AP Psych pages 485-499

RCQ reading

Developmental Psychology

A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout life.

Zygote

The fertilized egg, it enters a 2-week period or rapid cell division and develops into an embryo.

Embryo

The developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the 2nd month.

Fetus

The developing human organism from after 9 weeks of conception to birth

Teratogens

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

Fetus Alcohol Syndrome

Physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by the mothers heavy drinking during pregnancy.

Habituation

Decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner.

Maturation

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

Schema

A concept of framework that organizes and interprets information.

Cognition

All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

Assimilation

Interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schema’s.

Accomodation

Adapting our current understandings (schema’s) to incorporate new information.

Sensorimotor Stage

In Plaget’s Theory, the stage (from birth to nearly 2 years of age) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities.

Object Permanance

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