AP Psych Developmental & Learning

Stranger Anxiety

Developmental situation in which infants become anxious and fearful around strangers, beginning by about 8 months of age

Attachment Bond

The emotional bond between an infant and the primary caregiver, shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation

Konrad Lorenz

Theorized that if attachment was important in human survival it may be important in other species

Imprinting

The process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life

Harry Harlow

Psychologist, conducted studies of attachment and the importance of contact comfort (physical closeness with a caregiver) using infant Rhesus monkeys in 1950s

Mary Ainsworth

Psychologist that found that attachment happens through a complex set of interactions between mothers and infants

Secure Attachment

An emotional bond in which a child feels safe exploring with a caregiver present, becomes distressed when they leave, and is easily comforted when they return.

Avoidant (Insecure) Attachment

A bond in which a child shows little distress when a caregiver leaves and avoids or ignores them upon return.

Anxious-ambivalent attachment

An insecure attachment in which a child becomes very distressed when a caregiver leaves but both seeks and resists comfort when they return.

Disorganized attachment

An insecure attachment in which a child shows confused or contradictory behavior toward a caregiver, such as approaching them but then freezing or pulling away.

Temperament

The characteristics and aspects of personality that we are born with

Authoritarian parenting

Restrictive parenting style that emphasizes respect for work and effort. This style of parenting allows for little discussion or explanation of the firm controls placed on the child.

Permissive parenting

Parenting style that is characterized by having few and inconsistent rules and a relaxed attitude to parenting that is more like a friend than a parent

Authoritative parenting

Parenting style that is child-centered, in that parents closely interact with their children, while maintaining high expectations for behavior and performance, as well as a firm adherence to schedules and discipline.

Adolescent Egocentrism

Heightened self-consciousness, belief that others are as interested in them as they are themselves, their sense of personal uniqueness and invulnerability

Imaginary Audience

Attention-getting behavior-the attempt to be noticed, visible, and “onstage”

Personal Fable

Adolescents sense of personal uniqueness and invulnerability

Romantic Relationships

Romantic relationships typically first emerge

Parent Relationships

As adolescents seek to form their own identities, they begin to pull away from their parents

Peer Relations

Adolescents have strong needs to be liked and accepted by friends and larger peer groups

Erik Erikson

Developmental psychologist, contended that each stage of life has its own psychosocial task, a crisis that needs resolution, to become a successful complete person

Trust vs. Mistrust

Infants must learn that adults can be trusted
Major Question: “Can I trust the people around me?” 

Basic Virtue: Hope

Important Event(s): Feeding
Erikson’s first psychosocial stage, occurring in infancy, when consistent care builds trust that needs will be met, while unreliable care can lead to mistrust.

Autonomy vs. Shame/Doubt

As toddlers begin to explore their world, they learn that they can control their actions and act on their environment to get results
Major Question: “Can I do things myself or am I reliant on the help of others?” 

Basic Virtue: Will

Important Event(s): Toilet Training
Erikson’s second psychosocial stage (ages 1–3), when toddlers develop independence through making choices and doing tasks themselves, or develop shame and doubt if overly controlled or criticized.

Initiative vs. Guilt

At the preschool stage children are capable of initiating activities and asserting control over their world through social interactions and play
Major Question: “Am I good or bad?” 

Basic Virtue: Purpose

Important Event(s): Exploration, Play
Erikson’s third psychosocial stage (ages 3–6), when children learn to initiate activities and lead play, developing confidence when supported or guilt when discouraged.

Industry vs. Inferiority

Children begin to compare themselves to their peers, develop a sense of pride and accomplishment or feeling of inferiority/inadequacy
Major Question: “Who am I?” 

Basic Virtue: Fidelity

Important Event(s): Social Relationships
Erikson’s fourth psychosocial stage (school-age childhood), when children develop competence through mastering skills or feel inferior when they struggle or compare poorly with peers.

Identity vs. Role Confusion

An adolescent’s main task is developing a sense of self
Major Question: “Who am I?” 

Basic Virtue: Fidelity

Important Event(s): Social Relationships
Erikson’s fifth psychosocial stage (adolescence, ages 12–18), when teens explore roles, values, and goals to develop a clear sense of self or remain confused about who they are.

Intimacy vs. Isolation

Develop and maintain successful relationships with others
Major Question: “Will I be loved or will I be alone?” 

