Deck 12: Cognitive-Developmental Perspectives

Question 1

Louis receives a new soccer ball and begins to dribble it in the same way he dribbles his basketball. His dribbling of the new ball reflects Piaget's notion of:

A) concrete operations
B) accommodation
C) cognitive structure
D) assimilation

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Which one of the following reflects class inclusion as Piaget described it?

A) Getting cows and horses confused
B) Realizing that things that are cars are also vehicles
C) Identifying a shape as a square one day but as a triangle the next
D) Understanding that some behaviors that are perfectly acceptable at home are unacceptable at school

Answer 2

B

Question 3

In Piaget's theory, a scheme can best be described as:

A) A mental picture of oneself
B) A general lifestyle or cultural pattern
C) A set of motor skills that preschoolers develop
D) An organized group of similar thoughts or actions

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Jean Piaget's ideas were largely ignored by American psychologists until the 1960s. Three of the following are probable reasons why this was so. Which one is not a likely reason?

A) Piaget studied children rather than nonhuman species.
B) Piaget's ideas were incompatible with behaviorist theory.
C) Most of Piaget's writings were in French.
D) Piaget used research methods that were unconventional in the eyes of American psychologists.

Question 5

Piaget spoke of egocentrism as a characteristic of preoperational thought. Three of the following are examples of egocentrism as Piaget defined it. Which one is not an example of preoperational egocentrism?

A) Justin is constantly grabbing objects and pulling them toward himself.
B) Lois tells a story as if her listeners already know many details they can't possibly know.
C) Kate cannot make sense of the question "How do you think Molly feels?"
D) Frank thinks that Lucinda sees the same thing he does, even though Lucinda is in a different room.

Question 6

Which one of the following examples best illustrates Piaget's concept of object permanence?

A) Two-year-old Jasmine looks for a favorite toy her father has just hidden in a box.
B) Six-year-old Lucas thinks that his recently deceased grandfather is still alive.
C) Ten-year-old Margaret glues the pieces of a vase she has just broken, claiming that she'll make it look "good as new."
D) Fifteen-year-old Kenneth finally understands his geometry teacher's statement that two parallel lines might go on forever without ever touching.

Question 7

Which one of the following best illustrates Piaget's concept of accommodation?

A) After Amanda solves a set of 10 addition problems carelessly and incorrectly, she is given 10 more problems to solve.
B) Betsy writes down her definition of a mollusk-something she learned word for word from her textbook.
C) Carol copies what her teacher writes on the blackboard.
D) Donna revises her understanding of what clouds are like when she studies them in science.

Question 8

Which one of the following examples best illustrates symbolic thought as Piaget described it?

A) Isabelle pushes a classmate off the swing so that she can use it.
B) Edward tries not to cry when his mother drops him off on the first day of kindergarten
C) Richard actively manipulates a new toy to find out what it does.
D) Laura asks herself, "Hmm, where did I put my social studies book?"

Question 9

Which one of the following clearly illustrates Piaget's concept of assimilation?

A) Five-year-old Harvey draws on the chalkboard with a large white crayon instead of with chalk.
B) Eight-year-old Rowena develops the necessary eye-hand coordination for writing letters in cursive.
C) Eleven-year-old Mary Lou moves to a different school and purchases new clothes to fit the local fashions.
D) A language arts teacher asks 13-year-old Reynold to think about possible adjectives other than awesome that he might use in his writing to describe interesting and enjoyable activities.

Question 10

Which one of the following statements best describes Piaget's view of how children acquire knowledge about the world?

A) Children are naturally disposed to think about their environment in particular ways; in a sense, some basic knowledge about the world is "pre-wired."
B) Children actively construct their own view of the world from their experiences with the environment.
C) Children repeatedly parrot their parents' and teachers' beliefs, eventually internalizing these beliefs as their own "knowledge."
D) Initially, children unconsciously develop a rather complex and confused view of the world, but this view becomes simpler and more straightforward as time goes on.

Question 11

Which one of the following teachers is definitely keeping in mind Piaget's idea that assimilation and accommodation are both necessary for learning and cognitive development to occur?

A) Mr. Ames presents brand new topics every day, expecting the continual novelty to keep students interested and motivated.
B) Mr. Baretta shows students how a new topic is similar to the things they already know, but also different in certain ways.
C) Ms. Chang makes sure that students have learned one topic very, very well before moving on to another.
D) Ms. Doherty uses a lot of drill and practice exercises, encouraging students to work faster every time.

