The claim that experiences during development may be latent and thus do not have an immediate effect. Rather, they become evident at a much later age, perhaps in some cases only in adulthood . See Developmental risk, Longitudinal studies
Author Archives: Brian Hopkins
Sleep architecture
Refers to the time, duration and order (structure and total sleep time involved) by which EEG sleep stages (stage 1,2,3,4 and REM) or awakenings and arousals are expressed throughout an organism‚was sleep behaviour, including the number of minutes spent in each stage and the order and/or re-occurrences of each stage at any give time of …
Sleep-waking cycle
The ubiquitous periodic alternation of sleep and waking periods of variable duration (and by analogy of rest and activity periods) that is present in all animal species including, according to recent investigations, the fruit fly. See Active sleep, Behavioral state concept, Mesencephalic reticular activating system, Metencephalon, NREM sleep, Pineal gland, REM sleep, Suorachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)
Skill learning hypothesis/approach
One of three general approaches to developmental cognitive neuroscience that assumes changes in the neural basis of behavior result as a consequence of acquiring perceptual or motor expertise. Brain regions active in infants during the onset of new perceptual or behavioural abilities are hypothesized to be the same as those involved in skill acquisition in …
Skipping
A bipedal gait pattern in which the legs alternate doing a step-hop. It is a symmetrical pattern in that each leg does the same thing, but it is a complex gait because a walking step followed by a hop is done before transferring the body’s weight to the other leg that then does its …
Skill (specific)
In Kurt Fischer’s (1980) dynamic skill theory, the capacity to control elements of acting, thinking and feeling within particular conceptual domains and social contexts. Rather than being attributes of individual children, skills are properties of persons-in-contexts. Person and context collaborate in the production of any given level of controlled action. See Action, Neo-Piagetian theories of …
Skill (general)
The capacity for carrying out complex, well-organized, patterns of behavior smoothly and adaptively so as to achieve some end or goal, such as sophisticated forms of tool use. In contrast to ability, it requires optimal values to be assigned to the coordinative structure constituting an action. See Ability, Action, Competence (psychology), Coordinative structure, Fundamental movement …
Size constancy
The ability to identify the constant size of an object despite changes in its distance from the observer, and hence differences in the retinal image size that it projects . See Shape constancy
Six Cultures study
A classic ethnographic study of enculturation in several parts of the world conducted by the anthropologists John W.M. Whiting (1908-1995) and Beatrice B. Whiting (1914-2003). It was initiated in 1954 as the Six Culture Study of Socialization of the Child and the main findings were published by the Whitings in 1975. The study had involved …
Single unit recording studies
Electrophysiological studies, generally performed on non-humans, in which electrical activity is recorded from groups of neurones via electrodes placed directly in the brain.