Aparent gives a 3-year-old a cookie. the child says, "i want two cookies." the parent breaks the cookie in half and hands the two pieces to the child, who happily accepts them.

This is what is reffered to as empathy.

The child is in Piaget's pre-operational stage.

Explanation:

This stage begins at the age of 2 and continues until the age of 7. As the name states, the child is not yet ready to form concrete operations and  understand logic, which means that he/she still cannot fully manipulate information mentally.

A person who has passed this stage can comprehend that a cookie cut in half is still one cookie because that person understand reversibility, which is to go backwards on a central idea to its origin.

So, if the cookie is cut in half, the person can go back on the thought that the cookie is still one, not two. A child in the pre-operational stage does not understand this concept yet, therefore he/she thinks that he/she now has two cookies.

well to answer ur question to be completly honest