Deck 9: Cognitive Development in the Preschool Years

Question 1

During Piaget's preoperational stage of cognitive development, __________ thought grows as mental reasoning emerges.

A) symbolic
B) concrete
C) formal
D) organized

Answer 1

symbolic

Question 2

The primitive reasoning that preschoolers use to explore and draw conclusions about their world is known as __________.

A) egocentric thinking
B) centration
C) intuitive thinking
D) the ability to conserve

Answer 2

intuitive thinking

Question 3

Piaget's cognitive theory stresses the __________ changes that occur in each stage, whereas the information-processing approach views cognitive development as more __________.

A) quantitative; qualitative
B) qualitative; quantitative
C) social; cultural
D) cultural; social

Answer 3

qualitative; quantitative

Question 4

Mishka was able to construct a model car with the help of his dad. His dad helped him to organize the pieces of the model and then showed him how to connect the first two pieces. Soon Mishka was working more and more independently. This process is an example of Vygotsky's concept of __________.

A) apprenticeship
B) the zone of proximal development
C) private speech
D) scaffolding

Question 5

Preschool children build their vocabularies at a rapid rate that requires that after the briefest encounter they can associate a word and its meaning. This is known as __________.

A) syntax
B) fast mapping
C) grammar
D) pragmatics

Question 6

As Corey entered the large playroom at a school, he repeated over and over, "There are lots of toys here," as if reassuring himself as he encountered this new environment. Talking to himself, Corey is demonstrating __________.

A) private speech
B) social speech
C) fast mapping
D) egocentric thought

Question 7

Longitudinal research on economic standing and language development found a positive correlation between affluence and time interacting (talking) with children. This means that __________.

A) the more affluence, the less time parents talked with their children
B) the more affluence, the more time parents talked with their children
C) affluence causes greater language development
D) poverty causes inferior language development

Question 8

The key to assuring effective, positive child care is to enroll the child in a __________ program.

A) private
B) public
C) high-quality
D) family child care

Question 9

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children over the age of 2 should be exposed to less than __________ hour of high-quality programming per day.

A) 1
B) 2
C) 3
D) 4

Question 10

During the preoperational stage, children's use of __________ thinking grows, mental reasoning emerges, and the use of concepts increases.

A) concrete
B) formal
C) symbolic
D) logical

Question 11

Three-year-old Sam gets a lot of satisfaction out of scolding Gill, his pretend friend and imaginary playmate. Sam is in Piaget's __________ stage of cognitive development.

A) sensorimotor
B) preoperational
C) concrete operational
D) formal operational

Question 12

According to Piaget, a key aspect of preoperational thought is __________, the ability to use a mental symbol, a word, or an object to stand for or represent something that is not physically present.

A) transformation
B) symbolic function
C) centration
D) conservation

Question 13

__________ is at the heart of one of the major advances that occurs in the preoperational period: the increasingly sophisticated use of language.

A) Operational function
B) Symbolic function
C) Transformation
D) Egocentric thinking

Question 14

Two-year-old May Lin loves to play with her doll. She gives her doll a bottle, burps her, and changes her diaper just like her mother does for her baby brother. May Lin is quite satisfied to mother her doll and leave the care of her brother to her mother. According to Piaget, May Lin's ability to use a doll as a representation of a real baby illustrates that she is capable of __________.

A) operation
B) conservation
C) symbolic function
D) centration

Question 15

One the greatest developments of the preoperational stage is the child's growing use of __________ to represent the past, present, and future.

A) language
B) operations
C) transformation
D) egocentrism

Question 16

According to Piaget, the relation between language and thought is that language __________.

A) proceeds independently of cognitive development
B) helps to advance cognitive development
C) does nothing for cognitive development
D) grows out of cognitive advances

Question 17

Three-year-old Devin believes that when he puts on his Spiderman costume, he becomes Spiderman. One day, dressed as Spiderman, Devin leaped into the air from his dresser. This stunt landed him in the hospital with a concussion. According to Piaget, Devin is focusing on only one aspect of a problem and ignoring other key aspects of the problem; he is engaging in __________.

A) centration
B) operation
C) symbolic function
D) transformation

Question 18

Ten-year-old Stephanie knows that she can easily trick her 4-year-old brother, Aaron, into accepting fewer pieces of candy. To do so, she places the pieces of candy in two rows. The first row contains 10 pieces of candy spaced closely together and the second row contains 8 pieces of candy spaced far apart. Aaron always chooses the row that contains the 8 pieces of candy. Aaron reasons that it looks like it has more, so it must be so. He does this even though he knows that 10 is greater than 8. According to Piaget, Aaron's problem stems from __________.

