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6.86 Cognitive activities that require very little effort are referred to as
a. working memory. c. mental software.
b. mental hardware. d. automatic processes.
Chapter Module: Modern Theories of Cognitive Development
6.87 When Cookie first started golfing, she had to think about every part of her swing. Now that she’s been
golfing for years, she swings her club without even thinking about it. For Cookie, swinging a golf club
has become
a. an automatic process. c. a complex task.
b. a sensory memory. d. a working memory.
Chapter Module: Modern Theories of Cognitive Development
6.88 Skills that are automatic require
a. less long-term memory. c. less working memory.
b. more sensory memory. d. more working memory.
Chapter Module: Modern Theories of Cognitive Development
6.89 Information-processing theorists believe one reason older children outperform younger children cognitively
is that older children
a. are less likely to use strategies. c. have fewer automatic processes.
b. can process information more slowly. d. use less working memory.
Chapter Module: Modern Theories of Cognitive Development
6.90 According to an information-processing theorist, which of the following is an explanation for cognitive
development?
a. As children develop, their strategy use becomes slower and less accurate.
b. As children develop, speed of processing slows down.
c. As children grow, more cognitive activities become automatic.
d. As children grow, the capacity of working memory decreases.
Chapter Module: Modern Theories of Cognitive Development
6.91 Compared to adults, when children perform complex tasks they
a. use less working memory.
b. are likely to perform fewer processes automatically.
c. are unlikely to exceed the capacity of their working memory.
d. use more sensory memory.
Chapter Module: Modern Theories of Cognitive Development
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6.92 As children get older, their speed of processing
a. speeds up. c. cycles up and down.
b. slows down. d. does not change.
Chapter Module: Modern Theories of Cognitive Development
6.93 Compared to Piaget’s theory, information-processing theory
a. puts more emphasis on qualitative changes in thought.
b. is more unified into a single comprehensive theory.
c. emphasizes the “whole” more than the “parts” of cognition.
d. describes the specific components of cognition in greater detail.
Chapter Module: Modern Theories of Cognitive Development
6.94 Professor Garrett tells his class, “Children’s cognition develops continuously and gradually. There are no
abrupt changes in thought. There are no distinct stages of cognitive development.” Professor Garrett sounds
most like
a. an information-processing theorist. c. Kohlberg.
b. Piaget. d. a psychodynamic theorist.
Chapter Module: Modern Theories of Cognitive Development
6.95 ________________ propose(s) distinctive domains of knowledge, some of which are acquired very early
in life.
a. Information processing theory c. Cognitive-developmental theory
b. Core-knowledge theories d. Sociocultural theory
Chapter Module: Modern Theories of Cognitive Development
6.96 Core knowledge views cognitive development as an innate capability to easily acquire knowledge in
specialized domains of evolutionary importance, such as
a. language. c. understanding people.
b. knowledge of objects. d. all of these answers
Chapter Module: Modern Theories of Cognitive Development
6.97 Renee Baillargeon studied object permanence by showing infants possible events and impossible events. In
the possible event, a screen rotated until it made contact with a box, at which point it began rotating
196
backwards. In the impossible event, when the rotating screen reached the box, it continued to rotate, the box
appeared to disappear, and the box reappeared after the screen rotated past it. She found that 4 ½-month-old
infants looked
a. longer at the impossible event than the possible event, suggesting they understood object permanence.
b. longer at the possible event than the impossible event, suggesting they understood object permanence.
c. at both events equally, suggesting they understood object permanence.
d. at both events equally, suggesting they did not understand the concept of object permanence.
Chapter Module: Understanding in Core Domains
6.98 Baillargeon’s studies of object permanence using possible events and impossible events suggest that the
concept of object permanence is
a. acquired earlier than Piaget believed.
b. acquired at the same age as suggested by Piaget.
c. acquired later than Piaget suggested.
d. not really understood by infants of any age.
Chapter Module: Understanding in Core Domains
6.99 Infants’ naïve theory of physics leads them to believe that
a. gravity is not important so floating objects are not unusual.
b. one object striking a second object does not affect the second object.
c. objects cannot move through other objects.
d. objects move along disconnected, discontinuous paths.
