Deck 4: The Emergence of Thought and Language: Cognitive Development in Infancy and Early Childhood

Question 1

When assimilations are out of balance with accommodations, Piaget stated that a child is likely to engage in

A) egocentrism.
B) homeostasis.
C) equilibration.
D) calibration.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

The approximate ages of Piaget's sensorimotor period of cognitive development is

A) birth to 2 years.
B) 2 years to 7 years.
C) 7 years to 11 years.
D) 11 years through adulthood.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

The correct order of the four stages of cognitive development, according to Piaget, are

A) sensorimotor period, formal operational period, preoperational period, concrete operational period.
B) sensorimotor period, preoperational period, concrete operational period, formal operational period.
C) preoperational period, sensorimotor period, formal operational period, concrete operational period.
D) formal operational period, concrete operational period, preoperational period, sensorimotor period.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

While sitting with her parents in a restaurant waiting for service, four-year-old Elana watches as the waitress walks by without taking their order. "Mommy," she whines to her mother, "why isn't she talking to us when I'm so hungry?" Elana's belief that the waitress must know how hungry she is demonstrates the Piagetian concept of

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

Question 5

________ are psychological structures that organize information and regulate behaviors.

A) Assimilations
B) Accommodations
C) Scripts
D) Schemes

Question 6

The defining characteristic of centration is ____ thought.

A) abstract
B) narrowly focused
C) a lack of object permanent
D) overextended

Question 7

An extension of intentional behavior, wherein a child will start 'experimenting' with different actions and repeating them when they produce pleasant outcomes, usually appears at approximately

A) 4 months.
B) 8 months.
C) 12 months.
D) 18 months.

Question 8

Young Matthew is playing with his mother. She has his favorite stuffed animal, and she suddenly hides it under his blanket. Instead of looking for it under the blanket, Matthew starts to cry a little, since he thinks his toy is gone. Matthew has not yet developed

A) conservation.
B) reversibility.
C) transitory properties.
D) object permanence.

Question 9

Piagetians believe that an average child would first demonstrate the onset of intentional behavior when he or she is approximately

A) 18 hours old.
B) 8 weeks old.
C) 8 months old.
D) 18 months old.

Question 10

Piaget believed that by about 18 months of age the average child began to have the ability to use and understand symbols. How did he feel this was demonstrated?

A) by the emerging use of language and gestures for communication
B) by the successful resolution of the Oedipus conflict
C) by demonstrating a significant reduction in both egocentrism and equilibration
D) by moving from crawling to walking

Question 11

The preoperational concept of ________ suggests that children in this stage believe that others see the world exactly as they do; that is, that their perspective is the only perspective there is.

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

Question 12

Millie is only 14 months of age, but has already started using some basic word like "mama," "dada," and "kitty." When her parents take her to the zoo, she points to the goats who are being fed by other children, and yells, "KITTY!" The fact that she is lumping a new animal into her existing schema of a kitty demonstrates

A) irreversibility.
B) assimilation.
C) accommodation.
D) egocentrism.

Question 13

Mia likes to kick soccer balls. She has developed a mental structure for kicking that may be applied to different situations. This mental structure for kicking would best be described as

A) a scheme.
B) egocentrism.
C) an intonation.
D) an expressive style.

Question 14

According to Jean Piaget, children demonstrate ________ when new information that they encounter is incorporated into their existing schemes.

A) accommodation
B) conservation
C) assimilation
D) animism

Question 15

Which of the following is NOT one of the features of a child who is in the preoperational period of cognitive development?

A) lacking object permanence
B) egocentrism
C) centration
D) believing that reality is based on appearance

Question 16

Within Piaget's theory of cognitive development, children demonstrate ________ when they adjust their existing cognitive schemes around new information or experiences that are inconsistent with those schemes.

A) assimilation
B) reversing
C) accommodation
D) egocentrism

Question 17

Laurentis is a three-month-old child who enjoys sucking on his thumb. According to Piaget, he probably first developed this enjoyment as a result of a(n)

A) equilibration.
B) assimilation.
C) choice.
D) reflex.

Question 18

Isaac and Larry, two young brothers, are sitting at the breakfast table when their father gives them both a glass of chocolate milk. Isaac's glass is taller but thinner than Larry's glass, which is shorter but wider. Larry gets upset and complains that "Isaac got more milk!" The fact that Larry is only focusing on one feature of his milk glass demonstrates the Piagetian concept of

A) accommodation.
B) egocentrism.
C) reversion.
D) centration.

