The view, or doctrine, that all theoretical concepts or propositions in science must be amenable to operational definitions. Thus, the truth of a concept or proposition rests on the demonstration that it can be tested by a logically based procedure, or by a finite sequence of operations. As such, operationalism rejects any concept that cannot …
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Operant train task
An operant conditioning procedure in which infants aged between 6- and 18-months learn to press a lever in order to produce movement of a model train around a track. As with the mobile conjugate reinforcement task, but designed for older infants, infants are subjected to training sessions. To begin with, there is a non-reinforcement phase, …
Operant conditioning
modification of behaviour due to positive or negative consequences, where S1n = initial stimulus (often unknown), Re = response, SRf = reinforcing stimulus or reinforcement = consequences of behaviour, + = rewarding stimulus, and ‚aa = negative or aversive stimuli (not the same as punishment).
Open system
A system that exchanges energy, information and matter with its environment and thus one that disobeys the second law of thermodynamics. There are two types of open systems: •simple system: consists of few elements or degrees of freedom and can only show linear (quantitative) change. There is a one-to-one or proportional relationship between input and output …
Operant (or instrumental) conditioning
Learning the relationship between one’s own behaviour and its environmental consequences. A process of learning in which the relative frequency of a response increases as the result of a reward or reinforcement contingent on the response that is emitted (see figure below). Also called respondent conditioning and Skinnerian conditioning. Operant conditioning: modification due to positive …
Open-class words
A grammatical class of words with a potentially unlimited membership and which have content meaning such as adjectives, nouns, and verbs that children begin to use between 9 months and 1.5 years of age. It is a word to which meaning can be assigned. An adjective is a word that belongs to a class whose …
Oocytes
Immature, diploid female germ cells that undergoe two meiotic divisions to become mature ova or egg cells. Starting off as oogonia through a process of oocytogenesis, they become ova by a process of ootidogenesis. Oocytes are rich in cytoplasm that nourishes the cell during early development. Moreover, they are the recipients of mitochondria from maternal …
Oogenia
Primordial undifferentiated female germ cells that give rise to oocytes. They are formed during embryogenesis by mitosis in the human by weeks 4 and 8 weeks after conception, and continue to evident from 5 to 30 weeks. See Embryogenesis, Gametes, Germ plasm, Germinal (or germ) layers, Mitosis, Oocytes, Zygote
Ontology
A branch of metaphysics concerned with the nature of things (i.e., with ‘being’) or the subject of existence. It differentiates between reality and appearance, and investigates the various ways in which entities belonging to different logical categories (e.g., numbers, physical objects) may be said to exist. It is sometimes confused with epistemology, another branch of …
Ontogenetic skills
Those abilities in infants designated by Myrtle B. McGraw (1899-1988) to have a recent evolutionary history and which are therefore more susceptible to the effects of experience than those she classified as phylogenetic skills. Not a distinction that is in much use today. See Ability, Experience, Fundamental movement patterns, Ontogenetic development, Phylogenetic abilities/behaviors (as …