AP®︎ Psychology: Topic 3.4 Practice Test
Prepare for your quiz, test, or the AP exam with focused practice questions on Topic 3.4 of AP Psychology – Cognitive Development Across the Lifespan.
Questions List
Topic 3.4
Question 1 Easy
This question tests the following: 3.4.A.1
What are schemas according to Piaget?
What You’re Being Tested On:
Explore the learning objectives taken directly from the College Board’s AP® Psychology Curriculum. Ensure you’re prepared for the exact topics covered on the AP® exam, in-class tests, and quizzes, and gain confidence in your mastery of the material.
Topic 3.4: Cognitive Development Across the Lifespan
Learning Objective: 3.4.A
Explain how theories of cognitive development apply to behavior and mental processes.
Essential Knowledge: 3.4.A.1
According to Piaget, children develop schemas via continuous and discontinuous processes such as assimilation and accommodation.
Essential Knowledge: 3.4.A.1.i
The sensorimotor stage occurs from infancy through toddlerhood. Object permanence develops during this stage.
Essential Knowledge: 3.4.A.1.ii
The preoperational stage occurs from toddlerhood through early childhood. Children become proficient in using mental symbols and engage in pretend play. The preoperational stage is identified more by cognitive tasks children cannot perform such as conservation and reversibility, or by those they exhibit, such as animism and egocentrism. Children begin to develop a theory of mind during this stage.
Essential Knowledge: 3.4.A.1.iii
The concrete operational stage occurs from early through late childhood. Children in this stage can generally correct the cognitive errors made in the preoperational stage and understand the world in logical, realistic, and straightforward ways, but struggle to think systematically.
Essential Knowledge: 3.4.A.1.iv
The formal operational stage occurs from late childhood through adulthood. People in this stage gain the ability to think abstractly and hypothetically. Piaget proposed that not all people achieve formal operational thinking.
Essential Knowledge: 3.4.A.2
According to Vygotsky, children are social learners who learn through interacting with and scaffolding by other people within sociocultural contexts. Ideally, learning occurs while the person is in their zone of proximal development.
Essential Knowledge: 3.4.A.3
Adults experience changes in cognitive capabilities as they progress through the lifespan. Crystallized intelligence remains relatively stable through adulthood while fluid intelligence tends to wane as people age. Cognitive disorders that affect adults include dementia.
