Deck 4: Does Piagets Theory Stand up to Examination

Question 1

Bower (1965) conducted a study on size constancy, the findings of which challenged Piaget's claims about infants lacking a concept of object permanence. In Bower's study, the key finding was that infants:

A)Responded to an object that was a different size than presented previously but presented at the same distance during the testing phase
B)Responded to an object that was the same size as presented previously but presented at a different distance during the testing phase
C)Exhibited habituation to an object of the same size presented previously but presented at a different distance during the testing phase
D)Were "surprised" when one solid object apparently passed through another solid object
E)Sucked on a pacifier

Answer 1

Responded to an object that was the same size as presented previously but presented at a different distance during the testing phase

Question 2

In their classic investigation into object permanence, Baillargeon, Spelke, and Wasserman (1985) measured ______ in babies.

A)Habituation
B)Fear
C)Social referencing
D)Amusement
E)Surprise

Answer 2

Surprise

Question 3

Wynn's (1992) study on object concept reveals an incipient ability in:

A)Spoken language
B)Literacy
C)Numeracy
D)Art
E)Geometry

Answer 3

Numeracy

Question 4

Butterworth's (1981) studies on joint attention in infancy reveal:

A)Fear of strangers
B)Mother-child bonding
C)Social referencing
D)An early ability to calculate the geometry of another person's direction of gaze
E)An understanding that the invisible displacement of an object does not affect the substance or durability of the object

Question 5

Harris' (1974) investigation into the A not B error in infancy ruled out ______ as an explanation for the phenomenon.

A)Memory failure
B)Lack of attention
C)Anxiety
D)Failure to understand the purpose of the experiment
E)Lack of motor skill

Question 6

Bremner and Bryant's (1977) investigation into the A not B error of infancy ______ Piaget's claim that perception is subordinate to action.

A)Was not intended to test
B)Refutes
C)Is irrelevant to
D)Lends support to
E)Belies

Question 7

Margaret Donaldson criticized Piaget's "experiments" on the grounds that they lack:

A)Independent variables
B)External validity
C)Internal validity
D)Control conditions
E)Human sense

Question 8

McGarrigle and Donaldson designed the "naughty teddy" experiment to test children's understanding of:

A)Conservation
B)Numeracy
C)Delinquency
D)Moral principles
E)Class inclusion

Question 9

In one of the conditions in Moore and Frye's (1986) version of the "naughty teddy" experiment, teddy:

A)Was rude
B)Stole a counter
C)Wrote graffiti
D)Was disobedient
E)Added a counter

Question 10

The findings of Hughes' "policeman task" suggest that Piaget's ______ task might have underestimated young children's abilities.

A)Conservation
B)Three Mountains
C)Transitive Inference
D)Class Inclusion
E)Moral Stories

Question 11

Level 1 perspective taking refers to:

A)Understanding that an obstacle is capable of blocking one's view
B)The fact that an object looks different from a different vantage point
C)Egocentric speech
D)Being able to imagine how it feels to share another person's experiences
E)The Three Mountains task

Question 12

McGarrigle and Donaldson argued that young children fail Piaget's class inclusion task because they wrongly think they are being asked to:

A)Compare superclass with superclass
B)Compare subclass with superclass
C)Compare subclass with subclass
D)Build a tower from building bricks
E)Count the elements that belong to each class

Question 13

Bryant and Trabasso (1971) explained young children's errors in tests of transitive inference as an instance of:

A)Misunderstanding the question
B)Logical incompetence
C)Memory failure
D)Poor judgment
E)Preoperational thinking

Question 14

Rai and Mitchell's (2006) study suggests that from about 4 years of age children begin to appreciate that:

A)Matter can remain invariant despite superficial changes to appearance
B)Other people can work things out by a process of elimination
C)A short pendulum swings faster than a long pendulum
D)Perception is subordinate to action
E)John is taller than Mary and Mary is taller than David

Question 15

Children show signs of understanding simple syllogisms:

A)From about the age of 15 years
B)If they have been introduced to poetry
C)If they have been introduced to some of the basics of philosophy
D)From about the age of 4 years
E)At the onset of formal operational intelligence

Question 16

Wason and Johnson-Laird's selection task:

A)Is passed by most university students
B)Is passed by children from about the age of 7 years
C)Is passed by people who have achieved formal operational reasoning
D)Was designed to mislead participants
E)Is failed by most adults

Question 17

Wason argued that the typical performance of an adult on the selection task reveals:

A)Formal operational reasoning
B)Matching bias
C)Logical competence
D)Confirmation bias
E)That most people are irrational

Question 18

Cheng and Holyoak's (1985) modification of the selection task suggests that success depends on:

A)The content of the problem
B)The form of the problem
C)Philosophical training
D)Having a high IQ
E)Personality type

Question 19

In the context of Vygotsky's theory, "scaffolding" refers to:

A)Children's ability to join different ideas together into a coherent whole
B)Cognitive restructuring
C)Cognitive support provided by more cognitively competent individuals
D)An educational facility that resembles a children's climbing frame
E)Developmental stages

Question 20

In the context of Vygotsky's theory, "the zone of proximal development" is relevant to:

A)Anywhere in the child's classroom
B)Anywhere in the child's home
C)A task that is within the child's capability so long as he or she receives support from a more competent individual
D)The child's study area where he or she does homework
E)An area around the child, whose radius is approximately two meters, that the child finds easy to focus attention on

Question 21

In the context of Vygotsky's theory, "private speech" refers to:

A)Secrets
B)Sub-vocal thought
C)Any confidential report on a child's behavior
D)A conversation between two individuals that excludes various other individuals who might want to know the content of the conversation
E)A child's confidings to a close friend

Question 22

Vygotsky regarded language as:

A)Something that develops from about the age of 6 years
B)Being subordinate to thought
C)A vehicle for cultural transmission
D)Something that is innate
E)Having its roots in sensorimotor intelligence, where perception is subordinate to action

Question 23

Which word best describes Piaget's investigations with young children?

A)Insightful
B)Incompetent
C)Useless
D)Discredited
E)Unethical

Question 24

What does it mean to say that Vygotsky was a "social constructivist"?

A)He believed that development is robust to cultural variations
B)He was a Marxist
C)He believed that development owes something to cultural transmission
D)He believed that language development is not important in cognitive development
E)Vygotsky plagiarized Piaget's theory

Question 25

Who is Karl Popper?

A)An alternative comedian
B)A philosopher of science
C)A movie actor
D)A theorist in developmental psychology
E)An academic who had a number one pop record