Recently your friend Martha took her sons to a hands-on children's museum. Martha noticed that her 8-year-old son and her 12-year-old son interacted with some of the displays in very different ways
One display involved opening doors to safes by determining the correct combination. Each safe had three, four, or five buttons that had to be pressed in a particular order to open the door. Martha's 8-year-old son randomly pushed the buttons and never found the correct combinations to any of the safes. Martha's 12-year-old son approached the task in a very systematic manner — trying all possible combinations of buttons until the doors opened. Now Martha is concerned that there is something wrong with her younger son. What can you tell Martha about the differences in concrete operational and formal operational thought that might explain her sons' behavior?
What will be an ideal response?
A good answer will be similar to the following:
The behavior of Martha's sons fits Piaget's description of formal operational thought very well. According to Piaget, children who are 12 years old would be in the period of formal operations. Formal operational children use more sophisticated, logical, deductive reasoning to solve problems like the safe problem. However, concrete operational children (such as the 8-year-old) use haphazard trial-and-error and often do not solve successfully problems like the safe problem. Concrete operational children are more likely to try to solve problems like this by randomly pushing buttons, but formal operational children can think deductively about the possible, logical combinations before attempting the button pushing. In time, Martha's younger son also will use deductive reasoning and will solve the safe problem like his older brother.
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Loftus and Palmer were investigating the reconstructive nature of human memory. They showed a video clip of a traffic accident and asked participants in their experiment to estimate how fast the cars had been traveling. For half the participants, the question contained the phrase "smashed into," and for the remainder, the question contained the phrase "contacted.". Loftus and Palmer found that
the participants who heard the phrase "smashed into": a. were more likely to report seeing broken glass b. reported the details of the accident with greater accuracy c. had greater difficulty recalling the colors of the vehicles d. could not recall how many passengers were in each of the cars
It has only been for the last five years or so that the information-processing approach has been the dominant model for examining cognitive development
Indicate whether the statement is true or false
According to conformity research, a groups social power over you is lost when
A. when its a group you identify with B. when everyone in group expresses the same view C. when one person (besides you) disagrees with the majority D. when your responses will be made public
According to Freud, hysterical symptoms provide __________ gains.
A. neither primary nor secondary B. primary, but not secondary, C. secondary, but not primary, D. primary and secondary