Ch 5. Cognitive Development in Infancy Flashcards
Schemes
In Piaget’s theory, actions or mental representations that organize knowledge.
Assimilation
Piagetian concept of using existing schemes to deal with new information or experiences.
Accommodation
Piagetian concept of adjusting schemes to fit new information and experiences.
Organization
Piaget’s concept of grouping isolated behaviors and thoughts into a higher-order, more smoothly functioning cognitive system.
Equilibration
A mechanism that Piaget proposed to explain how children shift from one stage of thought to the next.
Sensorimotor Stage
The first of Piaget’s stages, which lasts from birth to about 2 years of age; infants construct an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences with motoric actions.
Simple Reflexes
Piaget’s first sensorimotor substage, which corresponds to the first month after birth. In this substage, sensation and action are coordinated primarily through reflexive behaviors.
First Habits and Primary Circular Reactions
Piaget’s second sensorimotor substage, which develops between 1 and 4 months of age. In this substage, the infant coordinates sensation and two types of schemes: habits and primary circular reactions.
Primary Circular Reactions
A scheme based on the attempt to reproduce an event that initially occurred by chance.
Secondary Circular Reactions
Piaget’s third sensorimotor substage, which develops between 4 and 8 months of age. In this substage, the infant becomes more object-oriented, moving beyond preoccupation with the self.
Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions
Piaget’s fourth sensorimotor substage, which develops between 8 and 12 months of age. Actions become more outwardly directed, and infants coordinate schemes and act with intentionality.
Tertiary Circular Reactions, Novelty and Curiosity
Piaget’s fifth sensorimotor substage, which develops between 12 and 18 months of age. In this substage, infants become intrigued by the many properties of objects and by the many things that they can make happen to objects.
Internalization of Schemes
Piaget’s sixth and final sensorimotor substage, which develops between 18 and 24 months of age. In this substage, the infant develops the ability to use primitive symbols.
Object Permanence
The Piagetian term for understanding that objects and events continue to exist even when they cannot directly be seen, heard, or touched.
A-not-B Error
Error that occurs when infants make the mistake of selecting the familiar hiding place (A) rather than the new hiding place (B) of an object as they progress into substage 4 in Piaget’s sensorimotor stage.
Core Knowledge Approach
States that infants are born with domain-specific innate knowledge systems.
Attention
The focusing of mental resources on select information.
Joint Attention
Process that occurs when individuals focus on the same object and are able to track another’s behavior, one individual directs another’s attention, and reciprocal interaction takes place.
Memory
A central feature of cognitive development, pertaining to all situations in which an individual retains information over time.
Implicit Memory
Memory without conscious recollection; involves skills and routine procedures that are automatically performed.
Explicit Memory
Memory of facts and experiences that individuals consciously know and can state.
Deferred Imitation
Imitation that occurs after a delay of hours or days.
Concepts
Cognitive groupings of similar objects, events, people, or ideas.
Developmental Quotient (DQ)
An overall score that combines subscores in motor, language, adaptive, and personal-social domains in the Gesell assessment of infants.
Bayley Scales of Infant Development
Scales developed by Nancy Bayley that are widely used to assess infant development. The current version has three components: a mental scale, a motor scale, and an infant behavior profile.
Language
A form of communication, whether spoken, written, or signed, that is based on a system of symbols. Language consists of the words used by a community and the rules for varying and combining them.
Infinite Generativity
The ability to produce an endless number of meaningful sentences using a finite set of words and rules.
Phonology
The sound system of the language, including the sounds that are used and how they may be combined.
Morphology
Units of meaning involved in word formation.
Syntax
The ways words are combined to form acceptable phrases and sentences.
Semantics
The meaning of words and sentences.
Pragmatics
The appropriate use of language in different contexts.
Telegraphic Speech
The use of short and precise words without grammatical markers such as articles, auxiliary verbs, and other connectives.
Broca’s Area
An area in the brain’s left frontal lobe that is involved in speech production.
Wernicke’s Area
An area in the brain’s left hemisphere that is involved in language comprehension.
Aphasia
A loss or impairment of language ability caused by brain damage.
Child-Directed Speech
Language spoken in a higher pitch than normal, with simple words and sentences.
Language Acquisition Device (LAD)
Chomsky’s term that describes a biological endowment enabling the child to detect the features and rules of language, including phonology, syntax, and semantics.
Gessell Test
Sorts babies who are normally functioning from those who are abnormally functioning utilizing four categories: motor, language, adaptive, and personal-social.
