Deck 7: Cognition

Question 1

Which statement best describes Piaget's theory on intelligence?

A)Intelligence develops as the result of the interactions of classical and operant conditioning.
B)Intelligence develops as the result of interactions between biologically based individuals and an environment.
C)Intelligence is solely the product of the interaction of genetic predispositions with biological maturation.
D)Intelligence is solely the product of sociocultural experiences.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Which infant behavior best demonstrates object permanence?

A)Reaching for a toy you were enjoying after it has been put in a toy box
B)Repeatedly swiping at a mobile hanging over your crib
C)Crying when someone grabs a toy out of your hand
D)Trying to grab a toy that you can see,but is just out of reach

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Eighteen-month-old Miguel is visiting a theme park for the first time.At the park,he sees some zebras,an animal with which he is unfamiliar.Despite this,he looks at the animals and shouts,"Look at the horses!" He had previously formed a mental schema for horses.Piaget would say that Miguel's reaction best demonstrates the concept of

A)accommodation.
B)reversibility.
C)assimilation.
D)formal thought.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Jerry likes to play with his stuffed animals,dragging them around the house by their arms,ears,or tails.Jerry tries to do this with Tiger the cat one day,but he hisses and runs off,leaving Jerry perplexed and crying.Jerry's original attempt to play with the cat best illustrates the concept of

A)accommodation.
B)assimilation.
C)disequilibrium.
D)fixation

Question 5

According to Piaget,when our internal thoughts are consistent with the evidence we are receiving from the world,we are experiencing

A)plasticity.
B)equilibrium.
C)cognitive dissonance.
D)fixation.

Question 6

Assimilation is best defined as the process in which

A)a conditioned stimulus becomes an unconditioned stimulus.
B)multiple schemas are combined into single schemata.
C)we interpret new experiences in terms of existing schemas.
D)the unconscious mind impacts the conscious mind.

Question 7

The key characteristic of a primary circular reaction is that they are

A)repeated actions related to one's own body that originally happened by chance.
B)a one-time event related to one's own body that originally happened by chance.
C)repeated actions related to one's own body that originally happened by choice.
D)a one-time event related to one's own body that originally happened by choice.

Question 8

A _____ circular reaction is a repetitive action that involves something in an infant's external environment.

A)transitory
B)primary
C)secondary
D)tertiary

Question 9

Which of the following is an example of a symbolic schema?

A)Counting the number of holes on a belt
B)Pointing a finger and saying "Bang!"
C)Sucking on the nipple of a bottle of milk
D)Grasping an adult's finger

Question 10

Which of the following is an example of a behavioral schema?

A)Using a block to represent a car
B)Asking about grandma even when she's not present
C)Grasping a block or a bottle of milk
D)Calling the dog by the cat's name

Question 11

Which of the following is an example of the A not B error?

A)inability to realize that a bowl of ice cream has the same amount when the ice cream has melted
B)tendency to search for an object in a place where it was last found rather than in a new hiding place
C)failing to convert a formal operations schema into an dialectical hypothesis
D)engaging in private dialogue on a task rather than getting help from a more skilled person

Question 12

Mabel always thought of herself as being incapable when it came to fixing things.She easily developed the habit of asking her husband to do even the simplest "fix-it" tasks,such as changing a light bulb.Then one day Mabel got a flat tire on a country road,and managed to change the tire on her own.From then on she felt much more capable,and started to fix more things around the house.This best illustrates

A)accommodation.
B)assimilation.
C)disequilibrium.
D)fixation.

Question 13

Which of the following is the best example of assimilation?

A)Naming your dog Barney after the famous purple Barney on TV,even though you know that's not your dog's name.
B)Changing the name of your dog after finding out that a classmate has a dog with the same name
C)Pretending that your dog is a horse
D)Naming the first dog you meet,"Spot," and then calling all other dogs that you meet "Spot"

Question 14

Piaget refers to the process of combining existing schemas into new and more complex ones as

A)centration.
B)transitivity.
C)guided participation.
D)organization.

Question 15

Accommodation is best defined as

A)the process of modifying existing schema to better fit a new schema.
B)knowing an object continues to exist even after it has left your sensory range.
C)thinking that everyone else possesses the same experiences as you.
D)using scientific logic to solve all problems.

Question 16

Once while she was about to take a nap,baby Carolyn accidentally sucked on her blanket.Now she repeatedly sucks on the blanket when she's going to sleep.This new behavior is an example of

A)coordination of secondary schemes.
B)a primary circular reaction.
C)a secondary circular reaction.
D)a tertiary circular reaction.

