Question

When Monica was born, she showed the typical grasping reflex by closing her fingers around anything that brushed against her palm. After a few weeks, she showed this grasping behavior even when nothing touched her palm. Monica developed a ________ or a scheme based on a reflex that became completely separated from its eliciting stimulus.

Answer 1

The answer to the blank space is habit. The concept explained in the question refers to Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory, where infants until the age of two years would develop various cognitive growth through interacting with the environment.

There are six sub stages in this development stage – from reflexes (0-1 month), primary circular reactions (1-4 months), secondary circular reactions (4-8 months), coordination of reactions (8-12 months), tertiary circular reactions (12-18 months), and early representational thought (18-24 months).