Deck 9: Cognitive Development in Early Childhood

Question 1

Jean Piaget and Bärbel Inhelder's three-mountain task was designed to test whether children:

A)believe that nonliving objects are in fact alive.
B)focus on just one property when they reason about objects.
C)are able to see things from someone else's perspective.
D)recognize that the amount of something does not change when its shape changes.

Answer 1

C
Explanation: Egocentrism is the inability to distinguish between one's own perspective and someone else's perspective.Piaget and Barbel Inhelder initially studied young children's egocentrism by devising the three mountains task.

Question 2

Which of the following statements is true regarding the symbolic function substage of Piaget's preoperational stage?

A)During this stage,children have the ability to distinguish between one's own perspective and someone else's perspective.
B)This substage occurrs roughly between the ages of five and six years.
C)This is the second substage of Piaget's peroperational stage.
D)During this stage,children believe that inanimate objects have lifelike qualities and are capable of action.

Answer 2

D
Explanation: The symbolic function substage is the first substage of preoperational thought,occurring roughly between the ages of 2 and 4.During this stage,children do not have the ability to distinguish between one's own perspective and someone else's perspective and they believe that inanimate objects have lifelike qualities and are capable of action.

Question 3

The _____ substage is the first substage of Piaget's preoperational stage of development.

A)sensorimotor
B)social referencing
C)symbolic function
D)intuitive thought

Answer 3

C
Explanation: The symbolic function substage is the first substage of preoperational thought,occurring roughly between the ages of 2 and 4.In this substage,the young child gains the ability to mentally represent an object that is not present.

Question 4

Jean Piaget's preoperational period extends from _____ years of age.

A)birth to two
B)two to seven
C)four to ten
D)seven to eleven

Question 5

Three-year-old Ke,on hearing thunder,said,"The clouds are talking loudly outside." Ke's behavior illustrates the concept of _____.

A)centration
B)animism
C)egocentrism
D)object permanence

Question 6

Which of the following statements is true regarding Piaget's preoperational stage?

A)The intuitive thought substage is the first substage of the preoperational stage.
B)During this stage,a child's cognitive world is dominated by egocentrism and magical beliefs.
C)It is the first stage of development according to Piaget.
E)Children can perform reversible mental actions that allow children to do mentally what before they could do only physically.

Question 7

_____ thought is the beginning of the ability to reconstruct in thought what has been established in behavior.

A)Operational
B)Proximodal
C)Preoperational
D)Self-conscious

Question 8

Andrea cannot tell the difference between her own perspective and someone else's.Andrea is experiencing _____.

A)animism
B)operational referencing
C)egocentrism
D)reverse socialization

Question 9

While talking with Grandma on the phone,Benicio suddenly exclaimed,"Oh,look at that pretty red bird!" When his grandmother asked him to describe the bird,Benicio said,"Out there,out there! Right there,Grandma!" Benicio's behavior is an example of _____.

A)animism
B)egocentrism
C)social referencing
D)reverse socialization

Question 10

With reference to Piaget's preoperational stage,mentally adding and subtracting numbers is an example of: _____.

A)operations
B)egocentrism
C)animism
D)intuition

Question 11

Which of the following terms refers to the belief that inanimate objects have lifelike qualities and are capable of action?

A)Egocentrism
B)Relative referencing
C)Animism
D)self-concordance

Question 12

Four-year-old Marta drew a picture with pretty lavender,purple,and blue colors intermixed with green,yellow,and brown."It's a boat on the ocean at sunset,with whales jumping all around it!" she explained to her teacher.Marta is showing clear evidence of being in the _____ substage of Piaget's peroperational stage.

A)social referencing
B)self-consciousness
C)intuitive thought
D)symbolic function

Question 13

The intuitive thought substage of preoperational thought occurs between approximately _____ years of age.

A)one and two
B)three and four
C)two and three
D)four and seven

Question 14

During the intuitive thought substage of preoperational thought children begin to use _____ and want to know the answers to all sorts of questions.

A)animism
B)primitive reasoning
C)egocentrism
D)symbolic thought

Question 15

The symbolic function substage of preoperational thought occurs roughly between the ages of:

A)9 months and two years.
B)two and four years.
C)five and six years.
D)six and seven years.

Question 16

Which of the following indicates that the child is in the symbolic function substage?

A)The child uses a scribbled design to represent her family.
B)The child cries when hungry and smiles when happy.
C)The child can mentally add or subtract numbers.
D)The child wants to know the answers to all sorts of questions.

Question 17

"My computer doesn't like me- it keeps eating my pictures," said Vanessa.This statement is an example of _____.

A)animism
B)centration
C)self-concordance
D)egocentrism

Question 18

Jean Piaget claimed that during the preoperational stage children cannot:

A)use mental operations in their thought.
B)represent the world with drawings.
C)form stable concepts.
D)indulge in magical beliefs.

Question 19

Which of the following is the second substage of Piaget's preoperational stage of development?

A)The intuitive thought substage
B)The reverse socialization substage
C)The self-awareness substage
D)The symbolic function substage

Question 20

Esteban fell down and scraped a knee on the sidewalk.He said,"The mean sidewalk made me fall by tripping me." Esteban's statement indicates a(n)_____ thought.

A)egocentric
B)symbolic
C)intuitive
D)animistic

Question 21

Centration leads a child to:

A)focus on only one feature of an object.
B)believe in lifelike qualities of inanimate objects.
C)see things from the viewpoint of another person.
D)see multiple characteristics of an object at one time.

Question 22

Which of the following terms,introduces by Vygotsky,refers to the child's cognitive skills that are in the process of maturing and can be accomplished only with the assistance of a more-skilled person?

A)Zone of possible agreement
B)Range of cognitive evolution
C)Range of task alternatives
D)Zone of proximal development

Question 23

Young children use language to plan,guide,and monitor their behavior.This use of language for self-regulation is called _____ speech.

A)inner
B)private
C)inherent
D)cognitive

Question 24

When adults are working with young children,they often provide a lot of hints,assistance,instruction,and other support to help the children succeed.Then,as the children demonstrate that they can do more for themselves,the adults begin to withdraw their hints,assistance,and instruction.This shows that the adults are often aware of children's:

A)zone of proximal development.
B)ability of engaging in private speech.
C)level of metacognition.
D)range of cognitive evaluation.

Question 25

The concept that an object's or substance's basic properties stay the same even though its appearance has been altered is known as _____.

A)animism
B)scaffolding
C)conservation
D)operation

Question 26

The focusing of attention on one characteristic to the exclusion of others is called:

A)animism.
B)egocentrism.
C)centration.
D)object permanence.

Question 27

Researchers have found that children who use private speech are:

A)less alert and aware of their surroundings.
B)more attentive and are more likely to improve their performance.
C)socially maladjusted.
D)at the upper end of the zone of proximodal development.

Question 28

Jason,who is four years old,spends a lot of time talking to himself while he is processing information.According to Lev Vygotsky:

A)Jason should be encouraged not to talk to himself.
B)Jason will likely be more socially competent than if he did not use private speech.
C)Jason' private speech is an indication of his mental retardation.
D)Jason's private speech is an indication of his egocentrism and immaturity.

Question 29

Which of the following terms refers to the concept that an object's or substance's basic properties stay the same even though its appearance has been altered?

A)Conservation
B)Animism
C)Egocentrism
D)Object permanance

Question 30

Latoya talks to herself frequently,especially when trying to solve a difficult problem.Lev Vygotsky would say that Latoya is:

A)engaging in egocentric and immature thinking.
B)functioning at the upper limit of her zone of proximal development (ZPD).
C)using the institutional level of thinking to learn about her environment.
D)using private speech in order to plan,guide,and monitor her own behavior.

