Behaviorism: A framework for understanding human behavior through observable, measurable data. Emphasizes objective stimulus and response over more subjective analysis of internal states. Key figures in behaviorism include American psychologists John B. Watson (1878-1958) and B.F. Skinner (1904-1990).
Depth Perception: The ability to understand the relationship among objects in space. Human beings develop a sense of depth perception as infants.
Habituation: The change in one's response when a stimulus is presented repeatedly.
Inherited Behavioral Differences: Human characteristics, such as shyness, which may result from inherited genetic traits.
Nature Vs. Nurture Debate: The persistent controversy about whether behavior or other human characteristics are genetically predetermined, or if they are shaped predominantly by the environment and events in an individual's life.
Object Permanence: The understanding that physical objects continue to exist even though we cannot see them; early stage in the psychological development of the child.
Symbolic Reasoning: The cognitive ability to relate one concept to another that represents it in some way. For example, a young child's ability to reason symbolically can be tested by placing a small doll in a model room, and then asking the child to find the full-size doll in an analogous place in a normal-size room.
Volume Perception: The understanding that containers of different shapes or proportions may hold the same volume.