PSYC 2700 Exam 2 Prep Questions With
Solved Solutions.
Piaget - Answer Framed the questions and provided (precursors to) many methods we use in
developmental psychology today
Most influential developmentalist of 20th century
Although many details of his theory have been shown to not quite right, his theory still gives excellent
sense of how development progresses and what children are like at different ages
Carried out most of his observations with his kids
Piaget's fundamental question: - Answer What makes a human intellect?
-How do you take sensations and make them into concepts?
-What is the nature of these concepts?
-How do these concepts change?
Piaget's theory: basic assumption - Answer Child actively constructs knowledge (child as scientist)
Child learns on own, not just from others
Child is Intrinsically motivated to learn
Piaget's theory: Basic processes - Answer Child understands the world with schemas (psychological
structures that organize experience; mental categories of related events, objects, knowledge),
Schemas change constantly
Ex - forming the schema "butterfly"
3 Processes that propel development - Answer assimilation, accommodation, equilibration
assimilation - Answer Assimilation: taking in information compatible with what is already known,
incorporating into existing schemas.
Process by which people incorporate information into concepts they already understand
Ex - guy with bald top of head and frizzy hair on sides looks like a clown
,Accommodation - Answer Accommodation: changing existing knowledge based on new knowledge;
modifying schemas based on experience.
The boy could listen to his dad and accomodate his clown concept, realizing that not all bald men are
clowns
Equilibration: - Answer Equilibration: balancing assimilation and accommodation to create stable
understanding; reorganizing schemas to achieve balance.
3 steps: first the child is satisfied with their understanding, then new information lets them know that
their understanding is inadequate, finally they develop a new understanding using their new information
Stages of Cognitive development - Answer discontinuous, invariant sequence,Hierarchical, Domain-
general (broad applicability)
Discontinuous - Answer Pine tree: developmental continuity (small tree-->bigger tree)
Butterfly: developmental discontinuity (caterpillar-->chrysallis->butterfly)
Invariant sequence - Answer One stage occurs after other and sequence can't be mixed up
Hierarchical - Answer ...
Domain-general (broad applicability) - Answer The type of thinking characteristic of each stage
influences children's thinking across diverse topics and contexts
Piaget's 4 stages - Answer 1. Sensorimotor (0-2 years —> Infancy)
2. Preoperational (2-7 years)
3. Concrete operational (7-12 years)
4. Formal operational (12 years and beyond)
1. Sensorimotor (0-2 years —> Infancy) - Answer intelligence expressed through sensory and motor
abilities
, integration of motor movements with sensory experiences
2. Preoperational (2-7 years) - Answer Major advance: symbolic representation (using one object to
stand for another AKA pretend play)
Weakness: egocentrism
difficulty seeing the world from others' points of view (exp with children who could not know the doll's
view, just their own)
Ex - problems with Piaget's 3 mountain task
Weakness: Centration
narrowly focused thought; focus on a single feature of object or event, ignoring other features
Ex - balance scale problem: ignore the distance of the weights from the center
Ex - problems with conservation of liquid, solid, number
3. Concrete operational (7-12 years) - Answer Egocentrism declines
Advances in:
Logical reasoning
Ability to attend to multiple dimensions
Solve conservation problems
Weakness
Limited to concrete situations; not abstract or hypothetical
Ex - fail to imagine that the faster motion might be related to the length of the string or the height from
which the string was dropped, rather than the weight of the object
Formal operational (12 years and beyond) - Answer Able to think abstractly and hypothetically
Able to reason systematically about all possible outcomes
Ex - mixing different liquids to make blue liquid
Not attained universally (unlike other 3 stages)
substages of sensorimotor
0-1 months - Answer Modification of reflexes
Solved Solutions.
Piaget - Answer Framed the questions and provided (precursors to) many methods we use in
developmental psychology today
Most influential developmentalist of 20th century
Although many details of his theory have been shown to not quite right, his theory still gives excellent
sense of how development progresses and what children are like at different ages
Carried out most of his observations with his kids
Piaget's fundamental question: - Answer What makes a human intellect?
-How do you take sensations and make them into concepts?
-What is the nature of these concepts?
-How do these concepts change?
Piaget's theory: basic assumption - Answer Child actively constructs knowledge (child as scientist)
Child learns on own, not just from others
Child is Intrinsically motivated to learn
Piaget's theory: Basic processes - Answer Child understands the world with schemas (psychological
structures that organize experience; mental categories of related events, objects, knowledge),
Schemas change constantly
Ex - forming the schema "butterfly"
3 Processes that propel development - Answer assimilation, accommodation, equilibration
assimilation - Answer Assimilation: taking in information compatible with what is already known,
incorporating into existing schemas.
Process by which people incorporate information into concepts they already understand
Ex - guy with bald top of head and frizzy hair on sides looks like a clown
,Accommodation - Answer Accommodation: changing existing knowledge based on new knowledge;
modifying schemas based on experience.
The boy could listen to his dad and accomodate his clown concept, realizing that not all bald men are
clowns
Equilibration: - Answer Equilibration: balancing assimilation and accommodation to create stable
understanding; reorganizing schemas to achieve balance.
3 steps: first the child is satisfied with their understanding, then new information lets them know that
their understanding is inadequate, finally they develop a new understanding using their new information
Stages of Cognitive development - Answer discontinuous, invariant sequence,Hierarchical, Domain-
general (broad applicability)
Discontinuous - Answer Pine tree: developmental continuity (small tree-->bigger tree)
Butterfly: developmental discontinuity (caterpillar-->chrysallis->butterfly)
Invariant sequence - Answer One stage occurs after other and sequence can't be mixed up
Hierarchical - Answer ...
Domain-general (broad applicability) - Answer The type of thinking characteristic of each stage
influences children's thinking across diverse topics and contexts
Piaget's 4 stages - Answer 1. Sensorimotor (0-2 years —> Infancy)
2. Preoperational (2-7 years)
3. Concrete operational (7-12 years)
4. Formal operational (12 years and beyond)
1. Sensorimotor (0-2 years —> Infancy) - Answer intelligence expressed through sensory and motor
abilities
, integration of motor movements with sensory experiences
2. Preoperational (2-7 years) - Answer Major advance: symbolic representation (using one object to
stand for another AKA pretend play)
Weakness: egocentrism
difficulty seeing the world from others' points of view (exp with children who could not know the doll's
view, just their own)
Ex - problems with Piaget's 3 mountain task
Weakness: Centration
narrowly focused thought; focus on a single feature of object or event, ignoring other features
Ex - balance scale problem: ignore the distance of the weights from the center
Ex - problems with conservation of liquid, solid, number
3. Concrete operational (7-12 years) - Answer Egocentrism declines
Advances in:
Logical reasoning
Ability to attend to multiple dimensions
Solve conservation problems
Weakness
Limited to concrete situations; not abstract or hypothetical
Ex - fail to imagine that the faster motion might be related to the length of the string or the height from
which the string was dropped, rather than the weight of the object
Formal operational (12 years and beyond) - Answer Able to think abstractly and hypothetically
Able to reason systematically about all possible outcomes
Ex - mixing different liquids to make blue liquid
Not attained universally (unlike other 3 stages)
substages of sensorimotor
0-1 months - Answer Modification of reflexes
