Term
|
Definition
| an inborn, automatic response to a particular form of stimulation. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| degrees of sleep and wakefulness |
|
|
Term
| rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep |
|
Definition
| brain-wave activity, measured with the EEG, is remarkably similar to that of the waking state. The eyes dart beneath the lids; heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing are uneven; and slight body movements occur. |
|
|
Term
| non-rapid-eye-movement (NREM) sleep |
|
Definition
| the body is almost motionless, and heart rate, breathing, and brain-wave activity are slow and even. |
|
|
Term
| sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), |
|
Definition
| the unexpected death, usually during the night, of an infant younger than 1 year of age that remains unexplained after thorough investigation. |
|
|
Term
| Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) |
|
Definition
| evaluates the baby’s reflexes, muscle tone, state changes, responsiveness to physical and social stimuli, and other reactions |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| In this form of learning, a neutral stimulus is paired with a stimulus that leads to a reflexive response. Once the baby’s nervous system makes the connection between the two stimuli, the new stimulus produces the behavior by itself. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| infants act, or operate, on the environment, and stimuli that follow their behavior change the probability that the behavior will occur again. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A stimulus that increases the occurrence of a response |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Removing a desirable stimulus or presenting an unpleasant one to decrease the occurrence of a response is called |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| gradual reduction in the strength of a response due to repetitive stimulation. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| a new stimulus—a change in the environment—causes the habituated response to return to a high level |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| specialized cells in many areas of the cerebral cortex of primates which fire identically when a primate hears or sees an action and when it carries out that action on its own |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| refers to control over actions that help infants get around in the environment, such as crawling, standing, and walking. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| smaller movements, such as reaching and grasping. |
|
|
Term
| dynamic systems theory of motor development |
|
Definition
| mastery of motor skills involves acquiring increasingly complex systems of action. When motor skills work as a system, separate abilities blend together, each cooperating with others to produce more effective ways of exploring and controlling the environment. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| poorly coordinated swipes at objects in front of them |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| a clumsy motion in which the baby’s fingers close against the palm. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| By the end of the first year, infants use the thumb and index finger to grasp objects |
|
|
Term
| perceptual narrowing effect |
|
Definition
| perceptual sensitivity that becomes increasingly attuned with age to information most often encountered. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| fineness of discrimination |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| designed by Eleanor Gibson and Richard Walk (1960) and used in the earliest studies of depth perception. It consists of a Plexiglas-covered table with a platform at the center, a “shallow” side with a checkerboard pattern just under the glass, and a “deep” side with a checkerboard several feet below the glass. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| explains early pattern preferences (Banks & Ginsburg , 1985). Contrast refers to the difference in the amount of light between adjacent regions in a pattern. If babies are sensitive to (can detect) the contrast in two or more patterns, they prefer the one with more contrast. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| perception of an object’s size as the same, despite changes in the size of its retinal image |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Perception of an object’s shape as stable, despite changes in the shape projected on the retina |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| we make sense of these running streams of light, sound, tactile, odor, and taste information, perceiving them as integrated wholes. |
|
|
Term
| amodal sensory properties |
|
Definition
| information that is not specific to a single modality but that overlaps two or more sensory systems, |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| infants actively search for invariant features of the environment—those that remain stable—in a constantly changing perceptual world. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| the action possibilities that a situation offers an organism with certain motor capabilities |
|
|
