1 Flashcards
Define Nativist position
Nativist position (Descartes, Chomsky, Spelke): emphasis on innate endowments. The idea that we are ‘pre-programmed’.
Define Empiricist position
Empiricist position (Locke, Bandura, Gopnik): emphasis on environmental influence and the role of learning/ observing/ culture.
Define Neuro-Constructivist
Neuro-Constructivist approach (Plomin, Karmiloff-Smith): emphasis on relative contributions of nature and nurture, on the assumption that both are important and that they may have a reciprocal relationship.
What experiment looked into imprinting in ducklings and what conclusions can be drawn from it
Konrad Lorenz (1930s-40s) - Ducklings follow the mother duck around. Lorenz taught the ducklings to follow him around instead (“imprinting”).
- Their behaviour was experience-dependent.
It seems that the system is built to expect experience. Experience is an inbuilt, assumed part of development.
-But inputs must come at the right time to be used.
When was the ‘critical’ period for imprinting in ducklings found to be
13-16 hours
What is Orientation Perception
Key thing within this scene you need to be able to perceive the angle of each line within the picture
At what age does Cortical orientation perception develop and how was this tested.
3 weeks
Babies shown stripes that were either randomly changed in alignment or were orientated differently was measured at what age is brain activity is produced specifically by the orientation change?
What specific movement can newborn infants perceive?
- Even newborn infants have ability to process some specific motion- motion towards the infant is something that can be detected early on ‘looming stimulus’
- some evidence to show that they can detect moving faces
At what age do infants process directional movement and how has this been tested?
Compare same direction movement with direction change. At what age is brain activity is produced specifically by the direction change?
Responses to directional motion emerge at ~10 weeks for low speeds and ~13 weeks for high speeds.
What are Pictorial ques to depth
Ques that allow us to perceive what objects are infront or behing (e.g. something blocking another thing out so it is infront)
define Stereopsis
the perception of depth through noticing differences between the images in the two eyes (‘binocular disparity’).
What did Birch, Gwiazda & Held, 1982 show
Stereoacuity (stereopsis acuity) improves greatly within 4-5 weeks of onset
who explored infant depth perception and what did they do/ show?
Braddick & Atkinson, 1983
Compare depth changes with red-green goggles and depth-changes with red-red goggles. At what age is brain activity is produced specifically by viewing through red-green goggles?
Responses emerge at ~11-13 weeks.
What are traditional views of motor development
- suggested that motor development could be seen as progression through a series of milestones, phases or stages.
- Development was thought to occur in a rigid manner, with the stages occurring in strict order, and similar times for all infants.
- These were prominent in the 1930’s – 1940’s and are still the basis for ‘modern’ development scales – e.g. the Bayley scales
What did Shirley (1933) develop?
Motor Milestones
What did Gesell & Ames 1940 develop?
what is at 1 week and 60 weeks?
23 stages of locomotor development
1 week old (passive kneel) and 60 weeks old (walking)
What view did Esther Thelen pioneer which was then upheld by Karen Adolph?
Dynamic Systems
What is the dynamic systems view?
Dynamic systems: Motor abilities are present earlier than previously thought. However, their expression is limited by other factors: physical development, experience with motor programs and the visuomotor environment.
e.g.- limited by muscle strength, lack of experience, change of visual context
What did Piek, 2006; Adolph & Berger, 2006 show?
for motor development Unlike motor milestones- they note that the stages don’t progress in a specific order.
Some infants skip stages so not every infant goes through every stage.
-an infant doesn’t immediately skip from creeping to walking for instance, they skip back from stage to stage so there is variability
who showed there were cross cultural differences in motor development?
Adolph et al. 2010
How many steps do children take in a day who showed this and what does it allow for?
9000 steps per day = 29 football fields
(Adolph, 2005, 2012)
Compared to adults, infants are constantly on the move and are constantly gaining new experience.
What was shown about a babies ability to walk down a risky slope/ cross a barrier and who carried these out?and what conclusions can we draw from these?
slope (Adolph, 1995) or cross a barrier (Schmuckler, 1986) is determined walking experience rather than age; & indeed experience in that specific walking mode.
Longer walking/ crawling= less likely to go down the risky slope
Experience is critical to motor decisions
Expierience in specific mode- they have to relearn when they move from walking to crawling
what did Gibson & Walk, 1960 do?
