Deck 9: Early Childhood: Cognitive Development

Question 1

Engaging in elaborate pretend play is associated with

A) behavioral problems.
B) loneliness.
C) increased creativity and ability to relate to peers.
D) being a second- or later-born child.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

A child who cannot take someone else's perspective would be characterized as

A) formal operational.
B) concrete operational.
C) immature for their age.
D) egocentric.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

One of the most important symbolic activities in young children is

A) developing gross motor skills.
B) creating friendships with peers.
C) use of language.
D) forming a self-concept.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

If you ask a child the question,"Why does the moon rise?" and he responds,"Because I want it to," this child is probably

A) age 2 or younger.
B) approximately age 3 or older.
C) unusually creative.
D) unable to understand reversibility.

Question 5

Your 3-year-old daughter,Amelie,has an imaginary friend named Brady.What can be concluded about Amelie?

A) She is lonely
B) She is a later-born child
C) She is not unusual,as up to 65% of preschoolers have imaginary friends
D) She has trouble making friends

Question 6

What test did Piaget use to show that egocentrism prevents young children from taking the perspectives of others?

A) The three mountains test
B) The five mountains test
C) Conservation tasks
D) The checkerboard test

Question 7

In transductive reasoning,a child assumes that

A) separate events have cause-effect relationships.
B) others see the world in the same way the child does.
C) when objects disappear,they no longer exist.
D) environmental features,like rain and thunder,are made by people.

Question 8

When asked what the doll sees in Piaget's three-mountain test,what answer do preoperational children typically give?

A) The doll sees the cross on the summit,but not the house on the mountain
B) The doll sees what the child sees
C) The doll sees the house on the mountain,but not the cross on the summit
D) The doll sees the opposite of what the child sees

Question 9

Operations are

A) schemes.
B) mental acts.
C) transformations.
D) All of these

Question 10

A classic experiment using the three mountains task with 5- and 6-year-old children shows that they

A) can take the perspective of the doll.
B) cannot take the perspective of the doll.
C) take the perspective of the experimenter.
D) 5- and 6-year-old children do not complete the three mountain task,as they are too young to comprehend it.

Question 11

Children with imaginary companions

A) are more aggressive than those without such companions.
B) are less cooperative than those without such companions.
C) have fewer "real" friends than those without such companions.
D) show greater ability to concentrate and more advanced language development.

Question 12

If you ask a child the question,"Why does the sun rise?" and she responds,"So I can see to go outside and play," this child

A) is most likely in the sensorimotor stage.
B) is demonstrating precausal thinking.
C) is demonstrating conservation.
D) All of these

Question 13

Mental acts in which objects are changed or transformed and then can be returned to their original states are called

A) operations.
B) mental flexibility acts.
C) precausal thinking.
D) transductive reasoning.

Question 14

When does pretend play usually appear?

A) By approximately 6 months of age
B) By around 9 months of age
C) About 12 to 13 months of age
D) At 36 months of age

Question 15

Being able to pretend involves

A) manipulation of symbols.
B) cognitive sophistication.
C) preoperational thought.
D) All of these

Question 16

When 3-year-old Caitlin is asked what she did at preschool that day,she says "You know.You were there." This type of one-dimensional thinking is called

A) transductive reasoning.
B) egocentrism.
C) artificialism.
D) cognitive flexibility.

Question 17

The ability to play the game of checkers requires

A) hypothetical thinking.
B) animism.
C) flexibility and reversibility.
D) egocentrism.

Question 18

The ability to engage in pretend play is dependent upon

A) the creativity level of the child.
B) the IQ level of the child.
C) a lack of egocentrism.
D) use and recollection of symbols.

Question 19

According to Piaget,the preoperational stage of cognitive development lasts from about

A) age 0-2.
B) age 2-7.
C) age 4-6.
D) age 7 until adulthood.

Question 20

Violent pretend play is associated with

A) lower levels of empathy and increased antisocial behavior later on.
B) high levels of creativity.
C) having an imaginary playmate.
D) poor language skills.

Question 21

"The sky is raining because it is sad" is an example of

A) egocentrism.
B) artificialism.
C) animism.
D) conservation.

Question 22

Children who lack conservation skills would assume that a sandwich cut in half would result in

A) more sandwich.
B) less sandwich.
C) the same amount of sandwich.
D) They would not have an answer and would change the subject

Question 23

Which of the following represents the concept of class inclusion?

