Cognitive Development and Language Acquisition

These flashcards cover key concepts about cognitive development, particularly Piaget's stages of development, as well as foundational theories of language acquisition and problem-solving methods.

Modified Semantic Network

An individual's unique semantic network that develops based on personal experience and knowledge.

Spreading Activation

A principle stating that activating one memory can trigger the recall of others connected to it.

Node Link Strength

The strength of connections between nodes in a semantic network, which is influenced by exposure.

Piaget's Sensorimotor Stage

The first stage of cognitive development (0-2 years), where infants learn about the world through their senses and actions.

Object Permanence

The understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, developed during the sensorimotor stage.

Egocentrism

A characteristic of the preoperational stage (2-6/7 years) where children cannot understand others' perspectives.

Concrete Operational Stage

The third stage of cognitive development (7-11 years) where children begin to think logically about concrete events.

Formal Operational Stage

The fourth stage of cognitive development (12+ years) where individuals develop the ability to think abstractly and reason about hypothetical situations.

Schemas

Mental frameworks that help individuals organize and interpret information.

Assimilation

The process of integrating new experiences into existing schemas without changing the schema.

Accommodation

The process of altering existing schemas or creating new ones to incorporate new information.

Well-Defined Problems

Problems with clear starting and ending points and criteria for solutions.

Ill-Defined Problems

Problems that lack clear parameters and may not have defined criteria for solutions.

Heuristics

Mental shortcuts used to simplify problem-solving processes.

Availability Heuristic

A mental shortcut where individuals rely on immediate examples that come to mind when evaluating a topic.

Representativeness Heuristic

A mental shortcut where people judge the likelihood of an event based on how closely it matches a prototype.

Broca's Aphasia

A language production disorder resulting from damage in Broca's area, characterized by halting speech.

Wernicke's Aphasia

A language comprehension disorder resulting from damage in Wernicke's area, characterized by nonsensical speech.

Language Acquisition Device (LAD)

The innate biological mechanism proposed by Noam Chomsky that facilitates language learning.

Critical Period

A crucial developmental time frame when children are most capable of learning language.

Nativist Theory

The theory that language ability is innate and genetically predetermined.

Learning Theory

The approach that describes language acquisition as a result of operant conditioning and reinforcement.

Interactionist Approach

The perspective that language development occurs through social interactions influenced by biological and social factors.

Linguistic Relativity

The hypothesis that the structure of a language affects its speakers' cognition and worldview.

Trial and Error

A problem-solving strategy characterized by trying various different solutions until one succeeds.

Algorithm

A logical, step-by-step procedure that guarantees a correct solution, though it may be more time-consuming than a heuristic.

Confirmation Bias

A cognitive bias where individuals seek out and prioritize information that supports their existing beliefs while ignoring contradictory evidence.

Functional Fixedness

A cognitive bias that limits a person to using an object only in the way it is traditionally used, hindering creative problem solving.

Belief Perseverance

The tendency to cling to initial beliefs even after they have been discredited by new, factual information.

Conservation

The cognitive milestone, usually reached in the concrete operational stage, where a child realizes that changing the form of a substance does not change its volume or mass.

Centration

The tendency to focus on just one feature of a problem or object, often ignoring other relevant aspects; characteristic of the preoperational stage.

Arcuate Fasciculus

A bundle of nerve fibers connecting Broca's area and Wernicke's area; damage can lead to conduction aphasia, where speech repetition is difficult.