Chapter Module: Understanding in Core Domains
6.100 Which of the following is TRUE concerning infants’ naïve theories of physics?
a. Infants do not appear surprised when a tall object is completely hidden when placed behind a
shorter object.
b. Infants expect unsupported objects to fall.
c. Infants assume that objects move in discontinuous, disconnected paths.
d. Infants believe that objects are able to move through other objects.
Chapter Module: Understanding in Core Domains
6.101 Which of the following is TRUE concerning infants’ naïve theories of physics?
a. Infants do not appear surprised when a tall object is completely hidden when placed behind a
shorter object.
b. Infants expect unsupported objects to fall.
c. Infants assume that objects move in discontinuous, disconnected paths.
d. Infants believe that objects are able to move through other objects.
Chapter Module: Understanding in Core Domains
6.102 Which of the following is NOT TRUE concerning infants’ understanding of liquids and solids?
a. By five months, infants are surprised when shown a “solid” being poured from one cup into another and
when shown a “liquid” being slid from one cup into another.
b. By five months, infants understand that solids keep their shape when moved, but that liquids do not.
c. By five months, infants are capable of noticing the characteristic differences between the movement of
liquids and solids.
d. By five months, infants believe that both liquids and solids can be carried in containers that holes.
Chapter Module: Understanding in Core Domains
6.103 Juliann is four. If she is like most four-year-olds, her naïve theory of biology will include the belief that
a. animals can move by themselves, but inanimate objects can only be moved by other people or objects.
b. both animals and inanimate objects grow bigger and physically more complex.
c. the insides of both animate and inanimate objects contain the same kinds of materials.
d. when inanimate objects get damaged, they will heal by themselves, but when animate things are injured
they must be fixed by humans.
Chapter Module: Understanding in Core Domains
6.104 Many four-year-olds believe that
a. inanimate objects move by themselves.
b. only living things have offspring.
c. inanimate objects can grow.
d. the internal parts of animate and inanimate objects are the same.
Chapter Module: Understanding in Core Domains
6.105 When talking to his dad, Nicholas says, “See that fish. It has smooth skin so that it won’t cut other fish
when it swims with them.” Nicholas is demonstrating
a. a commitment to teleological explanations.
b. his understanding of essentialism.
c. theory of mind.
d. his sophisticated understanding of animals.
Chapter Module: Understanding in Core Domains
6.106 Juan believes that a watermelon seed planted in a cornfield will produce watermelons. Juan believes that
all watermelons share a “watermelon–ness” which makes them different from corn. Juan’s understanding
demonstrates
a. his belief that all living things have a purpose.
b. his belief that all living things have an essence that can’t be seen, but gives a living thing its identity.
c. his belief that objects move along connected, continuous paths.
d. his belief that objects cannot move through other objects.
Chapter Module: Understanding in Core Domains
6.107 Preschool children get their knowledge of living things from many sources. Which of the following is
NOT one of these sources?
a. from watching animals
b. from reading books about animals
c. from talking with their parents about animals
d. from an innate understanding of biology
Chapter Module: Understanding in Core Domains
6.108 A person’s beliefs about connections between thoughts, beliefs, and behavior are central to
a. Piaget’s theory. c. information processing theories.
b. the theory of mind. d. Vygotsky’s theory.
Chapter Module: Understanding in Core Domains
6.109 According to theory of mind, at three years of age children do not
a. understand that they and other people have desires.
b. understand that desires can cause behavior.
c. emphasize desires when trying to explain other people’s behavior.
d. understand that other people’s behavior is based on beliefs.
Chapter Module: Understanding in Core Domains
6.110 Four-year-old Ashton and three-year-old William are each given a false belief task. They have accurate
information about where a toy is (they know it is in a toy box), but a girl in a story does not (she thinks the
toy is under a bed). If they are asked where the girl in the story will look for the toy
a. they will both say the girl will look in the toy box.
b. they will both say the girl will look under the bed.
c. Ashton will say the girl will look in the toy box, but William will say she will look under the bed.
d. Ashton will say the girl will look under the bed, but William will say she will look in the toy box.