Question 17

Kevin is enjoying a fine lunch in his high chair.He picks up a handful of spaghetti and stuffs it in his mouth.Next,he picks up two handfuls and shoves them in his ears.The next handful goes in his hair,and the one after that is casually thrown on the floor.As his motivation appears to be simply the novelty of each of these acts,Kevin's behavior would best be categorized as a

A)secondary circular reaction.
B)primary circular reaction.
C)tertiary circular reaction.
D)beginning of thought.

Question 18

Adam has a schema for saying,"Hi." He has a second schema for holding out his hand.He has another schema for making eye contact.With time,Adam is able to combine the simple schemas into a complex structure of a greeting (i.e. ,simultaneously making eye contact,saying "Hi," and holding out his hand to be shaken).According to Piaget,Adam is demonstrating

A)organization.
B)hypothetical-deductive reasoning.
C)reversibility.
D)class inclusion.

Question 19

Which of the following is the best description of a schema?

A)An organized way of thinking or acting that allows us to interpret our experiences
B)A standard way of solving a problem in the fewest possible steps
C)Changing our experiences in order to adapt to our environment
D)Interpreting new experiences by using previously stored information

Question 20

Five-year-old Rajon is playing with his baby sister,Andrea.He takes Andrea's teddy bear and hides it behind a pillow while she watches.Andrea quickly finds the bear.Then Rajon puts teddy in a bag,dumps teddy behind a chair,and then brings out the empty bag.Andrea looks inside the bag,is surprised when it's not there but doesn't look for teddy behind the chair.According to Piaget,Andrea

A)lacks object permanence.
B)is playing to an imaginary audience.
C)is committing the A not B error.
D)is a formal operational thinker.

Question 21

Four-year-old Sanjay has invented an imaginary companion,an invisible octopus named Squiggles.How would a proponent of Piaget's theories most likely react to Sanjay's behavior?

A)He might suspect that Sanjay is cognitively and socially advanced.
B)He would see it as a sign of possible mental illness.
C)He would suggest that Sanjay cannot decenter from an object.
D)He would state that it is impossible for a pre-school child to create imaginary companions.

Question 22

A preoperational thinker is most likely to exhibit _____ thought.

A)decentration
B)reversible
C)static
D)transformational

Question 23

Jack is taking a class on Piaget,and as part of an assignment,he is "testing" some youngsters on various tasks.He gives four-year-old Meg a bag of white and striped marbles.They discuss the fact that marbles are made of glass.Meg counts the marbles-7 whites and 18 stripes.Jack asks,"Are there more striped marbles or more glass marbles?" Meg answers,"There are more striped marbles." This demonstrates Meg's difficulty with

A)class inclusion.
B)conservation.
C)identity.
D)transformations.

Question 24

Oscar,a college student,is checking seven-year-old Gracie to see what cognitive skills she has.He asks her to do some basic conservation tasks.Gracie has correctly responded that there is still the same amount of clay,whether it is in a round ball or rolled out into a tube shape.When Oscar asks why,Gracie demonstrates how the tube-shaped piece of clay can be rolled back into a ball.This shows that she has a good grasp of

A)assimilation.
B)transformational thought.
C)equilibrium.
D)primary circular reactions.

Question 25

Four-year-old Kaya is given a puppet and told to teach it all of the names that she can think of for certain animals and food items.At one point,she is asked the following questions about a lion: "Is it an animal?" and "Is it a type of cat?" Her correct response of "yes" to both questions indicates that Kaya understands

A)object permanence.
B)seriation.
C)hypothetical-deductive reasoning.
D)classification hierarchies.

Question 26

Focusing on the most obvious features of an object or situation is referred to as

A)perceptual salience.
B)symbolic capacity.
C)schema coordination.
D)class inclusion.

Question 27

While watching a pizza being cut into 10 pieces,eight-year-old Rogerio suddenly realizes that the 10 pieces of pizza are actually the same amount as the original one pizza.This realization best reflects the process of

A)reversibility.
B)A not B error.
C)seriation.
D)static thought.

Question 28

Amber can quickly and accurately arrange crayons from lightest to darkest.This demonstrates a capacity for

A)animism.
B)centration.
C)seriation.
D)transitional thinking.

Question 29

Seriation involves

A)the realization that properties of objects do not change even though appearance might be altered.
B)understanding that subclasses are included in the whole class.
C)understanding the difference between big and small.
D)mentally arranging elements along a quantifiable scale.

Question 30

The "crowning achievement" of the sensorimotor stage is the ability to

A)display secondary circular reactions.
B)deal with a purely abstract task.
C)conserve.
D)construct mental symbols to guide behavior.

Question 31

Imaginary companions are most likely to first develop during the _____ stage of development.

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

Question 32

Jenny watches her mom pull two cookies out of the pantry.Her mom places one whole cookie on a plate and then breaks up the other into three pieces and places it on another plate.Asked to choose between the two cookies of equal size,one whole,and one broken,Jenny takes the broken cookie,saying that three cookies are better than one.Piaget would say that Jenny lacks

A)centration.
B)object permanence.
C)seriation.
D)conservation.

Question 33

When her mommy is sick in bed,Jenna brings her a pacifier and a rattle,thinking these will help mommy feel better since they always make Jenna feel better.Jenna's behavior best demonstrates

A)centration
B)egocentrism.
C)animism.
D)formal thought.

Question 34

For the first time in his young life,Glenn is able to look at photos of aquatic animals and classify them as mammals or fish.He is also able to order them from smallest to largest.These skills indicate that Glenn has likely just entered the _____ stage of cognitive development.

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

Question 35

Piaget contended that in infancy,

A)reaching was a developmental precursor of looking.
B)reaching and looking represented the same activity.
C)looking was a developmental precursor of reaching.
D)reaching and looking were unrelated behaviors.

Question 36

While observing her mother bake cookies,Juanita ignores the process by which eggs,flour,and sugar are combined and baked,but focuses on the end product of a cookie.Juanita's thought best exemplifies

A)conservation.
B)class inclusion.
C)reversibility.
D)static thought.

Question 37

Which of the following demonstrates that a child has developed symbolic capacity?

A)a child who uses a cooking pan as a hat
B)a child who has names for favorite stuffed animals
C)a child who is comforted by thumb-sucking
D)a child who waves hello and goodbye

Question 38

Billy always walks to kindergarten.His mom always picks him up at school after kindergarten on her way home from work.One day,mom asks Billy to walk home from kindergarten by himself.Billy insists he does not know how to walk home from kindergarten-he only knows how to walk to kindergarten.Which cognitive operation does Billy apparently lack?

A)Centration
B)Equilibration
C)Reversibility
D)Transformation

Question 39

Piaget's concept of "decentration" refers to the inability to

A)focus on more than one dimension of a problem at one time.
B)mentally reverse simple operations.
C)understand that the amount of something remains the same regardless of a change in shape or position.
D)take another person's point of view.

Question 40

Oksana is excited when she receives a telephone call from her granny on her birthday.When granny asks how old she is,Oksana holds up three fingers in front of the phone.Oksana's belief that because she can see her fingers,so can granny,reflects Piaget's concept of

A)centration.
B)egocentrism.
C)animism.
D)formal thought.

Question 41

Which famous statement best illustrates the concept of relativistic thinking?

A)Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
B)Truth is absolute.
C)What goes up must come down.
D)All men are created equal.

Question 42

Kameko has just gotten her hair trimmed,and even though it doesn't look very different than before,she is sure everyone in homeroom will notice a big change and be focusing on her hair all day.This is an example of

A)imaginary audience.
B)personal fable.
C)hypothetical-deductive reasoning.
D)relativistic thinking.

Question 43

One key difference between formal operational thought and concrete operational thought is that formal operational thinkers

A)show more centration.
B)can apply thoughts to real objects.
C)can solve conservation tasks.
D)can think about hypotheticals.

Question 44

Which statement best exemplifies the premise of an imaginary audience?

A)Live hard and die young.
B)Why ask why.
C)Why is everyone looking at me?
D)You don't know me,no one knows me.

Question 45

Jorge doesn't understand why his psychology instructor doesn't just tell the class the correct answer.When asked,his instructor says that there is no single correct answer;it depends on each individual's interpretation.Jorge's difficulty in accepting his professor's answer would indicate that Jorge lacks _____ thinking.

A)class inclusion
B)systematic
C)relativistic
D)concrete

Question 46

Formal operational thinking differs from Piaget's other stages in that a formal thinker gains the ability to

A)think systematically about abstract concepts.
B)mentally manipulate objects that they can see.
C)understand the symbols used in language.
D)form mental schemas.

Question 47

A researcher asked students of different ages,"What would the world be like if there was no gravity?" According to Piaget's theory,which one of the following answers would most likely be heard from an adolescent in the formal operational stage?

