| animism | Tendency to attribute life to objects that are not alive. 258
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| autobiographical memory | A type of episodic memory of distinctive experiences that form a person's life history. 267
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| central executive | In Baddeley's model, element of working memory that controls the processing of information. 266
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| centration | In Piaget's theory, tendency of preoperational children to focus on one aspect of a situation and neglect others. 260
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| conservation | Piaget's term for awareness that two objects that are equal according to a certain measure remain equal in the face of perceptual alteration so long as nothing has been added to or taken away from either object. 260
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| decenter | In Piaget's terminology, to think simultaneously about several aspects of a situation. 260
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| egocentrism | Piaget's term for an inability to consider another person's point of view; a characteristic of young children's thought. 208, 260
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| emergent literacy | Preschoolers' development of skills, knowledge, and attitudes that underlie reading and writing. 273
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| encoding | Process by which information is prepared for long-term storage and later retrieval. 265
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| episodic memory | Long-term memory of specific experiences or events, linked to time and place. 267
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| executive function | Conscious control of thoughts, emotions, and actions to accomplish goals or solve problems. 266, 341
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| fast mapping | Process by which a child absorbs the meaning of a new word after hearing it once or twice in conversation. 270
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| generic memory | Memory that produces scripts of familiar routines to guide behavior. 267
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| irreversibility | Piaget's term for a preoperational child's failure to understand that an operation can go in two or more directions. 261
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| long-term memory | Storage of virtually unlimited capacity that holds information for long periods. 266
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| pragmatics | Practical knowledge needed to use language for communicative purposes. 271, 350
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| preoperational stage | In Piaget's theory, the second major stage of cognitive development, in which children become more sophisticated in their use of symbolic thought but are not yet able to use logic. 256
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| pretend play | Play involving imaginary people or situations; also called fantasy play, dramatic play, or imaginary play. 257
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| private speech | Talking aloud to oneself with no intent to communicate with others. 272
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| recall | Ability to reproduce material from memory. 266
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| recognition | Ability to identify a previously encountered stimulus. 266
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| retrieval | Process by which information is accessed or recalled from memory storage. 266
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| scaffolding | Temporary support to help a child master a task. 34, 270
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| script | General remembered outline of a familiar, repeated event, used to guide behavior. 267
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| sensory memory | Initial, brief, temporary storage of sensory information. 266
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| social interaction model | Model, based on Vygotsky's sociocultural theory, that proposes that children construct autobiographical memories through conversation with adults about shared events. 267
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| social speech | Speech intended to be understood by a listener. 271
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| Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale | Individual intelligence test for ages 2 and up, used to measure knowledge, quantitative reasoning, visual-spatial processing, and working memory. 268
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| storage | Retention of information in memory for future use. 265
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| symbolic function | Piaget's term for ability to use mental representations (words, numbers, or images) to which a child has attached meaning. 257
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| theory of mind | Awareness and understanding of mental processes. 261
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| transduction | In Piaget's terminology, preoperational child's tendency to mentally link particular experiences, whether or not there is logically a causal relationship. 258
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| universal preschool | A national system for early care and education that makes access to preschool similar to kindergarten by using the public schools. 277
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| Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-III) | Individual intelligence test for schoolchildren that yields verbal and performance scores as well as a combined score. 344
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| working memory | Short-term storage of information being actively processed. 188, 266
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| zone of proximal development (ZPD) | Vygotsky's term for the difference between what a child can do alone and what the child can do with help. 34, 270
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