(2025) U3 AP Psychology Unit 3: Development & Learning

Nature

Genetic factors that influence development.

Nurture

Environmental factors that influence development.

Teratogens

Agents or factors that can cause malformations or abnormalities in a developing embryo or fetus.

Rooting reflex

Automatic response of a baby turning toward touch on the cheek and seeking to put the object in their mouth.

Object permanence

Realizing that objects continue to exist even when out of sensory range.

Visual cliff

A device used to study depth perception in infants or animals.

Gross motor skills

Involve large muscle groups and whole-body movements.

Zone of proximal development

Range of tasks a child can perform independently and those requiring assistance.

Psychosocial stage theory

Theory suggesting that personality is influenced by experiences with others.

Trust versus mistrust

First psychosocial stage; infants learn to trust caregivers to meet their basic needs.

Initiative versus guilt

Stage where children assert themselves and express leadership in play.

Identity versus role confusion

Stage where adolescents question their identity and search for personal values.

Critical period

Window of opportunity during which a skill must be learned or development suffers.

Attachment parenting

Reciprocal relationship between caregiver and child affecting development.

Classical conditioning

Learning to associate neutral stimuli with stimuli that produce reflexive responses.

Unconditioned stimulus (US)

Stimulus that elicits a natural, reflexive response.

Conditioned response (CR)

Automatic response established by training to a conditioned stimulus.

Operant conditioning

Learning based on the association of consequences with one's behaviors.

Positive reinforcement

Addition of something pleasant to increase the likelihood of a behavior.

Negative punishment

Removal of something pleasant to decrease the likelihood of a behavior.

Modeling

Process through which children learn behaviors by observing others.

Cognitive map

Mental image of the layout of one's physical environment.

Insight learning

Sudden realization of how to solve a problem.

Semantics

Meanings of words and combinations of words in phrases and sentences.

Holophrastic stage

Stage during which babies speak in single words.

Imaginary audience

Adolescents' tendency to overestimate how much others focus on them.

Egocentric

Preoperational children's belief that they cannot see the world from anyone else's perspective.

Metacognition

Ability to think about one's own thinking.

Personal fable

a belief that they are unique or different from everyone else, or they can develop an attitude of superiority or invulnerability

Morphemes

Smallest unit of meaningful sound (e.g., 'a', 'but', prefixes).

Syntax

Words are spoken in a specific order; each language has its own unique version.

Babbling

Babies’ experimentation with phonemes, learning to produce sounds.

Telegraphic speech

Stage when toddlers combine two words into simple commands.

Overgeneralization

Misapplication of grammar rules common in children learning syntax.

Temperament

Our emotional style or typical reaction to stressful situations.

Secure attachments

Infants confidently explore while parents are present; distressed when absent.

Avoidant attachments

Infants resist being held, explore independently, and avoid seeking comfort.

Anxious/ambivalent attachments

Infants show extreme stress when parents leave but resist comfort upon return.

Separation anxiety

Extremely stressed reactions to separation from parents or attachment figures.

Microsystem

Direct interactions between the child and their immediate surroundings.

Mesosystem

Interconnections between different ecological systems affecting the child.

Exosystem

Indirect influences on the child’s development from the broader community.

Macrosystem

Cultural influences that impact a child's development.

Chronosystem

Life changes or transitions that influence development over time.

Authoritarian parents

Set strict standards for behavior, emphasizing obedience and punishment.

Permissive parents

Set unclear standards; rules are inconsistently enforced.

Authoritative parents

Set reasonable standards that are explained; encourage independence with limits.

Phonemes

Smallest units of sound used in a language (English uses 44)

Puberty

The stage of development when the genital organs reach maturity and secondary sex characteristics begin to appear, signaling the start of adolescence.

Menopause

The transitional period in a woman's life when her ovaries produce less of the sex hormones estrogen and progesterone.

Conditioned stimulus (CS)

A previously neutral stimulus that eventually triggers a conditioned response.

Acquisition

Responding to the conditioned stimulus without a presentation of the unconditioned stimulus.

Trace conditioning

Presentation of the conditioned stimulus followed by a short break and presentation of the unconditioned stimulus.

Simultaneous conditioning

Presentation of the conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus at the same time.

Backward conditioning

Presentation of the unconditioned stimulus followed by the conditioned stimulus.

Extinction

The process of unlearning a behavior when the conditioned stimulus no longer elicits the conditioned response.

Spontaneous recovery

When a conditioned response reappears briefly upon presentation of the conditioned stimulus after extinction.

Higher-order conditioning

Using a conditioned stimulus as an unconditioned stimulus to create a conditioned response to a new stimulus.

One-trial learning

Learning to make certain associations quicker than others.

Biological preparedness

The idea that people and animals are inherently inclined to form associations between certain stimuli and responses.

Reinforcement discrimination

Shaping behavior to access a specific stimulus and a certain time under specific conditions.

Discriminative stimulus

Any stimulus that predicts the availability of reinforcement if a response is emitted.

Primary reinforcers

Reinforcers that are naturally rewarding, such as food, water, and rest.

Secondary reinforcers

Reinforcers that have been learned to value, such as praise or video games.

Generalized reinforcer

A type of secondary reinforcer that can be traded for virtually anything, such as money.

Continuous reinforcement

Rewarding a behavior each and every time it is performed.

Partial-reinforcement effect

Behaviors more resistant to extinction if reinforcement has not been continuous.

Fixed-ratio (FR) schedule

Provides reinforcement after a set number of responses.

Variable-ratio (VR) schedule

Provides reinforcement after an unpredictable number of responses.

Fixed-interval (FI) schedule

Requires a certain amount of time to elapse before reinforcement is given.

Variable-interval (VI) schedule

Varies the time required to elapse before a response results in reinforcement.

Instinctive drift

The tendency for animals to forgo rewards to pursue their typical patterns of behavior.

Modeling

The process through which children learn behaviors, skills, and ways of thinking by observing others.

Social learning theory

Suggests that social behavior is learned by observing and imitating the behavior of others.

Latent learning

Learning that becomes obvious only once reinforcement is given for demonstrating it.

Cognitive map

A mental picture or image of the layout of one's physical environment.

Insight learning

When one suddenly realizes how to solve a problem.