basic reflex

any of the infant reflexes of sucking, eye movement, grasping, and sound orientation. According to Piagetian theory, basic reflexes are a feature of the first substage of the sensorimotor stage, in which infants know the world only in terms of their inherited action patterns.

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Psychology term of the day

May 9th 2024

cognitive ethology

the study of mental experiences, including consciousness and intentionality, in nonhuman animals and of the influence of these experiences on the animals’ behavior as they interact with their natural environment. Whether, and which, animals actually possess consciousness and intentionality remains a subject of controversy. [proposed in 1978 by U.S. zoologist Donald Redfield Griffin (1915–2003)]