Galotti: Cognitive Development fogalmak (in English)

ability differences

individual differences stemming from variations in cognitive capacity, speed of processing, strategy use or from some other basic intellectual difference

academic skills

skills and abilities that develop in formal educational settings, typically including reading, writing and arithmetic

accommodation

in Piagetian theory, the change in mental structures that is elicited by new stimuli or experiences

achievement motivation

an individual's beliefs about his or her own abilities and preferences and the kind of goals he or she adopts when tackling cognitive challenges

adaptation

in Piagetian theory, changes in reflexes or mental structures through assimilation and accommodation

alerting network

an attentional network that activates to bring the child into an aroused and alert state when a new stimulus is presented

amygdala

a brain structure thought to be involved with formation of new memories, especially emotional memories

analytic cognition

cognition focused on individual features or aspects of a stimulus rather than on the whole context

analytic system (of decision making)

an effortful and intentionally used system to process information and make rational decisions

animism

the concept of being alive or having biological properties

antisaccade task

an experimental task used to measure the ability to control responses, in which a person is asked to fixate her eyes on a certain point and to avoid moving them to look at a newly appearing stimulus

appearance-reality distinction

understanding that the way an object, a person or an event might superficially appear can be different from the way that object, person, or event truly is

apprenticeship

a period of learning a specific set of job skills, acquired by closely observing a skilled practitioner and receiving specific feedback from that practitioner

approximate number system (ANS)

a nonverbal representation of number that occurs in humans of all ages and also in other species such as birds, mammals and fish. The ANS is thought to underlie understanding of basic arithmetic.

assimilation

in Piagetian theory, the application of an existing mental structure to a new stimulus or experience

attention

the ability to allocate mental resources to certain tasks

attention span

the duration for which an individual can focus mental energy on a task

attentional inertia

the inability of young children to shift their focus from one task to another or from one aspect of a task to another

attentional network

an organized system of attention, specialized in function and localized in a certain area of the brain

auditory perception

the interpretation or classification of sound stimuli

autobiographical memory

memory for specific, personally experienced events

automatic processes

cognitive processes that are carried out with minimal mental resources

babbling

the production of random syllables

basic level (of a concept)

a level of abstraction thought to be psychologically most fundamental or simple

between-subjects design

a research paradigm in which different participants participate in different conditions in the same study

biases

tendencies to think in a certain way or follow certain procedures regardless of the specific circumstances

brain imaging

the construction of pictures of the anatomy and functioning of intact brains through techniques such as MRI, CAT scans or PET scans

capacity

the total amount of cognitive resources available at a given time

CAT scan

a computerized axial tomography imaging technique in which a focused beam of X-rays is passed through the body from many different angles

categorical perception

the classification of sounds that vary on an acoustic dimension continuously into discrete categories

categorization

the organization of information into meaningful, coherent groups

central executive

the proposed component of working memory responsible for directing the flow of information and selecting what information to work with

cerebral cortex

the surface of the cerebrum, the largest structure of the brain

childhood amnesia

the relative paucity of autobiographical memories dating from before the age of about 3 years

circular reaction

in Piagetian theory, repeated behavioral patterns

class inclusion task

a task developed by Piaget in which a young child is shown a set of objects (e.g. four toy cars and two toy trucks). The child is asked to compare the entire set (e.g. vehicles) with one of the subsets (e.g. toy cars).

classical conditioning

a learning technique that builds acquired or learned reflexive responses on top of existing, hardwired reflexes

classification task

a task used by Piaget in which a young child is given a number of objects (e.g. wooden blocks) and asked to consistently sort them into groups

clinical interviews

a research paradigm in which an investigator begins by asking a series of open-ended questions but follows up with specific questions prepared in advance

cognition

the processes by which an individual acquires, stores, manipulates, retrieves and uses information

cognitive development

the study of how cognition changes in predictable, age-related ways over the course of infancy through adolescence

cognitive styles

habitual and/or preferred means of approaching a cognitive task

cohort effects

the influence(s) of being born in a certain time and place

collection

a term such as "family" or "forest" or "pile" that describes not only a group of individuals (e.g. "people" or "trees" or "blocks") but also a specific organization of individuals in relation to each other

concept

a mental representation of a category

concrete operations

a Piagetian stage of middle childhood marked by the acquisition of certain mental operations such as conservation, classification and seriation

conditional reasoning

a kind of logical reasoning problem with the first premise in the fform "if p, then q" and the second premise either "p", "q", "not p" or "not q"

conservation task

a task developed by Piaget in which a young child is shown two stimuli that are equiivalent in some respect (e.g. number or amount). The child watches while the experimenter makes a particular transformation (e.g. spreads aparrt a row of checkers or pours liquid from a short, wide glass into a thin, narrow glass) and is asked whether the original aspect of the two stimuli now differs

constancies (perceptual)

