Chapter 4 Part 1 Flashcards
Zygote
the fertilized egg; it enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo.
Developmental Psychology
a branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span
Embryo
: the developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month.
Fetus
the developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth.
Teratogens
agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm.
Fetal alcohol syndrome
physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman’s heavy drinking. In severe cases, symptoms include noticeable facial misproportions
Rooting reflex
a baby’s tendency, when touched on the cheek, to turn toward the touch, open the mouth, and search for the nipple
Habituation
: decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a visual stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner.
Maturation
: biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience.
Jean Piaget
revolutionized our understanding of children’s minds. Until Piaget, most people—forgetting their own preschool days—assumed children “simply knew less, not differently, than adults.” Thanks partly to his work, we now understand that “children reason in wildly illogical ways about problems whose solutions are self-evident to adults.”
Schema
a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.
Assimilation
interpreting one’s new experience in terms of one’s existing schemas.
Accommodation
adapting one’s current understanding (schemas) to incorporate new information.
Cognition
all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.
Sensorimotor stage
in Piaget’s theory, the stage (from birth to about 2 years of age) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities.