Chapter 6 Flashcards
primary circular reactions
the first of three types of feedback loops in sensorimotor intelligence, this one involves the infant’s own body. infant senses motion, sucking, noise, and other stimuli and tries to understand them
secondary circular reactions
the second of three types of feedback loops in sensorimotor intelligence, this one involves people and objects. infants respond to other people, to toys, and to any other object that they can touch or move
object permanance
the realization that objects (including people) still exist, when they can no longer be seen, touched, or heard
tertiary circular reactions
the third of three types of feedback loops in sensorimotor intelligence, this one involves active exploration and experimentation. infant explores range of new activities, varying their responses as a way of learning
little scientist
the stage five toddler (12 to 18 months) who experiments without anticipating the results, using trial and error in active and creative exploration
babbling
an infant’s repetition of certain syllable, such as “ba-ba-ba” beginning between 6 and 9 months
holophrase
a single word that is used to express a complete, meaningful thought
naming explosion
a sudden increase in an infant’s vocabulary, especially in the number of nouns, that begins at about 18 months
grammar
all of the methods - word order, verb forms, and so on - that languages use to communicate meaning, apart from the words themselves
mean length of utterance (MLU)
the average number of words in a typical sentence. MLU is often used to measure language development
language acquisition device (LAD)
chomsky’s term for a hypothesized mental structure that enables humans to learn language, including the basic aspects of grammar, vocabulary, and intonation
