DevPsy Shaffer: T-Z Flashcards
a single cell formed at conception from the union
of a sperm and an ovum.
zygote:
Vygotsky’s term for the range of tasks that are too complex to be mastered
alone but can be accomplished with guidance and encouragement from a more skillful partner.
zone of proximal development
the shorter of the two sex chromosomes;
normal males have one Y chromosome, whereas
females
have none.
Y chromosome
the longer of the two sex chromosomes;
normal females have two X chromosomes, whereas
normal males have only one.
X chromosome
structure located in the temporal lobe
of the left hemisphere of the cerebral cortex that is
responsible for interpreting speech.
Wernicke’s area
a widely used individual intelligence test that includes
a measure of general intelligence and both verbal and performance intelligence.
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV)
unique patterns of sound that a prelinguistic
infant uses to represent objects, actions, or events.
vocables
a form of malnutrition
in which the diet provides sufficient protein and calories
but is lacking in one or more substances that promote
normal growth.
vitamin and mineral deficiency
the ability to mentally manipulate or otherwise draw inferences about pictorial
information.
visual/spatial abilities
the amount of light/dark transition in a visual stimulus.
visual contrast
an elevated platform that creates an illusion of
depth, used to test the depth perception of infants.
visual cliff
a person’s ability to see small objects and fine detail.
visual acuity
The white, cheesy substance that covers the fetus
to protect the skin from chapping.
vernix
the extent to which a measuring instrument
accurately reflects what the researchers intended to
measure.
validity
a failure to benefit from effec
tive strategies that one has spontaneously produced;
thought to occur in the early phases of strategy acquisi
tion when executing the strategy requires much mental
effort.
utilization deficiency
in nativist theories of language acquisition, the basic rules of grammar that characterize
all languages.
universal grammar
a pattern of parenting that is both aloof (or even hostile) and overpermissive, almost as if parents neither cared about their children nor about what they may become.
uninvolved parenting
the young child’s tendency to use gen
eral words to refer to a smaller set of objects, actions,
or events than adults do (e.g., using candy to refer only
to mints).
underextension
a stimulus that elicits a
particular response without any prior learning.
unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
a soft tube containing blood vessels that
connects the embryo to the placenta.
umbilical cord
method of detecting gross physical abnormal
ities by scanning the womb with sound waves, thereby
producing a visual outline of the fetus.
ultrasound
an early manipulatory skill in which an infant
grasps objects by pressing the fingers against the palm.
ulnar grasp
programs in which English-
speaking (or other majority- language) children and
children who have limited proficiency in that language
are instructed half of the day in their primary language
and the other half in a second language.
two-way bilingual education
interventions with goals
to both stimulate children’s intellectual development
through preschool day care/education and help to as
sist parents to move out of poverty.
two-generation interventions
a study in which sets of twins that differ in
zygosity (kinship) are compared to determine the heritability of an attribute.
twin design
a recent information
processing theory of intelligence that emphasizes three aspects of intelligent behavior not normally tapped by IQ tests: the context of the action, the person’s experience with the task (or situation), and the information-processing strategies the person applies to the task (or situation).
triarchic theory of intelligence
the ability to recognize relations among elements in a serial order (for example, if A = B and B =
C, then A = C).
transitivity
rules of syntax that allow
one to transform declarative statements into questions,
negatives, imperatives, and other kinds of sentences.
transformational grammar
verbal exchanges in which individuals perform mental operations on the reasoning of their discussion partners.
transactive interactions
a model of family influences in which parent and child are believed to influence each
other reciprocally.
transactional model
a family unit consisting of a
wife/mother, a husband/father, and their dependent child or children.
traditional nuclear family
a disease caused by a parasite found
in raw meat and cat feces; can cause birth defects if
transmitted to an embryo in the first trimester and mis
carriage later in pregnancy.
toxoplasmosis
Vygotsky’s term for
methods of thinking and problem-solving strategies
that children internalize from their interactions with
more competent members of society.
tools of intellectual adaptation
the finding that people who
reach puberty late perform better on visual/spatial
tasks than those who mature early.
timing of puberty effect
a form of discipline in which children who misbehave are removed from the setting until they are prepared to act more appropriately.
time-out technique
Carroll’s hierarchi
cal model of intelligence with g at the top of the hierar
chy, eight broad abilities at the second level, or stratum,
and narrower domains of each second-stratum ability
at the third stratum.
three-stratum theory of intelligence
The expulsion of the placenta
(afterbirth).
third stage of labor
theories of cognitive development that
combine neo-nativism and constructivism, proposing
that cognitive development progresses by children generating, testing, and changing theories about the physical and social world.
theory theories
Gardner’s theory that
humans display as many as nine distinct kinds of intelligence, each linked to a particular area of the brain and several of which are not measured by IQ tests.
theory of multiple intelligences
a person’s concepts of mental activity; used to refer to how children conceptualize
mental activity and how they attribute intention to and predict the behavior of others; see also belief-desire
reasoning.
theory of mind (TOM)
a set of concepts and propositions designed
to organize, describe, and explain an existing set of
observations.
theory
a mild tranquilizer that, taken early in pregnancy, can produce a variety of malformations of the
limbs, eyes, ears, and heart.
thalidomide
male sex hormone, produced by the testes,
that is responsible for male sexual maturation.
testosterone
standards of normal performance on psycho
metric instruments that are based on the average scores
and the range of scores obtained by a large, representative sample of test takers.
test norms
a genetic anomaly in which a male fetus is insensitive to the effects of male sex hormones and will develop female
external genitalia.
testicular feminization syndrome (TFS)
the fifth substage of Piaget’s
sensorimotor stage; an exploratory scheme in which
the infant devises a new method of acting on objects to reproduce interesting results.
tertiary circular reactions
external agents such as viruses, drugs, chemicals, and radiation that can harm a developing embryo
or fetus.
teratogens
Kagan’s view that the
Strange Situation measures individual differences in
infants’ temperaments rather than the quality of their
attachments.
temperament hypothesis
a person’s characteristic modes of responding emotionally and behaviorally to environmental
events, including such attributes as activity level, irritability, fearfulness, and sociability.
temperament
one’s ability to understand how information is conveyed in television programming and to interpret this information properly.
television literacy
early sentences that consist of
content words and omit the less meaningful parts of
speech, such as articles, prepositions, pronouns, and
auxiliary verbs.
telegraphic speech
the ability to size up
everyday problems and solve them; only modestly
related to IQ.
tacit (or practical) intelligence
