New to Me, New to You Trivia Quiz

Answer: Reaching in a drawer to pull out a toy

Intentional actions require the development both of logic--to figure out how to accomplish something--and hand-eye coordination to perform the motion. Babies are moving out of infancy as they learn this and Swiss development psychologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980) said this stage is a sign of "first proper intelligence."

Answer: Baby throws a toy on the floor, then a spoon, then food, watching to see which upsets you the most

The long name covers a simple concept: according to Piaget the baby is a "young scientist", exploring different and perhaps indirect ways to accomplish goals.

Answer: A toddler rides a broom, pretending that it's a horse and that his pointed finger is a gun

According to Piaget, representational thought is necessary for language, because a child needs to understand that certain sounds represent certain things, so this is an important stage, which helps a child become comfortable with language and any similar representation of real objects, such as symbolic drawings.

Answer: The baby watches you drop a toy in a box, then crawls over and looks in to find it

The game of peek-a-boo is fascinating to babies because they are dealing with the question of whether the person still exists when his face is hidden. Piaget considered object permanence to be one of the most important early stages to achieve. It shows that a baby understands the difference between himself and other objects and how objects exist in the environment.

Other researchers claim that an understanding of object permanence occurs much earlier, in infants as young as three months, and can appear even before the coordination that Piaget felt was necessary for the test, such as reaching or grasping.

Answer: Drawing a picture of the lion he saw at the zoo yesterday

The time when toddlers understand symbolic function is also the time that they start to have imaginary friends and play games where they take on roles. Egocentrism can affect a toddler's use of symbolic function, though, if he still thinks that everyone sees the world from his point of view and therefore knows everything he knows, including what he's pretending.

Answer: A child sees a toy in a box in front of her and expects her father across the room to see it too

Piaget tested egocentrism with a "three mountain problem", where he asked children to choose how mountains would look from someone else's viewpoint, using pictures. Researchers have criticized his method, saying that children lose egocentrism earlier than he claimed, if given clearer problems that they find more interesting, such as ones using dolls.

Answer: The child thinks juice is the same amount even if it's poured into a wider, shorter glass

In general, children in all cultures have tested for the ability to understand conservation at about the same stage of development, but one study showed North African Wolof adolescents were unable to pass a conservation of liquid test even though they were in their teens.

Other researchers noted that in Wolof culture, people don't generally ask questions they know the answers to, so the Wolof teenagers were confused. When the test was presented differently, they could understand conservation as well as any teenagers.

The results showed that tests don't necessarily translate well to different cultures.

Answer: Reach up to touch the dot on her own forehead

Failing the test doesn't necessarily mean a lack of self-awareness, because the test also requires good vision, a desire to explore the spot, and motor control to touch the spot. The test was originally developed in 1970 by Gordon Gallup to test self-awareness in animals and several have passed, including some primates, dolphins, Asian elephants and the Eurasian magpie.

Answer: Whenever he sees his bottle being prepared, he behaves as if he knows he'll be fed soon

Piaget's expectancy tests required infants to have enough motor control to reach for objects, but researchers who designed tests that didn't require motor control found that infants developed expectancy even sooner. The infants stared longer when toys appeared in "impossible" places, due to tricks by the researchers, showing that the infants understood something unexpected was happening, even if they were too young to reach for and pick up toys.

Answer: If shown a picture of a cat, a dog, a mouse and an orange, she says there are three animals

Piaget's typical class inclusion test was to show a child a picture of white roses and red tulips and ask if there were more roses or more flowers. Other researchers said the question was more confusing than necessary, and when the test was made simpler, even younger children answered correctly.