In the context of developmental psychology, which cognitive ability is most accurately demonstrated if a one-year-old child can classify animals and people?

• A. The child is showing the ability to form basic categories, an early sign of conceptual development.
• B. The child is displaying metacognitive awareness of classification strategies.
• C. The child is demonstrating advanced logical reasoning skills typical of adolescence.
• D. The child is exhibiting formal operational thinking as described by Piaget.

Answer: (A)

Verified step by step guidance

1. Step 1: Understand the key cognitive abilities mentioned in developmental psychology, especially those related to classification and categorization in young children.
2. Step 2: Recognize that a one-year-old child classifying animals and people is demonstrating the ability to form basic categories, which is an early sign of conceptual development.
3. Step 3: Differentiate this ability from metacognitive awareness, which involves thinking about one's own thinking and typically develops later in childhood.
4. Step 4: Note that advanced logical reasoning skills and formal operational thinking, as described by Piaget, emerge much later, usually in adolescence and beyond.
5. Step 5: Conclude that the cognitive ability demonstrated by the one-year-old is the formation of basic categories, reflecting early conceptual development rather than higher-level reasoning or metacognition.