Question 31

Centration refers to:

A)the belief that inanimate objects have lifelike qualities and are capable of action.
B)the inability to distinguish between one's own perspective and someone else's perspective.
C)the ability to complete reversible mental actions that allow children to do mentally what they formerly did physically.
D)the focusing of attention on one characteristic to the exclusion of all others.

Question 32

Four-year-old Doug is driving his parents crazy with all his questions.He asks why everything is the way it is,then why things aren't some other way.His parents might be comforted to know that such questioning is characteristic of:

A)the intuitive thought substage.
B)the zone of proximal development.
C)the symbolic function substge.
D)the operational stage.

Question 33

Howie and his little sister Faye are each given one large cookie.Their mother breaks Faye's cookie into four pieces to help her eat it more easily.Howie immediately begins to cry,saying that it isn't fair for Faye to get so many cookies when he has only one.Howie is showing:

A)lack of centration.
B)lack of conservation.
C)egocentrism.
D)animism.

Question 34

During the _____ substage of preoperational thought,children seem very sure about their knowledge but do not know how they know what they know.

A)sensorimotor
B)symbolic function
C)intuitive thought
D)concrete operational

Question 35

In one of the tasks devised by Piaget,a child is shown two identical beakers filled to the same level with liquid.Next,the liquid from one beaker is poured into a third beaker,which is taller and thinner than the first two.Then,the child is asked if the amount of liquid in the tall,thin beaker is equal to that which remains in one of the original beakers.The child's awareness of which of the followings concepts is tested by this task?

A)Conservation
B)Centration
C)Animism
D)Egocentrism

Question 36

Scaffolding means:

A)continuing to support someone permanently.
B)helping others by doing things for them.
C)changing the level of support depending on the need.
D)assisting children to work outside their zone of proximal development (ZPD).

Question 37

The zone of proximal development (ZPD)is a measure of:

A)cognitive ability.
B)the range of tasks that can be learned with the assistance of adults.
C)interpersonal skills.
D)social-relationship-building skills and abilities.

Question 38

As a child moves through a zone of proximal development (ZPD),the teacher's role is to:

A)give detailed instructions and direct the child's behavior throughout the development process.
B)provide instruction as the child learns a task,but gradually let the child become more independent.
C)allow the child to choose his or her own activities and to move freely between them with no direction from the teacher.
D)encourage students to engage in private speech.

Question 39

In regard to cognitive development,which of the following terms was used by Vygotsky to describe the changing level of support over the course of a teaching session,with the more-skilled person adjusting guidance to fit the child's current performance level?

A)Self-concordance
B)Operant conditioning
C)Scaffolding
D)Reverse socializing

Question 40

A child is shown two identical balls of clay.One of the balls is then rolled out into a string and the child is asked which has more clay, the ball or the string.This process is a test of _____.

A)conservation
B)animism
C)self-consciousness
D)egocentrism

Question 41

Without rehearsal,our _____ memory can store information for 30 seconds.

A)sensory
B)long-term
C)brief-attention
D)short-term

Question 42

Which of the following do children refer to earlier and more frequently than the others?

A)Desires
B)Thinking
C)Knowing
D)Feelings

Question 43

Research suggests that older children perform better on memory-span tasks than younger children.Which of the following best explains this finding?

A)Older children are more susceptibility to suggestion than younger children.
B)Older children rehearse the information more than younger children.
C)Older children have more accurate implicit memory than younger children.
D)Older children can retrieve information from long-term memory faster than younger children.

Question 44

_____ is an approach that emphasizes the social contexts of learning and the fact that knowledge is mutually built and constructed.

A)Social constructivist approach
B)Academic approach
C)Phonetics approach
D)Social norms approach

Question 45

Which of the following is true with regard to young children's memory?

A)Both short-term and long-term memory decrease in capacity during childhood.
B)Memory span remains constant irrespective of age.
C)Preschoolers' memories are less susceptible to suggestion than that of adults.
D)Young children's eyewitness testimonies can often be influenced by the interviewer.

