Deck 9: Cognitive Development in Early Childhood

Question 1

Three-year-olds Artie and Kurt had identical boxes of raisins at snack time. When Kurt poured his raisins out onto the table, Artie was sure that Kurt had more raisins. This demonstrates that Artie lacks

A) conservation.
B) animistic thinking.
C) hierarchical classification.
D) dual representation.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

According to Piaget, young children's thinking often is illogical because they are not capable of

A) magical thinking.
B) animistic thinking.
C) mental actions that obey logical rules.
D) centration.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Piaget acknowledged that ___________ is our most flexible means of mental representation.

A) imagery
B) language
C) intentional behavior
D) deferred imitation

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Four-year-old Marly is playing with her toy cars. She favors the blue car, but plays with the green car for at least a few minutes. She says, "I don't want the green one to get lonely." This is an example of

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

Question 5

Children's creation of _________________ was once viewed as a sign of maladjustment, but current research challenges this assumption.

A) imaginary companions
B) dual representations
C) animalistic symbols
D) pretend themes

Question 6

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 7

Tripp pretends to drink from a toy cup. Tripp's sister, Anna, takes the same cup and tells Tripp, "This is a hat." Tripp refuses to place the cup on his head to pretend that it is a hat. Tripp 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 8

During a ________ task, 4-year-old Marissa is asked whether there are more oranges or fruits in a group of two apples, one banana, and three oranges. She will most likely say ________.

A) class inclusion; there are more fruits
B) class inclusion; there are more oranges
C) conservation-of-number; there are more fruits
D) conservation-of-number; there are more oranges

Question 9

Four-year-old Martha 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 10

In early pretending, toddlers

A) direct pretend objects toward others.
B) are detached participants.
C) combine schemes without those of their peers.
D) use only realistic objects.

Question 11

The most important illogical feature of preoperational thought is its

A) dynamic transformation.
B) irreversibility.
C) class inclusion.
D) reversibility.

Question 12

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 13

During a conservation-of-liquid task, when asked why he thinks there is more water in the taller glass, 5-year-old Gus points out that the water level is higher in the taller glass than in the shorter glass but neglects to mention that this change in height is compensated by changes in width. This example demonstrates a limitation of preoperational thought known as

A) centration.
B) seriation.
C) transductive reasoning.
D) irreversibility.

Question 14

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

Question 15

In a conservation-of-liquid problem, young children ignore the dynamic transformation of the liquid when they

A) center on the height of the liquid and ignore the width.
B) treat the initial and final stages of the water as unrelated events.
C) become distracted by the perceptual appearance of objects.
D) mentally reverse direction, returning to the starting point.

Question 16

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 17

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, such as an elephant and Jessica will pretend to be the zookeeper. This is an example of __________ play.

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

Question 18

Twenty-month-old Hyrum attempts to sit in a tiny doll chair. Difficulty with _________ may contribute to Hyrum's scale error.

A) cardinality
B) dual representation
C) conservation
D) centration

Question 19

Preschoolers who spend more time in sociodramatic play are seen as ___________ by their teachers.

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

Question 20

For Piaget, the most fundamental deficiency of preoperational thinking is

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

Question 21

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 22

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

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

Question 23

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

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 24

According to research, preschoolers' poor performance on appearance versus reality tasks occurs because they

A) have an immature cerebral cortex.
B) have trouble with the language of these tasks.
C) are involved frequently in fantasy and pretend play.
D) have a general difficulty in distinguishing appearance from reality.

Question 25

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 26

After putting on a Halloween mask and looking at their reflection in a mirror, young preschoolers often are wary. This is because they have a fragile understanding of

A) the appearance-reality distinction.
B) centration.
C) hierarchical categorization.
D) class inclusion.

Question 27

In Ms. Allison's Piagetian kindergarten classroom, teachers introduce activities that build on children's current thinking, challenging their incorrect ways of viewing the work. But they do not try to speed up development by imposing new skills before children indicate that they are interested and ready. This kindergarten emphasizes the Piagetian principle of

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

Question 28

When young children converse with adults, they ask

A) mostly non-information-seeking questions.
B) more than one question per minute, on average.
C) comparatively few information-seeking questions.
D) relatively few purposeful questions.

Question 29

A wealth of recent research 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 30

Most 3- and 4-year-olds

A) think that violations of social conventions require magic.
B) understand that television characters are not real.
C) believe in the supernatural powers of enchanted creatures.
D) know that imagination cannot create reality.

Question 31

Which of the following is most likely to be among a child's first categories?

A) waterbirds
B) landbirds
C) flying creatures
D) birds

Question 32

Follow-up research indicates that by the second half of the first year, children have formed a variety of global categories, such as animals and vehicles. These findings challenge Piaget's assumption that

A) preschoolers' thinking is wholly governed by 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 33

Follow-up research on preoperational thought indicates that preschoolers can successfully solve a conservation-of-number task when the task

A) includes only three items rather than six or seven.
B) deals with everyday objects, such as balls or dolls, rather than abstract concepts.
C) is performed by their parents rather than unfamiliar experimenters.
D) is performed with their own toys rather than unfamiliar objects.

