Deck 6: Cognitive Development: Piagetian, Core Knowledge, and Vygotskian Perspectives

Question 1

In Piaget's theory, children move through four stages

A) during which their exploratory behaviors transform into logical and abstract intelligence.
B) not always in a sequential manner, depending on the children's innate intelligence.
C) sequentially at a rate observed in children everywhere.
D) in which different cognitive skills follow unique courses of development.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

In Piaget's theory, when children are in a state of disequilibrium,

A) their schemes become disorganized and development is temporarily stalled.
B) they realize that new information does not match their current schemes.
C) they are likely to construct inefficient schemes.
D) their existing schemes are not likely to change very much.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Children use current schemes to interpret their world in the process of __________, whereas __________ allows them to create new schemes or adjust old ones after noticing that their current way of thinking does not capture the environment completely.

A) assimilation; accommodation
B) adaptation; organization
C) adaptation; assimilation
D) equilibration; organization

Answer 3

A

Question 4

When Baby Carissa "stumbles" onto a new experience, such as making a mobile hanging over her crib move by kicking her feet, engaging in that activity repeatedly will

A) strengthen Carissa's response and create a new scheme.
B) provide Carissa with entertainment until she is better able to explore her world.
C) lead to the refinement of reflexive schemes.
D) facilitate cognitive equilibrium.

Question 5

Which of the following behaviors is characteristic of infants in Piaget's sensorimotor Substage 2?

A) a baby who drops toys down the steps in varying ways
B) a baby who accidentally makes a smacking noise while eating and later tries to reproduce the sound
C) a baby who can push aside a cover to retrieve a hidden toy
D) a baby who accidentally hits a toy hung in front of her and then tries to repeat this effect

Question 6

According to Piaget, tertiary circular reactions include

A) the ability to find a hidden object that has been moved while out of sight.
B) deferred imitation and private speech.
C) the ability to search in several locations for a hidden object.
D) make-believe play and social speech.

Question 7

In Piaget's theory, adaptation refers to

A) the back-and-forth movement between equilibration and disequilibration.
B) the process of building schemes through direct interaction with the environment.
C) a rearrangement and linking together of schemes.
D) a steady, comfortable cognitive state.

Question 8

Baby Raja accidentally pushes over a tower of blocks. Each time his sister rebuilds the tower, Raja tries to push it over. In Piaget's theory, this is an example of a __________ circular reaction.

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

Question 9

Baby Henry enters Piaget's Substage 4 of the sensorimotor period when his schemes

A) are directed toward his body.
B) are repeated with variation to produce new outcomes.
C) are coordinated deliberately to solve simple problems.
D) represent sudden solutions rather than trial-and-error solutions.

Question 10

According to Piaget's theory,

A) the disappearance of schemes marks the transition from sensorimotor to preoperational thought.
B) environmental, but not genetic, factors can affect the speed with which children move through cognitive stages.
C) schemes are built through interaction with adults or more skilled peers.
D) two processes account for the change from sensorimotor to representational schemes.

Question 11

Research indicates that children's cognitive immaturity

A) results from overstimulation during infancy and toddlerhood.
B) results from a lack of stimulation.
C) hinders their mastery of basic academic skills.
D) may be adaptive.

Question 12

According to Piaget's theory, during periods of rapid cognitive change, children

A) shift from accommodation to assimilation.
B) shift from assimilation to accommodation.
C) equally balance assimilation and accommodation.
D) are in a state of cognitive equilibrium.

Question 13

Baby Pedro has combined his reaching, grasping, and sucking schemes into one higher-order scheme that allows him to reach for his pacifier and put it into his mouth to suck. In Piaget's theory, this achievement is an example of

A) accommodation.
B) assimilation.
C) organization.
D) adaptation.

Question 14

Piaget divided the sensorimotor stage into six substages based on

A) anecdotal evidence provided by hundreds of parents.
B) rigorous laboratory experiments with young children.
C) observations of his three children.
D) his research with children in French orphanages.

Question 15

In Piaget's theory, the most powerful __________ are __________ and __________.

A) schemes; categorization; hierarchical classification
B) mental representations; images; concepts
C) operations; hypothetico-deductive reasoning; logical necessity
D) cognitive skills; private speech; propositional thought

Question 16

When 18-month-old James is given peas for the first time, he picks one up, throws it, and says "ball." According to Piaget's theory, James is most likely __________ the pea into his ball scheme.

A) accommodating
B) organizing
C) equilibrating
D) assimilating

Question 17

Two-year-old Viola calls her father's swimming goggles "water glasses." According to Piaget's theory, Viola is most likely

A) accommodating.
B) assimilating.
C) organizing.
D) equilibrating.

Question 18

In Piaget's theory, primary circular reactions are oriented toward __________, whereas secondary circular reactions are oriented toward __________.

A) the infant's own body; the surrounding world
B) involuntary actions; voluntary actions
C) external actions; internal representations
D) concrete thought; abstract thought

Question 19

Piaget's theory is described as a constructivist approach because he

A) stressed the social and cultural contributions to children's thinking.
B) viewed children as discovering virtually all knowledge about their world through their own activity.
C) emphasized how genetic and environmental factors combine to yield more complex ways of thinking.
D) believed that children construct knowledge through adult training and modeling.

Question 20

In Piaget's theory, children use organization to

A) build schemes through direct interaction with the environment.
B) adjust old schemes and create new ones to fit with the environment.
C) accommodate the back-and-forth movement between cognitive equilibration and disequilibration.
D) internally rearrange and link schemes to create a strongly interconnected cognitive system.

Question 21

Based on habituation and recovery research, Dahlia's parents know that between 6 and 12 months old, Dahlia will be able to

A) only sort items into one or two basic categories, such as animals and people.
B) group objects into an impressive array of categories like food items, furniture, birds, animals, kitchen utensils, and spatial location.
C) organize her physical world but not yet categorize her emotional and social worlds.
D) sort familiar and novel items based on color, size, shape, and function.

Question 22

Baby Rina, who is still developing the expertise at motor skills necessary for the search task, is more likely to make the A-not-B search error because

A) she does not yet understand object permanence.
B) her short attention span prevents her from thinking beyond A.
C) her reaching scheme is limited to reflexive actions.
D) she has little attention left to focus on inhibiting her habitual reach toward A in favor of B.

Question 23

Baillargeon's violation-of-expectation studies provided evidence that infants have some knowledge of object permanence

A) between 1½ and 2½ months.
B) between 2½ and 3½ months.
C) no earlier than 6 months.
D) after 12 months.

Question 24

__________ and __________ are the two landmark cognitive changes that take place in sensorimotor Substage 4 of Piaget's theory.

A) Deferred imitation; make-believe play
B) Conservation; centration
C) Dual representation; analogical problem solving
D) Intentional behavior; object permanence

Question 25

Baby Waldo is twisting and turning triangles, circles, and squares to fit them into his shape-sorter toy. According to Piaget, this behavior is best described as a __________ circular reaction.

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

Question 26

Toddlers in Substage 6 of the sensorimotor period can solve object-permanence problems involving invisible displacement because they have developed the capacity to

A) engage in goal-directed behavior.
B) construct mental representations.
C) carry out means-end action sequences.
D) understand dual representation.

Question 27

Some researchers believe that before the end of the first year, babies undergo a fundamental shift from a(n) __________ basis to a(n) __________ basis for constructing categories

A) logical; abstract
B) perceptual; abstract
C) logical; conceptual
D) perceptual; conceptual

Question 28

When infants are tested to discover whether they understand the concept of object permanence and are shown two events-one expected and one unexpected-the infants

A) show no awareness that the events differ from one another.
B) ignore the unexpected event.
C) look longer at the unexpected event than the expected event.
D) show a preference for the expected event.

Question 29

By the end of the first year, infants

A) use language to acquire new information about an absent object.
B) use pictures as vehicles for communicating with others and acquiring new knowledge.
C) begin to use an object that already has an obvious use as a symbol for another object.
D) form flexible mental representations of how to use tools to get objects.

Question 30

Categorization helps infants learn and remember by

A) teaching them how to group abstract stimuli.
B) enhancing their symbolic understanding.
C) reducing the enormous amount of new information they encounter every day.
D) pairing objects with word associations.

Question 31

Infants in Substage 5

A) repeat behaviors with variations.
B) become skilled at reaching for and manipulating objects.
C) use their capacity for intentional behavior to try to change events.
D) arrive at solutions to problems suddenly rather than through trial-and-error behavior.

