11. The Development of Body, Thought, and Language

Question 1

Developmental psychology

Answer 1

The branch of psychology that charts changes in people’s abilities and styles of behaving as they get older and tries to understand the factors that produce or influence those changes.

Question 2

zygotic (or germinal) phase

Answer 2

Developmental phase lasting approximately two weeks in humans, which starts when an egg is fertilized and ends when the zygote implants in the uterine wall.

Question 3

Embryonic phase

Answer 3

Developmental period that extends from the third to about the eighth week after conception in humans, during which all major organ systems develop.

Question 4

Fetal phases

Answer 4

Developmental period that extends from about nine weeks until birth, which usually takes place about 38 weeks after conception in humans.

Question 5

Teratogens

Answer 5

External agents, such as drugs and radiation, that can have harmful effects on a developing embryo or fetus.

Question 6

Puberty

Answer 6

Period in life in which children attain adult size and physical characteristics, including sexual maturity.

Question 7

Shared attention

Answer 7

Two individuals both attending to the same thing or event and sharing that experience.

Question 8

Social referencing

Answer 8

The process by which infants use the nonverbal emotional expressions of a caregiver as cues to guide their behavior.

Question 9

object permanence

Answer 9

Piaget’s term for the understanding that an object still exists even when it is out of view.

Question 10

Schemes

Answer 10

Piaget’s term for the mental entities that provide the basis for thought and that change in a stage-like way through development. They contain information about the actions that one can perform on objects, either in reality or symbolically in the mind.

Question 11

assimilation

Answer 11

In Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, the process by which experiences are incorporated into the mind or, more specifically, into mental schemes.

Question 12

accommodation

Answer 12

In Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, the change that occurs in an existing mental scheme or set of schemes as a result of the incorporation of the experience of a new event or object.

Question 13

Operations

Answer 13

Piaget’s term for a reversible action that can be performed either in reality or mentally upon some object or set of objects. For example, rolling a clay ball into a clay sausage is an operation because the sausage can be rolled back again to form the ball.

Question 14

Sensorimotor schemes:

Answer 14

In Piaget’s theory, the type of mental structure that enables an infant to act on objects that are immediately present but does not permit thought about objects that are absent

Question 15

Preoperational schemes

Answer 15

In Piaget’s theory, mental structures that permit the child to symbolize objects and events that are absent, but do not permit the child to think about the operations that can be performed on objects

Question 16

Representational insight

Answer 16

The knowledge that an entity can stand for something other than itself

Question 17

Concrete-operational schemes

Answer 17

In Piaget’s theory, the type of mental structure that allows a child to think logically about reversible actions (operations) but only when applied to objects with which the child has had direct (concrete) experience

Question 18

Centration

Answer 18

In Piaget’s theory, the tendency of preoperational children to attend to one aspect of a situation to the exclusion of others; contrast with decentration

Question 19

Decentration

Answer 19

In Piaget’s theory, the ability of concrete operational children to consider multiple aspects of a stimulus or situation; contrast with centration

Question 20

Egocentricity

Answer 20

In Piaget’s theory, the tendency to interpret objects and events from one’s own perspective

Question 21

Formal-operational schemes

Answer 21

In Piaget’s theory, the type of mental structure that allows a person to reason about abstract concepts and hypothetical ideas

Question 22

Tools of intellectual adaptation

Answer 22

Vygotsky’s term for tools a culture provides for thinking and problem solving

Question 23

Zone of proximal development

Answer 23

In Vygotsky’s theory, the range or set of activities that a child can do in collaboration with more competent others but cannot yet do alone

Question 24

Scaffolding

Answer 24

An expert, when instructing a novice, responding contingently to the novice’s responses in a learning situation, so that the novice gradually increases his or her understanding of a problem

Question 25

Autism/ Autism spectrum disorder

Answer 25

An early developing disorder, typically marked by severe deficits in social interaction, severe deficits in language acquisition, a tendency to perform repetitive actions, and a restricted focus of attention and interest.

Question 26

Morphemes

Answer 26

The smallest meaningful units of a verbal language; words, prefixes, or suffixes that have discrete meanings.

Question 27

Phonemes

Answer 27

The various vowel and consonant sounds that provide the basis for a spoken language.

Question 28

Grammar

Answer 28

The entire set of rules that specify the permissible ways that smaller units can be arranged to form morphemes, words, phrases, and sentences in a language

Question 29

Syntax

Answer 29

The set of grammatical rules for a given language that specifies how words can be arranged to produce phrases and sentences

Question 30

Language-acquisition device

Answer 30

Chomsky’s term for the special, innate characteristics of the human mind that allow children to learn their native language; it includes innate knowledge of basic aspects of grammar that are common to all languages and an innate predisposition to attend to and remember the critical, unique aspects of the language

Question 31

Universal grammar

Answer 31

In nativist theories of language acquisition, the innate grammar that characterizes all human languages

Question 32

pidgin language

Answer 32

A primitive system of communication that emerges when people with different native languages colonize the same region; it uses words from the various native languages and has either no or minimal grammatical structure

Question 33

creole languange

Answer 33

A new language, with grammatical rules, that develops from a pidgin language in colonies established by people who had different native languages

Question 34

LASS (Language acquisition support system)

Answer 34

The term used by social-learning theorists to refer to the simplification of language and the use of gestures that occur when parents or other language users speak to young children, which helps children learn language; developed as a complement to Chomsky’s concept of the LAD (language-acquisition device)