chapter 11: the development of body, thought, language Flashcards
developmental psychology
the study of changes that occur in people’s abilities and suppositions as they grow older
how much spent do men release in each ejaculation
about 250 million
where is the egg when it’s impregnated
in the Fallopian tube which connects the ovaries to the uterus (womb)
three phases of the prenatal period
zygotic (germinal), embryonic, foetal
how long is the zygotic phase
the first two weeks
how many zygotes don’t survive the earliest phase of development and how many of those don’t survive later stages
40% early stages, 1/3 spontaneous abortion
when do embryo’s major organ systems develop
in the embryonic phase
when does the embryonic phase happen
from the third to about the eight weeks after conception
how does the embryo receive nutrition from the mother’s blood stream
via the umbilical cord and placenta
when does the foetal phase happen
from about 9 weeks until the birth (38 weeks after contraception)
what happens in the foetal phase
growth and refinement of organs and body structure
what are the sizes of the foetus at 3 months
it’s about 2.5 inches long and weighs about half an ounce
how large is the baby when it’s born
about 20 inches long and about 7.5 pounds
what percentage makes the head for a baby and for an adult?
20% for a baby and 12% for the adult
cephalocaudal development
change in proportion, with the development progressing essential from head to foot
what happens by the end of 12th week
all the organs are formed and are in the same proportion to each other as in a full-term newborn, just smaller
when does external genitalia begin to differentiate between males and females and when is it fully developed
differentiates at 9 weeks, fully formed at 12
when does the embryo begin to move, when does the activity increase and when do women start feeling it move
begins to move at 8 weeks, activity increases at 12, women feel it in the 5th month
when do infants start responding to their mothers’ heart beats and voice
by 6 months
what are teratogens
environmental agents that cause harm during prenatal development, most are in the form of substances that get into the baby’s system through the umbilical cord - weed, cocaine, heroin, antibiotics, antidepressants, sex hormones, alcohol, tobacco
in what period can teratogens affect the course of development of organs the most
between the 3rd and 8th week
what happened with the drug thalidomide
it was prescribed in the 1960s for morning sickness, woman who took it between 3rd and 8th week had children with deformed limbs and damage to other organs, but women who took it later in pregnancy didn’t
what happens to babies whose mothers had poor diets during pregnancy
tend to have low birth weights, but then grow up to become overweight or obese during childhood - thrifty phenotypes storing more fat than children whose prenatal diets were more nutritious
what characteristics do children who were prenatally exposed to higher levels of stress hormone have?
higher anxiety, fearfulness, temperamental difficulty, impulsitivity, reduced executive functions, reduced executive functions, impaired attention, higher aggression, risk taking
how long does infancy last
roughly the first 18 to 24 months after birth
when do the head and the brain grow the most
over the first 5 or 6 years and approach adult levels by age 10
how does the lymphoid system develop and what does it contain
it contains the thymus and lymph glands, develops rapidly early in life greatly exceeding adult dimensions by about age 12
what is puberty?
the developmental stage leading up to adolescence when glands associated with the reproductive system begin to enlarge, bringing about changes in physical appearance and behavior
what hormones does puberty increase in males and females?
