Sensation
These retinal receptors are most sensitive in low-light conditions and enable twilight and night vision, though they do not provide color information.
What are rods?
Higher-level cognitive processes that use expectations and prior knowledge to guide how sensory information is organized and interpreted.
What is top-down processing?
The phenomenon where people fail to notice visible stimuli in their environment because their attention is directed elsewhere, even when the stimulus is unexpected
What is inattentional blindness?
The interaction between biological readiness and environmental experience that determines the timing and content of developmental milestones.
What is the nature-nurture interaction?
Optimal windows of time during which the brain is most responsive to specific types of environmental input or experience.
What is a critical period?
The sensory system that provides information about body position and movement, becoming increasingly refined through repeated practice and training.
What is the proprioceptive system?
The phenomenon where the nervous system becomes less responsive to constant or unchanging stimuli, followed by renewed sensitivity when the stimulus is removed.
What is sensory adaptation and readaptation?
The environmental cue that most powerfully signals the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) to suppress melatonin production and reset the biological clock.
What is light?
Environmental agents that can harm fetal development, with effects that may not always be visible at birth but can include cognitive and behavioral problems.
What are teratogens?
The parenting style characterized by high control and high warmth, with clear rules, explanation of reasons, and responsiveness to the child's perspective.
What is authoritative parenting?
The process by which one sense enhances or modifies the perception of another sense, such as how smell influences the perception of taste.
What is sensory interaction?
The difference between the images projected on each retina that the brain uses to calculate distance and depth.
What is retinal disparity?
The sleep stage characterized by rapid eye movement, high brain activity, and the occurrence of most vivid, emotional, storylike dreams.
What is REM sleep?
The developmental stage (roughly ages 7-11) in which children can perform mental operations on concrete objects but struggle with abstract reasoning
What is the concrete operational stage?
The developmental stage (roughly ages 5-12) in which children develop competence and mastery through accomplishing tasks and learning skills.
What is industry vs. inferiority?
Different types of sensory information travel through separate neural pathways, which is why damage to the spinal cord can result in selective loss of certain sensations.
What is the concept of dissociated sensory loss (or separate neural pathways)?
What is retinal disparity?
What is the opponent-process theory?
The sleep-dependent process by which the brain integrates newly learned information and skills into long-term memory, improving future performance.
What is memory consolidation?
The cognitive ability to understand that other people have beliefs, desires, and perspectives that may differ from one's own and from reality
What is theory of mind?
The highest stage of moral development in which individuals make moral decisions based on universal principles that transcend personal beliefs or social conventions.
What is postconventional morality (Stage 5 or 6)?
This type of hearing loss results from damage to hair cells in the cochlea and typically affects the ability to hear quiet sounds before loud sounds.
What is sensorineural hearing loss?
The concept that the brain processes information through both conscious, deliberate thought and unconscious, automatic processes simultaneously.
What is dual processing?
Mental expectations and beliefs that influence how people perceive and interpret sensory information, often enhanced through suggestion.
What is hypnosis?
The fear of unfamiliar people and distress at separation from caregivers that typically emerges around 8 months of age as a normal developmental milestone.
What is stranger anxiety?
The framework that explains how biological maturation, environmental experience, cognitive development, and social influences all work together to shape human development.
What is the biopsychosocial approach (or holistic development)?