Deck 9: Cognitive Development in Early Childhood

Question 1

Elisabeth is a preschooler who spends much of her time in sociodramatic play. She is likely to be seen as __________ by observers than peers who do not participate in sociodramatic play.

A) more cognitively competent
B) more socially competent
C) less creative
D) less verbal

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Six-year-old Demetri and 4-year-old Lucien's mother gave each boy a glass of juice with their lunch, but Demetri asked her to switch the juice to another taller and narrower glass. After she poured the liquid from the original glass into the tall glass, Lucien said angrily, "Now Demetri gets more juice than me!" Lucien is displaying a lack of

A) conservation.
B) irreversibility.
C) hierarchical classification.
D) dual representation.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Make-believe __________ as children realize that agents and recipients of pretend actions can be independent of themselves.

A) attaches to the real-life conditions associated with it
B) becomes less self-centered
C) includes less complex combinations of schemes
D) becomes more self-directed

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Children who create imaginary companions tend to

A) be maladjusted.
B) have problems maintaining friendships.
C) be more sociable with peers.
D) be only children.

Question 5

For Piaget, the most fundamental deficiency of preoperational thinking is

A) dual representation.
B) egocentrism.
C) animistic thinking.
D) centration.

Question 6

Four-year-old Maria uses shorter, simpler expressions when interacting with her 2-year-old brother. This example suggests that Piaget may have

A) overestimated preschoolers' animistic thinking.
B) overestimated preschoolers' egocentrism.
C) underestimated preschoolers' animistic thinking.
D) underestimated preschoolers' egocentrism.

Question 7

Five-year-old Matthew and 6-year-old Jessica like to pretend that they live or work in a zoo. Often, Matthew will pretend to be an animal and Jessica will pretend to be the zookeeper. This is an example of __________ play.

A) parallel
B) associative
C) sociodramatic
D) functional

Question 8

Piaget's class inclusion problem demonstrates children's limitations in

A) conservation.
B) seriation.
C) hierarchical classification.
D) irreversibility.

Question 9

Kyle pretends to drink from a toy cup. Kyle's sister, Anna, takes the same cup and tells him, "This is a hat." Kyle refuses to place the cup on his head to pretend that it is a hat. Kyle is probably

A) younger than 2 years of age.
B) at least 4 years old.
C) less than 1 year of age.
D) at least 6 years old.

Question 10

Three-year-old Rachael could not solve a conservation-of-liquid task because she focused on the height of the water. Rachael's thinking is characterized by

A) dynamic transformation.
B) irreversibility.
C) hierarchical classification.
D) centration.

Question 11

According to Piaget, young children's thinking is rigid and strongly influenced by the way things appear at the moment because they are not capable of

A) magical thinking.
B) animistic thinking.
C) operations.
D) centration.

Question 12

Piaget believed that through __________, young children practice and strengthen newly acquired representational schemes.

A) logical reasoning
B) language acquisition
C) pretending
D) physical activity

Question 13

According to Piaget, the most obvious change during the preoperational stage is the increase in

A) language ability.
B) problem-solving skills.
C) logical thought.
D) representational activity.

Question 14

Which of the following is the best method of helping children appreciate dual representation?

A) allowing children to explore and draw conclusions themselves
B) exposing children to diverse symbols, such as picture books and maps
C) encouraging children to engage in make-believe play with realistic props
D) arranging for children to spend more time with more expert peers

Question 15

Which of the following statements about follow-up research to preoperational thought is true?

A) Piaget underestimated preschoolers' animistic beliefs.
B) Young children exclusively use egocentric speech until about 3 years of age.
C) Children as young as 2 years realize that what they see sometimes differs from what another person sees.
D) Preschoolers think magic accounts for all events, even the ones they can personally explain.

Question 16

Children as young as age 2 display

A) a sophisticated understanding of role relationships and story lines.
B) awareness that make-believe is a representational activity.
C) the ability to flexibly understand that an object may take on multiple fictional identities.
D) advanced forms of sociodramatic play without adult prompting.

