Infancy 2

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts from the Infancy lecture.

Reflexes

Unlearned, involuntary responses to stimuli.

Survival reflexes

Adaptive reflexes, such as breathing, eye-blink, and sucking.

Primitive reflexes

Less adaptive reflexes that typically disappear in early infancy, such as the Babinski and grasping reflexes.

Cephalocaudal

Motor development trend from head to toe.

Proximodistal

Motor development trend from the center of the body outward.

Gross motor skills

Movement of large muscles of arms, legs, and torso.

Fine motor skills

Movement of small muscles such as fingers and toes.

Habituation

The process of learning to be bored with a stimulus.

Preferential looking

A method to assess infant perception by measuring the amount of time infants spend looking at different stimuli.

Evoked potentials

A method to assess how an infant’s brain responds to stimulation by measuring its electrical conductivity.

Operant conditioning

A learning process where infants learn to respond to a stimulus based on reinforcement.

Contour

Light-dark transitions that infants are attracted to.

Sensorimotor stage

Piaget's first stage of cognitive development where the world is understood through senses and actions.

Behavioral schemes

The dominant cognitive structures that develop through coordination of sensory information and motor responses during the sensorimotor stage.

Reflex activity

First substage of sensorimotor stage (birth-1 month) involving active exercise and refinement of inborn reflexes.

Primary circular reactions

Second substage of sensorimotor stage (1-4 months) involving repetition of interesting acts centered on the child's own body.

Secondary circular reactions

Third substage of sensorimotor stage (4-8 months) involving repetition of interesting acts on objects.

Coordination of secondary schemes

Fourth substage of sensorimotor stage (8-12 months) involving combination of actions to solve simple problems.

Tertiary circular reactions

Fifth substage of sensorimotor stage (12-18 months) involving experimentation to find new ways to solve problems or produce interesting outcomes.

Beginning of thought

Sixth substage of sensorimotor stage (18-24 months) involving first evidence of insight; solve problems mentally, using symbols to stand for objects

Object permanence

The understanding that objects continue to exist even when they are out of sight.

A-not-B error

The tendency of infants to search for a hidden object where they previously found it, even after seeing it moved to a new location.

Attachment

A strong and enduring emotional bond that develops between an infant and caregiver.