Q&A Hero

Q: After a trip to the zoo, 4-year-old Jaden is able to remember the animals he saw and the context in which he saw them. This is an example of A)scripts. B)recognition without recall. C)autobiographical memory. D)overlapping waves.

Q: Lydia acts out her __________ of putting her baby brother to bed when she plays with her doll. A)theory of mind B)autobiographical memory C)script D)recognition memory

Q: Scripts A)clutter long-term memory with irrelevant information. B)help children organize, interpret, and predict everyday experiences. C)hinder memory for events that are highly distinctive. D)facilitate recall of specific instances of repeated experiences.

Q: Even preschoolers with good language skills recall poorly because they are not skilled at using A)memory strategies. B)episodic memory. C)autobiographical memory. D)scripts.

Q: Seven-year-old Lucia learns much from cultural tools that support __________, such as following directions when playing games with her friends and when she helps her mother cook from recipes. A)scaffolding B)planning C)metacognition D)recognition

Q: Preschoolers whose parents offer suggestions, questions, and comments that help the child overcome frustration and sustain direction on a challenging task A)are more mature when reassessed a year or two later. B)have difficulty forming friendships in the early school years. C)tend to be delayed in problem solving and planning activities. D)are more socially mature than they are cognitively mature.

Q: Gains in __________ permit preschoolers to generate increasingly complex play and problem-solving goals. A)planning ability B)working memory C)episodic memory D)metacognition

Q: Which of the following is a common criticism of Vygotsky's theory? A)It underemphasizes the role of verbal communication in early childhood development. B)It overemphasizes the development of basic cognitive processes in early childhood. C)It places too much emphasis on how elementary capacities spark changes in children's social experiences. D)It says too little about how basic cognitive skills contribute to socially transmitted higher cognitive processes.

Q: Young Yucatec Mayan children A)rarely imitate adult work in their make-believe play. B)and Western children display impressive similarities in their make-believe play. C)decide for themselves how much to sleep and eat. D)tend to frequently display attention-getting behaviors.

Q: Due to the large amounts of time children in village and tribal cultures spend in contact with adult work, A)assumption of adult roles is met with resistance from children. B)make-believe play is more complex and imaginative than in Western cultures. C)adults restrict children's activities to ones that they feel the child can safely perform. D)parents have little need to rely on conversation and play to teach children.

Q: One challenge to Vygotsky's theory is that A)it places too much emphasis on how memory contributes to socially transmitted higher cognitive processes. B)in some cultures, verbal dialogues are not the only means through which children learn. C)it does not differ enough from Piaget's theory about the purpose of private speech. D)studies have shown that children taught in Vygotskian classrooms are delayed in their learning.

Q: Vygotsky regarded make-believe play as A)a means of enhancing animistic thinking. B)the ideal social context for fostering cognitive development. C)instrumental to fostering independent discovery learning. D)opportunities to practice representational schemes.

Q: Vygotskian classrooms are more likely to utilize __________ than Piagetian classrooms. A)peer collaboration B)independent discovery C)make-believe play D)discovery learning

Q: In Mr. Naffie's Vygotskian classroom, he guides children's learning with explanations, demonstrations, and verbal prompts, tailoring his interventions to each child's zone of proximal development. This is an example of the Vygotskian principle of A)peer collaboration. B)discovery learning. C)independent exploration. D)assisted discovery.

Q: Barbara Rogoff suggests the term __________ to encompass children's diverse opportunities to learn through involvement with others, applying it as a broader concept than __________. A)cooperative learning; peer collaboration B)intersubjectivity; cooperative learning C)guided participation; scaffolding D)scaffolding; a zone of proximal development

Q: While filling in a connect-the-dots page, Amir hesitated. His father asked him, "What comes after 7? Start counting from 1 and see if that helps you remember." Amir recited the numbers and remembered that 8 comes after 7. This is an example of A)scaffolding. B)private speech. C)guided participation. D)assisted discovery.

Q: Adults try to promote __________ when they translate their own insights in ways that are within a child's grasp. A)transitive inference B)intersubjectivity C)guided participation D)scaffolding

Q: According to Vygotsky, which of the following is within a child's zone of proximal development? A)a task that is too difficult for a child to accomplish alone or with the help of an adult B)a task that a child has recently mastered independently following the assistance of an adult C)a task that is too difficult for a child to do alone but possible with the help of others D)a task that a child figures out how to accomplish through her own independent activity

Q: Children who freely use private speech during a challenging activity __________ than their less talkative agemates. A)are less attentive B)show better task performance C)are less involved in the activity D)have more adjustment problems

Q: Research shows that young children use private speech A)because they have difficulty with perspective taking. B)when they are engaged in cooperative dialogues. C)when tasks are appropriately challenging. D)when they cannot find a conversational partner.