Question 17

One day during a rainstorm, 4-year-old Isaiah comments to his mother, "The sky is very sad today. We have to do something fun to make it happy again!" Isaiah's belief that it rains because the sky is sad is an example of

A) dual representation.
B) egocentrism.
C) animistic thinking.
D) centration.

Question 18

When shown a LEGO structure made to look like a crayon, 3-year-old Astrid said that the object "really and truly" was a crayon. Astrid is having trouble with

A) class inclusion.
B) hierarchical classification.
C) the appearance-reality distinction.
D) conservation.

Question 19

__________ is part of every logical operation.

A) Dynamic transformation
B) Irreversibility
C) Class inclusion
D) Reversibility

Question 20

Piaget believed that sensorimotor activity leads to

A) internal images of experience, which children then label with words.
B) quicker executive function, which enables children to effectively combine schemes.
C) decreased interest in solitary make-believe play.
D) a better understanding of social interactions.

Question 21

Evidence suggests that Piaget __________ preschoolers' cognitive capabilities.

A) was completely wrong about
B) vastly overestimated
C) accurately estimated
D) was partly wrong and partly right about

Question 22

Vygotsky's theory stresses the __________ of cognitive development.

A) physiology
B) neuroplasticity
C) social context
D) egocentricity

Question 23

Preschoolers seem to use illogical reasoning

A) as a coping mechanism when they greatly fear failure.
B) whenever they are presented too little information to reason logically.
C) only when they must grapple with unfamiliar topics.
D) when adults pressure them to arrive at an answer quickly.

Question 24

By the beginning of early childhood, children's categories include objects that go together because of their common function, behavior, or natural kind. These findings challenge Piaget's assumption that

A) preschoolers' thinking is wholly governed by perceptual appearances.
B) the emergence of language brings about representational ability.
C) preschoolers have difficulty distinguishing fantasy from reality.
D) transitive inference emerges during the concrete operational stage.

Question 25

By age 3½, __________ questions make up about half of children's questions.

A) object-naming
B) non-information-seeking
C) "building"
D) rhetorical

Question 26

A Piagetian classroom that emphasizes discovery learning would probably include

A) explicit verbal teaching of ready-made information.
B) a rich variety of activities designed to promote exploration and discovery.
C) introduction of new skills according to normative standards of readiness.
D) progress evaluation on the basis of average performance of same-age peers.

Question 27

Preschoolers' ability to reason about transformations is evident on

A) conservation tasks.
B) tasks that require reasoning by analogy.
C) class inclusion problems.
D) hierarchical classification tasks.

Question 28

In non-Western village cultures, young children

A) seldom engage in question asking with adults.
B) rarely ask why-questions, aimed at getting explanations.
C) receive more informative answers from adults than do Western children.
D) are discouraged from asking too many questions.

Question 29

Some neo-Piagetian theorists combine Piaget's stage approach with the __________ emphasis on task-specific changes.

A) ecological systems
B) information-processing
C) dynamic systems
D) Vygotskian

Question 30

The usefulness of children's questions depends on the

A) child's ethnicity and culture.
B) topic about which the child is inquiring.
C) informative value of adults' answers.
D) exposure they receive to different viewpoints.

Question 31

Between ages 4 and 8, children's magical beliefs decline as they

A) gain familiarity with physical events and principles.
B) understand that television characters are not real.
C) begin to ascribe supernatural causes only to events they can explain.
D) become less likely to confuse fiction with reality.

Question 32

At age 3, Elliot is able to break down __________ into __________.

A) basic-level categories; general categories
B) basic-level categories; subcategories
C) general categories; subcategories
D) subcategories; basic-level categories

Question 33

Which of the following statements about children's questions is true?

A) With age, preschoolers increasingly ask about function, activity, state, and theory of mind.
B) At every age between 1 and 5 years, non-information-seeking questions are more often used than information-seeking questions.
C) Children do not begin asking questions until they have the vocabulary to formulate sentences.
D) Inquisitive children are more often merely clamoring for attention than seeking real answers to their questions.

Question 34

Which of the following statements best describes a Piagetian classroom?

