Chapter 11 Flashcards
What is the germinal stage?
the 2-week period that begins at conception
What is the embryonic stage?
a period that starts around the 2nd week after conception and lasts until the 8th week
What happens during the embryonic stage?
implanted embryo continues to divide, and its cells begin to differentiate; arms, legs, beating hear
What is the fetal stage?
a period that lasts from about the 9th week after conception until birth; skeleton and muscles; myelination
What is myelination? What prenatal stage does it start?
the formation of a fatty sheath around the axons of a neuron; fetal stage
What is a teratogen?
any substance that passes from a mother to unborn child and impairs development
What is fetal alcohol syndrome?
a development disorder that stems from heavy alcohol use by the mother during pregnancy
What evidence do we have that fetuses can hear their mother’s voice in the womb?
experiments show that newborns suck a nipple more vigorously when they hear the sound of their mother’s voice than when they hear the voice of a female stranger; also happens w/voices in mother tongue; crying melody mimics mothertongue
What age is generally meant by the term infancy?
the stage of development that begins at birth and lasts between 18 and 24 months
What are motor reflexes?
specific motor responses that are triggered by specific patterns of sensory stimulation
What is the cephalocaudal rule?
the tendency for motor rules to emerge in sequence from the head to the feet; “top to bottom”
What is the proximodistal rule?
the tendency for motor skills to emerge in sequence from the center to the periphery “inside to outside”
What is cognitive development?
the process by which infants and children gain the ability to think and understand
What are Piaget’s 4 stages of cognitive development?
1) sensorimotor stage
2) preoperational stage
3) concrete operational stage
4) formal operational stage
What is the sensorimotor stage?
a stage of cognitive development that begins at birth and lasts through infancy where they acquire info a/b the world by sensing it and moving around; schemas
What are schemas?
theories a/b the way the world works
What is Piaget’s notion of assimilation?
infants apply their schemas to novel situations
What is accommodation?
infants revise their schemas in light of new info
What is object permanence? How did Piaget observe babies’ ignorance of this?
the fact that objects continue to exist even when they are not visible; babies stop searching for object when its out of view
What disproved Piaget’s theories about infants and object permanence?
experiments showing that babies looked longer at impossible events that violated the idea of object permanence, showing that infants develop the ability much earlier than Piaget thought
What is childhood?
the period that begins at about 18 months to 24 months and lasts until about 11 to 14 years
What is the preoperational stage?
the stage of cognitive development that begins at about 2 years and ends at about 6 years, during which children develop a preliminary understanding of the physical world
What is the concrete operational stage?
the stage of cognitive development that begins at about 6 years and ends at about 11 years, during which children can learn how actions, or operations, can transform the concrete objects of the physical world
What did the Piaget egg experiment demonstrate about preoperational vs. operational children?
when the same # of eggs were put in cups, pre-op kids knew they had same amount. but when eggs were taken out and placed in a line that extended beyond the row of cups, they thought there were more eggs than cups b/c the line was longer
What is conservation?
the notion that the quantitative properties of an object are invariant despite changes in the object’s appearance
What is the formal operational stage?
the final stage of cognitive development that begins around the age of 11, during which children learn to reason about abstract concepts
What is egocentrism?
the failure to understand that the world appears different to different ppl
What is the false belief task?
a puppet named Maxi puts chocolate in a cupboard, 2nd puppet moves chocolate, 5yr olds think Maxi will look for chocolate in first cupboard, but 3 yr olds will think Maxi will look for chocolate in second cupboard b/c thats where they saw it being moved to
What is the theory of mind?
the understanding that the mind produces representations of the world and that these representations guide behavior
What were Harry Harlow’s experiments about? What methods did he use?
baby rhesus monkeys w/out social interactions for 6 months had extreme social anxiety and rejected or even attacked their own children; monkeys clung to warm furry mothers instead of wire mothers
What is the “Strange Situation” method and how is it structured in a typical environment?
a behavioral test used to determine a child’s attachment style; involves bringing a child and their primary caregiver to a lab and then stage a series of episodes in which the primary caregiver briefly leaves the room and then returns
What are the 4 attachment styles?
1) secure- may or may not be distressed; non distressed infant acknowledges re-entry, distressed infant goes to her and is calmed
2) avoidant- not distressed when caregiver leaves, doesn’t notice re-entry
3) ambivalent- distressed when caregiver leaves, rebuffs attempts at calming from caregiver after re-entry
4) disorganized- no consistent pattern
Define temperaments
characteristic patterns of emotional reactivity
What is attachment style determined by?
an infant’s social interactions with their caregiver
What is an internal working model of relationships?
a set of beliefs about the self, the primary caregiver, and the relationship between them
Describe 3 trends about morality Piaget noticed
1) shift from realism to relativism; moral rules are inventions; ppl can change them
2) shift from prescriptions to principles; specific guidelines i.e. rotate iPad every 5 min to general principles i.e. fairness
3) shift from outcomes to intentions; breaking iPad accidentally more “wrong” than breaking pencil on purpose; then they realize morality depends on actor’s state of mind
What does the trolly problem demonstrate about morality?
moral judgments are the consequences, not the causes, of emotional reactions
As we reach adulthood, which cognitive abilities start to decline?
cognitive tasks that require effort, initiative or strategy; decline in working memory more than long-term; decline in episodic mem more than semantic mem
What is socioemotional selectivity theory?
younger adults are largely oriented toward the acquisition of information that will be useful to them in the future whereas older adults are generally oriented toward info that brings emotional satisfaction in the present
What does socioemotional selectivity theory tell us about the emotions of older adults?
b/c they have much shorter futures, they spend their time attending to, thinking about, and remembering positive info that fills their emotional needs today; i.e. older adults show much more amygdala activation in response to very pleasant pics vs very unpleasant pics, which differs from young ppls reactions
