Imitation

Involves observing and duplicating a model performing a behavior.  More formally, imitation is said to occur when three conditions are met: 1. the observer produces similar behavior to the model, 2. the perception of an act causes the observer’s response, and 3. the equivalence between the acts of self and other plays a role in generating …

Id

According to the tripartite model of the psychic apparatus in Freudian psychoanalytical theory, it is the deepest (i.e., true unconscious) component of the psyche.  Hermetically sealed from the outside world, it is the instinctive desire to achieve one’s own aims that is governed by the pleasure-pain principle.  Both the ego and the superego develop from …

IDEA

US Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, guaranteeing a free andappropriate special education for children, birth – 22 years of age, withdiagnosed disabilities or substantial delays.  See Diagnosis, Disability, Preventive interventions

Hysteresis

Termed jump resonance by electrical engineers, it involves scaling up the value of some parameter in a non-linear system to a critical value at which point there can be a sudden jump to a new and qualitatively different state, without any intermediary states.  Scaling down or decreasing the value of the parameter may result in …

Iconic mapping

A mapping between form and meaning in which the form in some way reflects or diagrams the conceptual structure it expresses (e.g., forms for meanings that ‘belong together’ conceptually are positioned close together in a sentence). There is debate over the extent to which grammar is iconic: for those within the generativist framework, iconicity is marginal …

Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE)

Maternal pyrexia  Table: Causes of hypoxic-ischemia encephalopathy before conception, during prenatal life and and during parturition.  (IDDM: insulin-dependent diabetes; IUGR intrauterine growth restriction; Maternal pyrexia: raised body temperature associated with epidural analgesia during labor) See Abruptio placentae, Anoxia, Apgar score, Birth asphyxia, Cerebral palsy, Cord prolapse, Epilepsy, Hypotonia, Hypoxia, Hypoxemia, Incidence, Intelligence, Intrauterine growth restriction …

Hypotonia

Lower that normal muscle tone as assessed by the manipulation or palpation of body parts.  One interpretation of its aetiology is that is arises from damage of afferent input from stretch receptors or the regulatory efferent influence of the cerebellum on the infrafusal muscle fibers, thus controlling the sensitivity of muscle spindles.  Instances of hypotonia …

Hypoxemia

Also known as oxygen desaturation, it is an insufficient or abnormally-low level of oxygenation of the arterial blood.  On average, normal oxygen levels are about mm Hg.  With hypoxemia, it decreases to as low as 89 mm Hg.  During hypoxemia, the oxygen saturation of the blood is less than 90% (with normal values ranging from …

Hypothetico-deductive method

The classical or traditional scientific method concerned with the deduction of hypotheses, and first referred to as such by the polymath William Whewell (1794-1866).  Hypotheses are formulated in terms of postulates and then tested using logical deductions, followed by testing them through controlled experiments. When new facts or principles are discovered, the hypothesis may be …