Development and Learning Flashcards

Flashcards covering key concepts in development and learning, including learning theories, conditioning, developmental stages, and parenting styles.

What kind of perspective focuses on observable behaviors and how they're learned?

Behavioral Perspective

What type of learning connects certain stimuli or events that occur together in the environment?

Associative Learning

Define Habituation

A decreased response to a repeated stimulus over time (Non-Associative Learning).

What learning process pairs a neutral stimulus with one that elicits a reflexive response?

Classical Conditioning

Define Unconditioned Stimulus.

A stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers a response.

What is the natural reaction to an unconditioned stimulus?

Unconditioned Response (UR)

What is a Conditioned Stimulus?

A previously neutral stimulus that, after association with the unconditioned stimulus, triggers a conditioned response.

What is a Conditioned Response?

A learned response to a previously neutral stimulus

What is Acquisition in classical conditioning?

The initial stage during which an association between a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus is learned.

What is Extinction in the context of conditioning?

The diminishing of a conditioned response when the conditioned stimulus no longer follows the unconditioned stimulus.

What is Spontaneous Recovery?

The reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response.

Define Stimulus Discrimination

Learning to respond only to the original stimulus and not similar stimuli.

Define Stimulus Generalization

The tendency to respond to stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus.

What is Higher-Order Conditioning?

Pairing the conditioned stimulus with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second conditioned stimulus.

What is Counterconditioning?

Using classical conditioning to evoke new responses to stimuli triggering unwanted behaviors.

Define Taste Aversion

Intense dislike/avoidance of foods associated with nausea or discomfort.

What is one-trail conditioning?

Conditioning that occurs with only one pairing of a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus.

Define Biological Preparedness

The propensity to learn certain associations with only one or few pairings due to survival value.

What kind of learning occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior?

Operant Conditioning

What is the Law of Effect?

Behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely, and unfavorable consequences become less likely.

Define Reinforcement

Any event that strengthens the behavior it follows.

What are Primary Reinforcers?

Events that are inherently reinforcing because they satisfy biological needs.

What are Secondary Reinforcers?

Events that acquire reinforcing qualities through association with primary reinforcers.

Define Reinforcement Discrimination

Learning to make a response in the presence of one stimulus but not another.

Define Reinforcement Generalization

The spread of a response to stimuli similar to the one that was conditioned.

Define Punishment

An event that tends to decrease the behavior that it follows.

What is Positive Reinforcement?

Increasing behaviors by presenting positive stimuli.

What is Negative Reinforcement?

Increasing behaviors by stopping or reducing negative stimuli.

Define Positive Punishment

The administration of a stimulus to decrease the probability of a behavior's recurring.

Define Negative Punishment

The removal of a stimulus to decrease the probability of a behavior's recurring.

Define Shaping

A conditioning paradigm used primarily in the experimental analysis of behavior.

Define Instinctive Drift

The tendency of an animal to revert to instinctive behaviors that interfere with a conditioned response.

What is Superstitious Behavior?

Behavior that increases because its occurrence is accidentally paired with the delivery of a reinforcer.

What are Reinforcement Schedules?

A rule stating which instances of a behavior will be reinforced.

What is Continuous Reinforcement?

Reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs.

Define Partial Reinforcement

Reinforcing a response only part of the time.

What is a Fixed Interval reinforcement schedule?

Reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed.

What is a Variable Interval reinforcement schedule?

Reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals.

What is a Fixed Ratio reinforcement schedule?

Reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses.

What is a Variable Ratio reinforcement schedule?

Reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses.

Define Learned Helplessness

The hopelessness and passive resignation learned when unable to avoid repeated aversive events.

Define Social Learning Theory

Learning social behavior by observing and imitating and by being rewarded or punished.

What is Vicarious Conditioning?

Learning that occurs through observing the reactions of others to an environmental stimulus.

Define Insight Learning

Developing a sudden understanding of a problem’s solution.

Define Latent Learning

Learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it.

What are Cognitive Maps?

