Question 1

If you were to ask nine-year-old Sharlise a question, with which question would Piaget predict that she'd have the greatest struggle?

Accepted Answer

Piaget's theory of cognitive development suggests that children around nine years old are in the concrete operational stage, where they are capable of logical reasoning but struggle with hypothetical or abstract concepts. The question about a potential female president involves abstract thinking and prediction, which may be challenging for a child in this stage. The other questions are more concrete and relate to immediate experiences or preferences.

Question 2

An individual's informal understanding of memory, including the ability to accurately assess memory problems and to monitor the effectiveness of their remembering strategies, is called ____.

Accepted Answer

Metamemory refers to an individual's knowledge and awareness about their own memory processes, which includes the ability to assess memory problems and evaluate the effectiveness of different memory strategies. Metacognition, on the other hand, is a broader concept that encompasses an individual's awareness of their own cognitive processes, including thinking, problem-solving, and learning. Metacognitive knowledge refers specifically to an individual's understanding of their own cognitive abilities and limitations. Meta-analysis, finally, is a statistical technique used to combine and analyze data from multiple studies on a particular topic.

Question 3

Georgie is taking a chemistry class, where different liquids must be combined in specific amounts in order to produce an end product. Rather than just pouring them all together, Georgie understands that he must combine specific amounts of each ingredient so that he creates the right mixture. Clearly Georgie has reached the ____ stage of cognitive development.

Accepted Answer

Georgie's ability to understand the specific amounts of liquids needed to produce an end product indicates that he is capable of abstract reasoning and logical thinking, which are characteristics of the formal operational stage of cognitive development.

Question 4

The ability to draw a conclusion from a set of facts reflects ____ reasoning.

Accepted Answer

The ability to draw a conclusion from a set of facts reflects deductive reasoning, as deductive reasoning involves starting with a set of premises and drawing a logical conclusion based on those premises.

Question 5

A memory strategy that involves embellishing information in order to make it easier to recall is called ____.

Accepted Answer

Elaboration involves expanding upon or embellishing information in order to make it more meaningful and easier to remember. Mnemonizing involves creating a memory aid or acronym, self-referencing involves relating the information to oneself, and organization involves structuring information in a logical manner for easier recall.

Question 6

A concrete operational thinker and a formal operational thinker are given the following logical statements: (1) If you drop a 20-pound bowling ball on your foot, it will tickle. (2) You drop a 20-pound bowling ball on your foot. What reaction would you expect?

Accepted Answer

The answer of A concrete operational thinker and a formal...

Question 7

Your authors note that as children progress through the elementary-school years, they become more adept at selecting appropriate strategies for learning and remembering. These skills fall under the larger heading of

Accepted Answer

Metacognition refers to a person's ability to understand and control their own cognitive processes. This includes skills related to learning and remembering, such as selecting appropriate strategies, monitoring one's own understanding, and adjusting one's approach as needed. Therefore, the skills mentioned in the statement fall under the larger heading of metacognition. Choices B, C, and D are not accurate because metamemory refers specifically to memory-related skills, meta-analysis refers to a different type of cognitive process, and metamorphosis refers to a biological process of transformation.

Question 8

The best example of metamemory would involve knowing that

Accepted Answer

Metamemory involves knowledge about one's own memory and the ability to use that knowledge to enhance learning and memory performance. Knowing that familiarity can aid in recall is an example of metamemory, as it involves understanding the factors that can impact one's own ability to remember information. The other options do not specifically relate to memory or metamemory.

Question 9

The main limitation of concrete operational thinking is that such thought is limited to

Accepted Answer

Concrete operational thinking is focused on tangible, real-life examples and does not extend to abstract concepts or hypothetical situations. This is a key limitation of this type of thinking. Emotional and memory issues are not necessarily related to concrete operational thinking.

Question 10

Text author Robert Kail won tickets to the Indianapolis 500 auto race by listing all the possible words that could be created from the words "SAFE RACE." This is an example of

Accepted Answer

This is an example of combinatorial reasoning, as the author is listing all the possible combinations of letters to create words from the given words.

Question 11

Thirteen-year-old Kiki is learning to play the piano, and her teacher is showing her the notes of a standard musical scale. She is struggling to remember which notes go on the lines and which notes go in the spaces, so the teacher says, "To remember that the line notes are E, G, B, D, and F, just say to yourself 'Every Good Boy Does Fine'." This type of memory strategy demonstrates ____.

