Chapter 11 Flashcards
What is the germinal stage?
the 2-week period that begins at conception
What is the embryonic stage?
a period that starts around the 2nd week after conception and lasts until the 8th week
What happens during the embryonic stage?
implanted embryo continues to divide, and its cells begin to differentiate; arms, legs, beating hear
What is the fetal stage?
a period that lasts from about the 9th week after conception until birth; skeleton and muscles; myelination
What is myelination? What prenatal stage does it start?
the formation of a fatty sheath around the axons of a neuron; fetal stage
What is a teratogen?
any substance that passes from a mother to unborn child and impairs development
What is fetal alcohol syndrome?
a development disorder that stems from heavy alcohol use by the mother during pregnancy
What evidence do we have that fetuses can hear their mother’s voice in the womb?
experiments show that newborns suck a nipple more vigorously when they hear the sound of their mother’s voice than when they hear the voice of a female stranger; also happens w/voices in mother tongue; crying melody mimics mothertongue
What age is generally meant by the term infancy?
the stage of development that begins at birth and lasts between 18 and 24 months
What are motor reflexes?
specific motor responses that are triggered by specific patterns of sensory stimulation
What is the cephalocaudal rule?
the tendency for motor rules to emerge in sequence from the head to the feet; “top to bottom”
What is the proximodistal rule?
the tendency for motor skills to emerge in sequence from the center to the periphery “inside to outside”
What is cognitive development?
the process by which infants and children gain the ability to think and understand
What are Piaget’s 4 stages of cognitive development?
1) sensorimotor stage
2) preoperational stage
3) concrete operational stage
4) formal operational stage
What is the sensorimotor stage?
a stage of cognitive development that begins at birth and lasts through infancy where they acquire info a/b the world by sensing it and moving around; schemas
What are schemas?
theories a/b the way the world works
What is Piaget’s notion of assimilation?
infants apply their schemas to novel situations
What is accommodation?
infants revise their schemas in light of new info
What is object permanence? How did Piaget observe babies’ ignorance of this?
the fact that objects continue to exist even when they are not visible; babies stop searching for object when its out of view
What disproved Piaget’s theories about infants and object permanence?
experiments showing that babies looked longer at impossible events that violated the idea of object permanence, showing that infants develop the ability much earlier than Piaget thought
What is childhood?
the period that begins at about 18 months to 24 months and lasts until about 11 to 14 years
What is the preoperational stage?
the stage of cognitive development that begins at about 2 years and ends at about 6 years, during which children develop a preliminary understanding of the physical world
What is the concrete operational stage?
the stage of cognitive development that begins at about 6 years and ends at about 11 years, during which children can learn how actions, or operations, can transform the concrete objects of the physical world
What did the Piaget egg experiment demonstrate about preoperational vs. operational children?
when the same # of eggs were put in cups, pre-op kids knew they had same amount. but when eggs were taken out and placed in a line that extended beyond the row of cups, they thought there were more eggs than cups b/c the line was longer