A mental representation of the layout of one's environment.

What is Developmental Psychology?

The study of continuity and change across the life span.

What is the Stability and Change debate?

The debate regarding which traits persist through the lifespan and which change.

What does the Nature vs. Nurture debate refer to?

The relative importance of genetics (nature) and environment (nurture).

What is Continuous Development?

The view that development is a cumulative process, gradually improving on existing skills.

What is Discontinuous Development?

The view that development takes place in unique stages, which happen at specific times or ages.

What is Cross-sectional Research?

A study in which people of different ages are compared with one another.

Define Longitudinal Research

Research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period.

What are Teratogens?

Agents that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm.

What are Milestones?

Important markers of development, such as walking, talking, and grasping objects.

What process occurs between the formation of the zygote and birth?

Prenatal Development

Define Fine Motor Coordination

The ability to make movements using the small muscles in our hands and wrists.

Define Gross Motor Coordination

The ability to make movements using the large muscles in our arms, legs, and torso.

Define Maturation

Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience.

What are Reflexes?

Automatic responses to sensory stimuli.

What is the Rooting Reflex?

A baby's tendency to turn toward a touch on the cheek, open the mouth, and search for the nipple.

What is Visual Cliff?

A laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals.

What are Critical Periods?

An optimal period shortly after birth when exposure to stimuli produces proper development.

What are Sensitive Periods?

Times in development when a person is particularly open to certain kinds of experiences.

Define Imprinting

Animals form strong attachments during an early-life critical period.

Define Growth Spurt

A rapid increase in height and weight that occurs during puberty.

What is Puberty?

The period of sexual maturation.

Define Primary Sex Characteristics

The body structures that make sexual reproduction possible.

Define Secondary Sex Characteristics

Nonreproductive sexual traits.

What is Menarche?

The first menstrual period.

What is Spermarche?

The first ejaculation.

Define Menopause

The natural cessation of menstruation.

Who is Jean Piaget?

A Swiss psychologist known for his theory of cognitive development.

What are Schemas?

Frameworks that help organize and interpret information.

Define Assimilation

The process by which new information is incorporated into pre-existing schemas.

Define Accommodation

The process by which schemas are altered to fit new information.

What is the Sensorimotor Stage?

Infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities (0-2 years).

Define Object Permanence

The awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived.

What is the Preoperational Stage?

A child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic (2-6/7 years).

What are Mental Symbols?

Objects or events that a child knows and can think about, even if they are not physically present.

Define Pretend Play

Play that involves making up and acting out a scenario.

Define Conservation

Properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects.

Define Reversibility

The ability to recognize that numbers or objects can be changed and returned to their original condition.

Define Animism

The belief that inanimate objects have feelings, thoughts, and the mental characteristics of living things.

Define Egocentrism

The preoperational child's difficulty taking another's point of view.

Define Theory of Mind

The ability to understand that others have their own thoughts and perspectives.

What is the Concrete Operational Stage?

Children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events (7-11 years).

What is the Formal Operational Stage?

People begin to think logically about abstract concepts (12 years and up).

Who is Lev Vygotsky?

A psychologist known for his sociocultural theory of cognitive development.

Define Scaffolding

Adapting support methods to fit the student's current level of performance.

What is the Zone of Proximal Development?

The difference between what a learner can do without help and what they can do with help.

What is Ecological Systems Theory?

A theory that explains how the inherent qualities of a child and their environment interact to influence development.

What is the Microsystem?

The environment where an individual lives.

What is the Mesosystem?

The relations between microsystems or connections between contexts.

What is the Exosystem?

External environmental settings that only indirectly affect development.

What is the Macrosystem?

The larger cultural context, including socioeconomic status, wealth, poverty, and ethnicity.

What is the Chronosystem?

The patterning of environmental events and transitions over the life course.

Define Authoritarian Parenting

High demands, low responsiveness.

Define Authoritative Parenting

High responsiveness and high demands.

Define Permissive Parenting

Low demands with high responsiveness.