Question 46

Four-year-old Alyssa,a preschool child,has been asked to solve a problem.She is likely to focus on the features of the problem that are flashy,or stand out,rather than those that are most important.Alyssa is focusing on the _____ features of the problem.

A)salient
B)relevant
C)significant
D)regular

Question 47

Children use private speech more when:

A)the tasks are easy.
B)they have made an error.
C)they know how to complete the task.
D)they are at the upper end of the zone of proximodal development.

Question 48

Executive functioning involves:

A)changing the level of support.
B)focusing of mental resources on select information.
C)managing one's thoughts to engage in goal directed behavior and self-control.
D)focusing attention on one characteristic to the exclusion of all others.

Question 49

Which of the following statements is true regarding Vygotsky's theory?

A)It specifically describes age-related changes.
B)It adequately describes how changes in socioemotional capabilities contribute to cognitive development.
C)It overemphasizes the role of language in thinking.
D)It does not emphasize collaboration and guidance.

Question 50

Theory of mind:

A)is an umbrella-like concept that consists of a number of higher-level cognitive processes linked to the development of the brain's prefrontal cortex.
B)is a concept of cognitive development that describes the changing level of support offered to children.
C)is a concept that refers to awareness of one's own mental processes and the mental processes of others.
D)is an approach that emphasizes the social contexts of learning and the fact that knowledge is mutually built and constructed.

Question 51

Wally has just begun to understand that people may hold some beliefs that are not true.If Wally is like most other children,he is about _____ years old.

A)two
B)one
C)ten
D)five

Question 52

Ahmed is five years old and is going to testify in court as an eyewitness.The judge should know that:

A)preschool children are least susceptible to suggestion.
B)preschool children are all alike in how susceptible to suggestion they are.
C)interviewing techniques can affect a child's report of what happened.
D)children's account of events is based on intuitive thinking.

Question 53

Mary is taking a test where she hears a random list of numbers like "7 . . .4 . . .9 . . .3." As soon as the reader is done reading the list of numbers,she is asked to recite the numbers in the correct order.Mary is having her _____ tested.

A)span of control
B)habituation span
C)long-term memory span
D)short-term memory span

Question 54

Which age group is the most suggestible and therefore most likely to believe misleading information about an event they have viewed?

A)Preschool
B)School aged
C)Adolescents
D)Adults

Question 55

Between the ages of _____,children come to understand that the mind can represent objects and events accurately or inaccurately.

A)1 and 2
B)6 and 8
C)9 and 11
D)3 and 5

Question 56

_____ is an umbrella-like concept that consists of a number of higher-level cognitive processes linked to the development of the brain's prefrontal cortex.

A)Animism
B)Primal development
C)Egocentrism
D)Executive functioning

Question 57

_____ involves action planning,allocating attention to goals,error detection and compensation,monitoring progress on tasks,and dealing with novel or difficult circumstances.

A)Scaffoding
B)Social constructivist approach
C)Social referencing
D)Executive attention

Question 58

Children begin to see the mind as an active constructor of knowledge or processing center during:

A)infancy.
B)the preschool years.
C)middle and late childhood.
D)adolescence.

Question 59

_____ is focused and extended engagement with an object,task,event,or other aspect of the environment.

A)Scaffoding
B)Classical conditioning
C)Sustained attention
D)Executive functioning

Question 60

Studies of _____ view the child as "a thinker who is trying to explain,predict,and understand people's thoughts,feelings,and utterances."

A)theory of sociocultural environment
B)theory of relative development
C)theory of mind
D)theory of cognitivity

Question 61

In a task,children are asked to say the word night when they see a picture of a sun,and the word day when they see a picture of a moon and stars.This is an example of a(n)_____ task.

A)short-term memory
B)executive function
C)sustained attention
D)social referencing

Question 62

A growing number of educators and psychologists believe that preschool and early elementary school children learn best through:

A)social development teaching methods.
B)self-regulating activities.
C)practices that focus on what is being taught.
D)hands-on teaching methods.