Question 32

Jae-Sun is a toddler growing up in Korea where children learn a language in which object names are often omitted from sentences. For that reason, he will most likely develop object-grouping skills __________-speaking counterparts.

A) later than his English
B) earlier than his English
C) at about the same time as his English
D) earlier than his Spanish

Question 33

In the violation-of-expectation method, __________ suggests that Baby Will is "surprised" by a deviation from physical reality.

A) a lack of attention and unfocused behavior
B) heightened attention to the unexpected event
C) smiling rather than crying
D) quick recovery to a familiar event

Question 34

Laboratory research suggests that deferred imitation is present at __________ of age.

A) 6 weeks
B) 12 weeks
C) 6 months
D) 14 months

Question 35

Baby Lakota is shown a ball that is then hidden under a cover. What must Lakota do to retrieve the ball?

A) Lakota will need to recall the location of the ball.
B) Lakota must coordinate "pushing aside" and "grasping" schemes to retrieve the ball.
C) Lakota will not be able to retrieve the ball until she is in Substage 6 of the sensorimotor period.
D) Lakota will have trouble retrieving the ball until she no longer makes the A-not-B error.

Question 36

Mara is 10 months of age. Research suggests that Mara can

A) engage in sociodramatic play.
B) imitate novel behaviors.
C) engage in analogical problem solving.
D) appreciate the symbolic nature of pictures.

Question 37

Some critics of the violation-of-expectation method

A) believe that it indicates a conscious awareness of physical events rather than a limited understanding.
B) argue that wide individual differences in recovery times exist.
C) believe that it indicates limited, implicit awareness of physical events rather than conscious understanding.
D) argue that it is an inappropriate task to use with very young infants.

Question 38

Toddlers' ability to represent others' intentions

A) occurs later than Piaget predicted.
B) requires the refinement of reflexive schemes.
C) seems to have roots in earlier sensorimotor activity.
D) leads to gains in categorization.

Question 39

Each time Mr. Chow hides 7-month-old Jana's doll under her blanket, she retrieves the toy. When Mr. Chow then hides the doll under a pillow near the blanket, Jana continues to look under the blanket for the doll. Jana is demonstrating

A) the secondary circular reaction.
B) habituation and recovery.
C) displaced reference.
D) the A-not-B search error.

Question 40

In Piaget's theory, infants are unable to mentally represent experience until about _____ months of age.

A) 3
B) 9
C) 12
D) 18

Question 41

Which of the following helps to explain why preoperational children's thinking keeps them from being able to understand the idea of conservation?

A) They tend to spend too much time on reversibility, or mentally reversing the steps in a problem back to the starting point.
B) They tend to focus more on the dynamic transformation of a situation without giving adequate attention to beginning and ending states.
C) They have a significant grasp on the idea that appearances can change without changing the fundamental characteristics of the situation.
D) Their understanding is characterized by centration in which they focus on one aspect of the situation while ignoring other important features.

Question 42

Five-year-old Sasha is participating in Piaget's three-mountains problem. When Sasha is asked to choose the picture that shows what the display looks like from the doll's perspective, he will most likely

A) choose the correct picture, but not be able to explain why he chose that picture.
B) know that the correct picture is different from his point of view, but not be sure which picture to choose.
C) choose the picture that shows his own point of view.
D) choose the correct picture and be able to explain why he chose that picture.

Question 43

According to Piaget, when children first mentally represent the world, they

A) exhibit thinking that is unlimited and flexible.
B) are adept at forming mental representations of actions that obey logical rules.
C) assume that others perceive, think, and feel the same way they do.
D) are especially adept at distinguishing other people's symbolic viewpoints from their own.

Question 44

Research conducted on schooled and nonschooled children in the Jimi Valley of Papua New Guinea indicates that

A) nonrepresentational scribbles seem to be a universal beginning in drawing.
B) schooled children include fewer details in their drawings than nonschooled children.
C) early drawings of the human figure produced by nonschooled children emphasize the head and face over the hands and feet.
D) schooling has minimal impact on children's first representational shapes and forms.

Question 45

Between 25 and 45 percent of preschoolers and young school-age children spend much time in solitary make-believe,

A) avoiding contact with adults or peers.
B) which interferes in their ability to form friendships.
C) which is a sign of maladjustment.
D) creating imaginary companions.

