Final answer:
The cognitive limitation described is called animism, whereby a child believes that inanimate objects have life-like qualities such as emotions. This is characteristic of Piaget's preoperational stage of cognitive development. the correct option is c) Animism .
Step-by-step explanation:
The cognitive limitation that Piaget calls when a preoperational child thinks that her dolly is sad and misses her is c) Animism. Animism is a concept within Piaget's theory of developmental stages, specifically within the preoperational stage that spans from approximately 2 to 7 years old.
In the example provided, the child attributes the feeling of sadness and the capacity to miss her to the doll, which is a classic instance of animism. This tendency to ascribe life-like characteristics to non-living things highlights children's imaginative play and their developing but still egocentric understanding of the world.
It is crucial to distinguish animism from other concepts such as object permanence, which is the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be observed, and centration, which is the tendency for a preoperational child to focus on one single aspect of an object or situation.