fast mapping

the ability of young children to learn new words quickly on the basis of only one or two exposures to these words. See also Quinian bootstrapping. [coined in 1978 by U.S. developmental psychologist Susan E. Carey (1942– ) and Elsa Bartlett]

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Psychology term of the day

November 28th 2024

complementary classification

in classification tasks, the grouping of items from conceptually different categories into a superordinate class based on an individual’s mental associations from past experience. For example, cow, tractor, and farmer may be grouped because they are all found on a farm. Also called functional classification; schematic classification; thematic classification. Compare conceptual classification; idiosyncratic classification; perceptual classification.