A) Children participate in peer collaboration, which allows them to teach and help one another.
B) The teacher assumes that all children reach developmental milestones at the same rate.
C) Teaching practices highlight concepts such as scaffolding and the zone of proximal development.
D) Children are encouraged to discover for themselves through spontaneous interaction with the environment.

Question 35

Which of the following children is the most likely to express disbelief in the Tooth Fairy?

A) Jacob, a Jewish boy
B) Frank, a Catholic boy
C) Lilian, a Methodist girl
D) Vanessa, a Baptist girl

Question 36

Four-year-old Matthew is given a toy robotic dog for his birthday. Matthew is most likely to

A) try to interact with the robotic dog as he would a real dog.
B) recognize that the robotic dog is not alive despite its lifelike features.
C) insist that his mother make something for the robotic dog to eat.
D) realize that the robotic dog cannot see, think, or remember like real dogs.

Question 37

In his classroom, Mr. Palinco introduces activities that build on his students' current thinking, challenging their incorrect ways of viewing the world, but he is careful not to impose new skills before the children indicate they are interested and ready. Mr. Palinco is adhering to which educational principle derived from Piaget's theory?

A) sensitivity to children's readiness to learn
B) assisted discovery
C) discovery learning
D) acceptance of individual differences

Question 38

Evidence that logical operations develop gradually and that preschoolers can be trained to perform well on Piagetian tasks pose a serious challenge to Piaget's

A) stage concept.
B) views of animistic thinking.
C) three-mountains problem.
D) concept of egocentrism.

Question 39

Follow-up research on preoperational thought indicates that preschoolers do not display the illogical characteristics that Piaget saw when the tasks are

A) first performed by more expert peers while the preschooler watches.
B) simplified and made relevant to their everyday lives.
C) performed by their parents rather than unfamiliar experimenters.
D) performed with their own toys rather than unfamiliar objects.

Question 40

As Sunni plays, she says: "Where's the cup? I want the cup. Oh, there it is. Now, I need the spoon." Sunni is engaging in what researchers now call __________ speech.

A) egocentric
B) private
C) inner
D) social

Question 41

Adults try to promote __________ when they translate their own insights in ways that are within a child's grasp.

A) transitive inference
B) intersubjectivity
C) guided participation
D) scaffolding

Question 42

While filling in a connect-the-dots page, Amir hesitated. His father asked him, "What comes after 7? Start counting from 1 and see if that helps you remember." Amir recited the numbers and remembered that 8 comes after 7. This is an example of

A) scaffolding.
B) private speech.
C) guided participation.
D) assisted discovery.

Question 43

Vygotskian classrooms are more likely to utilize __________ than Piagetian classrooms.

A) peer collaboration
B) independent discovery
C) make-believe play
D) discovery learning

Question 44

Lydia acts out her __________ of putting her baby brother to bed when she plays with her doll.

A) theory of mind
B) autobiographical memory
C) script
D) recognition memory

Question 45

Preschoolers whose parents offer suggestions, questions, and comments that help the child overcome frustration and sustain direction on a challenging task

A) are more mature when reassessed a year or two later.
B) have difficulty forming friendships in the early school years.
C) tend to be delayed in problem solving and planning activities.
D) are more socially mature than they are cognitively mature.

Question 46

One challenge to Vygotsky's theory is that

A) it places too much emphasis on how memory contributes to socially transmitted higher cognitive processes.
B) in some cultures, verbal dialogues are not the only means through which children learn.
C) it does not differ enough from Piaget's theory about the purpose of private speech.
D) studies have shown that children taught in Vygotskian classrooms are delayed in their learning.

Question 47

According to Vygotsky, which of the following is within a child's zone of proximal development?

A) a task that is too difficult for a child to accomplish alone or with the help of an adult
B) a task that a child has recently mastered independently following the assistance of an adult
C) a task that is too difficult for a child to do alone but possible with the help of others
D) a task that a child figures out how to accomplish through her own independent activity

Question 48

Young Yucatec Mayan children

A) rarely imitate adult work in their make-believe play.
B) and Western children display impressive similarities in their make-believe play.
C) decide for themselves how much to sleep and eat.
D) tend to frequently display attention-getting behaviors.

