3.5-3.8

Module 3.5 

  • Language 

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

  • Phonemes 

    • in a language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.

  • Morphemes 

    • in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix).

  • Grammar 

    • in a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others. Semantics is the language’s set of rules for deriving meaning from sounds, and syntax is its set of rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences.

  • 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 an infant spontaneously utters various sounds that are not all related to the household language.

  • 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 

    • beginning about age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly in two-word statements.

  • Telegraphic speech 

    • the early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram — “go car” — using mostly nouns and verbs.

  • Aphasia 

    • impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to Broca’s area (impairing speaking) or to Wernicke’s area (impairing understanding).

  • Brocas area

    • a frontal lobe brain area, usually in the left hemisphere, that helps control language expression by directing the muscle movements involved in speech.

  • Wernickes area

    • a brain area, usually in the left temporal lobe, involved in language comprehension and expression.

  • Linguistic determinism 

    • Whorf’s hypothesis that language determines the way we think.

  • Linguistic relativism

    • the idea that language influences the way we think.


Module 3.6a

  • Ecological systems theory

    •  a theory of the social environment’s influence on human development, using five nested systems (microsystem; mesosystem; exosystem; macrosystem; chronosystem) ranging from direct to indirect influences.

  • 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 their 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; a child is placed in an unfamiliar environment while their caregiver leaves and then returns, and the child’s reactions are observed.

  • Secure attachment 

    • demonstrated by infants who comfortably explore environments in the presence of their caregiver, show only temporary distress when the caregiver leaves, and find comfort in the caregiver’s return.

  • Insecure attachment 

    • demonstrated by infants who display either a clinging, anxious attachment or an avoidant attachment that resists closeness.

  • Temperament 

    • a person’s characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity.

  • Brain trust

    • according to Erik Erikson, a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy; said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers.

  • Self-concept 

    • all our thoughts and feelings about ourselves in answer to the question, “Who am I?”


Module 3.6b

  • Identity 

    • our sense of self; according to Erikson, the adolescent’s task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles.

  • Social identity 

    • the “we” aspect of our self-concept; the part of our answer to “Who am I?” 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 many persons in Western cultures are no longer adolescents but have not yet achieved full independence as adults.

  • Social clock

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


Module 3.7a

  • Learning

    • the process of acquiring through experience new and relatively enduring information or behaviors.

  • Habituates

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

  • Associative learning

    • learning that certain events occur together. The events may be two stimuli (as in classical conditioning) or a response and its consequence (as in operant conditioning).

  • Stimulus

    • any event or situation that evokes a response.

  • Respondent behavior

    • behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus.

  • Operant behavior

    • behavior that operates on the environment, producing a consequence.

  • Cognitive learning 

    • the acquisition of mental information, whether by observing events, by watching others, or through language.

  • Classical conditioning 

    • a type of learning in which we link two or more stimuli; as a result, to illustrate with Pavlov’s classic experiment, the first stimulus (a tone) comes to elicit behavior (drooling) in anticipation of the second stimulus (food).

  • Behaviorism 

    • the view that psychology (1) should be an objective science that (2) studies behavior without reference to mental processes. Most research psychologists today agree with (1) but not with (2).

  • Neutral stimulus 

    • in classical conditioning, a stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning.

  • Unconditioned response

    • in classical conditioning, an unlearned, naturally occurring response (such as salivation) to an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) (such as food in the mouth).

  • Unconditioned stimulus 

    • in classical conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally — naturally and automatically — triggers an unconditioned response UCR).

  • Conditioned response

    • in classical conditioning, a learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus (CS).

  • Conditioned stimulus

    • in classical conditioning, an originally neutral stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS), comes to trigger a conditioned response (CR).

  • Acquisition 

    • in classical conditioning, the initial stage, when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus begins triggering the conditioned response. In operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response.

  • 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. For example, an animal that has learned that a tone predicts food might then learn that a light predicts the tone and begin responding to the light alone. (Also called second-order conditioning.)

  • Extinction 

    • in classical conditioning, the diminishing of a conditioned response when an unconditioned stimulus does not follow a conditioned stimulus. (In operant conditioning, when a response is no longer reinforced.)

  • Spontaneous recovery 

    • the reappearance, after a pause, of a weakened conditioned response.

  • Generalization 

    • in classical conditioning, the tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses. (In operant conditioning, when responses learned in one situation occur in other, similar situations.)

  • Discrimination 

    • (1) in classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and other stimuli that have not been associated with a conditioned stimulus. (In operant conditioning, the ability to distinguish responses that are reinforced from similar responses that are not reinforced.) (2) in social psychology, unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group or its members.


Module 3.7b

  • Preparedness 

    • a biological predisposition to learn associations, such as between taste and nausea, that have survival value.


Module 3.8a

  • Operant conditioning 

    • a type of learning in which a behavior becomes more likely to recur if followed by a reinforcer or less likely to recur if followed by a punisher.

  • Law of effect

    • Thorndike’s principle that behaviors followed by favorable (or reinforcing) consequences become more likely, and that behaviors followed by unfavorable (or punishing) consequences become less likely.

  • Operant chamber 

    • in operant conditioning research, a chamber (also known as a Skinner box) containing a bar or key that an animal can manipulate to obtain a food or water reinforcer; attached devices record the animal’s rate of bar pressing or key pecking.

  • Reinforcement 

    • in operant conditioning, any event that strengthens the behavior it follows.

  • Shaping 

    • an operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior.

  • Discriminative stimulus 

    • in operant conditioning, a stimulus that elicits a response after association with reinforcement (in contrast to related stimuli not associated with reinforcement).

  • Positive reinforcement

    • increasing behaviors by presenting a pleasurable stimulus. A positive reinforcer is any stimulus that, when presented after a response, strengthens the response.

  • Negative reinforcement

    • increasing behaviors by stopping or reducing an aversive stimulus. A negative reinforcer is any stimulus that, when removed after a response, strengthens the response. (Note: Negative reinforcement is not punishment.)

  • Primary reinforcers

    • an innately reinforcing stimulus, such as one that satisfies a biological need.

  • Conditioned reinforcers

    • a stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer; also known as a secondary reinforcer.

  • Reinforcement schedules 

    • a pattern that defines how often a desired response will be reinforced.

  • Continuous reinforcement schedule 

    • reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs.

  • Partial (intermittent) reinforcement schedules

    • reinforcing a response only part of the time; results in slower acquisition of a response but much greater resistance to extinction than does continuous reinforcement.

  • Fixed ratio schedules 

    • in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses.

  • Variable ratio schedules 

    • in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses.

  • Fixed interval schedules

    • in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed.

  • Variable interval schedules

    • in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals.

  • Punishment 

    • an event that tends to decrease the behavior that it follows.


Module 3.8b

  • Instinctive drift

    • the tendency of learned behavior to gradually revert to biologically predisposed patterns.