Chapter Module: Understanding in Core Domains
199
6.111 A developmental psychologist is most likely to use a false belief task to study
a. theory of mind. c. animism.
b. egocentrism. d. attention.
Chapter Module: Understanding in Core Domains
6.112 Some researchers believe the absence of a theory mind, called ________________, is the defining
characteristic of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).
a. mindblindness. c. animism.
b. egocentrism. d. attention.
Chapter Module: Understanding in Core Domains
6.113 Children’s naïve psychology flourishes in
a. infancy. c. the elementary-school years.
b. the preschool years. d. adolescence.
Chapter Module: Understanding in Core Domains
TRUE/FALSE QUESTIONS
6.114 For Piaget, children at all ages are like scientists in that they create theories about how the world works.
Chapter Module: Setting the Stage: Piaget’s Theory
6.115 Assimilation occurs when a child’s theories are modified based on experience.
Chapter Module: Setting the Stage: Piaget’s Theory
6.116 Assimilation and accommodation are usually in balance, or equilibrium.
Chapter Module: Setting the Stage: Piaget’s Theory
6.117 According to Piaget, cognitive development occurs in eight stages.
Chapter Module: Setting the Stage: Piaget’s Theory
6.118 Smart children can skip one of Piaget’s stages.
Chapter Module: Setting the Stage: Piaget’s Theory
6.119 Some children move through the stages more rapidly than others, depending on their ability and
experiences.
Chapter Module: Setting the Stage: Piaget’s Theory
6.120 The first indication of purposeful, goal-directed behavior occurs during infancy at around eight months of
age.
Chapter Module: Setting the Stage: Piaget’s Theory
6.121 According to Piaget, infants are born with object permanence, the ability to understand that objects exist
independently.
Chapter Module: Setting the Stage: Piaget’s Theory
6.122 Common symbols used by children in the preoperational stage include words, gestures, graphs, maps,
and models.
Chapter Module: Setting the Stage: Piaget’s Theory
6.123 Preoperational children typically believe that others see the world, both literally and figuratively, exactly as
they do, a concept known as egocentrism.
Chapter Module: Setting the Stage: Piaget’s Theory
6.124 Preoperational children are able to juggle multiple aspects of a problem at the same time, thus correcting
the centration that is seen in the sensorimotor stage.
Chapter Module: Setting the Stage: Piaget’s Theory
6.125 Concrete operational children sometimes credit inanimate objects with life and lifelike properties.
Chapter Module: Setting the Stage: Piaget’s Theory
6.126 Concrete operational children are able to reverse their thinking, which allows them to perform conservation
tasks that preoperational children cannot.
Chapter Module: Setting the Stage: Piaget’s Theory
6.127 Concrete operational thinking is identical to adult thinking in that children are able to think abstractly and
hypothetically for the first time.
Chapter Module: Setting the Stage: Piaget’s Theory
6.128 Formal operational thinkers can envision alternate realities and examine their consequences. They can
create hypotheses and test them.
Chapter Module: Setting the Stage: Piaget’s Theory
6.129 According to Piaget, adolescents and adults acquire more knowledge as they grow older, but their
fundamental way of thinking remains unchanged.
Chapter Module: Setting the Stage: Piaget’s Theory
6.130 One of Piaget’s greatest contributions to teaching was constructivism, the view that children are active
participants in their own development.
Chapter Module: Setting the Stage: Piaget’s Theory
6.131 Educational applications of Piaget’s theory include facilitating, rather than directing children’s learning,
sensitivity to children’s readiness to learn, and emphasis on discovery learning.
Chapter Module: Setting the Stage: Piaget’s Theory
6.132 According to Piaget, cognitive growth can be particularly rapid if children are encouraged to look at the
inconsistencies and errors in their own thinking.
Chapter Module: Setting the Stage: Piaget’s Theory
6.133 One of the weaknesses of Piaget’s theory is that it overestimates cognitive competence in infants and young
children and underestimates cognitive competence in adolescents.