Question 34

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

A) Jacob, a 6-year-old Jewish boy
B) Frank, a 6-year-old Catholic boy
C) Luke, a 6-year-old Methodist boy
D) Glenn, a 6-year-old Baptist boy

Question 35

Three-year-old Audrey is presented with a picture-matching problem, "Play dough is to cut-up play dough as a loaf of bread is to . . . ?" Which answer is Audrey is most likely to select?

A) a cut-up apple
B) a biscuit
C) bread crumbs
D) a cut-up loaf of bread

Question 36

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) notion about the constructive nature of knowledge.
C) ideas about individual differences in cognitive development.
D) concept of egocentrism.

Question 37

Which of the following is true about parents' answers to their children's questions?

A) When parents do not respond informatively, most preschoolers abandon their questions.
B) Parents adjust the complexity of their answers to fit their children's maturity.
C) Parents rarely include additional relevant knowledge when answering their children's questions.
D) Older children frequently get "prior cause" explanations, while younger children typically get "mechanism" explanations.

Question 38

Four-year-old Matthew is shown a robot. Matthew is most likely to say that the robot cannot

A) see.
B) think.
C) grow.
D) remember.

Question 39

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 40

In Dino's preschool classroom, teachers evaluate each child's educational progress in relation to his or her previous development, rather than on the basis of normative standards, or average performance of same-age peers. This preschool emphasizes the Piagetian principle of

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

Question 41

Compared to Yucatec Mayan preschoolers, Western preschoolers are

A) less sophisticated with make-believe play.
B) more able to sit quietly for long periods.
C) more autonomous.
D) less competent at self-care.

Question 42

Most research indicates 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 43

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 44

Critics argue that Vygotsky's theory

A) underemphasizes the importance of pretend play.
B) overemphasizes the role of verbal communication.
C) emphasizes a set of experiences common to all cultures.
D) overemphasizes the importance of independent discovery.

Question 45

Which of the following is more likely to be seen in a Vygotskian, than a Piagetian, classroom?

A) activities to foster peer collaboration
B) acceptance of individual differences
C) opportunities for active participation
D) experiences to promote independent exploration

Question 46

Becca is making cookies all by herself after making them with the help of her mother many times in the past. Becca has learned this new skill through

A) cooperative learning.
B) intersubjectivity.
C) guided participation.
D) transitive inference.

Question 47

Vygotsky's theory stresses the __________ of cognitive development.

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

Question 48

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

A) It underemphasizes the role of verbal communication.
B) It overemphasizes the development of basic cognitive processes.
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 49

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

A) a task that a child cannot 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 a child cannot yet handle on her own, but can do with the help of an adult
D) a task that a child figures out how to accomplish through her own independent activity

Question 50

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

A) more attentive
B) less involved
C) less likely to perform the task well
D) less attentive

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

Sustained attention typically begins to improve in toddlerhood because children's ability to __________ improves.

A) inhibit impulses
B) plan out a sequence of acts
C) use memory strategies
D) think about thought

Question 53

In Tools of the Mind-a preschool curriculum inspired by Vygotsky's theory-__________ is woven into virtually all classroom activities.

A) discovery learning
B) independent exploration
C) scaffolding of attention skills
D) overlapping-waves theory

Question 54

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 55

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.
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 56

Preschoolers become better at __________ by following directions for playing games and cooking from recipes.

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

Question 57

Ethnographic research has revealed that 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 58

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 59

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 60

Vygotsky regarded make-believe play as an important source of cognitive development because it

A) enhances animistic thinking.
B) is rich in private speech.
C) fosters independent discovery learning.
D) provides opportunities to practice representational schemes.

Question 61

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 62

Three-year-old Evan recognizes and "reads" the word "PIZZA" on a familiar sign, but thinks that his name is spelled "E." This demonstrates Evan's

A) theory of mind.
B) metacognition.
C) emergent literacy.
D) phonological awareness.

Question 63

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 64

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 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

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 67

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 68

Some researchers have suggested that children with autism are __________ and, therefore, deficient in human sociability.

A) mindblind
B) animistic thinkers
C) flexible thinkers
D) poor problem solvers

Question 69

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 70

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 71

On average, a low-SES child is read to for a total of _____ hours during the preschool years, a higher-SES child for ______ hours.

A) 25; 100
B) 25; 1,000
C) 250; 500
D) 250; 1,000

Question 72

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' desires can differ from their own.

Question 73

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 74

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 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

Studies of literacy development show that

A) the more informal literacy experiences young children have, the better their later reading skills.
B) even young preschoolers are able to distinguish drawing from writing.
C) the best method to teach children to read is the phonics approach.
D) interactive reading hinders preschoolers' developing understanding of sound-word correspondences.

Question 77

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 78

After a family camping trip, Rollie's mother asks him to tell his grandmother about the trip. Rollie's response represents

A) metacognitive knowledge.
B) a script.
C) recognition memory.
D) autobiographical memory.

Question 79

Understanding of false belief is associated with early _________ ability.

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

Question 80

Hallie 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