Q: As Sunni plays, she says: "Where's the cup? I want the cup. Oh, there it is. Now, I need the spoon." Sunni is engaging in what researchers now call __________ speech. A)egocentric B)private C)inner D)social

Q: Vygotsky's theory stresses the __________ of cognitive development. A)physiology B)neuroplasticity C)social context D)egocentricity

Q: In his classroom, Mr. Palinco introduces activities that build on his students' current thinking, challenging their incorrect ways of viewing the world, but he is careful not to impose new skills before the children indicate they are interested and ready. Mr. Palinco is adhering to which educational principle derived from Piaget's theory? A)sensitivity to children's readiness to learn B)assisted discovery C)discovery learning D)acceptance of individual differences

Q: A Piagetian classroom that emphasizes discovery learning would probably include A)explicit verbal teaching of ready-made information. B)a rich variety of activities designed to promote exploration and discovery. C)introduction of new skills according to normative standards of readiness. D)progress evaluation on the basis of average performance of same-age peers.

Q: Which of the following statements best describes a Piagetian classroom? A)Children participate in peer collaboration, which allows them to teach and help one another. B)The teacher assumes that all children reach developmental milestones at the same rate. C)Teaching practices highlight concepts such as scaffolding and the zone of proximal development. D)Children are encouraged to discover for themselves through spontaneous interaction with the environment.

Q: Some neo-Piagetian theorists combine Piaget's stage approach with the __________ emphasis on task-specific changes. A)ecological systems B)information-processing C)dynamic systems D)Vygotskian

Q: Evidence that logical operations develop gradually and that preschoolers can be trained to perform well on Piagetian tasks pose a serious challenge to Piaget's A)stage concept. B)views of animistic thinking. C)three-mountains problem. D)concept of egocentrism.

Q: Evidence suggests that Piaget __________ preschoolers' cognitive capabilities. A)was completely wrong about B)vastly overestimated C)accurately estimated D)was partly wrong and partly right about

Q: In non-Western village cultures, young children A)seldom engage in question asking with adults. B)rarely ask why-questions, aimed at getting explanations. C)receive more informative answers from adults than do Western children. D)are discouraged from asking too many questions.

Q: The usefulness of children's questions depends on the A)child's ethnicity and culture. B)topic about which the child is inquiring. C)informative value of adults' answers. D)exposure they receive to different viewpoints.

Q: Which of the following statements about children's questions is true? A)With age, preschoolers increasingly ask about function, activity, state, and theory of mind. B)At every age between 1 and 5 years, non-information-seeking questions are more often used than information-seeking questions. C)Children do not begin asking questions until they have the vocabulary to formulate sentences. D)Inquisitive children are more often merely clamoring for attention than seeking real answers to their questions.

Q: By age 3½, __________ questions make up about half of children's questions. A)object-naming B)non-information-seeking C)"building" D)rhetorical

Q: At age 3, Elliot is able to break down __________ into __________. A)basic-level categories; general categories B)basic-level categories; subcategories C)general categories; subcategories D)subcategories; basic-level categories

Q: By the beginning of early childhood, children's categories include objects that go together because of their common function, behavior, or natural kind. These findings challenge Piaget's assumption that A)preschoolers' thinking is wholly governed by perceptual appearances. B)the emergence of language brings about representational ability. C)preschoolers have difficulty distinguishing fantasy from reality. D)transitive inference emerges during the concrete operational stage.

Q: Preschoolers seem to use illogical reasoning A)as a coping mechanism when they greatly fear failure. B)whenever they are presented too little information to reason logically. C)only when they must grapple with unfamiliar topics. D)when adults pressure them to arrive at an answer quickly.

Q: Preschoolers' ability to reason about transformations is evident on A)conservation tasks. B)tasks that require reasoning by analogy. C)class inclusion problems. D)hierarchical classification tasks.

Q: Follow-up research on preoperational thought indicates that preschoolers do not display the illogical characteristics that Piaget saw when the tasks are A)first performed by more expert peers while the preschooler watches. B)simplified and made relevant to their everyday lives. C)performed by their parents rather than unfamiliar experimenters. D)performed with their own toys rather than unfamiliar objects.

Q: Which of the following children is the most likely to express disbelief in the Tooth Fairy? A)Jacob, a Jewish boy B)Frank, a Catholic boy C)Lilian, a Methodist girl D)Vanessa, a Baptist girl

Q: Between ages 4 and 8, children's magical beliefs decline as they A)gain familiarity with physical events and principles. B)understand that television characters are not real. C)begin to ascribe supernatural causes only to events they can explain. D)become less likely to confuse fiction with reality.

