Study your flashcards anywhere!

Download the official Cram app for free >

  • Shuffle
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Alphabetize
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Front First
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Both Sides
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Read
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off

How to study your flashcards.



H key: Show hint (3rd side).h key

A key: Read text to speech.a key


Play button


Play button




Click to flip

30 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back
sensorimotor stage (0-2)
infants coordinate their sensory inputs and mortor capablitities, forming behavior schemes that permit them to acton and get to know their environment
stages of sensorimotor

-reflexive activity(0-1month)
exercising and accomodation of inborn reflexes
-some reflexive imitation
-track moving opject but ignores disappearance
primary circular reactions (1-4 months)
repeating interesting acts tha are centered on one's own body
-repetition of own behavior that is mimicked by companion
-looks intently at the spot where the object disappeared
secondary circular reactions (4-8 months)
repeating interesting acts that are directed toward external object
-searches for partly concealed objects
coordination of secondary schemes(8-12 months)
combining actions to solve simple problems (intention)
-searches for and finds concealed objects that have not been visibly displaced
tertiary circular reactions (12-18 months)
experimenting to find new ways to solve problems or reproduce interesting outcomes
-searches for and finds objects that have been visibly displaced
invention of new means through mental combinations (18-24 months
first evidence of insight as the child solves problems at an internal, symbolic level
-object concept is complete
-searches for and finds object that have been hiddent through invisible displacement
deferred imitation
ability to reproduce the behavior of an absent model
object permenance
the idea that objects continue to exist when they are no longer visible or detectable through the other sense
a not b error
tendency of children to search for a hidden object where they previously found it even after seeing it moved
theorists who believe that infants are born with substantial innate knowledge about the physical world
theory theories
infants are prepared from birth to make sense of certain classes of information; infants construct "theories" about how the world works and testing and modifying their theories until th emodels in their brain resemble the way the world is structured
preoperational stage (2-7)
symbolic function
the ability to use symbols to represent objects and experiences
representational insight
the knowledge that an entity can stand for something other than itself
dual representation
ability to represent and object simultaneously as an object itself and as a representation of something else
attributing life and lifelike qualities to inanimate objects
tendency to view the world from ones own perspective and to have difficulty recognizing another person's point of view
appearance/reality distinction
ability to keep the true properties or characteristics of an object in mind despite the deceptive appearance the object has assumed; notably lacking among young children during the preconceptual period
tendency of preoperational children to attend to one aspect of a situation to the exclusion of others
ability to concentrate on more than one aspect of a problem at the same time
ability to mentally undo or negate an action by mentally performing the opposite action
identity training
teaching children to recognize that the object or substance transformed in a conservation task is still the same object or substance regardless of appearance
theory of mind
childresn's developing concepts of mental activity- an understanding of how the human mind owrks and a knowledge that humans are cognitive beings whose mental states are not always shared with or accessible to others
belief desire reasoning
we understand that our behvior and the behaior of others is based on what we know or believe and what we want or desire
false belief task
type of task in theory of mind studies in which the child must infer that another person does not possess knowledge that he or she possesses
concrete operational period (7-11 years)
children are acquiring cognitive operations and thinking more logically about real objects and experiences
-acquire conservation and reversibility
mental seriation
a cognitive operation that allows one to mentally order a set of stimuli along a quantifiable dimension such as height or weight
ablitity to recognize relations among elements in a serial order
(a>b, b>c then a>c)