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111 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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The study of our lifelong physical, mental, and social development
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Developmental Psychology
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A major issue of developmental psychology, it deals with whether or not growth is continuous or through a series of stages
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Continuity vs. Stages
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A major issue of developmental psychology, it deals with whether or not personalities remain consistent or differ over time
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Stability vs. Change
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a fertilized egg
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zygote
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10 days after conception, the zygote attaches to the uterine wall, its inner cells becoming this
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embryo
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9 weeks after conception, the embryo looks unmistakably human, it is now considered this
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fetus
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Agents such as viruses and drugs that are harmful to the fetus
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teratogens
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This affects about 1 in 800 infants, marked by a small head and lifelong brain abnormalities
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fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)
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The orderly sequence of biological growth processes
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Maturation
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All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating
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Cognition
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A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information
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Schema
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To interpret new experiences in terms of our current understandings (or schemas).
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Assimilation
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To adjust our schemas by incorporating information from new experiences
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Accommodation
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In Piaget's theory, the stage (from birth to about 2 years old) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities
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Sensorimotor Stage
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The awareness that things continue to exist when not perceived
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Object Permanence
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In Piaget's theory, the stage (from about 2 to 6/7 years old) during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic
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Preoperational Stage
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The principle that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in shape
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Conservation
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In Piaget's theory, the preoperational child's difficulty taking another's point of view
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Egocentrism
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People's ideas about their own and others' mental states -- about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict
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Theory of Mind
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In Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 6/7 to 11 years old) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events
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Concrete Operational Stage
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In Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (beginning around 12 years old) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts
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Formal Operational Stage
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A disorder marked by communication and social deficiencies and repetitive behaviors
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Autism
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The fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months old
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Stranger Anxiety
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An emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation
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Attachment
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The time shortly after birth when an organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development
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Critical Period
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The process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life
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Imprinting
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According to Erik Erikson, a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy; said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers
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Basic Trust
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The transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence
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Adolescence
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The period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing
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Puberty
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The body structures (ovaries, testes, and external genitalia) that make sexual reproduction possible
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Primary Sex Characteristics
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Non-reproductive sexual characteristics, such as female breasts and hips, male voice quality, and body hair
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Secondary Sex Characteristics
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The first menstrual period
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Menarche
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Our sense of self; according to Erikson, the adolescent's task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles
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Identity
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The "we" aspect of our self-concept; the part of our answer to "Who am I?" that comes from our group memberships
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Social Identity
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In Erikson's theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in late adolescence and early adulthood
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Intimacy
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For some people in modern cultures, a period from the late teens to mid-twenties bridging the gap between adolescent dependence and full independence and responsible adulthood
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Emerging Adulthood
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The time of natural cessation of menstruation; also refers to the biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines
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Menopause
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Our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age
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Crystallized Intelligence
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Our ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease during late adulthood
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Fluid Intelligence
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The culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement
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Social Clock
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The persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information
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Memory
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The processing of information into the memory system - for example, by extracting meaning
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Encoding
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The retention of encoded information over time
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Retention
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The process of getting information out of memory storage
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Retrieval
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The immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system
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Sensory Memory
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The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. Includes knowledge, skills, and experiences
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Long-term Memory
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A newer understanding of short-term memory that focuses on conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual-spatial information, and of information retrieved from long-term memory
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Working Memory
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Unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time, and frequency, and of well-learned information, such as word meanings
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Automatic Processing
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Encoding that requires attention and conscious effort
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Effortful Processing
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The conscious repetition of information, either to maintain it in consciousness or to encode it for storage
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Rehearsal
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The tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long-term retention than is achieved through massed study or practice
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Spacing Effect
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Our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list
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Serial Position Effect
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Mental pictures; a powerful aid to effortful processing, especially when combined with encoding
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Imagery
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Memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices
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Mnemonics
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Organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically
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Chunking
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A momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli; a photographic or picture-image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second
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Iconic Memory
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A momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli; if attention is elsewhere, sounds and words can still be recalled within 3 or 4 seconds
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Echoic Memory
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An increase in a synapse's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation. Believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory
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Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)
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A clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event
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Flashbulb Memory
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The loss of memory
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Amnesia
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Retention independent of conscious recollection
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Implicit Memory
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Memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and "declare."
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Explicit (declarative) Memory
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A neural center that is located in the limbic system; helps process explicit memories for storage
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Hippocampus
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A measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier, as on a fill-in-the-blank test
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Recall
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A measure of memory in which the person need only identify items previously learned, as on a multiple-choice test
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Recognition
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A measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material for a second time
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Relearning
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The activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory
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Priming
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That eerie sense that "I've experienced this before." Cues from the current situation may subconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience
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Deja Vu
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The tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one's current good or bad mood
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Mood-Congruent Memory
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The disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information
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Proactive Interference
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The disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information
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Retroactive Interference
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In psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories
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Repression
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Incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event
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Misinformation Effect
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Attributing to the wrong origin an event we have experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined. At the heart of many false memories
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Source Amnesia
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The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment
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Sensation
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The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events
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Perception
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Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information
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Bottom-up processing
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Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations
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Top-down processing
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The study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them
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Psychophysics
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The minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time
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Absolute threshold
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Below one's absolute threshold for conscious awareness
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Subliminal
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The activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response
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Priming
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The minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50 percent of the time. We experience the difference threshold as a JND (just-noticeable difference).
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Difference threshold
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The principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage (rather than a constant amount).
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Weber's Law
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Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation
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Sensory adaptation
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The distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next
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Wavelength
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The dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light; what we know as the color names blue, green, and so forth
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Hue
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The amount of energy in a light or sound wave, which we perceive as brightness or loudness, as determined by the wave's amplitude
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Intensity
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The light-sensitive inner surface of the eye, containing the receptor rods and cones plus layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual information
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Retina
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The process by which the eye's lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina
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Accommodation
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Retinal receptor cells that detect black, white and gray; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision
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Rods
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Retinal receptor cells that are concentrated near the center of the retina and that function in daylight or well-lit conditions, detecting fine detail and color sensations
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Cones
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The nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain
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Optic nerve
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The point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, created because no receptor cells are located there
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Blind Spot
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The central focal point in the retina, around which the eye's cones cluster
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Fovea
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Nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of a stimulus, such as shape, angle or movement
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Feature detectors
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Simultaneous processing, the brain's natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision
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Parallel processing
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The theory that the retina contains three different color receptors- RGB -which can produce the perception of any color
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Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory
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The theory that opposing retinal processes (red-green, yellow-blue, white-black) enable color vision
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Opponent-process theory
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An organized whole. We have a tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes
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Gestalt
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The organization of the visual field into objects that stand out from their surroundings
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Figure-ground
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The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups
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Grouping
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The ability to see objects in three dimensions
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Depth perception
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A laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals
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Visual cliff
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Depth cues, such as retinal disparity, that depend on the use of two eyes
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Binocular cues
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A binocular cue for perceiving depth
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Retinal disparity
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Depth cues, such as interposition and linear perspective, available to either eye alone
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Monocular cues
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Perceiving objects as unchanging in shape, size, lightness and color even as illumination and retinal images change
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Perceptual constancy
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Perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths by the object
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Color constancy
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In vision, the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field
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Perceptual adaptation
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A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another
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Perceptual set
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