Question Answer

Who is considered the greatest thinker of the Jean Piaget.

20th century in the field of cognitive
development?

What field did Jean Piaget's contributions Developmental psychology.

have paradigmatic influence in?

What are the major implications of Jean Both educational and clinical.
Piaget's work for interventions with children?

What is the age range for the Sensorimotor Birth to 2 years.

Stage according to Piaget?

How did Piaget describe the learning process Infants begin to learn through sensory observation.
in the Sensorimotor Stage?

What did Piaget emphasize in the Infants gain control of their motor functions through activity, exploration, and manipulation of the
Sensorimotor Stage regarding motor environment.
functions?

How many substages did Piaget divide the Six.

Sensorimotor Stage into?

What is an example of learned behavior in Infants discovering the location of the nipple and altering the shape of their mouths.
infants?

What is the first schema or elementary A sense of awareness.

concept that infants develop?

How do infants develop new and more By building one schema on another.
complex schemata?

What is the critical achievement of this period? The development of object permanence.

What does object permanence relate to? A child's ability to understand that objects have an existence independent of the child's involvement
with them.

What do infants learn in relation to object To differentiate themselves from the world and maintain a mental image of an object, even when it is
permanence? not present and visible.

How do infants behave when an object is They look down to the ground to search for the object, behaving as though the object has a reality
dropped in front of them? outside themselves.

What is the process known as when infants Symbolization.

begin to develop mental symbols and use
words?

What does the attainment of object The sensorimotor stage to the preoperational stage of development.
permanence mark the transition from?

What do mental representations allow children Operate on new conceptual levels.

to do?

What is the age range for the stage of 2 to 7 years.

preoperational thought?

How do children use symbols and language in More extensively than in the sensorimotor stage.
the stage of preoperational thought?

What is the nature of thinking and reasoning Intuitive; children learn without the use of reasoning.
during the stage of preoperational thought?

What are children unable to do during the Think logically or deductively, and their concepts are primitive; they can name objects but not
stage of preoperational thought? classes of objects.

How is preoperational thought described in Midway between socialized adult thought and the completely autistic Freudian unconscious.
relation to socialized adult thought and the
Freudian unconscious?

How are events linked in the stage of Not linked by logic.

preoperational thought?

What is an example of the lack of If children drop a glass that then breaks, they have no sense of cause and effect.
understanding of cause and effect in the early
stage of preoperational thought?
Question Answer

What do children believe when they break a They believe that the glass was ready to break, not that they broke the glass.
glass in the early stage of preoperational
thought?

What stage of cognitive development is Stage of Preoperational Thought (2 to 7 Years)

characterized by the inability to grasp the
sameness of an object in different
circumstances?

How do children in the preoperational stage As three different objects.

perceive the same object in different
circumstances?

How are things represented by children in the In terms of their function.

preoperational stage?

What are some characteristics of the Children begin to use language and drawings in more elaborate ways. Two-word phrases develop,
preoperational stage of cognitive made up of either a noun and a verb or a noun and an objective. They cannot deal with moral
development? dilemmas but have a sense of good and bad. They have a sense of immanent justice.

How do children in the preoperational stage They usually answer that the person who breaks 10 dishes by accident is more guilty because more
respond to moral dilemmas? dishes are broken.

What is immanent justice in the context of It is the belief that punishment for bad deeds is inevitable.
children in the preoperational stage?

What is a characteristic of children in the They see themselves as the center of the universe and have a limited point of view.
egocentric developmental stage?

What is one aspect of egocentric thinking that Inability to take the role of another person.
prevents understanding of others' points of
view?

How does egocentric thinking affect children's They are unable to modify their behavior for someone else.
behavior towards others?

What is phenomenalistic causality? The belief that events that occur together cause one another.

Give an example of phenomenalistic causality. Thunder causing lightning, and bad thoughts causing accidents.

What is animistic thinking? The tendency to endow physical events and objects with life-like psychological attributes.

When does the semiotic function emerge? During the preoperational period.

What can children represent with the semiotic Something such as an object, an event, or a conceptual scheme with a signifier.
function?

Give an example of a signifier used by Language, mental image, symbolic gesture.

children with the semiotic function.

What are the characteristics of children in this They begin to use limited logical thought processes, can serialize, order, and group things into
stage? classes based on common characteristics, and are able to reason and follow rules and regulations.

What is syllogistic reasoning and when does it Syllogistic reasoning is when a logical conclusion is formed from two premises. It appears during the
appear? stage of concrete operations.

What is an example of syllogistic reasoning? An example is: all horses are mammals (premise); all mammals are warm blooded (premise);
therefore, all horses are warm blooded (conclusion).

What is the age range for the stage of 7 to 11 years.

concrete operations?

Why is it called the stage of concrete Because children operate and act on the concrete, real, and perceivable world of objects and
operations? events.

What replaces egocentric thought in the stage Operational thought.

of concrete operations?

What is conservation? The ability to recognize that objects maintain certain characteristics despite changes in shape.

Give an example of conservation. When a ball of clay is rolled into a long, thin shape, children recognize that the amount of clay
remains the same.
Question Answer

What is reversibility? The capacity to understand the relation between things and realize that one thing can transform into
another and back again.

What is the most important sign that children Not achieving conservation or reversibility.
are still in the preoperational stage?

According to Piaget, what is one of the most The ability to understand concepts of quantity.
important cognitive developmental theories
related to children?

What is the stage of formal operations? The stage of formal operations is the stage from 11 through the end of adolescence, characterized
by highly logical, systematic, and symbolic thinking.

What are the characteristics of thinking in the Abstract thinking, deductive reasoning, defining concepts, dealing with permutations and
stage of formal operations? combinations, and understanding probabilities.

What are some examples of issues that Philosophy, religion, ethics, and politics.
adolescents show interest in during the stage
of formal operations?

What is hypothetico-deductive thinking? The highest organization of cognition that enables individuals to make a hypothesis or proposition
and test it against reality.

What is deductive reasoning and how does it Deductive reasoning moves from the general to the particular, while inductive reasoning moves from
differ from inductive reasoning? the particular to the general.

Why are young individuals susceptible to Because they can reflect on their own and other persons' thinking.
self-conscious behavior?

What is an example of egocentric thought in Thinking they can accomplish everything or change events by thought alone.
adolescents?

Do all adolescents enter the stage of formal No, not all adolescents enter the stage of formal operations at the same time or to the same degree.
operations at the same time or to the same
degree?

Can some adolescents remain in the concrete Yes, depending on individual capacity and intervening experience, some may not reach the stage of
operational mode throughout life? formal operational thought at all and may remain in the concrete operational mode throughout life.