Module 47: Childhood Development Flashcards
Cognition
All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating
Schema
A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information
Assimilation
Interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas
Accommodation
Adapting our current understanding (schemas) to incorporate new information
Sensorimotor Stage
Piaget’s theory: the stage (2yrs) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities
- object permanence
- stranger anxiety
Object Permanence
The awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived
Preoperational Stage
Piaget’s theory, (2-6/7 yrs)) during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic.
- pretend play
- egocentrism
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
Egocentrism
In Piaget’s theory, the preoperational child’s difficulty taking another’s point of view
Theory of Mind
People’s ideas about their own and other’s mental states - about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict
Concrete Operational Stage
In Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 6/7-11 yrs) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events
- conservation
- mathematical transformations
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.
- abstract logic
- potential for mature moral reasoning
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Sensorimotor: Birth - 2yrs
Preoperational: 2-6/7 yrs
Concrete Operational: 6/7-11yrs
Formal Operational: 12yrs - Adult
Maturation
Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience.
The orderly sequence of biological growth
In 28 weeks, how many brain cells have formed?
23 million
What are the association areas?
Those linked with thinking, memory, & language are the last cortical areas to develope
What is the pruning process?
Shutting down unused links and strengthening others (neural connections)
What is Back to Sleep Method?
Lying a baby’s back on his/her bed, which avoids smothering crib death
What is infantile amnesia?
The inability of adults to remember episodic experiences that occurred during the first few years of life (0-3yrs) & sparse recollection of episodic experienced that occurred before age 10
- could be caused by the rapid birth of cells in the hippocampus during infancy (responsible for episodic memory
What is Autism Spectrum Disorder?
A disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by significant deficiencies in communication & social interactions, and rigidly fixated interest, and repetitive behaviors.
What is the underlying source of ASD’s symptoms?
Poor communication among brain regions that normally work together to let us take another’s viewpoint.
