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86 Cards in this Set
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A view of development as a gradual, steady process rather than as taking place in distinct stages. |
continuous |
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Description of the information-processing approach to cognition, indicating that it involves breaking down the thinking process into its various components. |
componential approach |
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The ability to focus on relevant information while screening out information that is irrelevant. |
selective attention |
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The ability to focus on more than one task at a time. |
divided attention |
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Memory for information that is the current focus of attention. |
short-term memory |
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Memory for information that is committed to longer-term storage, so that it can be drawn upon after a period when attention has not been focused on it. |
long-term memory |
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An aspect of short-term memory that refers to where information is stored as it is comprehended and analyzed. |
working memory |
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memory strategies |
mneumonic devices |
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Degree of cognitive effort a person needs to devote to processing a given set of information. |
automaticity |
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Breaking up a phenomenon into separate parts to such an extent that the meaning and coherence of the phenomenon as a whole becomes lost. |
reductionism |
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Thinking that involves not merely memorizing information but analyzing it, making judgments about what it means, relating it to other information, and considering ways in which it might be valid or invalid. |
critical thinking |
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Theory of decision making that describes the decision-making process as including (1) identifying the range of possible choices; (2) identifying the consequences that would result from each choice; (3) evaluating the desirability of each consequence; (4) assessing the likelihood of each consequence; and (5) integrating this information. |
behavioural decision theory |
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Term applied especially to cognitive development, meaning that cognitive development affects all areas of thinking, no matter what the topic. |
organizational core |
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How people think about other people, social relationships, and social institutions. |
social cognition |
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The ability to understand the thoughts and feelings of others. |
perspective taking |
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Stage of perspective taking, often found in early adolescence, in which persons understand that their perspective-taking interactions with others are mutual, in the sense that each side realizes that the other can take their perspective. |
mutual perspective taking |
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Realizing that the social perspectives of self and others are influenced not just by their interaction with each other but by their roles in the larger society. |
social and conventional system perspective taking |
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Promoting the well-being of others. |
prosocial |
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The ability to attribute mental states to one’s self and others, including beliefs, thoughts, and feelings. |
theory of mind |
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Type of egocentrism in which adolescents have difficulty distinguishing their thinking about their own thoughts from their thinking about the thoughts of others. |
adolescent egocentrism |
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Belief that others are acutely aware of and attentive to one’s appearance and behavior. |
imaginary audience |
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A belief in one’s personal uniqueness, often including a sense of invulnerability to the consequences of taking risks. |
personal fable |
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The tendency to assume that accidents, diseases, and other misfortunes are more likely to happen to other people than to one’s self. |
optimistic bias |
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Attempt to understand human cognition by evaluating cognitive abilities using intelligence tests. |
psychometric approach |
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French psychologist who developed the first intelligence test in the early 20th century, which later became known as the Stanford-Binet. |
Alfred Binet |
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Widely used IQ test developed by Alfred Binet and revised by scholars at Stanford University. |
Stanford-Binet |
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A measure of a person’s intellectual abilities based on a standardized test. |
intelligence quotient |
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Intelligence test for children ages 6 to 16, with six Verbal and five Performance subtests. |
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV) |
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Intelligence test for persons ages 16 and up, with six Verbal and five Performance subtests. |
Wechler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-IV) |
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In the Wechsler IQ tests, subtests that examine verbal abilities. |
verbal subtests |
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In the Wechsler IQ tests, subtests that examine abilities for attention, spatial perception, and speed of processing. |
performance subtests |
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In IQ tests, performance results compared to those of other persons of the same age. |
relative performance |
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In IQ tests, performance results compared to those of other persons, regardless of age. |
absolute performance |
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Technique for developing a psychological test, in which a typical score for each age is established by testing a large random sample of people from a variety of geographical areas and social class backgrounds |
age norms |
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In a distribution of scores, the point at which half of the population scores above and half below. |
median |
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Type of reliability that examines whether or not persons’ scores on one occasion are similar to their scores on another occasion. |
test-retest reliability |
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Mental abilities that involve speed of analyzing, processing, and reacting to information. |
fluid intelligence |
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Accumulated knowledge and enhanced judgment based on experience. |
crystallized intelligence |
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In longitudinal research, the ability of a variable at Time 1 to predict the outcome of a variable at Time 2. |
predictive validity |
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The adoption of children of one race by parents of a different race. |
transracial adoption |
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Howard Gardner’s theory that there are eight separate types of intelligence. |
theory of multiple intelligences |
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A technique for assessing ongoing brain functioning, in which a chemical that emits positrons is injected into the body, and detectors measure their activity levels in various parts of the brain. |
PET scans |
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A technique for measuring brain functioning during an ongoing activity |
fMRI |
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The point of transmission between two nerve cells. |
synapses |
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Cells of the nervous system, including the brain. |
neurons |
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A rapid increase in the production of s ynaptic connections in the brain |
overproduction or exuberance |
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The outer layer of the brain, where most of the growth in brain cells occurs during overproduction in adolescence. |
gray matter |
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The part of the brain immediately behind the forehead. Known to be involved in higher brain functions such as planning ahead and analyzing complex problems. |
frontal lobes |
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Following overproduction, the process by which the number of synapses in the brain are reduced, making brain functioning faster and more efficient but less flexible. |
synaptic pruning |
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Process by which myelin, a blanket of fat wrapped around the main part of the neuron, grows. Myelin serves the function of keeping the brain’s electrical signals on one path and increasing their speed. |
myelination |
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A structure in the lower brain, well beneath the cortex, long thought to be involved only in basic functions such as movement, now known to be important for many higher functions as well, such as mathematics, music, decision making, and social skills. |
cerebelllum |
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Russian psychologist who emphasized the cultural basis of cognitive development. |
Vygotsky |
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The gap between how competently a person performs a task alone and when guided by an adult or more competent peer. |
zone of proximal development |
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The degree of assistance provided to the learner in the zone of proximal development, gradually decreasing as the learner’s skills develop |
scaffolding |
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The teaching interaction between two people (often an adult and a child or adolescent) as they participate in a culturally valued activity. |
guided participation |
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Approach to human psychology emphasizing that psychological functioning cannot be separated from the culture in which it takes place. |
cultural psychology |
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Changes over time in how people think, how they solve problems, and how their capacities for memory and attention change. |
cognitive development |
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Influential Swiss developmental psychologist, best known for his theories of cognitive and moral development. |
Jean Piaget |
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A period in which abilities are organized in a coherent, interrelated way. |
stage |
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The organization of cognitive abilities into a single pattern, such that thinking in all aspects of life is a reflection of that structure. |
mental structure |
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Approach to understanding cognition that emphasizes the changes that take place at different ages |
cognitive-developmental approach |
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Process by which abilities develop through genetically based development with limited influence from the environment. |
maturation |
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A mental structure for organizing and interpreting information. |
schemes |
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The cognitive process that occurs when new information is altered to fit an existing scheme. |
assimilation |
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The cognitive process that occurs when a scheme is changed to adapt to new information. |
accommodation |
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Cognitive stage in first 2 years of life that involves learning how to coordinate the activities of the senses with motor activities. |
sensorimotor stage |
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Cognitive stage from ages 2 to 7 during which the child becomes capable of representing the world symbolically—for example, through the use of language—but is still very limited in ability to use mental operations. |
preoperational stage |
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Cognitive stage from age 7 to 11 in which children learn to use mental operations but are limited to applying them to concrete, observable situations rather than hypothetical situations. |
concrete operations |
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Cognitive activity involving manipulating and reasoning about objects. |
mental operations |
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Cognitive stage from age 11 on up in which people learn to think systematically about possibilities and hypotheses. |
formal operations |
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Piaget’s classic test of formal operations, in which persons are asked to figure out what determines the speed at which a pendulum sways from side to side. |
pendulum problem |
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Piaget’s term for the process by which the formal operational thinker systematically tests possible solutions to a problem and arrives at an answer that can be defended and explained. |
hypothetical-deductive reasoning |
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Thinking in terms of symbols, ideas, and concepts. |
abstract thinking |
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Thinking that takes into account multiple connections and interpretations, such as in the use of metaphor, satire, and sarcasm. |
complex thinking |
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The capacity for “thinking about thinking” that allows adolescents and adults to reason about their thought processes and monitor them. |
metacognition |
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Approach to research that focuses on how individuals differ within a group, for example, in performance on IQ tests. |
individual differences |
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Type of thinking beyond formal operations, involving greater awareness of the complexity of real-life situations, such as in the use of pragmatism and reflective judgment |
postformal thinking |
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Type of thinking that involves adapting logical thinking to the practical constraints of real-life situations. |
pragmatism |
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Type of thinking that develops in emerging adulthood, involving a growing awareness that most problems do not have a single solution and that problems must often be addressed with crucial pieces of information missing. |
dialectical thought |
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The capacity to evaluate the accuracy and logical coherence of evidence and arguments. |
reflective judgment |
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Cognitive tendency to see situations and issues in polarized, absolute, black-and-white terms. |
dualistic thinking |
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Cognitive approach entailing recognition that there is more than one legitimate view of things and that it can be difficult to justify one position as the true or accurate one. |
multiple thinking |
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Cognitive ability to recognize the legitimacy of competing points of view but also compare the relative merits of competing views. |
relativism |
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Cognitive status in which persons commit themselves to certain points of view they believe to be the most valid while at the same time being open to reevaluating their views if new evidence is presented to them. |
commitment |
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An approach to understanding cognition that seeks to delineate the steps involved in the thinking process and how each step is connected to the next. |
information-processing approach |
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A view of development as taking place in stages that are distinct from one another rather than as one gradual, continuous process. |
discontinuous |