Q: Four-year-old Matthew is given a toy robotic dog for his birthday. Matthew is most likely to A)try to interact with the robotic dog as he would a real dog. B)recognize that the robotic dog is not alive despite its lifelike features. C)insist that his mother make something for the robotic dog to eat. D)realize that the robotic dog cannot see, think, or remember like real dogs.

Q: Four-year-old Maria uses shorter, simpler expressions when interacting with her 2-year-old brother. This example suggests that Piaget may have A)overestimated preschoolers' animistic thinking. B)overestimated preschoolers' egocentrism. C)underestimated preschoolers' animistic thinking. D)underestimated preschoolers' egocentrism.

Q: Which of the following statements about follow-up research to preoperational thought is true? A)Piaget underestimated preschoolers' animistic beliefs. B)Young children exclusively use egocentric speech until about 3 years of age. C)Children as young as 2 years realize that what they see sometimes differs from what another person sees. D)Preschoolers think magic accounts for all events, even the ones they can personally explain.

Q: Piaget's class inclusion problem demonstrates children's limitations in A)conservation. B)seriation. C)hierarchical classification. D)irreversibility.

Q: __________ is part of every logical operation. A)Dynamic transformation B)Irreversibility C)Class inclusion D)Reversibility

Q: Three-year-old Rachael could not solve a conservation-of-liquid task because she focused on the height of the water. Rachael's thinking is characterized by A)dynamic transformation. B)irreversibility. C)hierarchical classification. D)centration.

Q: Six-year-old Demetri and 4-year-old Lucien's mother gave each boy a glass of juice with their lunch, but Demetri asked her to switch the juice to another taller and narrower glass. After she poured the liquid from the original glass into the tall glass, Lucien said angrily, "Now Demetri gets more juice than me!" Lucien is displaying a lack of A)conservation. B)irreversibility. C)hierarchical classification. D)dual representation.

Q: One day during a rainstorm, 4-year-old Isaiah comments to his mother, "The sky is very sad today. We have to do something fun to make it happy again!" Isaiah's belief that it rains because the sky is sad is an example of A)dual representation. B)egocentrism. C)animistic thinking. D)centration.

Q: For Piaget, the most fundamental deficiency of preoperational thinking is A)dual representation. B)egocentrism. C)animistic thinking. D)centration.

Q: According to Piaget, young children's thinking is rigid and strongly influenced by the way things appear at the moment because they are not capable of A)magical thinking. B)animistic thinking. C)operations. D)centration.

Q: Which of the following is the best method of helping children appreciate dual representation? A)allowing children to explore and draw conclusions themselves B)exposing children to diverse symbols, such as picture books and maps C)encouraging children to engage in make-believe play with realistic props D)arranging for children to spend more time with more expert peers

Q: When shown a LEGO structure made to look like a crayon, 3-year-old Astrid said that the object "really and truly" was a crayon. Astrid is having trouble with A)class inclusion. B)hierarchical classification. C)the appearance-reality distinction. D)conservation.

Q: Children who create imaginary companions tend to A)be maladjusted. B)have problems maintaining friendships. C)be more sociable with peers. D)be only children.

Q: Elisabeth is a preschooler who spends much of her time in sociodramatic play. She is likely to be seen as __________ by observers than peers who do not participate in sociodramatic play. A)more cognitively competent B)more socially competent C)less creative D)less verbal

Q: Children as young as age 2 display A)a sophisticated understanding of role relationships and story lines. B)awareness that make-believe is a representational activity. C)the ability to flexibly understand that an object may take on multiple fictional identities. D)advanced forms of sociodramatic play without adult prompting.

Q: Five-year-old Matthew and 6-year-old Jessica like to pretend that they live or work in a zoo. Often, Matthew will pretend to be an animal and Jessica will pretend to be the zookeeper. This is an example of __________ play. A)parallel B)associative C)sociodramatic D)functional

Q: Make-believe __________ as children realize that agents and recipients of pretend actions can be independent of themselves. A)attaches to the real-life conditions associated with it B)becomes less self-centered C)includes less complex combinations of schemes D)becomes more self-directed

Q: Kyle pretends to drink from a toy cup. Kyle's sister, Anna, takes the same cup and tells him, "This is a hat." Kyle refuses to place the cup on his head to pretend that it is a hat. Kyle is probably A)younger than 2 years of age. B)at least 4 years old. C)less than 1 year of age. D)at least 6 years old.

