Chapter 7 Flashcards
Conceptual development
Concepts
General ideas or understandings that can be used to group together objects, events, qualities, or abstractions that are similar in some way
Category hierarchy
A category that is organized by set-subset relations, such as animal/dog/poodle
Perceptual categorization
The grouping together of objects that have similar appearances
Superordinate level
The general level within a category hierarchy, such as animal in the animal/dog/poodle example
Subordinate level
The most specific level within a category hierarchy, such as poodle in the animal/dog/poodle example
Basic level
The middle level, and often the first level learned, within a category hierarchy, such as dog in the animal/dog/poodle example
Naive psychology
A commonsense level of understanding of other people and oneself
Theory of mind
An organized understanding of how mental processes such as intentions, desires, beliefs, perceptions, and emotions influence behavior
False-belief problems
Tasks that test a child’s understanding that other people will act in accord with their own beliefs even when the child knows that those beliefs are incorrect
Theory of mind module (TOMM)
A hypothesized brain mechanism devoted to understanding other human beings
Pretend play
Make-belief activities in which children create new symbolic relations, acting as if they were in a situation different from their actual one
Object substitution
A form of pretense in which an object is used as something other than itself, for example, using a broom to represent a horse
Sociodramatic play
Activities in which children enact miniature dramas with other children or adults, such as “mother comforting baby”
Essentialism
The view that living things have an essence inside them that makes them what they are
Egocentric spatial representations
Coding of spatial locations relative to one’s own body, without regard to the surroundings
Numerical equality
The realization that all sets of N objects have something in common
