Berk Chapter 5: Cognitive Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood Flashcards
accommodation
creating new schemes or adjusting old ones after realizing current schemes do not reflect the environment completely
Adaptation
building schemes through direct interaction with the environment
assimilation
using current schemes to interpret the external world
autobiographical memory
recalling meaningful one-time events from both recent and distant past
Automatic processes
processes that are so well learned they take up no space in working memory and allow us to focus on other information while doing them
Adaptive Behavior Scale
an additional subtest of the Bayley-III mental test that asks about adapting to the demands of daily life. Some examples are communication, self-control, following rules, and getting along with others
Babbling
infants repeat consonant-vowel combinations in long strings such as “babababababa” or “dadadada”
Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development
A commonly used mental test for 1 month to 3 1/2 year olds.
Central executive
directs the flow of information through the system and engaging in sophisticated that enable complex and flexible thinking
Circular reaction
provides a means of understanding new schemes by stumbling upon it through motor activity and repeating it
Cognitive Scale
Bayley-III subtest that includes paying attention to familiar and unfamiliar objects, looking for a fallen object, and pretend play
Concepts
categories in which people, ideas, or objects are grouped
Cooing
vowel noises named for their usual “oo” sound
Coordination of secondary circular reactions
; (8-12 months) intentional or goal-driven behavior. Example includes finding a hidden object
Core knowledge perspective
babies are born with a set of innate knowledge/core domains of thought. These knowledge systems help infants to grasp new and related info
Deferred imitation
the ability to recall and copy the behavior of models who are not there
Developmentally appropriate practice
Standards devised by the US. National Association for the education of Young Children (USNAEYC) outlining characteristics that aid in children’s development
Developmental quotient (DQ)
An alternative label given to infant scores rather than IQ because infant tests look at different dimensions of intelligence than for other developmental periods
Displaced reference
the realization that words can conjure mental images of things not present
Executive function
diverse set of cognitive operations and strategies that enables us to achieve our goals
Explicit memory
remembering deliberate memories
Expressive style of language learning
produces more social formulas and pronouns (thank you, done, I want it)
Home Observation for measurement of the environment (HOME)
a checklist for gathering information about a quality of a child’s home life through observation and parental interview
Images
mental pictures of objects, people, or spaces
Implicit memories
memories remembered without conscious awareness
Infant-directed speech
a form of communication with infants made up of short sentences; high-pitched ton;, exaggerated expression and inflection; and clear pronunciation
Infantile amnesia
a phenomenon where most of us cannot retrieve events that happened to us before the age of 3
Information process
a perspective seeing the human mind as a symbol-manipulating system through which information flows
Intelligence quotient (IQ)
indicates to the extent which the raw score of a mental test deviates from the typical performance of individuals the same age
Intentional/goal-directed behavior
coordinating schemes deliberately to solve problems
Joint attention
child attends to the same object/event as the caregiver
Language acquisition device (LAD)
an innate system that contains a universal grammar or set of rules common to all languages. It allows any baby to hear language and be able to speak it in a rule-oriented way once they know enough words.
Language scale
A Bayley-III subtest that assesses understanding and expression of language
Linguistic knowledge
enables swift language acquisition in early childhood
Long term memory
our permanent knowledge base
Make-believe play
children act out every-day and imaginary activities
Mental representation
internal depictions of information the mind can manipulate
Motor scale
a Bayley-III subtest which includes testing fin and gross motor skills such as grasping, siting , stacking blocks, and climbing stair
Normal distribution
a cluster of scores around the mean/average of the results.
Numerical knowledge
recognizing quantities (infants up to three), performing simple arithmetic, and discriminating among large sets of items as long as the difference between the two is large
Object permanence
understanding that objects continue to exist when out of sight
Organization
the total rearrangement of schemes
Overextension
happens when infants apply a newly learned word to narrowly
Physical knowledge
knowledge of the world around us including gravity, object solidarity (objects cannot move through one another) and object permanence
Primary circular reactions
(1-4 months) simple motor habits centered around the infant’s body
Psychological knowledge
an understanding of mental states such as intentions, emotions, desires, and beliefs
Recall
involves remembering something not there
Recognition
noticing a stimulus is similar to the one to a previously experienced one
Referential style of language learning
vocabularies consisted mainly of words that refer to objects
Reflexive schemes
birth-1 month. Newborn reflexes
Scheme
organized ways of making sense of an experience
Secondary circular reactions
(4-8 months) Actions aimed at repeating interesting effects in the surrounding world – imitation of familiar behaviors
Sensorimotor stage
Piaget’s stage of cognitive development that spans the first two years of life where infants think with their senses and other sensorimotor equipment
Sensory register
sights and sounds are represented directly and are stored in the brain briefly
Short-term memory store
we retain pertinent information briefly so we can work with it to reach our goals
Social-emotional scale
an additional Bayley-III subtest asking caregivers about behaviors such as ease of calming, social responsiveness, and imitation in play
Standardization
testing a large amount of individuals and using the results as a baseline to interpret other scores of the same test
Telegraphic speech
two word utterance focused on expressing the most content possible
Tertiary circular reactions
(12-18 months) exploration of properties of objects by acting on them in new ways. Example – being able to search in several locations for object
Underextension
happens when a newly learned word is applied too liberally
Violation-of-expectation method
exposing babies to knowledge in which they will be tested or one that follows an expected event (one that follows laws) and present an unexpected event afterwards. A surprised expression by the infant indicates recognizing a deviation from physical reality and therefore the infant is aware of the physical world
Working memory
the number of items that briefly held in the mind while engaging to monitor or manipulate them. Think of it as a “mental workspace”
Zone of proximal development
a range of tasks too difficult for the child to do alone but is possible with the help of more skilled partners.
