Child Development Chapter 9

animistic thinking

attribution of human qualities to inanimate entities

appearance-reality tasks

reveal that children younger than 5-6 years of age focus on the appearance of objects, rather than the reality of those objects

big math for little kids (BMLK)

Activities and stories in the curriculum target children's abilities to solve problems that involve numbers, shapes, patterns, logical reasoning, measurement, operations on numbers, and space

cardinal principle

that each number in a sequence represents a specific number of elements in a set

casual understanding

the ability to see the relation between a cause and effect

centration

the tendency to focus on a single, perceptually salient feature of an entity to the exclusion of others

clause

is the smallest grammatical unit that can express a complete thought

code-related skills

the formalities of writing, sounding out, and reading letters and words on a page

cognitive flexibility

a second component of executive functioning, refers to children's ability to adapt to changing circumstances, such as switching between rules and tasks

consolidation

When individuals form a memory, neuronal connections are modified to create a physical record of the experiences

day-night stroop task

which requires children to say "day" when presented with a picture of a moon and "night" when presented with a picture of a sun which requires children to say "day" when presented with a picture of a moon and "night" when presented with a picture of a sun

declarative memory

a major component of long-term memory, refers to memory for facts and events, including memory of personal experiences from the past

dialogic reading

a reading style in which adults ask "WH" questions (questions asking what, who, when, why, or where), prompt children to participate, and engage children in discussion while reading to them—promotes children's language, emergent literacy, and early reading skills

dimensional card-sorting tasks

Children must be able to flexibly tackle a problem from different perspectives, such as being able to sort blocks into bins based on block color and then switching to sorting blocks based on size

dual representation

the understanding that an object may simultaneously be an entity in itself and a symbol for something else—until around 3 years of age

egocentrism

is the tendency of children to believe that other people view the world from their perspective

emergent literacy

refers to the suite of skills, knowledge, and attitudes that are precursors to reading and writing

episodic memory

the second type of declarative memory, refers to memories about personal experiences, such as what happened during a school trip, last year's vacation, a best friend's party, and so forth

essentialism

developmental researchers refer to children's belief that entities have an underlying essence

executive functioning

the suite of abilities involved in controlling and coordinating attention and other behaviors involved in goal-directed actions

expansions

the elaboration of children's sentences with additional details or information

eyewitness testimony

children's abilities to talk about past experiences also allow them to report on events that they have witnessed

false beliefs

ability to understand that other people can hold beliefs that differ from reality

false memory

remembering of information that is wrong or different from what actually happened

forgetting

the decay or degradation of memories over time

go/no-go tasks

An example of a Stroop task in which children (or adults) are presented with pictures, colors, and letters and are asked to touch a computer screen when a target stimulus appears ("go") but not when a non-target stimulus appears ("no-go"); requires inhibition and ability to selectively attend to specific stimuli

hierarchical classification

the ability to organize items into superordinate and subordinate categories

inclusion problems

tasks that assess children's understanding of hierarchical classification, such as asking children whether there are more "red flowers" or "flowers generally"

infantile amnesia

refers to the difficulty people have in remembering events from the first years of life

inhibitory control

a first component of executive functioning, refers to children's ability to respond appropriately to a stimulus while inhibiting an alternative, dominant response

literacy

early childhood ushers in the building blocks to later academic achievement—as seen in early math skills and children's rudimentary reading and writing skills

literacy-focused preschool curriculum

a curriculum that targets opportunities for young children to develop literacy skills through the use of activities that include dialogic reading, phonological awareness activities, and play activities that integrate reading and writing

logical mental operations

ability to combine, separate, and transform information logically in the mind without the need to directly perceive or experience the information

long-term memory

the unlimited and enduring storehouse of knowledge and know-how represented in the brain

memory span tests

a test of children's working memory that measures the number of items (e.g., words, letters of the alphabet) children can recall and repeat immediately after being presented with a list

mental representation

ability to hold and manipulate objects and events in the mind; according to Jean Piaget, toddlers achieve this ability during the sixth substage of the sensorimotor stage (mental representation)

mental state talk

Statements and questions that refer to others' minds, such as think, know, and want

metacognitive skill

the understanding of how cognition works, or "knowing about knowing"

monitoring

keeping track of one's performance on a task and making necessary adjustments

morphology

the study of words and how words are formed

organization

refers to imposing a structure on test items based on their relations to one another, which then helps recall

overregularization

use of a regular morpheme in a word that is irregular, such as saying "taked" rather than "took" for the past tense or "mouses" rather than "mice" for the plural form

pragmatics

social conventions and norms around language that children must learn to effectively communicate with others

precasual thinking

logical errors that children make in cause-effect relations, including circular thinking, as when a child says "cold makes snow" and "snow makes cold"

preoperational stage of cognitive development

The second stage in Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development in which young children can think symbolically (as seen in pretend play, language, deferred imitation, and object permanence) but still show limitations in areas such as perspective taking, conservation, logical thinking, and causal understanding

recasts

the restructuring of children's grammatically incorrect sentences into correct forms (often by a caregiver)

rehearsal

strategy for remembering that relies on repeating information to aid memory

reversibility

the ability to realize that numbers or objects can be changed or returned to their original state, such as when children recognize that after rolling a ball of clay into a snakelike shape, it is possible to mold it back into its original shape

scripts

component of semantic memory referring to knowledge about familiar routines, such as the sequence of events and expected behaviors when eating at a restaurant

self-regulation

the ability to control attention, emotions, thinking, and behavior

semantic memory

subtype of declarative memory referring to the knowledge a person has acquired around facts, rules, and concepts (including general world knowledge)

sociodramatic play

pretend play that includes other people as actors in created play scenarios

spatial cognition

abilities to represent shapes, locations, and spatial relations among objects

stroop tasks

tests that examine inhibitory control through asking children (or adults) to respond to stimuli that are congruent or incongruent with the required response (e.g, saying the color red to red stimuli versus saying red to green stimuli)

suggestability

the inclination to accept false information when recalling an experience—increases in the presence of biased interviewing and leading questions

symbolic understanding

understanding that things can stand for other things

syntax

the set of rules that govern the ordering of parts of speech to form meaningful sentences

taxonomic categorization

the classification of entities based on their similar characteristics or functions, such as the category of foods or body parts

theory of mind

refers to the ability to attribute mental states such as knowledge, beliefs, and desires to oneself and others, and to understand that other people can have knowledge, beliefs, and desires that differ from one's own

tools of the mind curriculum

an early childhood curriculum that focuses on play as a primary vehicle for the development of self- regulation, executive functioning, and higher-level cognitive skills

tower of london task

a test used to assess children's planning abilities that involve rearranging objects (e.g., disks, colored balls) from an initial configuration to a configuration that matches a display

working memory

the third component of executive functioning, refers to the ability to maintain and manipulate information in the mind over a short period of time

wug test

method of studying children's understanding of plural formation and other rules in grammar based on children's verbal responses to pictures of invented nouns, verbs, and adjectives (such as whether a child says "wugs" to 2 odd creatures)