Chapter 8: Physical and Cognitive Development in Early Childhood

What is the definition of Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)?

A biologically based condition that includes an inability to relate normally to other people and low scores on false-belief tasks

What is the term for a young child's tendency to focus on only one feature of an object to the exclusion of all other features?

Centration

What cognitive ability allows a person to pull away from focusing on just one feature of an object to consider multiple features?

Decentration

How does Piaget define egocentrism?

The tendency to “center on oneself,” that is, to consider the world entirely in terms of one’s own point of view

What is an elaborative style in the context of talking with children?

A form of talking with children about new events or experiences that enhances children’s memories for those events and experiences

What is the purpose of a false-belief task?

To assess children’s theory of mind by testing their understanding of stories where a character is fooled or situations where they themselves have been tricked

What does it mean for a family to be food-insecure?

Lacking enough food to ensure good health

What part of the information-processing system holds memories of past experiences?

Long-term memory

What are mental modules?

Hypothesized innate mental faculties that receive inputs from particular classes of objects and produce corresponding information about the world

In Piaget's theory, what are mental operations?

The mental process of combining, separating, or transforming information in a logical manner

What is motor drive?

The pleasure young children take in using their new motor skills

According to Piaget, what is the major achievement of cognitive development made possible by decentration?

Objectivity

What is ossification?

A process through which new bone tissue is formed at the growth plates of long bones

What is precausal thinking?

Piaget’s description of the reasoning of young children that does not follow the procedures of either deductive or inductive reasoning

Describe the preoperational stage according to Piaget.

The stage of thinking between infancy and middle childhood, in which children are unable to decenter their thinking or to think through the consequences of an action

What are privileged domains?

Cognitive domains that call on specialized kinds of information, require specifically designated forms of reasoning, and appear to be of evolutionary importance to the human species

What is a scale error?

Young children’s inappropriate use of an object due to their failure to consider information about the object’s size

What are scripts?

Event schemas that specify who participates in an event, what social roles they play, what objects they are to use, and the sequence of actions that make up the event

What is the function of the sensory register?

The part of the information-processing system that stores input from the sensory organs for a fraction of a second before it is moved into working memory or lost

How is theory of mind defined?

Coherent theories about how people’s beliefs, desires, and mental states combine to shape their actions

What is theory theory?

The theory that young children have primitive theories about how the world works, which influence how children think about and act within specific domains

What is working memory, and what is its alternative name?

Also known as short-term memory, it is the part of the information-processing system where active thinking takes place and information from the sensory register may be combined with memory of past experiences

Where are growth plates (physes) located in long bones?

Between the widened part of the shaft (the metaphysis) and the end of the bone (the epiphysis)

List the gross motor skills expected of a child at age $2$.

Walks well, runs, goes up and down stairs alone, and kicks ball

List the fine motor skills expected of a child at age $3$.

Feeds self well, puts on shoes and socks, unbuttons and buttons, and builds tower of $10$ cubes

Which motor milestones are associated with age $4$?

Skips, standing broad jump, throws ball overhand, high motor drive, draws a person, cuts with scissors (not well), dresses self well, and washes and dries face

Which motor milestones are reached by age $5$?

Hops and skips, good balance, skates, rides scooter, dresses without help, prints simple letters, and ties shoes

According to the transcript, what percentage of families in the United States are food insecure?

More than $10\text{\%}$

What are two examples of scale errors provided in the text?

(a) A $21$-month-old child attempting to slide down a miniature slide; (b) A $24$-month-old child trying to force his foot inside a miniature car

How does Piaget describe the Sensorimotor stage from birth to age $2$?

Infants coordinate sensory perceptions and simple motor behaviors to recognize a world outside themselves

What is a characteristic manifestation of centration in the preoperational stage regarding social interaction?

Children engage in collective monologues rather than dialogues

In the preoperational stage, why do children fail to compare volumes of containers correctly?

They fail to consider both the height and width of containers

Explain the bead set example of children confusing classes with subclasses.

Children cannot reliably say whether there are more wooden beads or more brown beads in a set of all wooden beads

Describe the concrete operational stage (ages $6$ to $12$).

Children become capable of mental operations (internalized actions in a logical system) carried out in the presence of the objects and events being thought about

What is an example of the confusion of appearance and reality in young children?

Children acting as if a Halloween mask actually changes the identity of the person wearing it

What ability is acquired during the formal operational stage (ages $12$ to $19$)?

The ability to think systematically about all logical relations within a problem and a keen interest in abstract ideals

Provide an example of precausal reasoning mentioned in the transcript.

A child thinking a graveyard is a cause of death because dead people are buried there

What is gravity bias, and at what age does it typically resolve?

The belief that a ball dropped into a tube will fall straight down regardless of tube shape; it lasts until approximately $4$ years of age

In the study involving ASD children, which type of sequence were they especially good at creating?

Mechanical sequences

In the study involving ASD children, which type of sequence was more difficult for them than for developmentally delayed children?

Mentalistic sequences

What is the specialized cultural script for celebrating a birthday in Mexico?

Taking turns batting at a swinging piñata until it breaks to spill candies and toys

How can cultural scripts vary globally according to the text?

Even basic scripts like “taking a bath” vary, such as pilgrims bathing in a sacred waterfall near a temple in India

How does the culture of the !Kung of the Kalahari Desert affect cognitive development?

A child is unlikely to learn how to use a TV remote but may learn to find water-bearing roots, showing how culture makes specific activities available

How does Balinese culture influence motor skill development compared to Norwegian culture?

