Also called linguistic performance, it is a term, together with competence, introduced by Noam Chomsky into generative and transformational grammar, and which forms the basis of psycholinguistics. It refers to specific utterances made by the native speaker of a language, including false starts, hesitations and speech errors. Broadly, speaking, competence and performance is a distinction …
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Perinatal
The period from onset of labor to the complete expulsion of the fetus, or to departure from the delivery suite. Sometimes, and especially in the US, it covers a much larger time period (viz., from 28 weeks of pregnancy to 7 days after birth and even 1 month after a full-term delivery). See Fetus, Gestational …
Perceptual memory
A class of long-term memory for visual (e.g., faces, appearance of things), auditory (e.g., tunes, voices) and other perceptual information (e.g., odor, taste). It is sometimes included in the category of semantic memory. See Episodic event and semantic memory, Memory, Recognition memory, Short-term-memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM)
Perceptual development
Developmentof perceptual modalities, either individually or in some combination(i.e., cross-modal matching or intermodal perception), from before birth toweeks, months and sometimes years postnatally. Most research concerned withperceptual development has focused on the visual system during the period ofinfancy, particularly the first six months after birth, as visual functionsundergo rapid and relatively clear-cut changes during this …
Perception
Generally speaking, the active process of recognizing and identifying something. As such, it is distinguished from sensation, the sensitivity of neural receptors to internal and external stimuli. Putting the two terms together, perception is then a process of converting ‘meaningless’ sensations into ‘meaningful’ percepts. This interpretation represents the concept of indirect perception that can be …
Perception-action coupling
Circular causality between perception and movement in order to achieve a particular action relative to a particular task. This type of causality is exemplified by James J. Gibson (1979) in his book The ecological approach to visual perception as follows: “We perceive in order to act and we act in order to perceive.”, a standpoint captured …
Pelvis/pelvic girdle
The birth canal, formed by the ischium, ilium, and pubic bones (see figure for human pelvic girdle). During hominin evolution, the anatomy of the pelvis has undergone major changes in order to accommodate the mechanical requirements for upright locomotion and childbirth. Human pelvic girdle and the …
Peptides
Acompound composed of two or more amino acids in which a carboxyl group of oneis linked to amino acid monomers f another group in a short chain. While theyhave been referred to as ‘small proteins’, peptides differ in terms ofstructure consisting of 50 or more amino acids. Moreover, proteins consist of one or morepolypeptides. Naturally-occurring milkpeptides are …
Peers
Children of approximately the same age such as classmates. More generally, it refers to people with the same abilities, legal status and qualifications in a group. See Co-rumination, Friendship, Peer group, Social network, Sociometry
Peg-moving task
One of a number of tasks used to measure speed and accuracy of hand movement. The individual must move dowelling pegs either from one pegboard to another or from the back to the front of the same board. On the premise that such tasks are less practised that those normally listed in handedness questionnaires, or …