chapter 11

Question 1

What is the germinal stage?

Answer 1

The period from conception to 2 weeks after conception when the sperm and egg combine to form a zygote. (ur a clump of cells)

Question 2

What is the embryonic stage?

Answer 2

The period from ~2 weeks to 8 weeks when the embryo begins to actually form human like characteristics.

Question 3

What is the fetal stage?

Answer 3

The period from ~8 weeks to birth, structures have formed and are in development (…ur a fetus)

Question 4

What is myelination and when does it happen?

Answer 4

The formation of a fatty sheet around the axons of a neuron. Fetal stage

Question 5

What is teratogen?

Answer 5

Any substance that passes from mother to unborn child and impairs development.

Question 6

What is the cephalocaudal principle?

Answer 6

The tendency of motor skills to emerge in order of head to toes. (placing a baby on stomach they can lift head but not stand)

Question 7

What is the proximodistal principle?

Answer 7

The tendency of motor skills to emerge in order of center to periphery. (they learn to shake they booty first the elbows and knees then hands and feet)

Question 8

What is meant by scale error, what does it reflect?

Answer 8

Scale error is when you give a baby hot wheels and they try to ride it like a real car. The parts of the brain responsible for identification vs movement control are not yet coordinated.

Question 9

What is cognitive development?

Answer 9

The process where kids and infants begin to think and understand.

Question 10

What were the 4 stages of Piaget’s theory?

Answer 10

Sensorimotor (0-2), pre-operational (2-6), concrete operational (6-11), formal operational (11+)

Question 11

Sensorimotor stage

Answer 11

Using beginning sensory and motor skills to learn about the world

Question 12

Pre-operational stage

Answer 12

Motor skills and a basic understanding of their own mind

Question 13

Concrete operational stage

Answer 13

Can begin to think logically about objects and events

Question 14

Formal operational stage

Answer 14

Can think abstractly about many things

Question 15

What is assimilation?

Answer 15

Process of applying a schema (theory) to a stimuli

Question 16

What is accommodation?

Answer 16

process of adjusting a schema (theory) to incorporate new information.

Question 17

Object Permanance?

Answer 17

The understanding that objects exist even when not visible.

Question 18

Egocentrism?

Answer 18

Failure to understand the world appears different to different people

Question 19

Conservation?

Answer 19

the understanding that many physical properties of an object and not changed by a change in the objects appearance. (ex. spreading stuff out wider doesn’t mean there’s more, pushing food together doesn’t mean there’s less)

Question 20

In what ways is Piaget’s theory challenged?

Answer 20

Much more fluid than he thought, not just strict stages; stages happen much earlier than the ages he assigned to them.

Question 21

What is meant by the principles of Habituation, Preference, and Violation of
Expectation in the context of Infant Cognition experiments?

Answer 21

The tendency for organisms to respond less intensely the more times a stimulus is presented.

Question 22

How is Lev Vygotsky’s view of development different from that of Jean
Piaget?

Answer 22

He thought development lied more in being taught than just figuring stuff out.

Question 23

What are some of the key pieces of evidence in support of the “social”
nature of infant cognition?

Answer 23

social referencing: they will imitate adults and try to gauge their reaction to determine what is right.

Question 24

Theory of Mind?

Answer 24

the understanding that people’s minds produce representations
of the world and that these representations guide people’s behaviors, develops in kids around 3-5

Question 24

What did we learn from studies of “face deprivation” studies in monkeys
and human infants?

Answer 24

Face-deprived monkeys
still show preferences for faces, meaning most likely a genetic preference for it.

Question 25

How are Piaget’s and Chomsky’s views of development different?

Answer 25

Piaget saw it more as development in each area could overlap while Chomsky saw it more as each area was specific and different

Question 26

How does aging impact recall vs. recognition?

Answer 26

Older people had a harder time with like word lists but not with things they did every day ex. pilots and air codes

Question 26

When does cognitive decline begin?

Answer 26

After you peak in late teens-mid twenties

Question 27

Why is (early) age-related cognitive decline less noticeable?

Answer 27

Possibility 1: very few situations actually require “peak” cognitive abilities
Possibility 2: not everything declines with age
Possibility 3: compensatory mechanisms (it might only be on certain tasks)

Question 28

What is meant by “de-differentiation” in the aging human brain?

Answer 28

Brains areas are less specialized; they
get recruited for multiple tasks

Question 29

How does one’s average well-being, positive, and negative emotions
change over the course of a lifespan?

Answer 29

Huge decline around 22, slow decline from there, picks back up around 50 and rises from there on; U shape curve

Question 30

What are some possible explanations for how well-being changes over the
course of the lifespan?

Answer 30

Socio-Emotional Selectivity Theory; “happiness is complex”

Question 31

What is “Socio-Emotional Selectivity Theory”?

Answer 31

When younger, time is perceived as expansive, focus is on future (acquiring new information, new experiences, etc.); When older, people perceive boundaries on their time, focus is on
emotional needs today (social relationships, connectedness)