Week 9 Reading 1- Cognitive Development in Childhood

Which term is probably the best synonym for the word "cognition" as it is used in a discussion of cognitive development?

• motor reflexes

• sensation

• personality

• thinking

Owen is writing a paper about how the attitudes, values, and beliefs of culture influence development in children. What would be the best title for his essay?

• “Examining Kohlberg’s theory of cultural relativity”

• “Piagetian stages of development, from birth through adulthood”

• “Child development according to Lev Vygotsky”

• “The information-processing approach to development”

  
  

Nature refers to biological endowment, including the genes a person receives from his or her parents, while ______refers to the environmental influences that impact a person's development.

• genotype

• nurture

• growth

• maturation

If you were taking part in a debate with another psychologist over the relative influences of nature and nurture on development, which position do you think you'd be most likely to take if you wanted to win the debate?

• Genes can, in every case, be muted or enhanced by the influences of one’s environment. Therefore nurture is most important.

• Both nature and nurture take a back seat to the influence of technology in today’s world, so that is really the influence we should examine.

• Research has consistently shown that we are ultimately determined by our genes, irrespective of influence of one’s surroundings.

• Nature and nurture interact to determine virtually every aspect of development.

Armand is a child who has difficulties with his ______. His vision is impaired in such a way that he cannot tell how far away objects are. This has led to difficulties in certain sports.

• gestalt perception

• depth perception

• olfactory plasticity

• auditory localization

According to the research of Langlois and colleagues (1995) and van den Boom & Hoeksma (1994), infants who are ______tend to get more affectionate care from their parents. This has been found to contribute to their later cognitive development.

• female

• smaller in size

• the result of an unintentional pregnancy

• easygoing and attractive

What kind of change patterns might be described as a series of starts and stops?

• leapfrog development

• continuous development

• discontinuous development

• qualitative development

Piaget's stage theory of cognitive development suggests that a child's thinking is fundamentally different--more advanced--in each stage than it was on the previous stage. This demonstrates the concept of ______change.

•  

  quantitative

• discontinuous

• continuous

• qualitative

The correct order of Piaget's proposed stages of cognitive development is:

• concrete operational reasoning, sensorimotor,

  formal operational reasoning, preoperational reasoning

• sensorimotor, preoperational reasoning,

  concrete operational reasoning,

  formal operational reasoning 

•  

  preoperational reasoning,

  operational reasoning, postformal reasoning

• preconventional morality,

  conventional morality, postconventional morality

What measure might a psychologist use to demonstrate that an infant does not know that his teddy bear still exists when it is removed from his field of vision?

• a decentration test

• a seriation task

• a conservation exercise

• an object permanence task