Basic Virtue: Love

Important Event(s): Romantic Relationships
Erikson’s sixth psychosocial stage (young adulthood), when people develop close, trusting relationships or experience loneliness and isolation.

Generativity vs. Stagnation:

Middle-aged adults begin contributing to the next generation/society or little connection to others
Major Question: “How can I contribute to the world?” 

Basic Virtue: Care

Important Event(s): Parenthood and Work
Erikson’s seventh psychosocial stage (middle adulthood), when adults find purpose by contributing to society and guiding future generations or feel unproductive and stuck.

Ego Integrity vs. Despair

People in late adulthood reflect on their lives and feel either a sense of satisfaction or a sense of failure
Major Question: “Did I live a meaningful life?” 

Basic Virtue: Wisdom

Important Event(s): Reflecting back on life
Erikson’s seventh (late adulthood) starting around age 65 and lasting until death. During this period, older adults reflect on their lives and ask a central question: “Did I live a meaningful life?”

Social Learning Theory

Learning occurs through observing, modeling, and cognitive processing of behaviors in social contexts.

Observational Learning

The process of learning through watching others, retaining the information, and then later replicating the behaviors that were observed.
Observational learning is sometimes also referred to as shaping, modeling, and vicarious reinforcement

Mirror Neurons

Nervous system cells that fire both when an organism itself is doing a behavior and also when observing another organism doing the behavior 
After repeated exposures to violence, the mirror neurons show decreased activity, suggesting desensitization
Mirror neurons “mirror” what is happening in the environment

Albert Bandura and the Bobo Doll

Bandura demonstrated that young children would imitate the violent and aggressive actions of an adult mode
Children observed a film in which an adult repeatedly hit a large, inflatable balloon doll. After viewing the film clip, children were allowed to play in a room with a real Bobo doll just like the one they saw in the film

Cognition in Conditioning

Researchers once thought of conditioning as automatic and not involving much in the way of higher mental processes. However, now researchers believe that conditioning does involve some information processing

Latent Learning

One can learn something but not show the behavior right away
Learning can take place in an organism without the presence of a reinforcer

Organisms form a cognitive map, a mental representation that allows an organism to acquire, store, and recall information in a real or spatial environment

Insight Learning (Wolfgang Kohler)

A sudden realization of the problem’s solution that “just came to you” “Light Bulb”
Stimulus-response conditioning alone is not responsible for behavior-Some level of unobservable cognitive processes are at work

Martin Seligman

Investigate dogs in a cage with a partially electrified floor. Dogs who in previous experiments had been able to control the shock by pressing a working lever learned to jump over the barrier to escape the shock

Learned Helplessness

A mental state in which an organism continues to experience a painful, unpleasant, or aversive stimulus
The organism becomes helpless because they have learned that, regardless of their actions, they have no ability to change the outcome

Learning

Any relatively permanent change in behavior brought about by experience or practice

Behaviorists

Believed psychology should be the scientific study of observable behavior.

Classical Conditioning

Forming an association between two stimuli resulting in a learned response, we learn to anticipate events.

Neutral Stimulus (NS)

Produces no effect until paired with an unconditioned stimulus.

Unconditioned Stimulus (US / UCS)

A stimulus that unconditionally, naturally, and automatically triggers an unconditioned response or reflex.

Unconditioned Response (UCR / UR)

An unlearned response that occurs naturally in reaction to the unconditioned stimulus.

• Occurs naturally and automatically

• Innate; requires no prior learning

Unconditioned = Unlearned

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

The conditioned stimulus is a previously neutral stimulus that, after becoming associated with the unconditioned stimulus, eventually comes to trigger a conditioned response

Neutral stimulus (NS) at first, but when paired with the UCS, it elicits a conditioned response

Conditioned Response (CR)

The conditioned response is the learned response to the previously neutral stimulus

Learned reflexive response

The conditioned response will only occur after an association has been made between an unconditioned stimulus and a conditioned stimulus

Higher-Order Conditioning

A procedure in which the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experience is paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second (often weaker) conditioned stimulus.
Conditioning Mechanism:

If you were to pair the conditioned stimulus (the balloon pop) with a bell, then the bell sound would begin to produce the same conditioned response (flinch) as the original conditioned stimulus (the balloon pop).

Acquisition

Initial stage of learning when a response is first established and gradually strengthened

After an association is made, the subject will begin to emit a behavior in response to the previously neutral stimulus

Contiguity: The CS needs to come half a second before the US for acquisition to occur

Extinction

“Disappearance of Conditioned Response”

The occurrence of a conditioned response decreases or disappears when a conditioned stimulus is no longer paired with an unconditioned stimulus.