A)There is gravity,so this is a useless exercise.
B)Things would fall.
C)We would have to redesign classrooms with desks on the ceiling.
D)I wouldn't like it if there was no gravity.

Question 48

The key to a personal fable is the belief that you

A)are being watched by an imaginary audience.
B)have an "invisible" friend.
C)cannot deal with abstract concepts like philosophy or theology.
D)are different from everyone else.

Question 49

Concerning mental actions,concrete operations are to formal operations as

A)objects are to ideas.
B)knowing is to doing.
C)imagined is to real.
D)centration is to decentration.

Question 50

Which of Gibson's statements indicates that he is engaging in hypothetical-deductive reasoning?

A)"I can still hear the sound of that guitar after the string has been strummed."
B)"A guitar is just a larger version of a mandolin."
C)"I bet that my guitar looks exactly like the one you have."
D)"If string length matters,then a short string should make a different sound than a long string."

Question 51

By late adolescence,most individuals

A)replace intuitive reasoning with scientific reasoning.
B)replace scientific reasoning with intuitive reasoning.
C)abandon both scientific reasoning and intuitive reasoning strategies.
D)utilize both scientific reasoning and intuitive reasoning strategies.

Question 52

Paris spends the last week of summer vacation at the mall,looking for just the right outfit for the first day of 10th grade.Finally,she finds something she likes,and feels sure that everyone will notice her smashing outfit! This is an example of adolescent

A)class inclusion.
B)reversibility.
C)egocentrism.
D)transitivity.

Question 53

"Pete is older than Jill,and Jill is older than Pat.Who is older,Pete or Pat?" The ability to solve problems such as this demonstrates competence in

A)decentration.
B)identity.
C)centration.
D)transitivity.

Question 54

_____ thinking is best defined as detecting paradoxes and inconsistencies among ideas and attempting to reconcile them.

A)Absolutist
B)Static
C)Preoperational
D)Dialectical

Question 55

Whose statement indicates that they are engaging in dialectic thinking?

A)Earl,who says,"I love the fact that ice is cold."
B)Soraya,who says,"I don't yet understand how light can be both a wave and an individual element,but I will!"
C)Paolo,who says,"Drop a bowling ball and it will fall;can the world get any more consistent?"
D)Fatima,who says,"The moon looks massive tonight."

Question 56

People are most likely to regularly use formal operational thinking

A)in making relationship decisions.
B)in areas where they have some expertise.
C)in high school and college courses but not on nonacademic tasks.
D)on novel and complex tasks.

Question 57

During which stage of development would a person first be able to understand that her dad is a parent,an uncle,and someone's son (i.e. ,understand class inclusion)?

A)Formal operations
B)Sensorimotor
C)Concrete operations
D)Preoperational

Question 58

Which cognitive skill would a formal operations thinker possess that a concrete operational thinker would lack?

A)Hypothetical-deductive reasoning
B)Seriation
C)Transformational thought
D)Class inclusion

Question 59

Patrick was born and raised in the midwestern United States.He's always been told that seafood tastes terrible so he has avoided it.One day while visiting the East Coast,he goes into a restaurant that features lobster.Patrick tells himself,"That lobster smells good and many people eat seafood,so they can't be terrible to eat.I think I'll order one." Patrick's decision to eat the seafood would best be explained by Piaget's concept of

A)reversibility
B)decontextualization
C)animism
D)personal fable

Question 60

Elkind suggested that adolescent egocentrism is due to increased

A)self-consciousness.
B)self-esteem.
C)self-efficacy.
D)self-confidence.

Question 61

Four-year-old Jackie often mutters to herself as she builds things with her blocks.Her utterances (e.g. ,"the blue one goes first")seem to be a running dialogue of her actions that are guiding her behavior.Vygotsky referred to this activity as _____ speech.

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

Question 62

When Vygotsky referred to the concept of scaffolding,he was speaking about

A)guided assistance that a skilled individual provides to a less skilled individual.
B)the "intellectual ladder of success" that children are innately driven to climb.
C)the importance of allowing children to "learn on their own" without adult interference.
D)the structures of the mind that hold together lower levels of thought and higher levels of thought.

Question 63

What is the likely reason the group of nursing home residents performed so poorly on a set of Piaget's cognitive tasks?

