You have been a lifelong smoker, but you quit at the end of last week because you know how damaging it is to your health and you do not want to be a bad influence on your son, who is a toddler. You walk into your son's room and find him acting like he is smoking with a crayon. According to Piaget, what is your son doing?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Piaget referred to the ability to copy or imitate behaviors that have been observed at an earlier time as deferred imitation, which is a type of symbolic representation. The toddler is imitating the behavior of smoking that he observed you doing. This behavior indicates that the toddler has started to develop the capacity to use mental symbols to represent actions that are not currently being performed. Therefore, option B, Deferred imitation, is the correct answer.

You Have Been a Lifelong Smoker, but You Quit at the End