Spontaneous Recovery

Refers to the return of a previously extinguished conditioned response following a rest period

Research has found that with repeated extinction/recovery cycles, the conditioned response tends to be less intense with each period of recovery

Stimulus Generalization

The tendency for the conditioned stimulus to evoke similar responses after the response has been conditioned

Stimulus Discrimination

The ability to differentiate between a conditioned stimulus and other stimuli that have not been paired with an unconditioned stimulus

Watson’s “Little Albert” Experiment

Controversial classical conditioning experiment on an infant boy called “Little Albert.” Watson was interested in examining the effects of conditioning on the fear response in humans

The child initially showed no fear of a white rat, but after the rat was paired repeatedly with loud, scary sounds (hammer on a metal bar), the child would cry when the rat was present

Counterconditioning

Involves introducing a series of stimuli similar to an individual’s phobia…
I am scared of snakes, so how might you counterconditioning me to feel relaxed instead of afraid/anxious around snakes?

Test Anxiety… where do you think this originated? How might you counterconditioning yourself to limit anxiety when testing?

Habituation

Organisms become accustomed to a repeated stimulus, resulting in a decreased response over time - learning has taken place.

If over time you realize a test poses no real danger, your anxiety will diminish when taking tests.

Infants…they may startle at the sound of the family dog barking, but over time no longer react.

Edward Thorndike’s Law of Effect:

According to this principle, actions that are followed by desirable outcomes are more likely to be repeated while those followed by undesirable outcomes are less likely to be repeated

Thorndike’s discovery had a major influence on the development of operant conditioning

B.F. Skinner

Founder of modern behavioral perspective, research on operant conditioning & schedules of reinforcement 

Where the early behaviorists had focused their interests on associative learning, Skinner was more interested in how the consequences of people's actions influenced their behavior

Operant Conditioning

Method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior

Shaping

Procedure in which reinforcers gradually guide an animal’s actions toward a desired complex behavior

Chaining

Breaks a task down into small steps and then teaches each step within the sequence by itself

Reinforcing Stimulus (Reinforcement)

Reinforcement is any event that strengthens or increases the behavior it follows

Positive (+) Reinforcement

Favorable events or outcomes that are presented after the behavior, response or behavior is strengthened by the addition of something
Praise or a direct reward. For example, if you do a good job at work and your manager gives you a bonus

Negative (-) Reinforcement

The removal of an unfavorable events or outcomes after the display of a behavior, response is strengthened by the removal of something considered unpleasant
Eliminating something painful or annoying but reinforcing it to happen again

Punishing Stimulus (Punishment)

Punishment is the presentation of an adverse event or outcome that causes a decrease in the behavior it follows
The timing of a consequence must be close to the behavior to make it effective

Positive (+) Punishment

Presents an unfavorable event or outcome in order to weaken the response it follows
Sometimes referred to as punishment by application

Negative (-) Punishment

Occurs when a favorable event or outcome is removed after a behavior occurs
Sometimes referred to as punishment by removal

Instinctive Drift

Phenomenon where an animal's natural behaviors override learned behaviors, even after repeated reinforcement.

OVERJUSTIFICATION EFFECT

Phenomenon in which being rewarded for doing something actually diminishes intrinsic motivation to perform that action.

Schedules of Reinforcement

A pattern that defines how often a desired response will be reinforced
Reinforcement schedules take place in both naturally occurring learning situations as well as more structured training situations

Continuous Reinforcement

Desired behavior is reinforced each and every time it occurs

(+) Desired behavior is typically learned quickly

(+) Most effective when teaching a new behavior

(+) Creates a strong association between behavior and response

Partial (Intermittent) Reinforcement

The response is reinforced only part of the time

(+) Most effective once a behavior has been established

(+) New behavior is less likely to disappear

(+) Various partial reinforcement

Fixed-Ratio

Response is reinforced only after a specific number of responses
(+) Builds a high response rate
(-) Irregular responding may occur if reinforcement is stopped

Variable-Ratio Schedules

Response is reinforced after an unpredictable number of responses
(+) Learner’s rate of responding remains constant
(-) Not effective for teaching new behaviors

Fixed-Interval Schedules

The first response is rewarded only after a specified amount of time has elapsed
(+) Tend to respond more frequently as the anticipated time for reward draws near
(-) Produces a choppy stop-start pattern rather than a steady rate of response

Variable-Interval Schedules

Occur when a response is rewarded after an unpredictable amount of time has passed
(+) Produce slow, steady responding, minimal pause after reinforcement is given

Language

Our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning.

