A schema is the mental framework in which we organize what we know.

As children mature their schemas change and become more complex concepts. | Assimilation is the process by which we try to incorporate new experiences with our present understanding. Accommodation is the process by which we change and modify our schemas when an experience does not fit with our already existing schemas. | The sensorimotor stage of development takes place from birth until 2 years. During this time a child's intelligence deals with sensations and actions. During the sensorimotor stage children begin to develop object permanence which is the awareness that things continue to exist even when they are out of sight. | Sensorymotor stage: birth-2 yearsPiaget's designation for the level of human development at which individuals experience the world only through sensory contact (object permanence, stranger anxiety) | Preoperational 2-6/7 : representing things with words and images, using intuitive rather than logical reasoning (pretend play, egocentrism) | Concreate Operational 7-11 : thinking logically about concrete events, grasping concrete analogies and performing arithmetical operations (conservation, math transformations) | Formal Operational : abstract reasoning (abstract longi potential for mature moral reasoning. | Authoritative parents mix both others |

Eriksons Theory of Psychosocial Development

Social clock: the culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage parenthood and retirement |Cross sectional study: people of different ages are compared with one another | Longitudinal study: same people retested over a period of time | lens:accommodation, iris:controls pupil, pupil:admits light, rods:vision in dim light, cones:color vision, middle ear:amplifies sounds, inner ear:transduction of sound, large nerve fiber:closes pain gate, small nerve fiber:opens pain gate, semicircular canals:vestibular sense, sensors in joints:kinesthesis | Depressants:Are psychoactive drugs, such as alcohol, opiates, and barbiturates, that reduce neural activity and slow body functions, Barbiturates:depressants, sometimes used to induce sleep or reduce anxiety, Opiates:depressants derived from the opium poppy, such as opium, morphine, and heroin. , Stimulants:psychoactive drugs, such as caffeine, nicotine, amphetamines, and cocaine, that excite neural activity and speed up body functions, Amphetamines:a type of stimulant and, as such, speed up body functions and neural activity, Methamphetamine:a powerfully addictive stimulant that speeds up body functions and is associated with energy and mood changes, Ecstasy:a synthetic stimulant and mild hallucinogen that produces short-term euphoria by increasing serotonin levels in the brain, Hallucinogens:psychedelic drugs, such as, LSD and Marijuana, that distort perceptions and evoke sensory images in the absence of sensory input, LSD:A powerful hallucinogen capable of producing vivid false perceptions and disorganization of thought processes. It works by blocking the action of a subtype of serotonin, THC:the major active ingredient in marijuana | sensory memory that decays more slowly than visual sensory memory:echoic memory, the process by which information gets into the memory system:encoding, mental pictures that aid memory:imagery, the blocking of painful memories:repression, the phenomenon in which one's mood can influence retrieval:moodcongruent memory, memory for a list of words is affected by word order:serial position effect, "one is a bun, two is a shoe" mnemonic device:peg-word system, word that chunks to-be-remembered information into a more familiar form:acronym, new learning that

interferes with previous knowledge:retroactive interference, a measure of memory:relearning, old knowledge interferes with new learning:proactive interference, misattributing the orgin of an event:source amnesia, the fading of unused information over time:transience, the lingering effects of misinformation:suggestibility, a memory sin of intrusion:persistence | Pitch, though influenced by amplitude, depends most on the frequency of sound waves. | Loudness applitude | Sensorinural hearing loss caused by damage to chochelas receptor cells or to the auditory nerves also called deafness |Conduction hearing loss: healing loss caused by dambe that conducts sound waves to the cochlea| Gate-control theory states that pain signals traveling from the body to the brain must go through a gate in the spinal cord. If the gate is closed, pain signals cant reach the brain. The gate isnt a physical structure like a fence gate, but rather a pattern of neural activity that either stops pain signals or allows them to pass. Signals from the brain can open or shut the gate. | Monocular cues depth cues sucah as as interposition and linear perspective (each eye) | binocular cues: depth cues such as retinal disparity (two eyes) | retinal disparity: The slight difference in lateral separation between two objects as seen by the left eye and the right eye. | phi phenomena - The apparent motion of lights when flashed sequentially | figure ground - Relating to or denoting the perception of images by the distinction of objects from a background from which they appear to stand out | gestalt fragmants to whole