in males - androgens, especially testosterone and in females - estrogen and progesterone
how long does puberty last
about 4 to 5 years
breast development + periods
initial breast development begins at about 11 years and is mostly complete by 15 or 16 + a girl’s first period typically occurs at about 13 years of age although many girls don’t become fertile until they’re about 15/16 because eggs aren’t always produced in the beginning
when does a growth spurt start in girls and when is skeletal growth complete
the growth spurt starts around the age of 12, skeletal growth is complete between 14 and 15
when
when do testes being to increase in size and when does the penis begin to increase
testes begin to increase between 11 and 12 and the penis increases beginning about 13
when do boys usually have their first nocturnal emission and when do they develop facial hair
first nocturnal emission - 14
facial hair - between the ages of 15 and 16
when does the male voice change begin and when does it end
begins at 13 and is complete by age 15
why has the average age of menarche decreased
better nutrition + girls who’re overweight get it sooner
what’s the average period age now int he US
for white girls it’s 12.6 and 12.1 for black girls
what’s the average age of breast development and presence of pubic hair
for breast development was 9.96 in white girls and 8.87 for African American girls, some girls showing signs of breast development as early as age 3
why does pubertal development start earlier now than it did in the past
exposure to passive tobacco smoke, insecticides, arsenic, polybrominated biphenyls (a fire retardant), chemicals used in common plastic, hormonal changes associated w obesity
habituation in babies
if a pattern is substituted for a new one, infants immediately increase their looking time
what do developmental psychologists use to assess infants’ abilities to perceive and remember
infant’s bias for looking at novel stimuli
when do infants start perceiving the difference between two checkerboards with different-sized squares and remembered that difference
when they were 1 day old
when do infants begin to show special interest in aspects of the environment that they can control
within a few weeks of birth
at which age did babies smile and attend much more to a mobile that moved in response to their own bodily movements
at 2 months
experiment with turning on an array of lights
4-month-olds learned to make a particular movement to turn on a small array of lights, lost interest when they got good at it + when conditions changed, got interested again
what happened when 4- and 5-month-old babies lost control of their ability to turn on a recording even though it kept playing
they showed anger and sadness
how do babies test objects’ properties
first 3 or 4 months of life by putting stuff in their mouths, by 5 or 6 months they start manipulating and exploring it
what is examining in babies
when they hold the object in front of their eyes, turn it side to side, pass it from one hand to another, rub it, squeeze it
does examining happen in all cultures + example
yes, !Kunga San people in Botswana don’t encourage it, but don’t stop it
gaze following
babies watch the eyes of a nearby person and move their own eyes to look at what that person is looking at
does gaze following always happen
no, when the adult’s eyes are closed or covered, the baby doesn’t look preferentially in the direction the adult is facing
what is the purpose of gaze following
ensures that the baby will attend to those objects and events that are of greatest interest to their elders, promotes language development (if the adult is naming an object, it’s useful to the child to know what object it is)
intentional agents
individuals who cause things to happen and whose behavior is designed to achieve some goal (around the latter part of the first year)
shared attention
a three-way interaction between the infant, another person, and an object - an adult points out objects that both the infant and adult see, by 12 months of age infants will point to it to alert others to the object they’re not attending to, between 12 and 18 months of age, they will point to direct an adult’s attention to an object the adult is search for
social referencing
babies look at their caregivers’ emotional expressions for clues about the possible danger of their own actions
examples of social referencing
12-month-olds didn’t crawl over a slight visual cliff if the mother showed a facial expression of fear but most did if the expression was of joy or interest + avoided a new toy if the mother showed a facial expression of disgust toward it
what are some core physical principles?
objects continue to exist even when they disappear from view, two solid objects can’t occupy the same space at the same time, if an object moves from one place to another, it must do so along a continuous path
who said that infants possess core knowledge about the physical world
spelke
according to spelke, what makes infants able to make sense of the physical world
skeletal competencies
violation of expectations experiment
in the habituation phase, the baby is shown a physical event until they’re bored with it
test phase - either an impossible event with mirrors or possible event
infants as young as 3.5 months looked longer at the impossible event
what is the proof that nuances of core knowledge are acquired w age
4-month-olds expected a box to fall to the ground when it was released in midair, but didn’t expect that when it was set on the edge of the shelf with most of its weight hanging off the shelf
only by 7 months believe that
object permanence
the principle that objects continue to exist when out of view (absent before the 5th month)
the simple hiding problem + who
Piaget, an attractive toy is shown to a baby and is placed under the napkin as the baby watches - younger than 5 months typically follow the toy with their eyes until it disappears
when can infants solve the simple hiding problem
between 6 and 9 months of age
changed hiding place problem (A not B problem)
the toy is first hidden under one napkin, then under another napkin - the baby reaches toward the first napkin
understanding of object permanence is still fragile, when pitted against a learned motor habit the habit wins
when can infants solve the A not B problem
by about 10 to 12 months
why are Piaget’s tests difficult for children
ability to plan the correct arm and hand movement to obtain a hidden object - the baby must know where the object is and be able to use that knowledge to guide movement
Piaget wrong???
researchers have found that infants as young as 3 to 4 months old who fail to reach for hidden object still look at the location where it’s hidden
Piaget wrong experiment???