Question 49

Research shows that young children use private speech

A) because they have difficulty with perspective taking.
B) when they are engaged in cooperative dialogues.
C) when tasks are appropriately challenging.
D) when they cannot find a conversational partner.

Question 50

Even preschoolers with good language skills recall poorly because they are not skilled at using

A) memory strategies.
B) episodic memory.
C) autobiographical memory.
D) scripts.

Question 51

Scripts

A) clutter long-term memory with irrelevant information.
B) help children organize, interpret, and predict everyday experiences.
C) hinder memory for events that are highly distinctive.
D) facilitate recall of specific instances of repeated experiences.

Question 52

Which of the following is a common criticism of Vygotsky's theory?

A) It underemphasizes the role of verbal communication in early childhood development.
B) It overemphasizes the development of basic cognitive processes in early childhood.
C) It places too much emphasis on how elementary capacities spark changes in children's social experiences.
D) It says too little about how basic cognitive skills contribute to socially transmitted higher cognitive processes.

Question 53

Due to the large amounts of time children in village and tribal cultures spend in contact with adult work,

A) assumption of adult roles is met with resistance from children.
B) make-believe play is more complex and imaginative than in Western cultures.
C) adults restrict children's activities to ones that they feel the child can safely perform.
D) parents have little need to rely on conversation and play to teach children.

Question 54

Children who freely use private speech during a challenging activity __________ than their less talkative agemates.

A) are less attentive
B) show better task performance
C) are less involved in the activity
D) have more adjustment problems

Question 55

Seven-year-old Lucia learns much from cultural tools that support __________, such as following directions when playing games with her friends and when she helps her mother cook from recipes.

A) scaffolding
B) planning
C) metacognition
D) recognition

Question 56

Gains in __________ permit preschoolers to generate increasingly complex play and problem-solving goals.

A) planning ability
B) working memory
C) episodic memory
D) metacognition

Question 57

In Mr. Naffie's Vygotskian classroom, he guides children's learning with explanations, demonstrations, and verbal prompts, tailoring his interventions to each child's zone of proximal development. This is an example of the Vygotskian principle of

A) peer collaboration.
B) discovery learning.
C) independent exploration.
D) assisted discovery.

Question 58

Barbara Rogoff suggests the term __________ to encompass children's diverse opportunities to learn through involvement with others, applying it as a broader concept than __________.

A) cooperative learning; peer collaboration
B) intersubjectivity; cooperative learning
C) guided participation; scaffolding
D) scaffolding; a zone of proximal development

Question 59

After a trip to the zoo, 4-year-old Jaden is able to remember the animals he saw and the context in which he saw them. This is an example of

A) scripts.
B) recognition without recall.
C) autobiographical memory.
D) overlapping waves.

Question 60

Vygotsky regarded make-believe play as

A) a means of enhancing animistic thinking.
B) the ideal social context for fostering cognitive development.
C) instrumental to fostering independent discovery learning.
D) opportunities to practice representational schemes.

Question 61

Anneli's 4-year-old daughter manipulates sounds within words and enjoys rhyming games. Anneli's daughter is demonstrating

A) phonological awareness.
B) metacognition.
C) private speech.
D) knowledge of cardinality.

Question 62

Compared with Asian children, Western children produce narratives

A) that contain more contradictory information.
B) far less often, and usually about impersonal topics.
C) without regard for their audience's interest level.
D) with more talk about their own thoughts and emotions.

Question 63

Some researchers think that autism is due to

A) impairment in an innate, core brain function that leaves the child unable to detect others' mental states.
B) mercury commonly found in recommended childhood vaccinations.
C) mutations in the child's genetic code, usually inherited through the father's genes.
D) a diet during the prenatal period and the first year that was lacking in essential vitamins and proteins.

Question 64

Overlapping-waves theory emphasizes that

A) children should be discouraged from experimenting with less mature strategies.
B) children will gradually select their strategies on the basis of two criteria: accuracy and ease.
C) trying many strategies is vital for developing new, more effective solution techniques.
D) in early childhood, children's brains are poorly organized for problem-solving tasks.

