Critical Thinking in Psychology - Children

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts related to critical thinking and cognitive development in children, based on lecture notes.

Neural Pruning

A "use it or lose it" system in early brain development where neural connections that are used are strengthened, and those that are not used die off. Lasts until your mid-20’s.

Preferential Looking

A method used to test cognitive abilities in infants, based on their tendency to look at novel or more interesting stimuli.

Object Permanence

The understanding, typically developed around age 1, that things continue to exist even when they cannot be seen.

Conservation

The understanding that certain physical characteristics of objects remain the same, even when their outward appearance changes. Children in Piaget’s preoperational stage are unable to understand this concept.

Sensorimotor Stage

Piaget's first stage of cognitive development (birth to 2 years) where infants explore the world through movements and sensations.

Preoperational Stage

Piaget's second stage of cognitive development (2 to 7 years) where children think symbolically but do not understand concrete logic or conservation. They also tend to be egocentric.

Concrete Operational Stage

Piaget's third stage of cognitive development (7 to 11 years) where children begin to think logically about concrete events but are unable to think hypothetically. Understands conservation concepts.

Formal Operational Stage

Piaget's fourth stage of cognitive development (12 to 17 years) marked by the ability to use hypothetical and deductive reasoning and abstract concepts.

Amygdala in children

Younger children process information with the amygdala, the emotional part of the brain, rather than with the prefrontal cortex.