A) centration
B) operation
C) symbolic function
D) egocentric thinking

Question 19

Twelve-year-old Anjali loves to tease her little brother, Neel. Her favorite trick is to pour apple juice into a short, wide-mouthed glass and then pour it into a tall, narrow glass. Neel invariably believes that Anjali has magically made more juice. Neel's problem stems from a lack of __________.

A) centration
B) conservation
C) symbolic function
D) transformation

Question 20

Most 4-year-olds respond that there is more apple juice in the tall, thin glass than there was in the short, broad one. In fact, if the juice is poured back into the shorter glass, they are quick to say that there is now less juice than there was in the taller glass. This is an example of a(n) __________ task.

A) egocentric thought
B) intuitive thought
C) conservation
D) transformation

Question 21

Research shows that children successfully solve __________ conservation tasks before they solve __________ conservation tasks.

A) weight; number
B) area; length
C) number; area
D) volume; length

Question 22

Ms. Alaniz is an art teacher. She often has children draw objects that change from one state to another. For instance, she will hold up a pencil and let it drop to the floor. The children are to draw what they saw. She finds that the kindergartners draw only two scenes, the pencil in an upright position and the pencil lying on the floor. This example illustrates that kindergartners lack an understanding of __________.

A) centration
B) conservation
C) transformation
D) symbolic function

Question 23

Thinking that does not take into account the viewpoints of others is known as __________.

A) conservation
B) transformation
C) symbolic function
D) egocentrism

Question 24

Four-year-old Sarah was excitedly telling her best friend Dori about her visit to the dentist. In the middle of the conversation, Dori piped up with, "You know what, I'm going to have face painting at my birthday party." Dori's comment is an example of __________.

A) conservation
B) transformation
C) symbolic function
D) egocentrism

Question 25

The game of hide-and-seek is difficult for preschool children. When they attempt to hide, they are often still in plain view. They reason that if they cannot see others, others cannot see them. This is an example of __________.

A) egocentric thought
B) symbolic function
C) centration
D) transformation

Question 26

By the end of the preoperational stage, preschoolers begin to understand the notion of __________, the idea that actions, events, and outcomes are related to one another in fixed patterns.

A) egocentric thought
B) intuitive thought
C) functionality
D) symbolic thought

Question 27

Six-year-old Roman is an expert bike rider. He loves to share his expertise with anyone who will listen to him. Roman's favorite line is "If you wanna go really, really, really speedy fast, you hafta push real hard on the pedals." Roman's understanding that the pedals on the bicycle in some way control the speed of the bicycle illustrates __________.

A) intuitive thought
B) symbolic function
C) identity
D) egocentric thought

Question 28

Madeline, a preschooler, has just learned how to use the buttons on the remote control to change the channels on the television. Madeline loves to give demonstrations. She says, "First, you pick up the remote and you make it look at the television and push a button. . . . See, that's how it works!" This is an example of __________.

A) egocentric thought
B) functionality
C) identity
D) conservation

Question 29

A child who figures out that turning a switch on will make the fan move is demonstrating __________.

A) egocentric thought
B) functionality
C) identity
D) conservation

Question 30

When a child understands that a lump of cookie dough contains the same amount of dough whether it is rolled into a ball or stretched out flat, the child has attained knowledge of __________.

A) identity
B) symbolic function
C) functionality
D) egocentric thought

Question 31

Developmental psychologist Rochel Gelman believes that children __________.

A) have an innate ability to count
B) learn to count during the preoperational period
C) learn to count when they attend elementary school
D) cannot tell the difference between rows of two and three toy animals until they reach age 4

Question 32

Daniel understands the difference between a row of two toy animals and a row of three toy animals, regardless of the animals' spacing. This suggests that Daniel knows how to count. Further, contrary to Piaget, Daniel knows about __________.

A) functionality
B) conservation
C) centration
D) symbolic thought

Question 33

Children are more capable at an earlier age than Piaget's account would lead us to believe. Piaget underestimated children's cognitive abilities because he __________.

A) used language that the children could readily understand
B) designed tasks that children found fun and inviting
C) tended to concentrate on children's deficiencies instead of their competencies
D) made careful observations of children's behavior

Question 34

A(n) __________, a memory of particular events from one's own life, achieves little accuracy until after 3 years of age. Accuracy then increases gradually and slowly throughout the preschool years.

A) autobiographical memory
B) script
C) false memory
D) intuitive thought

Question 35

Which of the following is an example of an autobiographical memory?

A) counting to 10
B) recognizing words
C) eating breakfast at home
D) recognizing faces

Question 36

A(n) __________ is a broad representation in memory of events and the order in which they occur.