Question 65

Greta has just been shown two boxes-a plain, unmarked box full of raisins and a familiar marked raisin box that is empty. Next, Greta is asked to predict where another child will look for raisins. This task assesses Greta's understanding of

A) class inclusion.
B) conservation.
C) irreversibility.
D) false belief.

Question 66

Theory of mind research indicates that by age 2, children realize that

A) both beliefs and desires determine behavior.
B) thinking takes place inside their heads.
C) people can hold false beliefs.
D) others' wants and needs can differ from their own.

Question 67

Compared with typically developing children, children with autism

A) more often engage in social referencing.
B) are better at distinguishing facial expressions.
C) more often imitate an adult's novel behaviors.
D) rarely use mental-state words such as think, feel, and know.

Question 68

Children with autism

A) only use words to exchange ideas.
B) have narrow and overly intense interests.
C) engage in more make-believe play than typically developing children.
D) show extremely rapid synaptic pruning.

Question 69

According to __________ theory, when given challenging problems, children try out various strategies and observe which work best, which work less well, and which are ineffective.

A) overlapping-waves
B) metacognitive
C) false-belief
D) mindblindness

Question 70

Three-year-old Stacy pretends to make a grocery list while in the car on the way to the grocery store. This activity reflects Stacy's

A) emergent literacy.
B) animistic thinking.
C) private speech.
D) phonological awareness.

Question 71

Mastery of false belief is associated with early __________ ability.

A) reading
B) mathematical
C) writing
D) speaking

Question 72

Which of the following statements about children's emergent literacy is true?

A) Many preschoolers think that each letter in a person's signature represents a separate name.
B) Most preschoolers realize that a single letter does not stand for a whole word.
C) As early as the preschool years, children are able to distinguish between drawing and writing.
D) Emergent literacy is something that must be explicitly taught to preschool-age children.

Question 73

Which of the following changes occurs in children's autobiographical memories with age?

A) Older children begin to use more generic, nondescript reports.
B) With age, preschoolers increasingly include subjective information.
C) Older children are able to remain objective when recounting the details of an event.
D) Younger children are more likely to explain an event's personal significance.

Question 74

__________, in which adults discuss storybook content with preschoolers, promotes many aspects of language and literacy development.

A) Literary discourse
B) Joint reading
C) Interactive reading
D) Immersive reading

Question 75

After a trip to the supermarket, Raj asks his daughter, "Do you remember the supermarket? What did we do at the supermarket? What food did we buy at the supermarket?" Raj is using a(n) __________ style to elicit his daughter's autobiographical memory.

A) deliberate
B) repetitive
C) reconstructive
D) elaborative

Question 76

Eighteen-month-old Jazmin is offered sets of animal crackers. Each set contains 1, 2, or 4 crackers. Jazmin consistently picks the set with the most pieces, displaying a beginning grasp of

A) cardinality.
B) estimation.
C) ordinality.
D) functionality.

Question 77

Chen, a preschooler, is most likely to view the mind as a(n)

A) active machine.
B) constructive agent that interprets information.
C) passive container of information.
D) constantly spinning wheel.

Question 78

Four-year-old Jack is a snack helper. He counts five children at his table and then retrieves five milk cartons. Jack is displaying an understanding of

A) ordinality.
B) functionality.
C) estimation.
D) cardinality.

Question 79

After a field trip to the museum, Leslie asks her son, "What was the first thing we did? Why weren't the trains moving? I thought that the pink airplane was really big. What did you think?" Leslie is using a(n) __________ style to elicit her son's autobiographical memory.

A) deliberative
B) repetitive
C) reconstructive
D) elaborative

Question 80

Because low-SES children are read to for an average of just 25 hours over the preschool years,

A) their social skills do not develop at the same pace as their middle- and high-SES counterparts.
B) most low-SES children enter kindergarten with little idea of what reading and writing is.
C) parents report higher stress levels when helping their children with homework during the school years.
D) they are behind in emergent literacy skills and in reading achievement throughout the school years.