The visual cliff’
Child (6-14 months) placed on centre board, mum at shallow side. Child crawls to mum.
Child placed on centre board, mum at deep side. Touch indicates safety, but visual cues indicate depth drop. Child refuses to crawl to mum.
If baby is using visual ques to direct baby then they should avoid the deep side even when being called by their parent.
describe how experience is important for success in the visual cliff in animals
Animals who walk earlier achieve success earlier: 1 day chick, goat (mountain) 3-4 weeks rat, cat 6-10 months human
describe how experience is important for success in the visual cliff in terms of solely humans
At 7-8 months, edge avoided by: 35% inexperienced crawlers (11 days); 65% of experienced crawlers (41 days) (Berthenthal, Campos & Barrett, 1984)
For humans, experience is necessary for learning the visual cues to depth and feeding them into motor plans.
what did Thelen, Fisher & Ridley-Johnson, 1984 show and what did they do?
The importance of context in motor skills-
12 infants aged 4 weeks old, baby held over a table top for 1 minute
Usually by this age the newborn stepping reflex is disappearing (totally by ~8weeks).
This was thought to be a result of inevitable neural maturation. But can it in fact be altered by physical context?
Stepping with weights decreased stepping frequency.
Stepping in water increased stepping frequency, as (buoyancy counteracts gravity).
Stepping is limited by muscle strength as well as central factors.
What did Lee and Aronson, 1974 show and do?
The importance of visual context in motor behavior
- walls are moving around the child and the child’s balance is highly influenced by this.
- as wall comes towards them they feel they are falling forward so push backwards causing a stumble or a fall.
what did Bowlby 1958 propose?
- infants have an innate drive to form a close relationship with a caregiver.
- Infant produces ‘social releaser’ behaviours: sucking, clinging, crying, smiling, following – which elicit care from the caregiver.
- monotropy
- Mother child bond serves as the model for other relationships.
- Maternal Deprivation Hypothesis
define monotropy
only the mother will do for a child to bond with
what is the maternal deprivation hypothesis?
Bowlby
breaking mother-
child bond any time in the first 5 years of life can lead to profound cognitive, social, and emotional consequences – e.g. aggression, depression, delinquency
according to Bowlby 1969 what are the 4 early attachment stages and when do these occur.
give info on these
1) PREATTACHMENT PHASE- Birth- 6 weeks- orienting and signaling to anyone
2) ATTACHMENT IN THE MAKING 6 weeks-6/8 months
increasingly orienting to and seeking comfort from primary caregiver
3) ‘CLEAR CUT’ ATTACHMENT PHASE 6/8 moths- 18/24 moths
stays close to primary caregiver. Separation protest and fear of strangers
4) FORMATION OF RECIPROCAL RELATIONSHIP
18-24 moths +
Child increasingly accommodates mother’s needs. Reduction in immediate proximity-seeking; development of internal working model of relationship.
what does an internal working model capture in terms of child-carer relationships
captures the child’s beliefs about how trustworthy others are; their own value; and their own social effectiveness.
what did Harlow 1961-1962 show?
monkeys need ‘contact comfort’ from mother and not just food.
what did Bowlby concede in terms of multiple attachment figures and which studies led to this?
psychologically healthy children could have more than one attachment figure
Ainsworth (1963, 1967) in Uganda
Schafer & Emerson (1964) longitudinal UK study- 87% multiply attached at 18 months
List the 8 stages of the Strange situation and which are reunions?
1) Mother, infant & experimenter in room
2) Mother & infant
Stranger enters, talks to mum, plays with infant
3) Mum leaves. Stranger plays with baby.
4) Mum returns. Stranger leaves.
5) Mum settles infant.
6) Mum leaves: infant alone
7) Stranger comes in, tries to settle infant, then stands back.
8) Mum returns. Stranger leave.
Mum settles infant
5 and 8 are reunions
who first used the ‘strange situation’
Ainsworth and Bell 1970
when and what is the ‘strange situation’ used for?
12-24 moths to measure attachment
How is the ‘strange situation’ scored?
On how the infant reacts on reunions with mum?
These are scored every 15 seconds, on a scale of 1-7 intensity.
- Proximity and contacting seeking
- Contact maintaining
- Avoidance of proximity and contact
- Resistance to contact and comforting
If the infant uses the mother as a base to explore from the start e.g. moving around the room
How the infant behaves when mother is absent e.g. looking/going to door