8-month-olds tested in a series of search tasks - one group learned to crawl at least 9 weeks before the tests, a second group had 9 weeks of experience moving around in walkers, third group nothing
75% of the babies in the first two groups succeeded on the changed-hiding place problem, 13% in the third group
Piaget’s schemes
mental blueprints for actions, bodily movement or of something that a person can do with an object or category of objects
what are the earliest schemes
closely tied to specific objects, called forth only by immediate presence
piaget’s assimilation
the process by which new experiences are incorporated into existing schemes
piaget’s accommodation
changing of schemes
what kind of experiences are children most drawn to (piaget)
those that can be assimilated into existing schemes, but not too easily so that accommodation is required
experiment with boxes and levers and ducks
preschool children shown a box with two levers, when one is pulled a duck comes out, when the other is pulled a puppet comes out
children who had only seen the two levels operate at the same time play much longer with it than children who were shown what both levers do
operations
types of actions most conducive to mental development, reversible actions, provides a foundation for understanding basic physical principles
piaget’s stages of development and when
sensorimotor stage (before 2nd year of life), pre operational (2 to 7), concrete-operational (7-11), formal-operational (after adolescence)
what are the sensorimotor schemes
foundation for acting on objects that are present but not thinking about objects that are absent
characteristics of the sensorimotor stage
thought and physical action are one and the same, developing classes of schemes specific for different categories of objects - sucking, shaking, banging, squeezing, twisting, dropping + eventually, the schemes develop in such a way that the child can use them as mental symbols
pre operational schemes
emerge from sensorimotor schemes and enable the child to think beyond here and now
characteristics of the pre operational schemes
children have a well-developed ability to symbolize objects and events that are absent, no dual representation
representational insight
knowledge that an entity can stand for something other than itself
object hidden in a room experiment
children (2 and 3 years old) shown a hidden object in a model of a house, found it, younger children weren’t able to find it in the actual house, but were able to find it when it’s a photo
dual representation
treating an object both as a symbol and an object itself + no two aspects of the same object
concrete-operational schemes
permit a child to think about the reversible consequences of actions and provide a basis for understanding physical principles such as conservation of substance and cause and effect
concrete
still tied to the child’s actual experiences in the world + lack of understanding of conservation of substance as a general principle
centration
pre operational children’s attention is focused on the most salient aspect of their perceptual field - can’t ignore the difference in height
decentration
concrete-operational children can separate themselves from specific aspects of a perceptual array and attention to and make decisions based not he entire perceptual field
egocentricity
interpreting the world through their own perspective and generally assuming that other see the world as they do
characteristics of the concrete-operational stage
reversible consequences of actions, decantation, kinda egocentricity
formal-operational schemes
abstract principles that apply to a wide variety of objects, substances, or situations
characteristics of the formal-operational schemes
a person can think theoretically and apply principles even to actions that can’t actually be performed + think about things that might be, think about thinking, extend principles into hypothetical realsm
other people said Piaget is wrong??
