PSYC 339: Exam 2 Study Guide - Behaviorism, Cognition, and Development

Vocabulary practice cards covering Behaviorism, Neuroscience, Brain & Cognition, Bruner, Piaget's Developmental Stages, and Vygotsky from the PSYC 339 Exam 2 Study Guide.

Behaviorism

A psychological perspective that focuses on observable behavior and how experiences, conditioning, and the environment influence learning, rather than internal mental processes.

Evolutionary psychology

A psychological field that examines how natural selection, inherited adaptations, and evolutionary processes influence behavior.

Psychodynamic psychology

A psychological perspective that emphasizes unconscious motivations and experiences.

Avoidance learning

A form of learning that occurs when an individual learns a behavior that prevents an unpleasant experience (e.g., avoiding a food after becoming sick from eating it).

Instinctive drift

The tendency of an animal's natural, instinctive behaviors to interfere with a learned response and cause a return toward natural behaviors despite conditioning.

Autoshaping

The process by which an animal begins responding to a stimulus that predicts a reward, even without needing to perform that response to receive the reward.

Contiguity

The principle that learning occurs when two events happen close together in time.

Memory consolidation

The process of forming and stabilizing new memories, for which the hippocampus is especially important.

Sociobiology

The study of biological and evolutionary influences on social behavior.

Selective attention

The ability to focus on relevant information while filtering out distractions.

Cognitive maps

Internal mental representations of physical locations and spatial relationships.

Gestalt theory

A psychological theory asserting that we perceive organized wholes rather than simply disconnected pieces, meaning the whole is different from the sum of its parts.

Prägnanz

A Gestalt principle stating that individuals tend to perceive objects in the simplest, most organized form possible.

Frontal lobes

Brain regions involved in planning, decision-making, attention, and motor control.

Neuroplasticity

The brain's ability to adapt, reorganize, and change through experience and learning.

Neurotransmitters

Chemical messengers involved in transmitting information and communication between neurons.

Cognitive psychology

An approach championed by theorists like Bruner that uses internal mental processes to explain learning.

Enactive representation

In Bruner's theory, a mode of representing knowledge that involves physical actions.

Iconic representation

In Bruner's theory, a mode of representing knowledge through visual images.

Symbolic representation

In Bruner's theory, a mode of representing knowledge using words and symbols.

Spiral curriculum

An educational approach proposed by Bruner that revisits important concepts repeatedly with increasing complexity over time.

Sensorimotor stage

Piaget's first stage of cognitive development (Birth to 2 years), where infants learn primarily through senses and physical actions.

Preoperational stage

Piaget's second stage of cognitive development (ages 2 to 7), during which symbolic thinking develops.

Concrete operational stage

Piaget's third stage of cognitive development (ages 7 to 11), characterized by logical thinking about concrete situations.

Formal operational stage

Piaget's final stage of cognitive development (ages 12+), characterized by abstract thought and hypothetical reasoning.

Object permanence

The developmental understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen or are out of sight.

Assimilation

The cognitive process of fitting new information into existing mental schemas.

Accommodation

The cognitive process of changing or altering existing schemas to fit new information.

Egocentrism

Difficulty seeing a situation from another person's perspective, common in Piaget's preoperational stage.

Zone of proximal development

Vygotsky's concept describing the range of tasks a learner can complete with assistance but cannot yet perform independently.

Scaffolding

Temporary instructional support provided by a teacher or peer as someone learns a new concept or skill (not a brain-wave measurement).

Private speech

Vygotsky's term for self-directed speech (talking to oneself) used to guide thinking or behavior.

Long-term potentiation (LTP)

A lasting strengthening of synaptic communication between neurons following high-frequency stimulation.

Long-term depression (LTD)

A lasting weakening of synaptic communication between neurons.

Habituation

A decrease in behavioral responding following repeated exposure to a stimulus.

Sensitization

An increase in behavioral responding following stimulation.

Conditioned taste aversion

A learned avoidance of a specific taste that can uniquely develop after only a single pairing of the taste with illness.

Brain imaging

Neuroscientific techniques that help researchers investigate the anatomical structures and functions of the brain.

Skinner

The prominent behaviorist psychologist who extensively researched and formulated the principles of operant conditioning.

Conservation

The cognitive understanding that quantity remains the same despite changes in shape or appearance, which develops during concrete operational thinking.

Seriation

The cognitive ability to arrange items along a quantitative dimension in an ordered sequence.

Yerkes-Dodson law

An empirical principle stating that task performance is often optimal at moderate levels of physiological or mental arousal.