A) Understanding that "animal" includes subclasses such as "dogs" and "cats"
B) Being able to engage in addition and subtraction
C) Being able to recite the multiplication tables
D) Being able to place objects in order according to some characteristic

Question 24

Four-year-old Jenna is looking at a drawing of her family tree.Her father tells her she has three aunts and two grandmothers.Her father then asks her if she has more grandmothers or more relatives.What will she say?

A) More grandmothers
B) More aunts
C) More relatives
D) She will not understand the question

Question 25

To most 4-year-olds,dreams are like

A) games.
B) make believe.
C) books.
D) movies or TV.

Question 26

Recent research evaluating Piaget's theory suggests that

A) children can take the perspective of others at an earlier age than Piaget believed.
B) children cannot take the perspective of others until approximately age 7.
C) Piaget's age ranges were very much on target.
D) practice can influence when children can take the perspective of others.

Question 27

Understanding class inclusion requires an understanding of

A) reversibility.
B) conservation.
C) decentration.
D) All of these

Question 28

The typical 4-year-old believes

A) that dreams are real.
B) that words are symbolic.
C) that people view the world differently.
D) None of these

Question 29

Conservation requires an understanding that

A) properties of objects remain the same,even if you change their shape or arrangement.
B) dreams are real.
C) one's perspective is the same as other people's.
D) environmental features,such as mountains and thunder,have been designed and created by people.

Question 30

Caleb is 4 years old.He is likely to believe

A) that others have different likes and dislikes.
B) that others can "see" his dreams.
C) that dreams are just imagination.
D) that other people do not think the same way he does.

Question 31

While playing outside in the snow,a snowflake falls on Timothy's nose and melts.He exclaims,"The snowflake kissed me!" This is an example of

A) artificialism.
B) animism.
C) egocentrism.
D) preoperations.

Question 32

A preoperational child would assume

A) that tall glasses hold more liquid than short glasses.
B) that objects that are out of sight have ceased to exist.
C) that subtraction is easier than addition.
D) All of these

Question 33

Believing that the sun is a yellow circle that a person painted on the sky is an example of

A) artificialism.
B) animism.
C) egocentrism.
D) preoperations.

Question 34

Three-year-old Molly is watching her mailbox.She tells her mother that the mail carrier will soon come because it is now daytime.This type of thinking is called

A) egocentrism.
B) transductive reasoning.
C) artificialism.
D) formal operational thought.

Question 35

Why might class inclusion tasks be difficult for the preoperational child?

A) Because these tasks require the ability of seriation
B) Because these tasks require the child to focus on multiple dimensions simultaneously
C) They are not difficult for the preoperational child
D) Because the preoperational child's thinking is too linear

Question 36

Five-year-old Nathan pours juice from a tall glass into a shorter one.He then gives the short glass to Vince.Three-year-old Vince is upset because he now believes he has less juice than when it was in the tall glass.This aspect of preoperational thought is called

A) egocentrism.
B) precausal thinking.
C) transductive reasoning.
D) irreversibility.

Question 37

Pouring water from a short wide glass into a tall thin glass is a test used to assess children's

A) intelligence.
B) empathy.
C) conservation.
D) fine motor skills.

Question 38

Conservation requires

A) the ability to reverse one's thinking.
B) the ability to focus on two or more aspects of a situation at once.
C) concrete operational thinking.
D) All of these

Question 39

Preoperational children fail to show conservation skills because of a characteristic known as

A) egocentrism.
B) precausal thinking.
C) transductive reasoning.
D) irreversibility.

Question 40

What is centration?

A) Reversibility in thinking
B) Focusing only on one aspect of a problem
C) Loss of egocentrism
D) It is the same as conservation

Question 41

Which of the following is associated with higher IQ scores by age 3?

A) Emotionally responsive parenting
B) Verbally responsive parenting
C) A variety of daily experiences for young children
D) All of these

Question 42

Donaldson (1979)indicated that children's difficulty with the three-mountain task may be due more to _______ than to _________.

A) the demands of the task; egocentrism
B) egocentrism; the demands of the task
C) irreversibility; egocentrism
D) being in a laboratory environment; egocentrism

Question 43

Scaffolding is a term associated with

A) Piaget's concept of conservation.
B) Freud's concept of intrapsychic conflict.
C) Vygotsky's zone of proximal development.
D) Erikson's concept of psychosocial development.

Question 44

Which of the following is TRUE?

A) Lack of centration enables one to have the ability of conservation
B) Centration causes one to have the ability of conservation
C) Centration and conservation are unrelated
D) Conservation causes centration

Question 45

What does a good scaffolding strategy do?

A) Provides the answers to the child
B) Provides more help than the child needs to show that you care about her performance
C) Provides information just a little higher than the child's current capability
D) Gears assistance below the child's capabilities

Question 46

A parent who demonstrates to a child how to tie his/her shoes,and then gradually turns over the responsibility for the task over to the child,is exhibiting

A) the zone of proximal development.
B) scaffolding.
C) attachment.
D) conservation.

Question 47

Recent studies indicate that children's understanding of causality is more sophisticated than Piaget believed.However,this depends upon

A) how the task is presented.
B) whether the child is male or female.
C) whether the researcher is male or female.
D) whether the task is presented in a laboratory or in the child's home.

Question 48

A 4-year-old child is shown pictures of four cats and six dogs.When asked if there are more dogs or more animals,she will most likely say

A) there are more dogs.
B) there are more animals.
C) only the cats are animals.
D) The child will have no answer as she cannot understand the question

Question 49

Which of the following represents a child's "zone of proximal development?"

A) The gap between what the child can do now and what she can do with help
B) The degree of difference between the child's current ability and future potential
C) What younger children can do in comparison to what older children can do
D) What a young child can do in comparison to her peers

Question 50

In a longitudinal study,Haden and her colleagues (2001)found that children's recollections of performance on tasks were better when the children

A) observed the task,rather than performed it themselves.
B) worked on the task,but did not discuss it with their mothers.
C) watched their mothers perform the task.
D) performed the task and discussed it with their mothers.

Question 51

With cognitive scaffolding,

A) children are taught complex tasks so that easier ones are more readily understood.
B) the guidance provided is decreased as the child becomes more skilled.
C) permanent help is given upon which the child then becomes dependent.
D) the amount of help given is increased as the child ages.

Question 52

Research indicates that using scaffolding within a zone of proximal development

A) increases a child's attachment to their caregiver.
B) reduces aggression in young children.
C) promotes children's learning and memory.
D) slows children's language development.

Question 53

HOME is a better predictor of young children's later IQ scores than

A) social class.
B) mother's IQ.
C) infant IQ.
D) All of these

Question 54

As described in the textbook,HOME is an acronym for

A) Home Observation for the Measurement of the Environment.
B) Helping Our Memories Effectively.
C) Health Openness and Mental Efficiency scale.
D) Human Optimal Memory Exchange.

Question 55

Clarke-Stewart and Beck (1999)found that the quality of stories retold by children was related to

A) the age of the child.
B) the sex of the child.
C) the scaffolding strategies used by their mothers.
D) how many books the child had in their home.

Question 56

In the conservation task,asking children whether both beakers have the same amount of water and to watch the pouring carefully may result in

A) children becoming confused by the task.
B) children understanding conservation before they are 7 years old.
C) children expecting a change in the amounts.
D) an increased number of incorrect answers to the task.

Question 57

What is scaffolding?

A) Temporary support provided to a child while learning to perform a task
B) A method of testing a child's conservation skills
C) An achievement test sometimes given to young children
D) A test of gross motor skills

Question 58

Molfese and her colleagues (1997)found that _______ was the single most important predictor of scores on IQ tests for children ages 3 to 8.

A) mother's IQ
B) access to high-quality preschool programs
C) the home environment
D) maternal prenatal nutrition

Question 59

The concept of scaffolding can be attributed to which theorist?

A) Piaget
B) Freud
C) Vygotsky
D) Lorenz

Question 60

Which of the following is a scaffolding strategy for helping a child understand a story?

A) Focusing the child's attention on important details
B) Asking the child questions about what is occurring in the story
C) Correcting the child's misunderstandings
D) All of these

Question 61

Jago et al.,(2005)found that _________ was a stronger predictor of children being overweight than diet.

A) number of hours watching television
B) number of hours parents watched television
C) number of televisions in the home
D) whether a child lived in a rural or urban environment

Question 62

Head Start and Early Head Start get 80% of their funding from

A) contributions from private individuals.
B) government funding.
C) donations from local businesses.
D) past Head Start and Early Head Start clients.

Question 63

The effects of regular viewing of Sesame Street

A) are positive for Caucasian children only.
B) are inconsistent.
C) seem to apply across race,gender,and living conditions.
D) are associated with lower school achievement scores.

Question 64

In what year did Sesame Street make its debut?

A) 1952
B) 1965
C) 1973
D) 1993

Question 65

Do preschool programs for economically disadvantaged children facilitate cognitive development?

A) No
B) Yes,but they place undue pressure on young children
C) No,but they do improve social skills
D) Yes,because they provide environmental enrichment

Question 66

Which of the following is TRUE?

A) American children spend more time watching television than they do in school
B) By age 3,the average American child watches 2-3 hours of television per day
C) Television has great potential for teaching cognitive skills and attitudes to children
D) All of these

Question 67

Preschool programs to enhance the cognitive development of economically disadvantaged children began in the

A) 1940-1950s.
B) 1960-1970s.
C) 1980s.
D) 2000s.

Question 68

Which of the following is a preschool program designed to enhance the cognitive development and academic skills of economically disadvantaged children?

A) Jump Start
B) HOME
C) Focus School
D) Head Start

Question 69

Why might preschool programs for economically disadvantaged children be needed?

A) They are not needed; this idea is based on a false assumption
B) Because these children generally perform less well on standardized intelligence tests
C) Because these children usually have fewer social skills and more emotional problems
D) Because the programs help make up for poor prenatal nutrition,which affects intelligence

Question 70

Preschools that are more "child centered"

A) encourage children to choose the activities that interest them the most.
B) focus on structured activities,such as the use of workbooks and timed tests.
C) have teachers who structure the learning experience.
D) use parents to teach the classes.

Question 71

The Head Start program not only enhances the cognitive development and academic skills of children but also provides

A) healthcare to children and social services to their families.
B) intensive behavioral therapy for the children.
C) financial assistance for later college expenses.
D) in-home academic instruction for children.

Question 72

What enhances the effectiveness of preschool programs for economically disadvantaged children?

A) If they are started no later than age 1
B) If they focus on teaching the value of education
C) If they encourage parental involvement in the program
D) If they are targeted towards girls

Question 73

The Children's Television Act

A) ensures that all children's television is educational.
B) rates children's television programs for number of violent scenes per episode.
C) requires that networks devote a certain number of hours per week to educational programming.
D) allows children to create TV shows for children.

Question 74

Which of the following is TRUE of preschool programs for economically disadvantaged children?

A) The early effects are often quite dramatic
B) Many studies show that the positive effects are long term
C) These children have been compared to children of similar backgrounds that did not complete such programs
D) All of these

Question 75

What are the effects of television viewing on children?

A) It clearly has positive effects on impulse control
B) It causes children to be more restless
C) It stifles the imagination
D) It depends upon what shows are being watched

Question 76

Research indicates that in terms of the effects of commercials on children,

A) children are not influenced by TV commercials until after age 8.
B) children who watch more television are more likely to believe commercial advertising.
C) from age 3,children can understand the selling intent of TV advertising.
D) children who are heavy TV viewers are highly educated and sophisticated consumers.

Question 77

Can preschool intervention programs have long-term positive outcomes?

A) No,the IQ gains always fade
B) No,in fact they result in even poorer performance in high school and college
C) Yes,the IQ gains are proven to last,but only for girls
D) Yes,the children are more likely to go on to college and earn higher incomes

Question 78

Teenage girls who attended preschool intervention programs became pregnant at the same rates as other girls,but were more likely to

A) finish high school before becoming pregnant.
B) be married.
C) delay having a second child.
D) return to school after giving birth.

Question 79

Pregnancy among single teenage girls is generally associated with

A) an end of their formal education.
B) high rates of Cesarean-section.
C) an increase in disorganized attachments in their infants.
D) a higher rate of difficult temperaments in their infants.

Question 80

Nilo attends a preschool in which her teachers take her and her classmates step by step through their learning of numbers,letters,shapes,and colors.Nilo attends which type of preschool?

A) Free play
B) Child centered
C) Academically oriented
D) Montessori