Q: Piaget believed that through __________, young children practice and strengthen newly acquired representational schemes. A)logical reasoning B)language acquisition C)pretending D)physical activity

Q: Piaget believed that sensorimotor activity leads to A)internal images of experience, which children then label with words. B)quicker executive function, which enables children to effectively combine schemes. C)decreased interest in solitary make-believe play. D)a better understanding of social interactions.

Q: According to Piaget, the most obvious change during the preoperational stage is the increase in A)language ability. B)problem-solving skills. C)logical thought. D)representational activity.

Q: Discuss sex differences in motor skills in early childhood.

Q: Describe the development of drawing in children in Western nations.

Q: Discuss how motor vehicle use relates to childhood injuries. What are some ways to minimize unintentional injuries during automobile travel?

Q: Discuss how sleep habits contribute to body growth in children, and explain how disrupted sleep affects cognitive functioning.

Q: Dominic is left-handed. He would like to know if his infant son is likely to be left-handed or right-handed. What can you tell him about research on handedness?

Q: For preschoolers to easily acquire new motor skills, A)direct adult instruction should focus on perfecting the "correct" technique. B)they need formal lessons to master most gross- and fine-motor skills. C)playgrounds must offer a range of equipment to meet the diverse needs of individual children. D)they need adults to take a "hands-off" approach, providing supervision but no activity planning.

Q: Direct instruction in which of the following activities is most likely to accelerate gross-motor development in early childhood? A)throwing B)running C)dancing D)tumbling

Q: Which of the following statements is supported by research on sex differences in motor skills? A)Sex differences in motor skills increase with age, but they remain small throughout childhood. B)Sex differences in motor skills are largely due to genetically based differences. C)Boys' greater overall physical maturity may be partly responsible for their better balance and precision of movement. D)From an early age, boys and girls are usually channeled into similar physical activities.

Q: Which of the following statements about individual differences in motor skills during early childhood is true? A)Girls can run slightly faster than boys. B)Girls can broad-jump slightly farther than boys. C)Girls have an edge over boys in fine-motor skills. D)Girls are ahead of boys in skills that emphasize force.

Q: Three-year-olds A)use an adult grip pattern to hold a pencil. B)vary their pencil grip, depending on the location of marks they want to make. C)use a constant pencil angle across a range of drawing and writing. D)grip pencils indiscriminately in either their left or right hand.

Q: Preschoolers' first attempts to print often involve A)two- to three-letter words, such as "hi" and "mom." B)a pretend grocery list. C)a parent's or sibling's name. D)their name.

Q: In cultures with little interest in art, A)children nonetheless create elaborate drawings. B)children still draw the universal tadpole image to represent a person. C)the first drawings of the human figure typically emphasize the head and face. D)even older children and adolescents produce simple forms.

Q: Cross-cultural research indicates that children benefit from __________ in learning to draw. A)exposure to a rich variety of art materials B)freedom to use self-expression C)independence D)adult guidance

Q: Which of the following statements about artistic development in China is true? A)China's artistic styles and conventions are enormously diverse compared to the United States. B)Chinese art teachers typically assume that copying others' drawings stifles creativity. C)When taught to paint, Chinese children follow prescribed brush strokes, at first copying their teacher's model. D)Rather than promoting correct ways to draw, Chinese teachers emphasize imagination and self-expression.

Q: Jesi, age 3, is asked to draw a cylinder. Based on her age, she will probably draw A)nothing. B)nonrepresentational scribbles. C)a circle, an oval, or a rectangle. D)two circles and some lines.

Q: Anya, age 4, is asked to draw a picture of a person. She will probably A)draw a circular shape with lines attached, and add features such as eyes, nose, mouth, and hair. B)make a realistically detailed image with primitive drawing techniques. C)draw a large head with facial features but no body. D)use depth cues, such as overlapping objects, in the background.

Q: A major milestone in drawing occurs when 3- and 4-year-olds learn to A)use lines to represent the boundaries of objects. B)use depth cues. C)make gestures that leave marks. D)draw "stick" or "contour" figures.

Q: When adults draw with children and point out resemblances between drawings and objects, A)they stifle children's self-expression. B)preschoolers' pictures become simpler so the adult can recognize items. C)preschoolers' pictures become more comprehensible and detailed. D)they interfere with the natural progression of childhood drawing.

Q: Perhaps the most complex self-help skill of early childhood is A)self-dressing. B)shoe tying. C)self-feeding. D)tooth brushing.

Q: Which of the following statements about self-help skills is true? A)While young preschoolers can use a spoon well, they cannot serve themselves at mealtimes. B)The use of child-sized eating utensils is unnecessary and inhibits fine-motor progress. C)Between ages 4 and 5, children can dress and undress without supervision. D)Shoe-tying skills are typically mastered in early preschool.