Question 19

Piaget believed that children are like little

A) blank slates, who come into the world with no existing cognitive skills.
B) artists, constructing their own beautiful canvases.
C) performers, constantly vying for attention.
D) scientists, creating theories about how the world works.

Question 20

A common law of physics, noted by Sir Isaac Newton, states that "for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." If you were to apply that principle to Piaget's theory of cognitive development in children, actions being in balance with each other would describe the process of

A) equilibration.
B) assimilation.
C) accommodation.
D) schematization.

Question 21

Which of the following underlies the process of operant conditioning?

A) Pleasant consequences lead to decreased behaviors, while unpleasant consequences lead to increased behaviors.
B) A neutral stimulus can come to evoke a response that used to be associated with a different stimulus.
C) Pleasant consequences lead to increased behaviors, while unpleasant consequences lead to decreased behaviors.
D) The observation of another person engaging in a behavior can lead the repetition of that behavior.

Question 22

In the information processing model, mental ________ refers to mental and neural structures that are built in and that allow the mind to operate, while mental ________ refers to mental programs that are the basis for performing particular tasks.

A) software; hardware
B) hardware; software
C) RAM; REM
D) REM; RAM

Question 23

Changes in heart rate or brain-wave activity that occur in response to the introduction of a new stimulus are called a(n) ________ response.

A) habituating
B) attentive
C) orienting
D) processing

Question 24

When Maurice's father walks through the door after the end of a long day at work, Maurice jumps up, claps his hands, and runs to see Daddy. Lately, though, he has been dropping his toys and getting excited when he hears his father's keys in the lock. The fact that the response has changed stimuli is a demonstration of

A) operant conditioning.
B) habituation.
C) the orienting response.
D) classical conditioning.

Question 25

The process by which certain sensory information receives additional cognitive processing is called ________.

A) habituation
B) memory
C) attention
D) orientation

Question 26

When Max's father installed a new ceiling fan in his room, the "whirring" sound initially disturbed Max's sleep. After a few nights, however, Max was back to sleeping normally, as if the fan did not bother him at all. Which of the components of the information processing model explains how he was able to "filter out" the noise?

A) attention
B) habituation
C) mental hardware
D) mental software

Question 27

Several criticisms of Piaget's theory of cognitive development have been offered over the years. Which of the following is NOT one of them?

A) The theory underestimates the cognitive skills of infants and young children.
B) The theory overestimates the cognitive skills of adolescents.
C) The theory does not account for variability in children's performance.
D) The theory is based on an experimental participant pool that was too large from which to draw conclusions.

Question 28

Young Ruthie is tickled pink when she opens her Christmas present and finds the red-haired dolly that she has been asking for weeks. She hugs it, kisses it, and jumps around. For the first hour, she refuses to let it go. By the next day, the dolly is in the toy box with the rest of the forgotten trinkets. Ruthie's initial reaction would be a(n) ________, and her later loss of interest in the dolly demonstrates ________.

A) attention; orientation
B) habituation; attention
C) orienting response; habituation
D) habituation; orienting response

Question 29

Meltzoff and Moore's controversial finding that three-week-olds would stick out their tongues to match an adult performing the same act has been used to support the notion of early life

A) imitation.
B) centration.
C) orienting response.
D) habituation.

Question 30

In ________ conditioning, a neutral stimulus elicits a response that was originally evoked by a different stimulus.

A) reinforcing
B) operant
C) classical
D) vicarious

Question 31

Your authors suggest one particular strategy for helping children focus their attention and reduce distractions. Which of the following is it?

A) Teach children the value of "sitting still" as a means of reducing physical stimuli.
B) Make relevant information stand out and eliminate competing sensations.
C) Institute a series of operant outcomes for children who focus on salient events and disregard non-salient ones.
D) Utilize classical (Pavlovian) strategies.

Question 32

Which is the BEST example of habituation?

A) turning your head to listen to a passing jet
B) tasting sushi for the first time and liking it
C) focusing your eyes on one of those "3-D" art pictures until the 3-D image pops into view
D) being bothered by the feel of a watch the first time it is on your wrist and then getting so used to it that you forget it's there

Question 33

Marion has learned that whenever she cries in a specific way, her parents will give her the attention that she is seeking. Therefore she cries in that way whenever she wants that attention. The process of ________ conditioning has led to this outcome.