Balinese children often become skilled dancers by age $4$ due to the frequency of that activity, while Norwegian children are likely to become better skiers and skaters

What related skills might a child learn if pottery-making is a valued cultural activity?

Digging clay from a quarry, firing clay, glazing clay, painting designs, and selling the products

What brain development occurs in early childhood according to the summary?

Myelination of the frontal cortex and increases in the length and branching of neurons connecting different areas of the brain

According to information-processing approaches, what are control processes?

Processes including attention, rehearsal, and decision making that coordinate the flow of information

What does the approach of naïve biology include in early childhood?

An understanding of differences between living things and inanimate objects

What does modularity theory propose to explain domain-specific development?

The existence of distinct and separate mental modules present from birth dedicated to different privileged domains

How does culture influence cognitive development by regulating the child's role?

Children enter activities as novices with little responsibility, and as their roles change, so do the specialized abilities they develop

__________ is a biologically based condition characterized by an inability to relate normally to other people and low scores on false-belief tasks.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)

The tendency of young children to focus on only one feature of an object to the exclusion of all other features is known as __________.

Centration

__________ is the cognitive ability to pull away from focusing on just one feature of an object in order to consider multiple features.

Decentration

In Piaget's terms, __________ is the tendency to center on oneself and consider the world entirely in terms of one's own point of view.

Egocentrism

A form of talking with children about new experiences that enhances memory is known as the __________.

Elaborative style

The __________ is a technique used to assess children's theory of mind by testing their understanding of stories where a character is fooled.

False-belief task

Families that lack enough food to ensure good health are described as __________.

Food-insecure

The part of the information-processing system that holds memories of past experiences is called __________.

Long-term memory

Hypothesized innate mental faculties that receive inputs from particular classes of objects are called __________.

Mental modules

In Piaget's theory, the mental process of combining, separating, or transforming information in a logical manner is called __________.

Mental operations

The pleasure young children take in using their new motor skills is referred to as __________.

Motor drive

Piaget believed that the attainment of __________, made possible by decentration, was the major achievement of cognitive development.

Objectivity

The process through which new bone tissue is formed at the growth plates of long bones is called __________.

Ossification

__________ refers to Piaget's description of young children's reasoning that does not follow deductive or inductive procedures.

Precausal thinking

According to Piaget, the __________ occur between infancy and middle childhood, when children are unable to decenter their thinking.

Preoperational stage

Cognitive domains that require specialized reasoning and appear to be of evolutionary importance are called __________.

Privileged domains

Young children's inappropriate use of an object due to a failure to consider its size is called __________.

Scale errors

Event schemas that specify who participates, social roles, and the sequence of actions are known as __________.

Scripts

The __________ stores input from sensory organs for a fraction of a second before it is moved to working memory or lost.

Sensory register

Coherent theories about how people's beliefs, desires, and mental states combine to shape their actions is called __________.

Theory of mind

The theory that young children have primitive theories about how the world works which influence their actions is called __________.

Theory theory

__________ is the part of the information-processing system where active thinking takes place and information is combined with past experiences.

Working memory

Growth plates, also known as __________, are located between the metaphysis and the epiphysis.

physes

At age $, children can run, kick a ball, and build a tower of$6$$ cubes.

2

A $-year-old child is expected to be able to ride a tricycle and build a tower of$10$$ cubes.

3

By the age of $$, children can skip, throw a ball overhand, and wash and dry their own face.

4

At age $$, children can print simple letters and tie their own shoes.

5

Even in the United States, more than $10\,\text{percent}$ of families with children are __________.

food insecure

Piaget’s Preoperational stage typically spans from age $2$ dummy to age $$.

6

In the $$, infants recognize the existence of a world outside themselves and interact with it deliberately.

Sensorimotor stage

Children in the preoperational stage often engage in __________, rather than dialogues, when in each other's company.

collective monologues

The __________ is a stage between ages $6$ and $12$ where children become capable of mental operations and logical systems.

Concrete operational stage

In the __________, spanning ages $12$ to $19$, the developing person acquires the ability to think systematically about all logical relations.

Formal operational stage

The belief that a graveyard is a cause of death because dead people are buried there is an example of __________.

precausal reasoning

Until approximately age $$, children exhibit a gravity bias, believing a ball dropped into a bent tube will fall straight down.

4

In experiments with ASD children, they were found to be especially good at creating __________ sequences compared to mentalistic ones.

mechanical

A young girl from __________ develops a script for "having a lesson" by participating in basket-weaving.

Palau

Brain development in early childhood includes __________ of the frontal cortex and increased branching of neurons.

myelination

Information-processing approaches use the __________ as an analogy for the workings of the mind.

digital computer

The flow of information in the mind is coordinated by __________, which include attention, rehearsal, and decision making.

control processes

__________ includes an understanding of the differences between living things and inanimate objects.

Naïve biology

__________ covers the understanding of properties like gravity and inertia during early childhood.

Naïve physics

The __________ holds that separate mental processes present from birth are dedicated to different privileged domains.

modularity theory

A child who thinks a Halloween mask actually changes the identity of the person wearing it is demonstrating a __________.

confusion of appearance and reality

A $4$-year-old growing up among the __________ of the Kalahari Desert is unlikely to learn how to use a TV remote.

!Kung

Because of cultural emphasis, many __________ children become skilled dancers by age $4$.

Balinese

In Norway, children are more likely to become better __________ than dancers due to cultural frequency of activities.

skiers and skaters

Preoperational children fail to consider both height and width when comparing __________.

volumes

A child who cannot determine if there are more wooden beads or brown beads in a set of all wooden beads is confusing __________.

classes with subclasses

The widened part of the shaft of the bone is called the __________.

metaphysis