Question 46

In one study, 2½-year-olds were unable to use a scale model of a room to find a toy hidden in the room that the model represented. This is because young preschoolers have difficulty with

A) deferred imitation.
B) analogical problem solving.
C) transitive inference.
D) dual representation.

Question 47

By the time children reach age 4 or 5, they combine their play schemes with those of peers by creating and coordinating roles in

A) sociodramatic play.
B) adult-directed play acting.
C) secondary circular reactions.
D) categorization of others' intentions.

Question 48

Around the first birthday, the symbolic capacity called "displaced reference" emerges, which allows toddlers to

A) use abstract thought to solve problems.
B) form initial mental representations that can be used to evaluate further information.
C) categorize objects on the basis of their physical attributes.
D) recognize that words can be used to cue mental images of things not physically present.

Question 49

Before about 9 months of age, how are babies likely to treat a picture of a person or an object?

A) They touch or manipulate the picture in ways that reveal confusion about the picture's real nature.
B) They do not seem to have difficulty distinguishing between the symbol and the referent.
C) They use it as a tool to modify an existing mental representation.
D) They treat it as a symbol.

Question 50

When 3-year-old Gwen explains that her bicycle is sad because it is alone in the garage, she is demonstrating

A) analogical problem solving.
B) animistic thinking.
C) hypothetico-deductive reasoning.
D) propositional thought.

Question 51

Research on the development of make-believe play indicates that

A) girls spend more time in sociodramatic play than boys.
B) preschoolers who devote more time to sociodramatic play are seen as more socially competent by their teachers.
C) school-age children are more self-centered in their pretend play than preschoolers.
D) preschoolers who create imaginary companions are at risk for maladjustment.

Question 52

Piaget believed that the major benefit of make-believe play during the preoperational stage is to

A) strengthen representational schemes.
B) exercise logical reasoning skills.
C) build creativity and imagination.
D) facilitate perspective-taking ability.

Question 53

Gregor just turned 2½. By this age, the video deficit effect

A) declines.
B) increases.
C) peaks.
D) stabilizes.

Question 54

Because of __________, preschoolers are only able to draw figures in their simplest forms.

A) limited adult instruction
B) a lack of motivation
C) an inability to form detailed mental representations
D) fine-motor and cognitive limitations

Question 55

Children in Western nations typically acquire conservation of number, mass, and liquid sometime between __________ years and of weight between __________ years.

A) 2 and 3; 5 and 6
B) 4 and 6; 7 and 9
C) 6 and 7; 8 and 10
D) 8 and 10; 11 and 12

Question 56

Initially, infants respond to videos of people

A) as make-believe characters.
B) in a fearful manner.
C) with indifference, paying little attention to the characters.
D) as if viewing people directly.

Question 57

According to Piaget, preschoolers' thinking is

A) flexible.
B) rigid.
C) abstract.
D) nonverbal.

Question 58

According to Piaget, 4-year-olds cannot solve a conservation-of-liquid problem because they

A) focus on the height of the water, failing to realize that changes in width compensate for the changes in height.
B) do not notice the difference in appearance between the water levels in the two glasses.
C) have limited experience with the task materials.
D) do not understand the point of the question, "Which glass holds more water?"

Question 59

The capacity to use __________ as a flexible symbolic tool improves from the end of the second into the third year.

A) make-believe
B) language
C) deferred imitation
D) the circular reaction

Question 60

Research indicates that amount of TV viewing is negatively related to 8- to 18-month-olds'

A) motor development.
B) language process.
C) analogical problem solving.
D) visual development.

Question 61

Children in the concrete operational stage

A) can think logically when dealing with abstract information.
B) move along a continuum of acquisition of logical concepts.
C) master Piaget's concrete operational tasks all at once.
D) continue to fail conservation tasks.

Question 62

Preschoolers' impressive skill at categorization is supported by

A) animistic thinking.
B) their rapidly expanding vocabularies.
C) egocentric tendencies.
D) the use of magical thinking for events they cannot explain.

Question 63

Ten-year-old Delaney is helping her dad put new shingles on her playhouse in the backyard. Her dad asks her to put the shingles in order from longest to shortest so that he can vary the start of each row. She is able to do this because she

A) can think abstractly.
B) can perform seriation tasks.
C) understands dual representation.
D) understands conservation.