A) social
B) operant
C) classical
D) imitative

Question 34

Several years ago, a major ketchup manufacturer experimented with selling ketchup in different colors, including green, purple, and others. The idea was that kids would be excited by different colors, even though extensive blind taste tests indicated that the flavors of the different products were identical. The product failed and was discontinued after only a few years. Children just did not seem to be able to accept that it was still ketchup even though it was not red. This sort of reliance on the appearance of an object is most typical of ________ children.

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

Question 35

Famed linguist Noam Chomsky has written that human beings are born with the mental structures that allow us to acquire language skills. He called these structures the Language Acquisition Device (LAD). From an information processing model, the LAD would be an example of mental ________.

A) hardware
B) software
C) RAM
D) powering

Question 36

While Piaget believed that the theories that children develop about their worlds are comprehensive in explaining a variety of phenomena, the ________ hypothesis believes that infants are born with rudimentary knowledge of the world that is elaborated upon based on the child's experiences.

A) ethological
B) psychosocial
C) dynamic systems
D) core knowledge

Question 37

The concept of naïve physics was demonstrated by ________, who found that infants as young as four and a half months would consistently look longer at unrealistic events than at realistic events.

A) Urie Bronfenbrenner
B) Carol Gilligan
C) Erik Erikson
D) Rene Baillergeon

Question 38

Which BEST exemplifies the core knowledge hypothesis?

A) The fact that three-week-old Gene appears to innately understand that three objects are more than two objects.
B) The fact that 10-year-old Paul has the math skills of a 30-year-old.
C) The fact that five-month-old Ace loves to kiss his mother but not his father.
D) The fact that six-year-old Peter's early music abilities have not improved in spite of intensive training.

Question 39

Which of the following is NOT one of the aspects of a typical 4-year-old's theory of biology?

A) growth
B) internal parts
C) expansion
D) inheritance

Question 40

Why is it that an orienting response tends to disappear after repeated exposure to a stimulus?

A) because the brain adjusts to the presence of the stimulus and no longer registers it as a sensation
B) because the stimulus becomes familiar and loses its novelty
C) because the attention that we pay to a stimulus increases as it becomes more familiar
D) because our mental hardware becomes inconsistent with our mental software as an object becomes less novel

Question 41

The fact that the last number name differs from the previous ones in a counting sequence by denoting the number of objects is called the ________ principle.

A) nominal-ordinal-interval
B) stable-order
C) one-to-one
D) cardinality

Question 42

Which of the following is NOT offered by your authors as a method to help increase a preschool child's ability to provide reliable testimony?

A) Ask children to describe the event(s) in question in their own words.
B) Encourage children to tell the truth and to feel free to say, "I don't know."
C) Give children some time after the event has occurred so that they can reduce their emotional reaction and remember things more rationally.
D) Ask questions that consider alternative explanations of the event.

Question 43

Which two parts of the brain are responsible for the initial storage of information?

A) the amygdala and the hippocampus
B) the hypothalamus and the medulla
C) the pons and the reticular activating system
D) the cerebral cortex and the cerebellum

Question 44

By the age of ________ years, most youngsters can apply the basic principles of counting to as many as nine objects, even though they may still make some mistakes.

A) 3
B) 5
C) 7
D) 9

Question 45

Five-year-old Jonah likes to play a scrabble-like game on the family computer. He plays against other family members, and usually does pretty well. When he gets a list of letter tiles that are too difficult for him to use, he asks his mother and father for help. The difference between letter tiles that Jonah can use and letter tiles with which he needs help typifies what Vygotsky called the zone of ________ development.

A) assisted
B) distal
C) proximal
D) located

Question 46

Memories that help people construct their life history and create socially shared memories are

A) eidetic memories.
B) autobiographical memories.
C) semantic memories.
D) procedural memories.

Question 47

Research has found that when parents use a(n) ________ style in communicating with their children they will have earlier memories of childhood when they reach adolescence.

A) measured
B) formal
C) idiomatic
D) conversational

Question 48

In Vygotsky's theory, the difference between what a child can do on his or her own and what they can do only with assistance is called the

A) zone of proximal development.
B) scaffolded skill set.
C) continuum of concrete operations.
D) opposing skills set.