Chapter Module: Setting the Stage: Piaget’s Theory
6.134 A weakness of Piaget’s theory is that it undervalues the influence of the sociocultural environment on
cognitive development.
Chapter Module: Setting the Stage: Piaget’s Theory
6.135 According to the sociocultural perspective, children are products of their culture.
Chapter Module: Modern Theories of Cognitive Development
6.136 According to Vygotsky, children’s cognitive development progresses more rapidly when they walk hand in
hand with an expert partner.
Chapter Module: Modern Theories of Cognitive Development
6.137 When Victoria and her father solve puzzles together, they share an understanding of the goals of their
activity and of their roles in solving the puzzles. Their relationship illustrates the concept of guided
participation.
Chapter Module: Modern Theories of Cognitive Development
6.138 Scaffolding refers to the difference between the level of performance a child can achieve when working
independently and the higher level of performance that is possible when working under the guidance of
more skilled adults or peers.
Chapter Module: Modern Theories of Cognitive Development
6.139 Scaffolding matches the amount of assistance to the learner’s needs.
Chapter Module: Modern Theories of Cognitive Development
6.140 Cross-cultural studies have shown that scaffolding occurs only in industrialized nations.
Chapter Module: Modern Theories of Cognitive Development
6.141 Vygotsky viewed inner speech as an intermediate step toward self-regulation of cognitive skills.
Chapter Module: Modern Theories of Cognitive Development
6.142 Sensory memory holds information the longest of the three types of memory.
Chapter Module: Modern Theories of Cognitive Development
6.143 Long-term memory is like a computer’s hard drive, a fairly permanent storehouse of programs and data.
Chapter Module: Modern Theories of Cognitive Development
6.144 According to information-processing, as children grow, they develop better strategies, increased capacity of
working memory, and more effective executive function.
Chapter Module: Modern Theories of Cognitive Development
6.145 Inhibitory processes prevent relevant information from entering working memory.
Chapter Module: Modern Theories of Cognitive Development
6.146 Executive functioning is synonymous with skilled problem solving in that it involves a plan, often requires
flexibility, and the ability to inhibit irrelevant responses.
Chapter Module: Modern Theories of Cognitive Development
6.147 When a skill has been mastered, individual steps are no longer stored in working memory, which means
that more capacity is available for other activities.
Chapter Module: Modern Theories of Cognitive Development
6.148 Younger children are less prone to interference from irrelevant stimulation.
Chapter Module: Modern Theories of Cognitive Development
6.149 According to core-knowledge theories, infants are endowed with specialized knowledge in domains that
were historically significant for survival.
Chapter Module: Modern Theories of Cognitive Development
6.150 Knowledge of people was the first core-domain identified by scientists.
Chapter Module: Modern Theories of Cognitive Development
6.151 Piaget claimed that understanding of objects develops slowly, however, modern researchers have shown
that babies understand objects much earlier than Piaget claimed.
Chapter Module: Understanding in Core Domains
6.152 Infants form categories from the important clues provided by perceptual features and the organization of
these features.
Chapter Module: Understanding in Core Domains
6.153 Baillargeon found that infants as young as two months showed object permanence in that they consistently
looked longer at an unrealistic event than a realistic one.
Chapter Module: Understanding in Core Domains
6.154 Infants are incapable of realizing that objects move along connected, continuous paths and that objects
cannot move through other objects.
Chapter Module: Understanding in Core Domains
6.155 Infants’ early understandings of objects and their principles are known as a naïve theory of physics.
Chapter Module: Understanding in Core Domains
6.156 Adults’ theories of living things begin in infancy when babies first distinguish animate objects from
inanimate objects.
Chapter Module: Understanding in Core Domains
6.157 Unlike adults, four-year-old children do not understand that animals grow (get physically bigger and more
complex), but that inanimate objects do not change in this way.
Chapter Module: Understanding in Core Domains
6.158 Children’s naïve theories of biology are composed of six elements: movement, growth, internal parts,
inheritance, illness, and healing.