Accepted Answer

The memory strategy of using a mnemonic device, such as the phrase "Every Good Boy Does Fine," involves organizing information in a meaningful and memorable way. This is an example of the organization component of memory.

Question 12

If you use the old mnemonic "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas" to remember the order of the original nine planets in our solar system as they move outward from the Sun, you are using a memory strategy called ____.

Accepted Answer

The mnemonic used by the individual is organizing the information (the order of the planets) into a structured and memorable format. This memory strategy is known as organization.

Question 13

Mental ____ are cognitive actions that can be performed on objects or ideas.

Accepted Answer

Mental operations are cognitive actions that individuals perform on objects or ideas. Schemes refer to patterns of knowledge and assumptions about concepts, while accommodations and assimilations are processes involved in how individuals incorporate new information into their existing schemas.

Question 14

"Nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah," Diane says to her younger sister Rhonda. "I have reached the formal-operational stage of thinking, so according to Piaget, I can now think ____ and you can't!" As ridiculous as this conversation is, if Diane is 13 and Rhonda is 9, what would the correct answer be?

Accepted Answer

According to Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development, the formal operational stage begins at around age 12. At this stage, individuals are able to think abstractly and hypothetically. Since Diane is 13, she would be in the formal operational stage, allowing her to think hypothetically, unlike her younger sister Rhonda, who is 9 and likely in the concrete operational stage, where logical thinking is limited to concrete situations.

Question 15

Typically, a child reaching the last of Piaget's stages would be at least ____ years of age.

Accepted Answer

Piaget's last stage, the formal operational stage, typically begins around age 11 and continues into adulthood.

Question 16

Fourteen-year old Franco is doing his homework for the night, and starts by reading some of the history chapter he was assigned. Every few pages, he turns to the "Test yourself" quiz at the end of the chapter to try to answer the questions on the material he just read. If he gets the questions wrong, he reviews the material again. Franco is best described as ____ his study methods.

Accepted Answer

Franco is monitoring his understanding and retention of the material by periodically testing himself and reviewing if he gets answers wrong.

Question 17

When children spend more time with people who have different perspectives on the world than does the child, the child tends to experience a reduction in ____.

Accepted Answer

Spending time with people who have different perspectives can help reduce a child's egocentrism, which is the tendency to see everything from their own point of view and struggle to understand other perspectives.

Question 18

The third stage of Piaget's theory of cognitive development, which typically occurs between ages 7 and 11 years, is the ____ period.

Accepted Answer

The concrete operational period is the third stage in Piaget's theory of cognitive development and typically occurs between ages 7 and 11 years. During this stage, children develop the ability to think logically and classify objects into different categories based on their attributes. They also understand conservation and can perform mental operations on concrete objects. The formal operational period is the fourth and final stage, which occurs during adolescence and adulthood, and involves the development of abstract and hypothetical thinking skills. The pre-operational period is the second stage, which occurs between ages 2 and 7 years, and is characterized by egocentric thinking and the inability to understand conservation. There is no such thing as the post-operational period in Piaget's theory.

Question 19

Fifteen-year old Stephanie is having difficulty remembering how to spell the word "definitely" for an upcoming quiz in her English class. She can't remember whether it is "definitely" or "definately." She thinks about it for a moment and decides that the easiest way to remember is that the word has one prefix ("de"), one root word ("finite"), and one suffix ("ly"). By separating the root word, she has an easier time remembering that the middle vowel is "i" and not "a." Stephanie has used the memory strategy of ____ to master this word.

Accepted Answer

Stephanie used the memory strategy of elaboration. She broke the word down into its component parts (prefix, root word, suffix) in order to better remember how to spell it. This is an example of elaboration, which involves adding meaning or extra information to help remember something.

Question 20

____ psychologists focus on the means by which children store information in memory and retrieve it when it is needed at a later time.

Accepted Answer

Information-processing psychologists focus on how individuals perceive, store, encode, and retrieve information. The question specifically mentions how children store and retrieve information in memory, which falls under the scope of information-processing psychology.

Quiz 6: Off to School: Cognitive and Physical Development in Middle Childhood.