A) script
B) autobiographical memory
C) false memory
D) intuitive thought

Question 37

Emma knows her bedtime routine. First, she brushes her teeth and washes her face. Then, her mother reads a bedtime story. Next, she hugs her brother, mother, and father. Finally, her mother tucks her into bed. Emma has developed a(n) __________ for "going to bed."

A) autobiographical memory
B) script
C) egocentric thought
D) intuitive thought

Question 38

Research in the field of forensic developmental psychology reveals that preschool children __________.

A) have accurate autobiographical memories at all times
B) do not develop scripts until age 5
C) are susceptible to the suggestions of adults asking them questions
D) do not have the ability to form autobiographical memories

Question 39

Which of the following produces the most accurate recollections?

A) general questions
B) specific questions
C) asking questions inside of a courtroom
D) asking the same question repeatedly

Question 40

The information-processing approach describes development as __________, whereas Piaget's approach describes development as __________.

A) qualitative; gradual
B) quantitative; gradual
C) quantitative; qualitative
D) qualitative; quantitative

Question 41

One of the major criticisms of the information-processing approaches to development is that the focus is on __________.

A) qualitative change instead of quantitative change
B) the detailed, individual sequence of processes instead of the whole process
C) social and cultural factors
D) vague concepts that cannot be tested

Question 42

Which of the following best describes Vygotsky's view of cognitive development?

A) Development consists of gradual improvements in the ways children perceive, understand, and remember information.
B) Development occurs in a series of stages.
C) Development is a result of social interactions in which children work with mentors to solve problems.
D) Development is not affected by social or cultural factors.

Question 43

According to Vygotsky, the support for learning and problem solving that encourages independence and growth is known as __________.

A) cultural tools
B) guided participation
C) the zone of proximal development
D) scaffolding

Question 44

As Juan Carlos attempts to make a difficult puzzle, his father provides assistance. For instance, for one of the puzzle pieces, he says "Juan Carlos, you need to turn that piece around to make it fit." This support is called __________.

A) assistance
B) structure
C) guided participation
D) scaffolding

Question 45

One of the strengths of Vygotsky's view of cognitive development is the __________.

A) focus on social and cultural factors
B) role of stages
C) precision of the key concepts
D) focus on basic cognitive process such as attention and memory

Question 46

The combining of words and phrases to form sentences is known as __________.

A) fast mapping
B) syntax
C) grammar
D) pragmatics

Question 47

The ways preschoolers combine words and phrases to form sentences, known as syntax, __________ each month.

A) remains stable
B) shows a slight increase
C) doubles
D) triples

Question 48

Preschoolers learn one new word every 2 hours. They manage this feat through a process known as __________, in which new words are associated with their meaning after only a brief encounter.

A) syntax
B) fast mapping
C) pragmatics
D) grammar

Question 49

Preschoolers are correct in their use of grammar __________ percent of the time.

A) 60
B) 70
C) 80
D) 90

Question 50

Vygotsky suggested that __________ speech is used as a guide to behavior and thought.

A) social
B) practice
C) private
D) pragmatic

Question 51

"Be careful!" Kara whispered to herself as she crossed the small footbridge. Kara was engaged in __________ speech, speech spoken and directed to herself.

A) pragmatic
B) practice
C) private
D) social

Question 52

Four-year-old Regis is learning to tie his own shoes. To help keep him on task, he talks to himself. For instance, he says, "First you make a knot. Then you make a loop." Regis's use of spoken language not intended for others is called __________.

A) private speech
B) social speech
C) egocentric speech
D) practice speech

Question 53

Private speech may be a way for children to practice the practical skills required in conversation, also known as __________.

A) syntax
B) pragmatics
C) grammar
D) fast mapping

Question 54

According to Vygotsky, private speech __________.

A) is egocentric
B) facilitates children's thinking
C) serves no useful purpose
D) helps a child learn the rules of grammar

Question 55

Through the development of pragmatic abilities, children learn conversational strategies, including __________.

A) turn-taking
B) using adjectives
C) verb tense
D) grammatical structure

Question 56

Which is an example of learning the pragmatics of language?

A) adding -ed at the end of words to form past tense
B) forming a question
C) using articles such as the and a
D) saying "please" and "thank you"

Question 57

Recent research on learning to read and write suggests that 5-year-old children show increased brain activation when they learn letters by __________.

A) typing the letters on a keyboard
B) tracing the letters over dotted outlines
C) writing the letters by hand
D) typing the letters on a tablet

Question 58

Mrs. Ketler, a preschool teacher, is teaching her students how to write the letters of the alphabet. Which of the following recommendations would you provide?

A) Teach the students to type the letters on a keyboard.
B) Provide the students with dotted outlines of the letters for tracing.
C) Provide the students with tablets and let them play educational games.
D) Allow the students to write the letters by hand.

Question 59

According to Hart and Risley's research on language development, __________.