Question 64

Opportunities to seriate objects, to learn about order relations, and to remember the parts of complex problems are probably responsible for

A) the development of the imaginary audience.
B) improvements in decision-making strategies.
C) mastery of Piagetian tasks.
D) advanced abstract thinking.

Question 65

Elena can mentally represent her neighborhood and describe the space to others. Elena's mental representation of her neighborhood is known as

A) a cognitive map.
B) propositional thought.
C) reasoning by analogy.
D) an organized route of travel.

Question 66

A hallmark of the concrete operational stage is the ability to

A) understand dual representation.
B) participate in sociodramatic play.
C) pass conservation tasks.
D) engage in animistic thinking.

Question 67

Melissa and Anjay are both 12 years old. Melissa is from the United States, and Anjay is from India. When asked to draw a map of their neighborhood, Melissa's map will show __________ than Anjay's map.

A) a richer array of landmarks and aspects of social life
B) a smaller area surrounding her home
C) a more formal, extended space, highlighting main streets and key directions
D) fewer features that are actually helpful in providing directions for other people

Question 68

According to Piaget, children who pass class inclusion tasks

A) can focus on relations between a general and two specific categories at the same time.
B) have the capacity to think through a series of steps and then mentally reverse them.
C) can order items along a quantitative dimension.
D) are able to recognize more than five separate and distinct categories of items.

Question 69

During a __________ task, 4-year-old Vanessa is asked whether there are more oranges or fruits in a group of two apples, three bananas, and five oranges. She will most likely say that there are more __________.

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

Question 70

Piaget's famous __________ demonstrates preoperational children's difficulty with __________.

A) three-mountains problem; dual representation
B) three-mountains problem; hierarchical classification
C) class inclusion task; hierarchical classification
D) class inclusion task; dual representation

Question 71

Petra is an average 10-year-old. Research indicates that Petra

A) is egocentric in her social relationships.
B) provides clear directions and constructs well-organized cognitive maps.
C) is in Piaget's formal operational stage.
D) grasps the logical necessity of propositional thought.

Question 72

Preschoolers' understanding that sugar continues to exist when it is dissolved in water is evidence that they

A) can overcome appearances and think logically in familiar contexts.
B) can think logically even about unfamiliar topics.
C) are incapable of logical thought, as Piaget asserted.
D) do not understand cause-and-effect relationships.

Question 73

Preschoolers seem to use __________ when they must grapple with unfamiliar topics, too much information, or contradictory facts that they cannot reconcile.

A) illogical reasoning
B) mental representation
C) analogical problem solving
D) logical thought

Question 74

When his friend's mom asks him if he wants a ride home from baseball practice, Pele gives her directions using a __________ that helps him imagine the mom's movements along the route she needs to take between the baseball field and Pele's house.

A) conservation technique
B) "mental walk" strategy
C) "decentration" method
D) transitive inference strategy

Question 75

Children's ability to draw a map of a large-scale space improves with age due to

A) their ability to reason by analogy.
B) gains in fine-motor development.
C) an increase in spatial cognition.
D) better perspective-taking skills.

Question 76

During a conservation-of-water problem, Wanda recognizes that a change in the height of the water is compensated for by a change in its width. This example demonstrates that Wanda is capable of

A) seriation.
B) decentration.
C) reversibility.
D) hypothetico-deductive reasoning.

Question 77

Some investigators have concluded that the forms of logic required by Piagetian tasks

A) are heavily influenced by training, context, and cultural conditions.
B) emerge spontaneously during middle childhood.
C) emerge spontaneously during adolescence.
D) show little variation worldwide.

Question 78

Three-year-old Dominic calls his toy robot Sam and talks to him as if Sam is another 3-year-old. What explanation do researchers give for Dominic's behavior?

A) Dominic actually believes that the robot is alive.
B) Dominic believes that all people and objects think the same thoughts that he thinks.
C) Dominic cannot distinguish between animate and inanimate objects.
D) Dominic has incomplete knowledge about certain objects, including his toy robot.

Question 79

The most important illogical feature of preoperational thought is

A) irreversibility.
B) egocentrism.
C) magical thinking.
D) conservation.

Question 80

When 4-year-old Leela wished for her grandmother to come and visit, and the very next day her grandmother arrived at Leela's house, Leela believed it was

A) because her grandmother knew every thought Leela had.
B) nothing out of the ordinary.
C) because magic accounts for events she cannot otherwise explain.
D) a special power that only Leela has.