Cognitive Development and Language Acquisition

These flashcards cover key vocabulary and concepts related to cognitive development and language acquisition as presented in the lecture notes.

Cognition

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

Schema

A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.

Assimilation

Interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas.

Accommodation

Adapting our current schemas to incorporate new information.

Sensorimotor stage

The stage (from birth to nearly 2 years of age) at which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities.

Object permanence

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

Preoperational stage

The stage (from about 2 to 6 or 7 years of age) at which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic.

Conservation

The principle that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects.

Egocentrism

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

Concrete operational stage

The stage of cognitive development (from about 7 to 11 years) at which children can perform mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events.

Formal operational stage

The stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) at which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts.

Scaffold

A framework that offers children temporary support as they develop higher levels of thinking.

Theory of mind

People's ideas about their own and others' mental states, including feelings, perceptions, thoughts, and the behaviors those might predict.

Language

Our agreed-upon systems of spoken, written, or signed words, and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning.

Phoneme

The smallest distinctive sound unit in a language.

Morpheme

The smallest unit in a language that carries meaning; may be a word or part of a word.

Grammar

A system of rules in a language that enables communication and understanding.

Universal grammar (UG)

Humans' innate predisposition to understand the principles and rules that govern grammar in all languages.

Babbling stage

The stage in speech development, beginning around 4 months, during which infants spontaneously utter various sounds.

One-word stage

The stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words.

Two-word stage

The stage in speech development, beginning about age 2, during which a child speaks mostly in two-word sentences.

Telegraphic speech

The early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram, using mostly nouns and verbs.

Aphasia

Impairment of language usually caused by damage to Broca's area (impairing speaking) or Wernicke's area (impairing understanding).

Broca's area

A frontal lobe brain area that helps control language expression by directing the muscle movements involved in speech.

Wernicke's area

A brain area involved in language comprehension and expression.

Linguistic determinism

strong Sapir-Whorf) claims language completely determines thought, making certain concepts impossible if you lack the words,

Linguistic relativism

argues language only influences or shapes thought, making certain ways of thinking easier or more common, but not impossible.

Ecological systems theory

A theory of the social environment's influence on human development, using five nested systems.

Stranger anxiety

The fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age.

Attachment

An emotional tie with others, shown in young children by seeking closeness to caregivers and showing distress on separation.

Imprinting

The process by which certain animals form strong attachments during early life.

Strange situation

A procedure for studying child-caregiver attachment based on the child's reactions in an unfamiliar environment.

Secure attachment

Demonstrated by infants who comfortably explore environments with their caregiver and find comfort in their return.

Insecure attachment

Demonstrated by infants who display a clinging, anxious attachment, or avoidance towards caregivers.

Temperament

A person's characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity.

Basic trust

According to Erik Erikson, a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy, formed during infancy.

Self-concept

All our thoughts and feelings about ourselves in answer to the question, 'Who am I?'

Identity

The sense of self; according to Erikson, the adolescent's task is to solidify a sense of self.

Social identity

The 'we' aspect of our self-concept that comes from our group memberships.

Intimacy

In Erikson's theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in young adulthood.

Emerging adulthood

A period from about age 18 to the mid-twenties, when individuals are no longer adolescents but have not yet achieved full independence.

Social clock

The culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement.