In neo-Piagetian skill theory, all life processes that function below the level of psychological experience and action. In a hierarchical view of development, organism-environment systems function as multilevelled processes. Higher levels emerge from integrations of lower-level systems, but have properties that are absent from and not reducible to lower-level systems. As such, while psychological processes …
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Bio-X project
Established in 1999 at Stanford University on the promise of $150 million donation from Jim Clark, founder of Silicon Graphics and Netscape Communications, the future of the project was threatened in 2001 when Clark held back $60 million in protest against George W. Bush’s imposition of restrictions on human embryonic stem cell research. The university …
Biochemistry
Beginning as an interdisciplinary enterprise, it is the study of chemical changes within, and produced by, living organisms. More specifically, it is the study of the chemical reactions and interactions that take place in living organisms, especially the structure and function of their components, such as enzymes, proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids, and other molecules …
Binocular vision
Also referred to as stereoscopic vision, it is an ability restricted to animals with eyes on the front of the head, and involves a combination and comparison of the information received from the eyes, used in the stereoscopic aspect of depth perception, but also in a number of other ways. Binocular vision contributes to depth …
Binocular disparity
Also called retinal or visual disparity, it is the small disparity in inputs to the two laterally separated eyes that can contribute to perception of relative depth of nearby objects due to binocular parallax, and thus provides the basis for stereopsis (see figure below). Binocular disparity is usually described in terms of the two differences …
Binocular rivalry
The phenomenon where, if different images are presented to each eye, the perception is not fusion of the two, but alternation between monocular cues resulting in a single coherent perception. The latter is a challenge to the classical view of binocular rivalry (viz., that the two monocular cues are somehow united). The underlying mechanisms, however, …
Bimanual task
Many tasks must be performed with two hands (e.g., lifting a large two-handled platter of food or a bulky package). Such tasks do not require hand differentiation; each hand (and arm) does essentially the same thing. For assessment of hand differences on bimanual tasks, the hands must be used in different but complementary ways. Examples …
Bilinguals
The term used to refer to individuals who use two or more languages on adaily basis. Today, many children are exposed to two languagessimultaneously from an early age. In terms of production, bilinguals areexpected to be able to converse fluently in both languages. See Language development, Orthography, Speech development
Bilabial
Speech sounds (i.e., consonants) formed using both lips, examples of which are /p/, /b/ or /w/. They can be voiced (e.g., bill) or unvoiced (e.g., pill). See Consonants, Fricative, Glottal, Labio-dental, Lateral sound, Lingua-alveolar (or alveolar), Lingua-dental (or dental), Lingua-palatal (or palatal), Liquid, Plosive, Rhotic sound
Bias (cultural)
Cross-cultural differences in data that are not related to the trait or concept presumably assessed by an instrument (or some other method), and that tend to distort the interpretation of these data. See Cross-cultural psychology, Method bias, Trait