Cognitive Development in Middle Childhood

Vocabulary flashcards covering cognitive developmental theories, information processing changes, memory strategies, intelligence assessments, and social-cognitive phenomena in middle childhood.

Concrete Operations

Coordinated mental actions that follow a logical system.

Decentration

The ability to consider and focus on multiple aspects of an object or situation.

Reversibility

The cognitive capacity to imagine a changed thing returning to its original form.

Class Inclusion Problem

A task passed during concrete operations, illustrated by showing pictures of dogs and cats and asking questions about animals to assess logical grouping.

Seriation

The ability to order objects along a quantitative dimension.

Transitive Inference

The ability to seriate mentally rather than physically.

Continuum of Acquisition

The gradual mastery of concrete operational tasks over time rather than all at once.

Rehearsal

A memory strategy that emerges during early grade school.

Organization

A memory strategy involving grouping related items together, emerging soon after rehearsal and aided by an expanding knowledge base.

Elaboration

A memory strategy emerging at the end of middle childhood that involves creating relations between different pieces of information.

Metacognition

The ability to have an awareness of thought, described as thinking about thinking.

Second-Order False Belief

A child's understanding of a belief about someone else's belief, and the recognition that that belief can be wrong.

Cognitive Self-Regulation

The process of monitoring progress, checking outcomes, and redirecting cognitive efforts.

ADHD

A disorder characterized by symptoms of inattention, impulsivity, and excessive motor activity; stimulant medication reduces symptoms in $70\%$ of children.

Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, Fifth Edition

An intelligence test for individuals aged $2$ to adulthood that measures general knowledge, quantitative reasoning, visual-spatial processing, working memory, and basic information processing.

Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-IV (WISC-IV)

An intelligence assessment for children aged $6$ to $16$ that evaluates verbal reasoning, perceptual (visual-spatial) reasoning, working memory, and processing speed.

Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Successful Intelligence

A theory of intelligence categorized into three main components: creative, analytical, and practical abilities.

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences

A framework identifying eight distinct intelligences: linguistic, logico-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, naturalist, interpersonal, and intrapersonal.

Emotional Intelligence

The ability to process and adapt to emotional information, which is positively associated with self-esteem, empathy, prosocial behavior, and life satisfaction.

Stereotype Threat

A phenomenon researched by Claude Steele showing that negative stereotypes can hinder performance, which can be mitigated through self-affirmation essays regarding one's most important values.