Chapter 5: Cognitive Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood

Accommodation

In Piaget’s theory, the process by which schemas are modified or new schemas created in light of experience.

A-Not-B Error

An object permanence error in which an infant uncovers an object several times in one place (Place A), and continues to search for the object in Place A even after seeing the object moved to a new location, Place B.

Assimilation

In Piaget’s theory, the process by which new experiences are interpreted and integrated into preexisting schemas.

Attention

The ability to direct one’s awareness.

Babbling

An infant’s repetition of syllables such as “ba-ba-ba-ba” and “ma-ma-ma,” which begins at about 6 months of age.

Broca’s Area

The region in the brain that controls the ability to use language for expression; damage to the area inhibits fluent speech.

Canonical Babbling

A type of babbling with well-formed syllables that sounds like language.

Categorization

An adaptive mental process in which objects are grouped into conceptual categories, allowing for organized storage of information in memory, efficient retrieval of that information, and the capacity to respond with familiarity to new stimuli from a common class.

Central Executive

In information processing, the part of our mental system that directs the flow of information and regulates cognitive activities such as attention, action, and problem-solving.

Circular Reactions

In Piaget’s cognitive-developmental theory, the repetition of an action and its response in which infants repeat a newly discovered event caused by their own motor activity.

Cognitive-Developmental Perspective

Maturation of mental processes and tools individuals use to obtain knowledge, think, and solve problems.

Cognitive Disequalibrium

A mismatch between an individual’s schemas and the world.

Cognitive Equilibrium

A balance between the processes of assimilation and accommodation such that an individual’s schemas match the world.

Cognitive Schemas

A mental representation, such as concepts, ideas, and ways of interacting with the world.

Cooing

An infant’s repetition of sounds, such as “ahhhh,” “ohhh,” and “eeee,” that begins between 2 and 3 months of age.

Core Knowledge Theory

A framework explaining that infants are born with several innate knowledge systems or core domains of thought that enable early rapid learning and adaptation.

Deferred Imitation

Imitating the behavior of an absent model; illustrates infants’ capacity for mental representation.

Executive Function

The set of cognitive operations that support planning, decision-making, and goal-setting abilities, such as the ability to control attention, coordinate information in working memory, and inhibit impulses.

Expansions

Adult responses to children’s speech that elaborate and enrich its complexity.

Fast Mapping

A process by which children learn new words after only a brief encounter, connecting it with their own mental categories.

Grammar

The rules of language.

Holophrases

A one-word expression used to convey a complete thought.

Infant-Directed Speech

Uses shorter words and sentences, higher and more varied pitch, repetitions, a slower rate, and longer pauses; also known as motherese.

Intelligence

An individual’s ability to adapt to the environment.

Language Acquisition Device (LAD)

In Chomsky’s theory, an innate facilitator of language that allows infants to quickly and efficiently analyze everyday speech and determine its rules, regardless of their native language.

Long-Term Memory

The component of the information processing system that is an unlimited store that holds information indefinitely, until it is retrieved to manipulate working memory.

Mental Representation

An internal depiction of an object; thinking of an object using mental pictures.

Object Permanence

The understanding that objects continue to exist outside of sight.

Overextension

A vocabulary error in which the infant applies a word too broadly to a wider class of objects than appropriate.

Primary Circular Reactions

In Piaget’s theory, repeating an action that produced a chance event involving the infant’s body.

Productive Language

Language individuals can produce for themselves.

Recast

When an adult repeats a child’s sentence back to him or her in a new grammatical form, helping the child to acquire grammatical rules more quickly.

Receptive Language

Language that one can understand.

Recognition Memory

The ability to identify a previously encountered stimulus.

Secondary Circular Reactions

In Piaget’s theory, repeating an action that produced a chance event that triggers a response in the external environment.

Sensory Memory

The first step in the information processing system in which stimuli are stored for a brief moment in its original form to enable it to be processed.

Telegraphic Speech

Two-word utterances produced by toddlers that communicate only the essential words.

Tertiary Circular Reactions

In Piaget’s theory, repeating an action to explore and experiment in order to see the results and learn about the world.

Transfer Deficit

Sometimes called the video deficit; when infants are less able to transfer or generalize what they see on a screen to their own behavior than what they learn through active interactions with adults.

Underextension

A vocabulary error in which the infant applies a word too narrowly to a single object rather than the more appropriate, wider class of objects.

Universal Grammar

In Chomsky’s theory, rules that apply to all human languages.

Violation-of-Expectation Task

A task in which a stimulus appears to violate physical laws.

Vocabulary Spurt

Also known as a naming explosion; a period of rapid vocabulary learning that occurs from about 16 to 24 months of age.

Wernicke’s Area

The region of the brain that is responsible for language comprehension; damage to this area impairs the ability to understand others’s speech and sometimes the ability to speak coherently.

Working Memory

The component of the information processing system that holds and processes information that is being manipulated, encoded, or retrieved and is responsible for maintaining and processing information used in cognitive tasks.