Question 49

Russian psychologist ________ proposed the idea that development in childhood is an apprenticeship in which children advance when they collaborate with more-skilled others.

A) Alexander Zaporozhets
B) Aleksey Leontyev
C) Ivan Pavlov
D) Lev Vygotsky

Question 50

Collette is sitting with her young son Jim, and has placed five different color jellybeans in front of him. Jim starts to count the beans, and as he points to each one says, "one, one, one, one, one!" He then looks up at Collette and smiles. Jim clearly has not yet mastered the

A) stable-order principle.
B) one-to-one principle.
C) cardinality principle.
D) universality principle.

Question 51

A memory for some significant life event is called a(n) ____ memory.

A) autobiographical
B) general knowledge
C) intonation
D) semantic

Question 52

Your textbook notes that one of the difficulties associated with children providing reliable testimony about events that have occurred, particularly in cases of alleged abuse, because

A) children at this age have not yet developed a hippocampus to allow for storage of new memories.
B) children at this age are particularly suggestible.
C) children at this age have not yet developed an amygdala to allow for storage of new memories.
D) children at this age are overly skilled at monitoring the sources of information.

Question 53

How did Piaget and Vygotsky view the "journey" of cognitive development?

A) Both saw children as making the journey alone.
B) Piaget saw the journey as involving an apprenticeship driven by collaboration with others, while Vygotsky saw children as making the journey alone.
C) Vygotsky saw the journey as involving an apprenticeship driven by collaboration with others, while Piaget saw children as making the journey alone.
D) Both saw the journey as involving an apprenticeship driven by collaboration with others.

Question 54

________ is when a teacher gauges the amount of assistance they provide to match the needs of a specific learner.

A) Centration
B) Proximity
C) Apprenticing
D) Scaffolding

Question 55

According to the theory of Fivush (2011), autobiographical memory is based upon three memory skills. They include all but which of the following?

A) language skills
B) sense of self
C) processing skills
D) memory skills

Question 56

By about ________ months of age, a child can distinguish two objects from three and three objects from four.

A) five
B) seven
C) nine
D) twelve

Question 57

With regard to the memories of young babies, which of the following is the MOST accurate statement?

A) Young babies remember where their toys have been left, and will search in those locations.
B) There is evidence that young babies, as early as 2 weeks of age, can remember their own names.
C) Other than the scent of their own mothers, young babies demonstrate no significant memory skills.
D) Young babies remember events for days, or even weeks.

Question 58

Eleven-month-old Oreo loves cookies. One day he sees his mother putting cookies into cups for a party. As he is watching, his mom puts one cookie into the first two cups, two cookies into the next two cups, and three cookies into the last two cups. If Oreo is a normally developing 10-month-old who likes cookies, he would most likely reach for

A) a cup located nearest his left hand.
B) the first cup in which he saw a cookie being placed.
C) a cup with three cookies.
D) the darkest-colored cup.

Question 59

The idea that number names must be counted in the same sequence, without change, defines the ________.

A) stable-order principle
B) one-to-one principle
C) cardinality principle
D) universality principle

Question 60

"Daddy, can you help me get dressed?" Boris asked his father. "Nope, you can do it by yourself," his father said. From Vygotsky's theory, Borris's father is using ________ when he does not give his son help on skills that his son has already mastered.

A) concrete schemes
B) the zone of proximal development
C) scaffolding
D) the principle of cardinality

Question 61

Marla is watching her daughter, Daisy, try to color within the lines in her favorite coloring book. Daisy knows how to hold the crayons, can see the pictures properly, and understands the idea of not going over the lines, but she struggles to control the crayon. Marla does not like seeing Daisy get upset when she crosses a line, so she sits to help her by holding the crayon with her. According to research presented in your chapter, which of the following should you expect?

A) Daisy will develop more interest in coloring as a result of Marla's intervention.
B) Daisy will learn to color on her own less efficiently than she would if Marla did not assist her.
C) Daisy will lose interest in learning to color on her own very soon.
D) Daisy will learn to color on her own faster with Marla's assistance

Question 62

Mariposa is laying in her crib, and is making elongated single vowel sounds, like "ahhhhhhh" and "oooooooh." How old would you guess that Mariposa is?

A) two weeks
B) two months
C) six months
D) eight months

Question 63

Private speech is to ________ as inner speech is to ________.