Question 12

As a first-grade teacher reads a book about penguins in Antarctica, she points to Antarctica on a globe. Six-year-old John seems really puzzled. "How come they don't fall off the earth?" he asks. From Piaget's perspective, John can best be described as:

A) Experiencing disequilibrium
B) Having difficulty with conservation
C) Having difficulty with class inclusion
D) Accommodating when he should be assimilating

Question 13

Piaget's sensorimotor stage is characterized by:

A) The beginnings of conservation
B) Basic schemes for dealing with abstract ideas
C) Schemes based primarily on perceptions and behaviors
D) Inaccurate mental representations of the physical and biological world

Question 14

From Piaget's perspective, why is language critical for children's cognitive development?

A) It helps them get things they want.
B) It gives them a means for symbolically thinking about objects and events.
C) It takes up much of their mental energy and so helps to keep them from being easily distracted.
D) It enhances their self-efficacy, because they are now aware that they can communicate effectively with other human beings.

Question 15

Mr. Jones teaches a class of twenty 8-year-old third graders. His goal for the upcoming school year is to help at least 50% of his students reach formal operations. Judging from Piaget's theory, we would expect that Mr. Jones's goal is:

A) An easy one to attain
B) Almost impossible to attain
C) Attainable only if he emphasizes abstract reasoning throughout the school year
D) Attainable only if his students have had enriching educational experiences most of their lives

Question 16

In her first trip to a zoo, 7-year-old Latisha notices that leopards have paws very similar in shape to her cat Snowball's paws. She also notices that leopards walk in much the same way that Snowball does. Latisha starts to wonder if perhaps leopards are cats. Latisha's thinking illustrates Piaget's idea that thought is characterized by:

A) egocentrism
B) conservation
C) use of schemes
D) compartmentalization

Question 17

Which one of the following best describes Piaget's notion of equilibration?

A) A child assimilates without accommodating.
B) A child doesn't encounter any new or challenging ideas.
C) A child revises existing schemes to better understand new phenomenon.
D) A child has difficulty explaining new events using existing schemes.

Question 18

Piaget has described four stages of cognitive development. Which one of the following is an accurate statement about Piaget's view of these stages?

A) With each successive stage, schemata become more simplified.
B) It is possible for children to skip from preoperations to formal operations, but only a small minority of children actually do so.
C) Children have difficulty solving problems until they reach formal operations.
D) Each stage involves forms of thought qualitatively different from those of other stages.

Question 19

Four-year-old Becky is playing with blocks, stacking them one on top of another until her towers eventually tumble, and then stacking the blocks again. Which one of the following best reflects Piaget's view of how Becky is probably learning in this situation?

A) Because she is probably still in the sensorimotor stage, she will remember what she learns about the blocks only while the blocks are still in front of her.
B) She is absorbing information about how the environment behaves (e.g., "objects fall") without consciously thinking about it.
C) She is actively thinking about and interpreting the results of her actions.
D) Because she builds one tower after another, she is obviously reinforced by watching her towers tumble down.

Question 20

According to Piaget, three of the following are essential for cognitive development. Which one is not?

A) Brain maturation
B) High self-esteem
C) Interaction with other people
D) Interaction with the physical environment

Question 21

Olivia understands why ³/₅ and ⁹/₁₅ are equivalent fractions. Based on this information, Olivia is probably in Piaget's _______ stage of development.

A) formal operations
B) preoperational
C) concrete operations
D) sensorimotor

Question 22

Which one of the following statements best illustrates a neo-Piagetian approach to cognitive development?

A) As children grow older, their increasing working memory capacity enables them to think in qualitatively more sophisticated ways about particular content domains.
B) Children's progression through various stages of cognitive development is almost entirely the result of environmental experiences; brain maturation has little to do with their advancements in thinking.
C) Children's progression through various stages of cognitive development is almost entirely the result of brain maturation; environmental experiences have little to do with their advancements in thinking.
D) Children's acquisition of various cognitive abilities occurs in a gradual, trendlike manner rather than in discrete stages.

Question 23

As Valerie grows older, she becomes increasingly proficient in a variety of tasks involving numerical reasoning, including counting, adding and subtracting, and comparing two-digit numbers. From a neo-Piagetian perspective, Valerie's simultaneous progress in these diverse areas reflects the idea that she:

A) Is in a state of equilibrium
B) Is in her zone of proximal development for numerical tasks
C) Can assimilate diverse mathematical tasks into a single mega-scheme
D) Has a central conceptual structure for numbers

Question 24

If we look at cognitive development from Piaget's perspective, we would expect a child in the concrete operations stage to have the greatest difficulty with which one of the following questions?