Question 63

In a child-centered kindergarten,instruction is organized around the child's:

A)cultural background.
B)level of metacognition understanding.
C)learning style.
D)economical background.

Question 64

Developmentally appropriate practices are most likely to be:

A)child centered.
B)skill oriented.
C)teacher centered.
D)content focused.

Question 65

Project Head Start was designed to provide children from low-income families with:

A)training in job-related skills to reduce reliance on public assistance programs.
B)low-cost meal programs so they would be physically ready to learn.
C)opportunities to freely choose better schools away from their neighborhood schools.
D)early opportunities to develop skills important for success in school.

Question 66

The transition from the ability to construct simple sentences expressing a single idea to complex sentences begins between _____ years of age.

A)one and two
B)two and three
C)three and four
D)four and five

Question 67

In a Montessori school,children are most likely to:

A)work together on a group project.
B)engage in imaginative play.
C)work alone on various curriculum materials.
D)find their teachers taking the role of a director.

Question 68

Some developmentalists believe that Montessori schools neglect the development of _____ skills.

A)social
B)physical
C)cognitive
D)information processing

Question 69

Children learn to change their speech style to suit the situation by around:

A)two to three years of age.
B)three to four years of age.
C)four to five years of age.
D)seven to eight years of age.

Question 70

In a child-centered kindergarten,education focuses on the:

A)child's social interaction.
B)role of a teacher as a director.
C)child's freedom to choose activities.
D)process of learning.

Question 71

Autism can usually be diagnosed by the age of:

A)five years.
B)seven years.
C)three years.
D)nine years

Question 72

Lonnie's preschool is academically focused.The children do several paper-and-pencil activities each day and are formally tested every Friday.According to research on developmentally appropriate schools,Lonnie will _____ than if he had attended a developmentally appropriate preschool.

A)be less advanced in vocabulary and math
B)be less creative
C)be less motivated to learn
D)show lower confidence during test taking

Question 73

Pointing to a tree,young Ramal said,"Bird flied away." Ramal has broken a _____ rule of language.

A)syntactical
B)semantic
C)pragmatic
D)morphological

Question 74

In the Montessori approach to education:

A)children are given considerable freedom in choosing their activities.
B)teachers direct and organize children's learning.
C)social development is the focus during the preschool years.
D)all children follow the same educational program.

Question 75

When a child sees a shirt and hears,"This is a shirt," then sees another "shirt" and declares,"Now there are two shirts," the child is displaying an understanding of:

A)syntax.
B)semantics.
C)pragmatics.
D)morphology.

Question 76

It is now accepted that the origin of autism is linked to:

A)expectant mothers who drink excessive amounts of alcohol.
B)exposure to smoking while in the womb.
C)illness during infancy.
D)genetic factors.

Question 77

The kindergarten teachers say,"We try to help children learn by using their strengths and preferences.We try to find out at which stage of development is each child and then get them personally involved in their own education as soon as possible." This classroom follows _____ practices.

A)achievement oriented
B)process oriented
C)developmentally appropriate
D)extrinsically motivated

Question 78

Jenny says,"What Montel is doing?" Jenny needs to improve her _____.

A)syntax
B)punctuation
C)pragmatics
D)morphology

Question 79

Fay is five years old and attends a school where her teacher shows her how to work with a variety of curriculum materials.The teacher acts primarily as a facilitator in Fay's cognitive development.Fay is given considerable freedom and spontaneity in choosing activities.She is allowed to move from one activity to another as she desires.Fay most likely attends a:

A)Montessori school.
B)child-centered kindergarten.
C)Project Head Start program.
D)developmentally appropriate kindergarten.

Question 80

Which of the following terms refers to an educational philosophy in which children are given considerable freedom and spontaneity in choosing activities and specially designed curriculum materials?

A)Montessori approach
B)Child-centered kindergarten approach
C)Social construction approach
D)Proximal development approach