Developmental Psychology 1 Lecture Notes

Flashcards covering key concepts from the Developmental Psychology 1 lecture notes, focusing on cognitive development, methodologies, and theories.

Cognitive Development

The process of acquiring skills in perceiving, thinking, reasoning, problem-solving, and language.

Developmental Psychologist

A professional who studies the common features of human development across the lifespan.

Cross-sectional Design

A research method that compares individuals of different ages at one point in time.

Longitudinal Design

A research method that studies the same participants at various points in time to observe changes as they age.

Developmental Milestones

Benchmarks for what most children can do at certain ages, such as language acquisition and object permanence.

Epigenetics

The study of how behaviors and environment can cause changes that affect gene function.

Typical Development

A generic picture of progress in children compared to same-age peers.

Atypical Development

When a child lags behind or advances ahead of typical peer progress in any developmental domain.

Attention

The cognitive process of allocating mental resources to certain tasks while shutting out distractions.

Memory

The storage processes in the brain responsible for retaining information that has been perceived and attended to.

Executive Functions

Cognitive processes that help manage thoughts, actions, and emotions in order to achieve goals.

Social Cognition

The process through which individuals understand and interpret the thoughts and feelings of themselves and others.

Information Processing Theory

A cognitive approach that compares the human mind to a computer in how information is processed.

Categorization

The cognitive process of grouping similar items together to make learning and memory more efficient.

Nature vs Nurture

The debate regarding the relative contributions of genetic inheritance and environmental influences to human development.

Observational Method

A systematic approach in which researchers observe and record behavior in naturalistic or controlled settings.

Quasi-experimental Method

A research method that lacks random assignment, often used when experimental manipulation is not possible.

Correlation Coefficient

A statistical measure that indicates the extent to which two variables fluctuate together.

Experimental Control

A technique used to ensure that the only variable affecting the outcomes of an experiment is the independent variable.