A) How are an apple and a blueberry alike?
B) If you have 8 Macintosh apples and 2 Golden Delicious apples, then do you have more Macintoshes or more apples?
C) An apple pie is cut into 4 pieces. A blueberry pie of the same size is cut into 12 pieces. How many pieces of blueberry pie do you need to have the same amount as 3 pieces of the apple pie?
D) If we have one row of blueberries spread like so: o o o o o o and another row of blueberries spread like so: o o o o o o
Then does one row have more blueberries than the other?

Question 25

Which one of the following best illustrates how sociocognitive conflict might promote cognitive development?

A) Two children work together on a crossword puzzle that includes the week's new spelling words.
B) A teenage boy worries that his friends might think he's a "nerd" if he refuses a can of beer at a party.
C) The students in a cooperative learning group debate different ways of solving a difficult math problem.
D) Two students help each other prepare for a quiz by giving each other practice test questions.

Question 26

Only one of the following conclusions can be derived from recent research regarding Piaget's theory of cognitive development. Which one?

A) Middle school and secondary school students typically have an easier time thinking logically in the social sciences than they do in the physical and life sciences.
B) Children will think more logically about a topic when they have acquired relevant knowledge and experiences related to the topic.
C) Many young people continue to show signs of preoperational thinking until well into the high school years.
D) Children have an easier time understanding fractions and proportions in adolescence if such concepts are first introduced at the same time that division is introduced (e.g., in third grade).

Question 27

Dr. Bauer asks 9-year-old Anne to divide a pitcher of lemonade equally between two glasses, one each for her and her friend Kate. The two glasses are different shapes, with Anne's being tall and thin and Kate's being short and wide. After Anne pours the lemonade, Dr. Bauer says to her, "Look, the lemonade in your glass is higher than the lemonade in Kate's glass. Did you give yourself more than you gave Kate?" "No," Anne replies, "my glass is skinnier." Dr. Bauer continues to ask Anne questions to determine how well she understands that height compensates for width in this situation. Dr. Bauer's strategy can best be described as illustrating:

A) Equilibration
B) Class inclusion
C) The clinical method
D) Reciprocal teaching

Question 28

Three of the following statements reflect contemporary views of Piaget's stages. Which statement is not accurate?

A) The stages better reflect how children can think under optimal circumstances rather than how they typically do think in day-to-day situations.
B) Acquisition of stage-related characteristics (or not) seems to depend to some degree on the culture in which a child grows up.
C) Most formal operational capabilities emerge 2-3 years earlier than Piaget suggested.
D) Cognitive development can be better characterized as gradual trends than as four distinct stages.

Question 29

Carl can correctly answer a question such as, "If all flegs are blats, and if all blats are dulms, are all flegs also dulms?" From Piaget's perspective, Carl is most likely in the _______ stage of cognitive development.

A) sensorimotor
B) preoperational
C) formal operations
D) concrete operations

Question 30

In describing the cognitive abilities of infants, Piaget appears to have:

A) Underestimated what they know and can do
B) Overestimated what they know and can do
C) Assessed their abilities quite accurately
D) Overestimated the importance of language in their early thinking

Question 31

Which one of the following statements reflects a concern about the separation and control of variables?

A) "How do you think I should make amends with Martha? If I tell her I'm sorry, she might think I'm lying."
B) "I'm catching more tadpoles today, but I don't know if it's because I'm using a larger container to catch them or because I'm working in a different part of the frog pond."
C) "I have two tests to study for tonight-science and Spanish. I'll study one subject before dinner and the other one after dinner so I don't get them confused."
D) "I'm trying to learn how to do a lay-up shot. Can you show me all the things I should do, going one step at a time?"

Question 32

Choose the statement below that most accurately reflects recent research findings concerning Piaget's theory of cognitive development.

A) The egocentrism associated with the preoperational stage continues to be common even in the upper elementary grades.
B) Concrete operational thinking abilities, such as conservation and class inclusion, develop later than Piaget believed.
C) The order in which various logical thinking capabilities emerge is consistent with the sequence that Piaget proposed.
D) Formal operational thinking abilities, such as the ability to think and reason about abstract and hypothetical ideas, begin to emerge in the preschool years.

Question 33

From Piaget's perspective, why might it be wise to postpone the teaching of complex fractions until middle school or high school?
a. Younger students haven't attained conservation.
*b Younger students haven't acquired proportional reasoning.
c Younger students can't learn complex equations.
d. Younger students don't know their math facts well enough.

Question 34

Three of the following statements are true about inquiry learning as an instructional strategy. Which statement is false?

A) Students benefit from inquiry learning activities only when they're given total control over the topic to study and how to study it.
B) Inquiry learning activities require students to use various reasoning processes to examine the phenomena under investigation.
C) Inquiry learning activities can be effective even when they involve "experimentation" with virtual "objects" in a computer program.
D) Students sometimes misinterpret their observations-for instance, by "finding" what they expected to find.

Question 35

Which one of the following would Piaget be least likely to advocate for elementary school children?

A) Discussions with classmates
B) Field trips to hands-on science museums
C) Laboratory-type experiences with physical objects
D) Lectures that describe interesting scientific facts

Question 36

Three of the following statements are consistent with neo-Piagetian perspectives of cognitive development. Which statement is not?

A) Formal instruction can have a significant impact on children's cognitive development.
B) Incomplete brain maturation limits how much children at any particular age can do.
C) Through their everyday experiences, children learn some of the basic patterns in their environment even without intentionally trying to do so.
D) Cognitive development is better characterized as a series of seven (rather than four) general stages.

Question 37

Which one of the following strategies is most likely to help students learn from a discovery learning activity?

A) Making sure students always remain in equilibrium
B) Providing some structure to guide students' explorations
C) Providing an abstract overview of the discovery session ahead of time
D) Encouraging students to interpret their observations in ways that confirm their initial expectations

Question 38

Roger is shown two piles of sand and says that each pile has the same amount. However, when one pile is flattened with a shovel, he now claims emphatically, "The flat pile has less sand." Based on this information, Roger is probably in Piaget's _______ stage of development.

A) preoperational
B) concrete operations
C) formal operations
D) sensorimotor

Question 39

James is talking about how much better the world would be if everyone just agreed to love everyone else. From the perspective of Piaget's theory, James is most likely to be

A) 4 years old
B) 7 years old
C) 10 years old
D) 14 years old

Question 40

Imagine that you are a third-grade teacher. If you were to make predictions based on Piaget's stages of cognitive development, you would expect most or all of your students to exhibit _______ thinking.

A) sensorimotor
B) preoperational
C) formal operations
D) concrete operations

Question 41

Three of the following teaching practices are consistent with Piaget's theory of cognitive development. Which one is not?

A) A second-grade teacher encourages students to (1) speculate about possible explanations regarding why kites of different shapes fly differently and then (2) test each explanation systematically.
B) A ninth-grade science uses a three-dimensional model of the solar system to illustrate her explanation of why it's warmer in summer than in winter.
C) When a high school student claims that people should "Make love, not war," his teacher urges him to consider whether such an approach would have been advisable when the Fascist movement was gaining ground in Europe in the late 1930s and early 1940s.
D) When 7-year-old Martin says that two nickels are worth more than one dime because there are two of them and they're bigger, his teacher asks, "How can that be? Two nickels are worth ten cents, and one dime is also worth ten cents."

Question 42

Describe at least three ways in which students in Piaget's formal operations stage are likely to think differently from those in the concrete operations stage. Illustrate each characteristic with a concrete example of how students in each of the two stages might think or behave.

Question 43

The following four junior high school science teachers are teaching the concept molecule to their students. In each classroom, some of the students are at Piaget's formal operations stage and others are at the concrete operations stage. In which classroom are the concrete operational students most likely to have difficulty understanding?

A) Mr. Armani lets students touch and manipulate concrete models of various molecules.
B) Mr. Bendetti lets students look at the same concrete models that Mr. Armani has used.
C) Mr. Carmen verbally describes how different elements are made up of different numbers of neutrons, protons, and electrons.
D) Mr. Davidson has students role-play being neutrons, protons, and electrons. The "neutron" and "proton" students huddle together in the middle of the room, and the "electrons" move around them.

Question 44

Mr. Gallagher shows a group of children two candy bars. All children agree that the two bars have the same amount of candy. Then Mr. Gallagher breaks one candy bar into small pieces. At this point, some of the children still claim that the two candy bars (one whole and one broken) have the same amount of candy. Other children, however, claim that the broken bar has more candy. Using a Piagetian framework, Mr. Gallagher concludes that the children are in two different stages of cognitive development. Which stages are the two groups of children in? Justify your decision.

Question 45

Describe Piaget's concepts of assimilation and accommodation, showing how they are different processes but also how they are related to each other. Give an example that illustrates each of the two processes.