the lack of change in perceptual interpretation as a stimulus undergoes objective change as a function of the viewer's changing angle of vision. Examples include size constancy and shape constancy

cooing

the production of vowel sounds in early infancy

core knowledge

systems of information thought to be innate, domain and task specific, and modular in operation; also thought to be building blocks of cognition

correlation

the degree of linear relationship between two variables, measured on a scale from -1 to +1 with higher absolute values indicating stronger linear relationships

correlational studies

research paradigms that make use of correlations as the main method of data analysis

critical period

a developmental period during which an infant or a child is particularly sensitive to environmental input and must develop a structure or an ability if it is ever going to emerge

cross-modal perception

the ability to integrate perceptions across different sensory modalities

cross-sectional comparisons

contrasts between different individuals at different ages

decision making

the cognitive process(es) by which an individual selects one course of action from among alternatives

deductive reasoning

drawing logically necessary conclusions from premises

deferred imitation

sequences of behavior that are reproduced after some time interval, ususally of days or weeks

discourse knowledge

understanding the mechanichs of how a conversation should work

divided attention

the ways in which a person allocates mental focus or energy to two or more tasks simultaneously

drill and practice

an approach to teaching basic arithmetic facts involving lots of repetition and emphasizing automatic retrieval of facts

dual-process theory of cognition

a view that cognitive development progresses along two independent trajectories: 1. analytic, 2. experiential or heuristic

dual representation

the idea that a symbol can have two meanings - as an object and as a marker referring to another object

ecological validity

a property of research such that the focus of study is something that occurs naturally outside an experimental laboratory

egocentrism

a concept in Piagetian theory pertaining to a child's inability to take the point of view of another person

elicited imitation task

an experimental paradigm in which infants are shown an unusual sequence of actions performed on novel objects and asked to demonstrate their memory of the sequence sometime in the future

empiricism

a philosophical position emphasizing the role of experience in the acquisition of knowledge

encapsulation

the degree to which the mechanisms that deal with a particular cognitive process are specialized only for that process

encoding

the cognitive process(es) by which information is translated into a mental or an internal representation and stored

encoding specificity principle

a principle of retrieval specifying that when information is first encoded, it incorporates infromation from its original context such that, at the time of recall, it is more easily retrieved in its original context

episodic buffer

the proposed component of working memory responsible for interacting with both the phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad, as well as with long-term memory

episodic memory

a portion of long-term memory thought to store memory of specific events

epistemological development

the development of a theory of knowledge

equilibration

in Piagetian theory, stability of cognitive structures

essentilaism

the idea that all members of a species have an inner nature or "essence" that determines their visible appearance and behavior

event-related potentials (ERPs)

an electrical-recording technique to measure the response of the brain to various stimulus events

executive functioning

cognition, including planning, implementation of strategies, inhibiting inappropriate responses, resisting distraction, and using working memory to process information

executive network

an attentional network that helps a child inhibit competing responses and maintain vigilance in the face of distraction

experiential system (of decision making)

an automatic system to process information and make intuitive decisions

experiment

a test of a scientific theory in which the researcher controls and manipulates the independent variable(s)

experimental studies

research designs based on experiments

explicit memory

consciously recalled or recollected memory

extended mapping

the processes by which children learn all the dimensions of meaning and nuances of usage of a word

eyewitness memory

a narrative memory of a personally witnessed event

false-belief tasks

tasks that require a reasoner to distinguish between his own knowledge and that of another

fast mapping

the processes by which young children quickly learn some aspects of the meaning of a new word after one or very few exposures to that word

flashbulb memory

a phenomenon in which people recall their personal circumstances (e. g. where they were, whom they were with, what they were doing) at the time they heard of or witnessed an unexpected and very significant event

fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging)

a brain imaging technique that uses MRI equipment to examine blood flow in different regions of the brain

folk biology

a non-expert layperson's understanding of the principles of biology

folk psychology

a non-expert layperson's understanding of the principles of psychology

forebrain

the part of the brain containing the cerebral cortex, as well as the thalamus, hypothalamus, amygdala and hippocampus

formal education

education with an explicit curriculum, designed to teach general-purpose skills that are thought to have wide generalizability

formal operations

a Piagetian stage of adolescence marked by the acquisition of the ability to reason abstractly and hypothetically

frontal lobe

a division of the cerebral cortex located just behind the forehead, containing the motor cortex, frontal cortex and prefrontal cortex

global processing

perceptual processing that concentrates on the larger features or aspects of a stimulus

grammar

a system of linguistic rules that produces well-formed or "legal" entities such as sentences

gray matter

substance in the cerebral hemispheres consisting of the cell bodies and dendrites of the neurons in the brain, as well as glial cells, mainly serving the function of routing sensory and motor information withing the brain

guided participation

learning to perform a task by interaction with a skilled practitioner who provides scaffolding of the to-be-learned task

habituation

in learning theory, the lack of response to a stimulus after repeated or prolonged exposure to it