Myers' Psychology for AP®, 2e, Module 47

accommodation

in developmental psychology, adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information. (p. 477)

assimilation

interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas. (p. 477)

autism spectrum disorder (ASD)

a disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by significant deficiencies in communication and social interaction, and by rigidly fixated interests and repetitive behaviors. (p. 481)

cognition

all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating. (p. 476)

concrete operational stage

in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 6 or 7 to 11 years of age) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events. (p. 483)

conservation

the principle (which Piaget believed to be a part of concrete operational reasoning) that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects. (p. 479)

egocentrism

in Piaget's theory, the preoperational child's difficulty taking another's point of view. (p. 479)

formal operational stage

in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts. (p. 483)

object permanence

the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived. (p. 478)

preoperational stage

in Piaget's theory, the stage (from about 2 to about 6 or 7 years of age) during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic. (p. 479)

schema

a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information. (p. 477)

sensorimotor stage

in Piaget's theory, the stage (from birth to about 2 years of age) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities. (p. 478)

theory of mind

people's ideas about their own and others' mental states--about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict. (p. 480)