A) the greater the affluence of the parents, the more they spoke to their children
B) parents classified as professionals spent less time interacting with their children as parents who received welfare assistance
C) by the age of 4, children in families that received welfare assistance were likely to have been exposed to some 13 million more words than those in families classified as professionals
D) the kind of language used in the home did not differ among the various types of families

Question 60

In the United States, almost __________ percent of children are enrolled in some type of child care arrangement outside of the home, which either explicitly or implicitly teaches skills that enhance intellectual and social abilities.

A) 25
B) 33
C) 50
D) 75

Question 61

A school where children are provided with a carefully designed set of materials and activities to choose from, with the option of moving from one to another, is called a __________.

A) child care center
B) day care center
C) Montessori preschool
D) Reggio Emilia preschool

Question 62

Margarita takes her son Alejandro to a neighborhood home where he is cared for while she is working. This house in which this child care arrangement takes place is known as a __________.

A) day care center
B) family child care center
C) Montessori preschool
D) Reggio Emilia preschool

Question 63

Asha takes her son Raj to a preschool center where the curriculum emphasizes the joint participation of children and teachers. She is impressed that the center builds the curriculum based on the interests of the children. This program is known as __________.

A) day care
B) family child care
C) Montessori preschool
D) Reggio Emilia preschool

Question 64

Almost half of the states in the United States fund __________, a type of child care for pre-kindergarten programs that is often aimed specifically at disadvantaged children.

A) child care
B) family child care
C) school child care
D) Montessori preschool

Question 65

One characteristic of high-quality day care is that __________.

A) the care providers serve three meals a day
B) the child-teacher ratio is 15:1 or better
C) the language environment is rich, with a great deal of conversation
D) there are strict and clear boundaries so that children learn to speak only when asked a question

Question 66

Which of the following countries has no coordinated national policy on preschool education?

A) Sweden
B) United States
C) Belgium
D) Russia

Question 67

Cultural differences in attitudes toward preschool include which of the following?

A) Parents in China tend to see preschools primarily as a way of giving children a good start academically.
B) Japanese parents view preschools primarily as a way of giving children the opportunity to be independent.
C) American parents regard preschools as babysitting services.
D) Parents in most cultures view preschools as imperative to help children learn to obey authority.

Question 68

The Head Start program, begun in the 1960s, was designed to promote future academic success and includes a focus on __________.

A) children's physical health
B) ethics and values
C) getting children into elite private schools
D) improving the parents' standard of living

Question 69

Children that attend Head Start are benefited by __________.

A) showing immediate intellectual gains
B) earning better access to college education
C) being less likely to be placed in gifted classrooms
D) being more likely to obtain professional jobs

Question 70

David Elkind's research on pushing children in the United States to progress suggests that it is in a child's interest to present education based on typical development and the unique characteristics of a given child. This educational practice is known as __________.

A) Head Start
B) traditional instruction
C) developmentally appropriate
D) early intervention

Question 71

A meta-analysis on the importance of reading to young children found that __________.

A) children with better comprehension and literacy skills read more
B) children do not benefit from a routine of reading before bedtime
C) only low-ability readers benefited from parental encouragement and exposure to print media
D) establishing a routine of reading with children delays the development of their vocabulary

Question 72

The average preschooler is exposed to more than __________ hours per day of screen time.

A) 2
B) 4
C) 6
D) 8

Question 73

Children who watch more than __________ hours per day of television and videos have a higher risk of obesity.

A) 2
B) 3
C) 4
D) 5

Question 74

On an average day, more than __________ percent of toddlers and preschoolers in the United States watch television.

A) 80
B) 85
C) 90
D) 95

Question 75

Preschool-age children who are exposed to advertising on television __________.

A) think critically about the messages
B) do not accept the advertisers' claims about their products
C) believe the messages to which they are exposed
D) evaluate the advertisements to determine whether the claims are true

Question 76

In 2016, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that children younger than __________ months be discouraged from using screen media.

A) 6
B) 9
C) 12
D) 18

Question 77

One of the most popular educational program for children in the United States is __________.

A) Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood
B) Sesame Street
C) Dora the Explorer
D) Sid the Science Kid

Question 78

Critics of Sesame Street have suggested that the quick-paced format of the show may __________.

A) encourage aggressive behaviors
B) discourage prosocial behaviors
C) make children less receptive to traditional education
D) discourage children from learning a second language

Question 79

What are the highlights of Piaget's preoperational period?

Question 80

Four-year-old Nick is shown two drinking glasses of different shapes. One is short and wide, the other tall and thin. A teacher fills both glasses with the same amount of water and asks Nick whether the glasses have the same amount of water. Nick states that the tall glass has more. Use Piaget's theory to explain why Nick responds this way.