Chapter Module: Understanding in Core Domains
6.159 A four-year-old is not capable of realizing that a baby pig that is adopted by a cow would grow up to look
and behave like a pig.
Chapter Module: Understanding in Core Domains
6.160 A fundamental part of young children’s theory of living things is the belief that living things and parts of
living things exist for a purpose.
Chapter Module: Understanding in Core Domains
206
6.161 Essentialism is children’s belief that all living things have an essence that can’t be seen but gives a living
thing its identity.
Chapter Module: Understanding in Core Domains
6.162 Most children in Western cultures have well–defined ideas about what “essences” are.
Chapter Module: Understanding in Core Domains
6.163 Preschoolers’ naïve theories of biology are complex but incomplete. For instance they believe that body
parts have intentions, and that plants are not living things.
Chapter Module: Understanding in Core Domains
6.164 Research has shown that infants as young as one year do not have an understanding of intentionality, but by
age two, children understand that people’s behavior is often intentional.
Chapter Module: Understanding in Core Domains
6.165 Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) grasp false beliefs tasks as quickly as children without
ASD.
Chapter Module: Understanding in Core Domains
6.166 Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) find hidden objects faster than typically developing
children do, but this emphasis on perceptual details usually comes at the expense of maintaining a coherent
overall picture.
Chapter Module: Understanding in Core Domains
6.167 After the preschool years, children’s naïve psychology moves beyond theory of mind and embraces an
ever-expanding range of psychological phenomena, including understanding the links among emotions,
thought, and behavior.
Chapter Module: Understanding in Core Domains
207
SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS
6.168 Name and describe the four stages of Piaget’s theory.
Chapter Module: Setting the Stage: Piaget’s Theory
Page(s): 173-179
Type: Conceptual
Diff: Moderate
Answer: A good answer will include the following key points:
6.169 Describe the development of object permanence.
Chapter Module: Setting the Stage: Piaget’s Theory
Page(s): 174–175
Type: Conceptual
Diff: Moderate
Answer: A good answer will include the following key points:
6.170 Describe three important characteristics of preoperational thinking.
Chapter Module: Setting the Stage: Piaget’s Theory
Page(s): 175–177
Type: Conceptual
Diff: Moderate
Answer: A good answer will include the following key points:
6.171 What are some commonly accepted weaknesses of Piaget’s theory?
Chapter Module: Setting the Stage: Piaget’s Theory
Page(s): 180–181
Type: Conceptual
Diff: Moderate
Answer: A good answer will include the following key points:
6.172 Name and describe the three components of mental hardware.
Answer: True
Page(s): 204
Type: Conceptual
Diff: Moderate
Chapter Module: Modern Theories of Cognitive Development
Page(s): 186–187
Type: Conceptual
Diff: Moderate
Answer: A good answer will include the following key points:
6.173 Name and briefly describe the five forms of developmental change that occur with age proposed by
information-processing theorists.
Chapter Module: Modern Theories of Cognitive Development
Page(s): 188–190
Type: Conceptual
Diff: Moderate
Answer: A good answer will include the following key points:
6.174 Name and briefly describe the six key elements of children’s naïve theories of biology.
Chapter Module: Understanding in Core Domains
Page(s): 198–199
Type: Conceptual
Diff: Moderate
Answer: A good answer will include the following key points:
ESSAY QUESTIONS
6.175 Distinguish between assimilation and accommodation and give an example of each. Explain how they are
related to Piaget’s concepts of equilibrium and disequilibrium.
Chapter Module: Setting the Stage: Piaget’s Theory
Page(s): 172–173
Type: Conceptual
Diff: Moderate
Answer: A good answer will be similar to the following:
6.176 Your friend, Andre, is the father of a 12-month-old daughter, Brooke. Meal time has become a very
frustrating time for Andre because Brooke repeatedly pushes her sippy cup and different foods that she is
eating off the high chair and onto the floor. The first time that she did this it appeared to Andre that it was
an accident but now he is convinced that his daughter is deliberately pushing her cup and food onto the
floor to annoy him. Based on what you know about infants being active experimenters, what can you tell
Andre that might make him feel better?
