following?

situational context

Dr. Lopez finds great value in Piaget's thinking about cognitive development in her work with children. However, based on her experience, she believes that the process is much more ________ than Piaget believed.

social

Darrell is an accomplished rock climber with many awards. Yet on a TV obstacle course competition, he slipped and fell on the first climbing segment. Fischer would say that Darrell failed because ________.

the skill didn't fit the task