Chapter 5 Flashcards
Perception
The cognitive process or organizing, coordinating, and interpreting sensory information.
Preforational-looking technique
Technique used to test infant visual perception. If infants consistently look longer at some patterns than at others, researchers infer that the infants can see the difference between these patterns.
Habituation-dishabituation technique
Test used to test infant perception. Infants are shown a stimulus repeatedly until they respond less (habituate) to it. Then a new stimulus is presented.
Habituation
The tendency of infants to reduce their response to stimuli that are presented repeatedly.
Dishabituation
The recovery or increase of infant’s response when a familiar stimulus is replaced by one that is novel.
Intermodal perception
The process of combining or interrogating information across sensory modalities.
Constructivist view
The view that people construct their own knowledge and understanding of the world by using what they already know and understand to interpret new experiences.
Scheme
An organized pattern of physical or mental action.
Organization
The tendency to integrate separate elements into increasingly complex higher-order structures.
Adaptation
In cognitive development, the process of changing a cognitive structure or the environment (or both) in order to understand the environment.
Assimilation
The process of bringing new objects or information into a scheme that already exists.
Accommodation
The process of modifying old schemes or creating new ones to better fit assimilated information.
Equilibration
The dynamic process of moving between states of cognitive disequilibrium and equilibrium.
Reflective abstraction
The process of noticing and thinking about the implications of information and experiences.
Sensorimotor thought
Thought that is based only on sensory input and physical (motor) actions.
Symbolic (representational) thought
The ability to form symbols (or mental representations) that stand for objects or even in the world.
Object permanence
The fact that objects, events, and people continue to exist even when they are out of a child’s direct line of sensory input or motor action.
Language
An arbitrary system of symbols (words) that is rule-governed and allows communication about things that are distance in time or space.
Learning theory
Theory that sees language as a skilled behavior that children learn through operational conditioning, imitation, and modeling.
Nativist theory
Theory that sees language as an innate human capability that develops when language input triggers a “language acquisition device” in the brain.
Language acquisition device (LAD)
A brain mechanism in humans that is specialized for acquiring and processing language.
Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory
Theory that sees language as one of several abilities that depend on overall cognitive development. Proper cognitive development is a necessary prerequisite for normal language development.
Social interactionist theory
Theory proposing that language development results from the interaction of biological and social factors and that social interaction is required.
Holophrases
Single words used to express an entire idea or expression.
Telegraphic speech
Speech that includes only words that are essential to get the meaning across, leaving out unessential words.
