Developmental psychology/ cognitive development

Neurogenesis

• the migration of neurons to their correct location

• is the production of new nerve cells.

• elimination of these connections as well as neurons themselves)

Which of the following is not an assumption made by Piaget in his theory of cognitive development?

• Children are active learners

• Children learn from interacting with their environment

• Physical maturation precedes cognitive development

• Language development is necessary for cognitive development.

This stage of Piagetian development is characteristized by the ability to carry out abstract reasoning.

• Sensorimotor stage

• Pre Operational stage

• Concrete operations

• Formal operations

The ability to understand conservation of matter is characteristic of the end of which stage of development?

• Sensorimotor stage

• Pre Operational stage

• Concrete Operations

• Formal Operations

Hughes's criticism of Piaget & Inhelder's three mountain task was

• The task was unethical in that the children were deceived.

• The task was more about object permanence than egocentrism.

• The task did not make sense to the children.

• It was open to demand characteristics.

Which of the following is not a limitation of Piagetian theory?

• It lacks cross-cultural support.

• The theory is descriptive rather than explanatory.

• Much of the research was cross-sectional, rather than longitudinal in design.

• The tasks used to test the theory were highly language dependent.

A key difference between Vygotsky and Piaget's theories of development is

• Piaget acknowledged the importance of biological maturation in development.

• Piaget believed that young children are curious and actively involved in their own learning.

• Vygotsky argued that learning tends to precede development.

• They are the same

The difference between what a child can achieve independently and what a child can achieve with guidance and encouragement from a more knowledgeable other is referred to as

• Scaffolding

• Cooperative learning

• Naive psychology

• The Zone of Proximal Development

What was the dependent variable that was measured in Nichols (1996) study of cooperative learning?

• Recall of information taught in the course

• Motivation

• The type of instruction given by the teacher

• Time taken to solve problems based on course content.

Which of the following would be a concern about the study done by Winsler e al (2003) on private speech?

• Ethical considerations about informed consent.

• Demand characteristics - the children may demonstrate social desirability effect.

• Construct validity - the measurement of "social skills" was subjective

• Ecological validity - the experiment took place under controlled laboratory conditions.