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developmental psychology
A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the lifespan.
cross-sectional study
Research that compares people of different ages at the same point in time.
longitudinal study
Research that follows and retests the same people over time.
teratogens
Agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm.
fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)
Physical and cognitive function deficits in children caused by their birth mother’s heavy drinking during pregnancy.
habituation
Decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation; as infants gain familiarity, their interest wanes.
maturation
Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience.
critical period
An optimal period early in life when exposure to certain stimuli produces normal development.
adolescence
The transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence.
puberty
The period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing.
menopause
The time of natural cessation of menstruation; the biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines.
cognition
All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.
schema
A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.
assimilation
Interpreting new experiences in terms of existing schemas.
accommodation
Adapting current schemas to incorporate new information.
sensorimotor stage
The stage (from birth to nearly 2 years) where infants know the world mostly in terms of sensory impressions and motor activities.
object permanence
The awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived.
preoperational stage
The stage (from about 2 to 6 or 7 years) where a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend concrete logic.
conservation
The principle that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in forms.
egocentrism
The preoperational child’s difficulty taking another’s point of view.
concrete operational stage
The stage (from about 7 to 11 years of age) where children can think logically about concrete events.
formal operational stage
The stage (normally beginning around age 12) where people begin to think logically about abstract concepts.
scaffold
A framework providing temporary support as children develop higher levels of thinking.
theory of mind
People’s ideas about their own and others’ mental states, including feelings, perceptions, and thoughts.
language
Our agreed-upon systems of words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning.
phoneme
The smallest distinctive sound unit in a language.
morpheme
The smallest unit in a language that carries meaning; may be a word or part of a word.
grammar
A system of rules that enables communication and understanding in a language.
universal grammar
Humans’ innate predisposition to understand the principles and rules of grammar in all languages.
babbling stage
The stage beginning around 4 months where an infant spontaneously utters various sounds.
one-word stage
The stage from about age 1 to 2 where a child speaks mostly in single words.
two-word stage
The stage beginning about age 2 where a child speaks mostly in two-word statements.
telegraphic speech
The early speech stage where a child speaks like a telegram using mostly nouns and verbs.
aphasia
Impairment of language caused by damage to the left hemisphere, affecting either speaking or understanding.
Broca’s area
A frontal lobe area that helps control language expression by directing muscle movements involved in speech.
Wernicke’s area
A brain area involved in language comprehension and expression, usually located in the left temporal lobe.
linguistic determinism
Whorf’s hypothesis that language determines the way we think.
linguistic relativism
The idea that language influences the way we think.
