Exam #3 Terms (Developmental Psychology and Intelligence) Flashcards
What is developmental psychology?
A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span.
What is a zygote?
The fertilized egg; it enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo.
What is an embryo?
The developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month.
What is a fetus?
The developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth.
What are teratogens?
Agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm (literally, “monster makers”).
What is fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)?
Physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman’s heavy drinking. In severe cases, signs include a small, out of proportion head and abnormal facial features.
What is habituation?
Decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation.
What is maturation?
Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience.
What is cognition?
All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.
What is a schema?
A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.
What is assimilation?
Interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas.
What is accommodation?
Adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information.
What is the sensorimotor stage?
In Piaget’s theory, the stage (from birth to nearly 2 years of age) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities.
What is object permanence?
The awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived.
What is the preoperational stage?
In Piaget’s theory, the stage (from about 2 to 6 or 7 years of age) during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic.
What is conservation?
The principle (which Piaget believed to be a part of concrete operational reasoning) that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects.
What is egocentrism?
In Piaget’s theory, the preoperational child’s difficulty taking another’s point of view.
What is theory of mind?
People’s ideas about their own and others’ mental states-about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict.
What is the concrete operational stage?
In Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 7 to 11 years of age) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events.
What is the formal operational stage?
In Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts.
What is a scaffold?
A framework that offers children temporary support as they develop higher levels of thinking.
What is autism spectrum disorder (ASD)?
A disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by significant deficiencies in communication and social interaction, and by rigidly fixated interests and repetitive behaviors.
What is the critical period?
An optimal period early in the life of an organism when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces normal development.
What is imprinting?
The process by which certain animals from strong attachments during early life.