A) self-guidance; thought
B) thought; self-guidance
C) external guidance; self-guidance
D) thought; external guidance

Question 64

Infant-directed speech provides particularly good examples of ________, which may help children to learn to distinguish these sounds more effectively.

A) vowels
B) consonants
C) syllables
D) stresses

Question 65

In what way are newborns more linguistically sophisticated than the average adult?

A) They do not habituate to new phonemes.
B) They can produce more phonemes.
C) They can auditorily distinguish between more phonemes.
D) Newborns have no linguistic advantages over adults.

Question 66

Flannery is only a few years old, and she likes to do puzzles. As she snaps the pieces together, she can be heard saying things like, "This one goes here," and "No, that doesn't fit!" Flannery's verbalizations are an example of ________ speech.

A) mirroring
B) utility
C) private
D) ambitious

Question 67

Research has found that children who are seven to eight months of age will learn a word more rapidly if it is

A) used repeatedly in conversation.
B) paired with a sign or card with the word written out.
C) presented in a different tone of voice than usual.
D) presented by a child rather than an adult.

Question 68

Mariposa is laying in her crib, and is making elongated single vowel sounds, like "ahhhhhhh" and "oooooooh." Which of the following best describes her verbalizations?

A) crying
B) whining
C) cooing
D) babbling

Question 69

Which part of a newborn's brain appears to be the most sensitive to the use of language?

A) the frontal lobe
B) the right hemisphere
C) the left hemisphere
D) the parietal lobe

Question 70

Which is a key cue used by infants when attempting to identify whether a sound represents a word?

A) They focus on sounds that repeat (e.g., gaga).
B) They focus on sounds that are stressed during speech.
C) They focus on the sound with the least number of phonemes.
D) They focus on the sounds made by other infants.

Question 71

When adults speak slowly and with exaggerated changes in pitch and volume, they are using ________ speech.

A) symbolic
B) off-stressed
C) phonemic
D) infant-directed

Question 72

Which child is most likely using private speech during a piano lesson?

A) Wolfgang, who is practicing a very easy song
B) Sebastian, who is not making any mistakes
C) Johann, who is playing a new, difficult song for the first time
D) Giuseppe, who is already a concert pianist

Question 73

Which of the following represents the correct order in which speech skills develop in babies?

A) crying, babbling, cooing
B) cooing, babbling, crying
C) babbling, crying, cooing
D) crying, cooing, babbling

Question 74

The basic building blocks of spoken language are

A) syllables.
B) morphemes.
C) phonemes.
D) words.

Question 75

When a child, usually around six months of age, produces vowel-consonant combinations that approximate real speech, she is _______.

A) babbling
B) telegraphing
C) holophrasing
D) cooing

Question 76

Research has found that infants can distinguish different phonemes from each other as early as ________ of age.

A) two weeks
B) one month
C) three months
D) five months

Question 77

According to your textbook, which of the following distinguishes the parenting of mothers in the US from mothers in India and Guatemala?

A) Mothers in the US rely primarily on verbal instructions, while mothers in India and Guatemala use verbal instructions combined with touches and gazes to guide children.
B) Mothers in the US are more likely to use scaffolding, while mothers in India and Guatemala use will provide more assistance on tasks where assistance may not be needed.
C) Mothers in India and Guatemala rely primarily on verbal instructions, while mothers in the US use verbal instructions combined with touches and gazes to guide children.
D) Mothers in India and Guatemala are more likely to use scaffolding, while mothers in the US use will provide more assistance on tasks where assistance may not be needed.

Question 78

How does learning to use our native language relate to learning faces of those around us?

A) They both involve activation of the fusiform face area in the brain.
B) Exposure leads to a greater knowledge of familiar stimuli.
C) They are both skills that develop more rapidly in girls than in boys.
D) They are both skills that develop more rapidly in boys than in girls.

Question 79

Scaffolding involves a teaching style in which assistance is always

A) from peers.
B) nonverbal.
C) done in informal settings.
D) based on the level of the learner's needs.

Question 80

Erik is having difficulty saying his "Rs," which is particularly problematic given his first name. When he tries to say "ERIK," it ends up sounding like "EWIK." His parents have him working with a speech therapist to help him overcome this small problem. Technically, Erik's problem lies with mispronunciation of a(n)

A) articulate.
B) syllogism.
C) phoneme.
D) mnemonic.