11. The Development of Body, Thought, and Language Flashcards
Developmental psychology
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.
zygotic (or germinal) phase
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.
Embryonic phase
Developmental period that extends from the third to about the eighth week after conception in humans, during which all major organ systems develop.
Fetal phases
Developmental period that extends from about nine weeks until birth, which usually takes place about 38 weeks after conception in humans.
Teratogens
External agents, such as drugs and radiation, that can have harmful effects on a developing embryo or fetus.
Puberty
Period in life in which children attain adult size and physical characteristics, including sexual maturity.
Shared attention
Two individuals both attending to the same thing or event and sharing that experience.
Social referencing
The process by which infants use the nonverbal emotional expressions of a caregiver as cues to guide their behavior.
object permanence
Piaget’s term for the understanding that an object still exists even when it is out of view.
Schemes
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.
assimilation
In Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, the process by which experiences are incorporated into the mind or, more specifically, into mental schemes.
accommodation
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.
Operations
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.
Sensorimotor schemes:
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
Preoperational schemes
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
Representational insight
The knowledge that an entity can stand for something other than itself
Concrete-operational schemes
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
Centration
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
Decentration
In Piaget’s theory, the ability of concrete operational children to consider multiple aspects of a stimulus or situation; contrast with centration
Egocentricity
In Piaget’s theory, the tendency to interpret objects and events from one’s own perspective
Formal-operational schemes
In Piaget’s theory, the type of mental structure that allows a person to reason about abstract concepts and hypothetical ideas
Tools of intellectual adaptation
Vygotsky’s term for tools a culture provides for thinking and problem solving
Zone of proximal development
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
Scaffolding
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
Autism/ Autism spectrum disorder
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.
Morphemes
The smallest meaningful units of a verbal language; words, prefixes, or suffixes that have discrete meanings.
Phonemes
The various vowel and consonant sounds that provide the basis for a spoken language.
Grammar
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
Syntax
The set of grammatical rules for a given language that specifies how words can be arranged to produce phrases and sentences
Language-acquisition device
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
Universal grammar
In nativist theories of language acquisition, the innate grammar that characterizes all human languages
pidgin language
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
creole languange
A new language, with grammatical rules, that develops from a pidgin language in colonies established by people who had different native languages
LASS (Language acquisition support system)
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)
