Chpter 6: Cognitive Development in Infancy Flashcards
Assimilation
Piagetian concept of the incorporation of new information into existing schemes
Schemes
In Piaget’s theory, actions or mental representations that organize knowledge
Accommodation
Piagetisn concept of adjusting schemes to fit new information and experiences
Organization
Piaget’s concept of grouping isolated behaviors and thoughts into a higher order system, a 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 stage of Piaget’s stages, lasts from birth to about 2 years of age, infants construct an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences with motoric actions
Primary circular reactions
A scheme based in the attempt to reproduce an event that initially occurred by chance
Object permanence
Piagetian term for understanding that objects continue to exist, even when they cannot directly be seen, heard, or touched.
A-not-B error
Also called AB error, this occurs when infants make the mistake of selecting the familiar hiding place (A) rather than the new hiding place (B) as they progress into substage 4 in Piaget’s sensorimotor stage
Core knowledge approach
View that infants are born with domain-specific innate knowledge systems.
Attention
The focusing of mental resources on select information
Joint attention
Occurs when individuals focus on the same object or event, and an ability to track another’s behavior is present; one individual directs another’s attention, and reciprocal interaction is present
Memory
A central feature of cognitive development, involving the retention of information over time
Implicit memory
Memory without conscious recollection; involves skils and routine procedures that are automatically performed
Explicit memory
Conscious memory of facts and experiences
Deferred imitation
Imitation that occurs after a delay of hours or days
Developmental quotient (dq)
An overall score that combines sub scores 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 in the assessment of infant development. The current version (this and Toddler development third edition bayley-lll), has five components: a cognitive, language, motor, socio-emotional, and adaptive scale
Language
A form of communication, whether spoken, written, or signed, that is based on a system of symbols
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 content words without grammatical markers such as articles, auxiliary verbs, and other connectives
Broca’s area
Am ares in the brains left frontal love involved in speech production. With damage-difficulty producing words correctly
Wernicke’s area
An area of the brains left hemisphere that is involved in language comprehension. With damage-poor comprehension and often produce incomprehensible speech
Aphasia
A loss or impaorment of language processing caused by brain damage in Broca’s area or Wernicke’s area
Language acquisition device (LAD)
Chomsky’s term that describes a biological endowment that enables the child to detect the features and rules of language, including phonology, syntax, and semantics
Child-directed speech
Language spoken in a higher pitch than normal with simple works and sentences