Phonemes

Smallest meaningful unit of sound in a language

Morphemes

The smallest pairing of meaning to any given set of sounds.

Grammar

The system of rules governing the structure and use of a language.

Babbling Stage

Beginning at four months of age
Infant spontaneously vocalizes various sounds at first unrelated to the language spoken in the home
Nonsense sounds “ba-ba-ba” or “da-da-da” “Ma-ma”

One-Word Stage

Humans develop language skills in a predictable series of sages that are universal across cultures

Key Characteristics

• Child speaks mostly in single words

• Child learned that sounds carry meanings

Expressing Whole Ideas

A complete thought can be expressed in just one word:

“Go!”“Car”“Kitty”

AGE 2 YEARS • LANGUAGE STAGE

Humans develop language skills in a predictable series of sages that are universal across cultures
Two-Word Stage

Age two, a child speaks mostly two-or three word statements “Get Ball”

Telegraphic Speech

Child will use mostly nouns and verbs

Overgeneralization

The application of grammar rules in instances to which they do not apply (throwed up instead of threw up, breaked instead of broken)

AGE 6–10 YEARS • LANGUAGE STAGE

Humans develop language skills in a predictable series of ages that are universal across cultures
Full Sentences & Phonology

By ages six to ten, children speak in full sentences and master syllable stress patterns to distinguish among words

80% Language Mastery

By this age they have learned 80 percent of all the language they will ever need, all the rest of learning is complexity

Wernicke’s Area

Region of the brain that is important for language development
Responsible for the comprehension of speech
If damaged, a disorder of Wernicke's aphasia can result, with the person being able to speak in phrases that sound fluent yet lack meaning

Broca’s Area

Production of Speech. functions to help you put words together fluently to speak more than one word at a time, forming complete sentences
Broca’s Area

Critical Periods for Language

Childhood seems to represent a critical period for mastering certain aspects of language
The window on language learning closes gradually in early childhood
By age 7 those who haven’t been exposed to either spoked/signed language gradually lose their ability to master any language

Linguistic Determinism “Language & Thought”

Whorf’s hypothesis that language determines the way we think
Individuals describe the world they live in based on the structure of the language they are used to

Schema

Concept or framework that organizes and interprets information
Children form schemas as they experience new situations and events      

Assimilation

Interpreting our new experience in terms of our existing schemas

Accommodation

Adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information

Sensorimotor Stage

Birth to age 2, Infants use their senses and motor abilities to learn about the world around time (looking, hearing, touching, mouthing, and grasping)

Object Permanence

A child's ability to understand that objects still exist after they are no longer in sight

Preoperational Stage

Ages 2 to 6–7 Years
The developmental stage during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic.

Egocentrism

Inability on the part of a child in the preoperational stage of development to see any point of view other than their own.

Conservation

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

Animism

The belief that inanimate (non-living) objects have feelings, thoughts, and mental characteristics of living things (“they are just like me”).
Developmental Stage: Animistic thinking is very common in young children during the preoperational stage.
Object Personification: Toys, stuffed animals, or natural elements (like the sun or wind) are treated as conscious entities with emotions.

Parallel Play & Pretend Play

Parallel play refers to a stage of play where children play alongside each other in close proximity, but not directly with each other.
Developmental Age (2–3 Years): Typically observed in toddlers, extending into early preschool years.

Peer Observation: Allows children to observe and learn from peers without the pressure of direct social interaction.Independent Activity:

Children engage in similar activities nearby with little to no direct interaction.

Concrete Operational

KEY STAGE (AGES 6–11)
The stage of cognitive development during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events.

Key Characteristics & Insights:

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

Literal & Linear Thinking: Logic is applied strictly to concrete, tangible objects and direct physical experiences.

Formal Operational Stage

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

Our reasoning expands from the purely concrete (involving actual experience) to encompass abstract thinking (involving imagined realities and symbols)

Re-evaluating Piaget

Although Jean Piaget’s observation and stage theory are useful, today’s researchers believe:

Continuous Process: Development is a continuous process

Earlier Abilities: Children show some mental abilities and operations at an earlier age than Piaget thought

Limited Role of Logic: Formal logic is a smaller part of cognition, even for adults, than Piaget believed.