Chapter Module: Setting the Stage: Piaget’s Theory
Page(s): 174
Type: Applied
Diff: Moderate
Answer: A good answer will be similar to the following:
6.177 Robert’s mother pours a cup of milk for him and then realizes that the cup has a small chip in the rim. Not
wanting her son to cut his lip, she pours the milk into another cup. The second cup happens to be shorter
and wider than the first cup. Robert is upset because he thinks that he has less milk. Explain Robert’s
behavior using your knowledge of Piaget’s stages of cognitive development.
Chapter Module: Setting the Stage: Piaget’s Theory
Page(s): 175–176
Type: Applied
Diff: Moderate
Answer: A good answer will be similar to the following:
6.178 You are the parent of two young children, ages four and six years. They have been playing outside and they
come running inside asking for a drink. All of the drinking glasses in the house, except two, are dirty. One
of these glasses is tall and narrow and the other is short and squat. You KNOW that your children will
argue with each other if one thinks that the other child is getting more to drink. Based on your knowledge
of conservation of liquid in preoperational children, what should you do to avoid an argument? Explain
your answer.
Chapter Module: Setting the Stage: Piaget’s Theory
Page(s): 175–176
Type: Applied
Diff: Moderate
210
6.179 Recently your friend Martha took her sons to a hands-on children’s museum. Martha noticed that her eight-
year-old son and her 12-year-old son interacted with some of the displays in very different ways. One
display involved opening doors to safes by determining the correct combination. Each safe had three, four,
or five buttons that had to be pressed in a particular order to open the door. Martha’s eight-year-old son
randomly pushed the buttons and never found the correct combinations to any of the safes. Martha’s 12–
year-old son approached the task in a very systematic manner — trying all possible combinations of
buttons until the doors opened. Now Martha is concerned that there is something wrong with her younger
son. What can you tell Martha about the differences in concrete operational and formal operational thought
that might explain her sons’ behavior?
Chapter Module: Setting the Stage: Piaget’s Theory
Page(s): 177–179
Type: Applied
Diff: Hard
Answer: A good answer will be similar to the following:
6.180 Your friend Felipe has a new job as a second grade teacher. He would like to incorporate some of Piaget’s
theory into his teaching. What teaching practices would you encourage him to use that will foster cognitive
growth?
Chapter Module: Setting the Stage: Piaget’s Theory
Page(s): 180
Type: Applied
Diff: Hard
Answer: A good answer will be similar to the following:
6.181 You have been watching your friend Deb trying to teach her son Sean how to do a puzzle. Sean has done
this puzzle many times and he usually just needs help with the pieces that are in a difficult area that is all
black. Deb is trying to help Sean but her instructions would be appropriate for a child who has never done
the puzzle before. What can you tell Deb about Vygotsky’s theory, in general, and scaffolding, in
particular, that might help her teach Sean in more effective ways?
Chapter Module: Modern Theories of Cognitive Development
Page(s): 183–185
Type: Applied
Diff: Moderate
Answer: A good answer will be similar to the following:
6.182 Compare and contrast the information processing approach and Piaget’s theory of cognitive development.
Chapter Module: Setting the Stage: Piaget’s Theory and Modern Theories of Cognitive Development
Page(s): 171–186
Type: Applied
Diff: Moderate
Answer: A good answer will be similar to the following:
6.183 You share the following story with your three-year-old daughter Carleigh and four-year-old nephew Jaxon:
This is Brenda. Brenda has a box.
This is Michelle. Michelle has a basket.
Brenda has a ball. She puts the ball into her box.
Brenda goes out for a walk.
Michelle takes the ball out of the box and puts it into the basket.
Now Brenda comes back. She wants to play with her ball. Where will she look for the ball?
Given what you know about false-belief tasks and theory of mind, how will Carleigh answer the question?
Explain your answer. Will Jaxon’s answer be the same? Explain.
Chapter Module: Understanding in Core Domains
Page(s): 201–202
Type: Applied
Diff: Moderate
Answer: A good answer will be similar to the following: