Final answer:
Marja's categorization of the new fast food restaurant is an example of assimilation, where she integrates new experiences into her existing mental models without changing them.
Step-by-step explanation:
This concept is distinct from accommodation:
According to Piaget’s cognitive development theory, Marja’s new experience with the fast food restaurant is an example of assimilation. When Marja decides that the new restaurant is very similar to other fast food places she has been to, she is incorporating the new information into her existing schema (mental model) of what a fast food restaurant is like without needing to alter her schema.
This concept is distinct from accommodation, which would occur if Marja’s experience was so different that she had to modify her existing schema of fast food restaurants. Conservation and object permanence are separate cognitive development concepts that do not apply to Marja’s experience. Conservation refers to understanding that objects retain properties such as volume or number despite changes in form, while object permanence is the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen.