Test 2 Review Sheet - Psych 2301 (Fall 2013) Flashcards
Term
Definition
Accommodation
According to Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, changes made to existing cognitive structures or schemes in order to understand and incorporate new information and experiences.
Assimilation
According to Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, the process of incorporating new objects, information, or experiences into the existing cognitive structures or schemes.
Attachment
Primary social bond between an infant and his/her caretaker. This is manifested the infant seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress upon separation. Behaviors that foster attachment include signaling, locomotion, and orienting behaviors.
Concrete operational stage
Piaget’s third stage of cognitive development during which the child (7-12 years) displays an ability to think logically about concrete events and achieves an understanding of the priniciple of conservation, but is still incapable of abstract thought.
Conservation
According to Piaget, the understanding that certain physical properties (e.g., mass, number, and volume) do not change despite changes in form or physical appearance.
Crystallized Intelligence (or Abilities)
Abilities that are a function of learning and experience (e.g., vocabulary, general knowledge, and math ability). Believed to be relatively unaffected by physiological processes and therefore, ordinarily do not decline in old age..
Egocentrism
Characteristic of preoperational thought involving an inability to consider the point of view of others..
Fetal-Alcohol Syndrome
Physical and mental abnormalities (e.g., Mental Retardation, micorcephaly, hyperactivity, cardiac defects) caused by excessive maternal alcohol intake during pregnancy.
Fluid intelligence
The ability to see complex relationships and solve problems which you have not previously solved.
Formal operation stage
Accorcing to Piaget, the final stage of cognitive development. Characterized by the ability to think abstractly and to use formal (“if/then”) logic. Begins at approximately age 12.
Habituation
Process of becoming accustomed (nonreactive) to a stimulus as the result of prolonged exposure to it..
Maturation
Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior but which are relatively unimpacted by experience.
Object Permanence (Object Concept)
Term used by Piaget to describe a child’s realization that an object continues to exist even though it is not in view. Develops during the sensorimotor stage..
Preoperational stage
Piaget’s second stage of cognitive development (ages 2-6) during which the child understands complex events and can use symbols (mental representations), but is incapable of mental operations on concrete objects.
puberty
The period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing.
Schema
A cluster of related information representing things, ideas, or concepts which helps organize and interpret information.
Sensorimotor stage
The first stage in Piaget’s theory (birth - 2 yrs old) in which the children know the world primarily through their sensory impressions and motor activities.
Stranger Anxiety
Fearful response to strangers that normally develops around 8 months of age.
teratogens
Any biological (e.g., German measles) or chemical (e.g., various drugs) agent which can reach and harm the developing embryo or fetus.
absolute threshold
The least amount of stimulation needed for a stimulus to be detected accurately 50% of the time over a series of trials
bottom-up processing
Perceptual analysis which starts with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain’s integration of sensory information. This emphasizes characteristics of the stimulus vs. our concepts &/or expectations.
Closure
The Gestalt principle that people will “fill in the gaps” when encountering incomplete figures and will percieved them has complete.
cones
Photoreceptors in the retina which are sensitive to color, but not to dim light.
Continuity, Law of
The Gestalt principle that people will tend to prefer perceptions of connected and continuous figures to disconnected and disjointed ones.
difference threshold
The minimum difference between two stimuli needed to detect a difference 50% of the time
feature detectors
Cells in cerebral cortex with specialize in extracting certain features of a stimulus. For example, a cell might respond only to a diagnonal line or to movement.
Figure
The part of a given pattern which “commands attention”. This pattern will stand out against the rest of the pattern which will be seen as the background. When we see a bird in a tree, the bird is the figure and the tree is the ground. If we are listening to the violins in an orchestra, the music from the other instruments is the background
fovea
The central focus point in the retina, around which the eye’s cones cluster
gate-control theory
The theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological “gate” that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass onto the brain.
Ground
The part (or parts) of a given pattern which does not “command attention”. This will be the background against which the figure will be percieved. When we see a bird in a tree, the bird is the figure and the tree is the ground. If we are listening to the violins in an orchestra, the music from the other instruments is the background
parallel processing (perception)
The processing of many aspects of a problem at the same time. This is the brain’s natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision.
perception
The process of organizing and interpreting sensory patterns in order to make it meaningful.
Perceptual constancy
The ability to see an object has having the same characteristics despite different conditions or different view points.
Perceptual set
A tendency to a percieve a stimulus in a certain way. For example, when a person is afraid, they might interpret an unfamiliar sound as a threat.
Proximity, Law of
The Gestalt principle that people will tend to group things together perceptually if they are close to each other