The Developing Person Through The Lifespan Ch 6

Front 1

sensorimotor intelligence

Back 1

Piaget's term for the way infants think--by using their senses and motor skills--during the first period of cognitive development.

Front 2

primary circular reactions

Back 2

The first of three types of feedback loops in sensorimotor intelligence, this one involving the infant's own body. The infant senses motion, sucking, noise, and so on, and tries to understand them.

Front 3

secondary circular reactions

Back 3

The second of three types of feedback loops in sensorimotor intelligence, this one involving people and objects. The infant is responsive to other people and to toys and other objects the infant can touch and move.

Front 4

tertiary circular reactions

Back 4

The third of three types of feedback loops in sensorimotor intelligence, this one involving active exploration and experimentation. The infant explores a range of new activities, varying his or her responses in a way of learning about the world.

Front 5

object permanence

Back 5

The realization that objects (including people) still exist when they cannot be seen, touched, or heard.

Front 6

"little scientist"

Back 6

Piaget's tern fir the stage-five toddler (age 12 to 18 months) who experiments without anticipating the results.

Front 7

deferred imitation

Back 7

A sequence in which an infant first perceives something that someone else does and then performs the same action a few hours or even days later.

Front 8

habituation

Back 8

The process of getting used to an object or event through repeated exposure to it.

Front 9

information-processing theory

Back 9

A perspective that compares human thinking processes, by analogy, to computer analysis of data, including sensory input, connections, stores memories, and output.

Front 10

affordance

Back 10

An opportunity for perception and interaction that is offered by a person, place, or object in the environment.

Front 11

visual cliff

Back 11

An experimental apparatus that gives an illusion of a sudden drop between one horizontal surface and another.

Front 12

dynamic perception

Back 12

Perception that is primed to focus on movement and change.

Front 13

people preference

Back 13

A universal principle of infant perception, consisting of an innate attraction to other humans, which is evident in visual, auditory, tactile, and other preferences.

Front 14

reminder session

Back 14

A perceptual experience that is intended to help a person recollect an idea, a thing, or an experience, without testing whether the person remembers it at the moment.

Front 15

child-directed speech

Back 15

The high-pitched, simplified, and repetitive way adults speak to infants. Also called baby talk or motherese.

Front 16

babbling

Back 16

The extended repetition of certain syllables, such as ba-ba-ba, that begins between 6 and 9 months of age.

Front 17

naming explosion

Back 17

A sudden increase in an infant's vocabulary, especially in the number of nouns, that begins at about 18 months of age.

Front 18

holophrase

Back 18

A single word that is used to express a complete, meaningful thought.

Front 19

grammar

Back 19

All the methods--word order, verb forms, and so on--that languages use to communicate meaning, apart from the words themselves.

Front 20

language acquisition device (LAD)

Back 20

Chomsky's term for a hypothesized mental structure that enables humans to learn language, including the basic aspects of grammar, vocabulary, and intonation.

Front 21

fMRI

Back 21

Functional magnetic resonance imaging, a measuring technique in which the brain's electrical excitement indicates activation anywhere in the brain; fMRI helps researchers locate neurological responses to stimuli.