Exam 2 Study Guide

Chapter 6:

Understand the terms:
Equilibrium –mechanism that Piaget proposed to explain how children shift from one stage of thought to the next
Accommodation – Piagetian concept of adjusting schemes to fit new info and experiences
Assimilation –Piagetian concept in which children use existing schemes to incorporate new info. *New things are seen as previously known things due to not knowing what something is
Object Permanence – Piagetian term for one of an infant’s most important accomplishments : understanding what objects continue to exist even when they cannot be directly seen, heard, or touched
Animism – facet of preoperational thought: belief that inanimate objects have life-like qualities and are capable of action
ZPD – (zone of proximal development) Vygotsky’s term for tasks that are too difficult for children to master alone but can be mastered with guidance and assistance from adults or more skilled children
Scaffolding – a term Vygotsky used to describe the changing level of support over the course of a teaching session, with the more skilled person adjusting guidance to fit the child’s current performance level
Adolescent egocentrism (both types) – heightened self-consciousness of adolescents, which is reflected in adolescents beliefs that others are as interested in them as themselves, and in adolescents’ sense of personal uniqueness and invincibility
Imaginary Audience –aspect of adolescent egocentrism that involves feeling one is the center of attention and sensing that one is on stage
Personal Fable – part of adolescent egocentrism that involves an adolescent’s sense of personal uniqueness and invincibility
Self-talk (private and inner speech)
Inner – acting without verbalizing
Private - spoken to one’s self for communication, self-guidance, and self-regulation of behavior

Know:
The order of the 4 Piagetian stages and be able to identify the main characteristics of each
Sensorimotor Stage – infant constructs understanding of world through experiences and actions
Preoperational Stage – child represents world with words and images
Concrete Operational Stage – child can now reason logically about events
Formal Operational Stage – adolescent reasons in more abstract, idealistic, and logical ways
The major differences Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theory – Vygotsky’s: children are described as more social creatures. They develop their ways of thinking and understanding from social interaction rather than by interaction in physical world.
Aspects of adult cognition – become swayed too strongly by negative emotions
Realistic and pragmatic thinking – idealism decreases due to reality hitting, switch from acquiring knowledge to applying it
Reflective and relativistic thinking – world is viewed as either right/ wrong

Chapter 7:

Understand the terms:
Habituation vs. Dishabituation
Habituation – decreased responsiveness to a stimulus after repeated presentations of the stimulus
Dishabituation – increase in responsiveness after a change in stimulation
Theory of mind – thoughts about how one’s own mental processes work and the mental processes of others
‘Use it or lose it’ – changes in cognitive activity patterns might result in disuse of cognitive skills
Metacognition – cognition about cognition or knowing about knowing
Prospective Memory – remembering to do something in the future
Critical Thinking, Scientific Thinking, and Problem Solving
Critical Thinking – thinking reflectively and productively, and evaluating the evidence
Scientific Thinking – thinking in aspects specific to a certain domain
Solving Problems – finding appropriate ways to attain a certain goal
Salient stimuli – used to capture one’s attention

Know:
The three main processes involved in information processing
Attention – getting info into memory
Memory – retaining info over time
Thinking – taking info out of storage
The four mechanisms of change involved in information