A)lack of motivation to solve tasks that are rarely encountered in real life
B)over emphasis on IQ testing common to cognitive testing tasks
C)slower reaction times commonly found in older study participants
D)the fact that normal hearing is required to solve Piaget's tasks

Question 64

Which is a common challenge to Piaget's theory?

A)It failed to distinguish between competence and performance.
B)It overestimated young minds.
C)It placed too much emphasis on explaining development rather than describing development.
D)It overemphasized the role of social influence on cognitive development.

Question 65

When adults travel to a foreign country,which of Piaget's processes do they employ to make sense of their new experiences? 

A)dialectics
B)scaffolding
C)assimilation
D)decentration

Question 66

Learning through active involvement in culturally relevant activities with the aid of knowledgeable individuals is referred to as

A)the personal fable.
B)guided participation.
C)transformational thought.
D)class inclusion.

Question 67

Which of the following can be considered the best contribution of Piaget?

A)highlighting the way culture impacts child thinking
B)opening the door to exploration of child development
C)discrediting the biological view of cognitive functions
D)explaining how cognition develops in young children

Question 68

Observing a class of kindergarten students,Piaget would say that ________.

A)students from communal cultures will use more collaborative approaches
B)students will approach tasks and problems differently based on domains
C)all of the students will approach all tasks and problems the same way
D)students with greater competence will guide students who are less capable

Question 69

Which is a legitimate criticism of Vygotsky's theory?

A)There is no evidence that private speech helps children solve problems.
B)He placed too much emphasis on the influence of social interactions.
C)His stages of psychosocial development have received little empirical support.
D)A model that focuses only on postformal thinking in adulthood is too limited to be considered a major developmental theory.

Question 70

Which of the following is an example of Vygotsky's zone of proximal development?

A)Figuring out the answer to your math homework after your sister gives you a hint
B)Getting a better grade on the math test than you usually get
C)Using trial and error to eliminate incorrect answers to a problem
D)Thinking about a purely abstract problem like how many digits there are in infinity

Question 71

Piaget believed that babies and children are less cognitively competent than we understand them to be today.What caused this error in Piaget's perspective?

A)small sample size
B)lack of variable control
C)inadequate testing
D)cultural biases

Question 72

Which of the following statements is true regarding cognitive capacities during
Later adulthood?

A)Older adults do not perform as well as younger adults on formal operational tasks.
B)Older adults perform better than younger adults on novel tasks.
C)Older adults perform better on laboratory tasks than on applied,everyday tasks.
D)Older adults perform just as well as younger adults on concrete-operational and formal operational tasks.

Question 73

Ellen is giving a presentation to her psychology class on the contributions and limitations of Jean Piaget's work in the field of human development.She says that although his theories are inaccurate on the ________ of cognitive development,his ideas about the ________ of cognitive development still hold true today.

A)sequence;interactivity
B)self-motivation;genetics 
C)direction;self-motivation
D)process;direction

Question 74

Which item would NOT typically be on a list of the characteristics of postformal thought?

A)Understanding that knowledge is relative
B)Accepting that the world is full of contradictions
C)Rejecting input from others as it will taint the truth
D)Integrating contradictions in some larger understanding

Question 75

Fischer adopted Vygotsky's idea of _____ to explain how cognitive development progresses.

A)private speech
B)zone of proximal development
C)egocentrism
D)postformal thought

Question 76

Gustav was born and raised in a small fishing village in Sweden.Vygotsky would argue that this experience will

A)impact both how he thinks and what he thinks about.
B)impact how he thinks but not what he thinks about.
C)impact what he thinks about but not how he thinks.
D)have no impact on this cognitive development.

Question 77

How would Piaget describe the role of adults in the cognitive development of young children? 

A)integrated but ineffectual
B)separate but integral
C)separate and ineffectual
D)integrated and influential

Question 78

It is the 1920s and you are attending a conference in which Jean Piaget is presenting his early theories on cognitive development to the scientific community.The attendees are stunned when he postulates that ________.

A)infant reaction time indicates a biological element to learning
B)infants are empty vessels waiting to be filled with knowledge
C)children have markedly different thought processes than adults
D)cognition is partly dependent on the culture a child is raised in

Question 79

Josif never had any formal training in breeding animals,but had always actively helped his father in the family's business of breeding sheep.Consequently,Josif is now quite skilled at this practice.Vygotsky would refer to this skill acquisition as being the result of

A)a personal fable.
B)imaginary companions.
C)guided participation.
D)transformational thought.

Question 80

According to Fischer,_____ change and develop.

A)cognitions
B)thought processes
C)representations
D)skills