concept of stages - are they even stages if even Piaget said that they’re fluid
Piaget underestimated the mental abilities of infants and young children and overestimated those of adults (violation of expectation experiments show that infants as young as 3 months expect objects to continue to exist when out of view + children as young as 4 can pass some tests of concrete-operational reasoning when they’re presented clearly + other teachers have successfully trained concrete-operational children to perform formal-operational tasks)
basis of vigotsky’s theory
children develop in sociocultural milieu in which they interact with other people and products of their cultural history
similarity and difference Piaget vigotsky
main force for development is the child’s active interaction with the environment, but Vigotsky emphasized the physical environment
Tools of intellectual adaption
number words, alphabets, objects such as pencils, books, calculators, computers
counting + languages
Piraha of Brazil - only one two and more than two, weren’t able to correctly guess if there’re nuts in the bag after 3/4
Children who speak Asian languages have a much better understanding of the base-ten system
blocks experiment counting
children are given white blocks which are one and purple blocks which are 10, told to make certain numbers - European kids would use a whole bunch of white blocks and make mistakes with purple when told to use them
how many US homes have internet
80% white, 83% Asian, 68% black and 64% Latino
zone of proximal development
realm of activities that a child can do in collaboration with more competent others but can’t yet do alone
how does development occur according to Vigotsky
first at the social level and then at the individual level
scaffolding
occurs when experts are sensitive to abilities of a novice and provide responses that guide the novice to gradually increase their understanding of a problem
critical thinking according to Vigotsky
derives from the social, collaborative activity of dialogue - one person states an idea, others respond with a question or comment that challenges or extends the idea
kicking experiment in infants
a 2-month-old who learned to kick to move a mobile and then a day later kicks again as soon as the mobile appears
as much as 4 months later, remember kicking action if reminded occasionally
how much do infants remember
by 18 months, infants can remember actions for as long as 13 weeks
deferred imitation
reproducing the behavior of a model some significant time after watching the model
what did Piaget say about deferred imitation and what did researchers find
wasn’t observed until about 18-24 months (period of pre operation)
infants as young as 9 months old will copy the actions of a model up to 5 weeks later
people with anterograde amnesia and deferred imitation
unable to learn new actions through it
when do children start talking about their experiences
at age 3
children talking about their experiences experiment
recorded conversations of mothers and 3-year-olds in the zoo, a week later they only remember things they both commented on
how many digits or random single-syllable words can a person hold in mind
about 3 at age 4 to about 7 at age 15
inhibition experiment
when young children shown pictures and told to only name one class of pictures, didn’t show any sign of inhibition
marshmallow experiment
4-year-olds told they can have one marshmallow now or two later
the longer they were willing to wait, the higher were their SAT scores and grades, better able to concentrate and deal with stress, had healthier BMIs, a higher sense of self worth and were less vulnerable to maladjustment
Wisconsin card sorting test
children shown a set of cards with simple pictures in color, told to sort them by shape or color, when told to switch 3-year-olds can’t, 4-year-olds can
speed of processing
speed at which elementary information-processing tasks can be carried out
up to what age does speed of processing improve
up to 15
what might be the reason behind faster processing in children
faster maturation of the brain
experiment on the faster maturation of the brain - faster processing
9- and 10-year-old boys who were judged as physically mature for their age (height) exhibited much faster reaction times
with the development of what brain structure is performance on executive-function tasks correlated
prefrontal cortex
experiment performance on executive-function tasks and prefrontal cortex
brain activity of subjects between 8 and 30 measured while they performed a variety of inhibition tasks - adolescents showed the highest levels of neural activity in the prefrontal cortex
theory of mind
a person’s concept of mental activity, the ability to understand one’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and those of others
how do children divide the world into two classes of entities + experiment
those that move on their own and those that don’t
3- and 5-year-olds saw videos of balls moving because something moved them - physical words + when moving on their own - described using mental words
at what age can children explain people’s behaviors in terms of mental constructs
by 2 to 3 years of age
broccoli experiment
a 2-year-old after learning that a person prefers broccoli gave them broccoli instead of crackers they like, 14-month-olds didn’t - theory of mind
theory of mind toys experiment
12-month-olds played with 3 new toys with adults, one adult left during 1 toy, when he got back, child offered the toy that would be new
knew which toy is new + knew that people prefer new toys
test of false-belief
the child is told a story: Maxi puts candy in a blue cupboard, mom moves it to the red cupboard, where does Maxi look for candy?
3-year-olds said red, four-year-olds said blue
crayon experiment
3-year-olds shown a crayon box and asked what’s inside, left to get drawing paper, shown that it’s candles in the box, said they always thought it has candles, couldn’t explain the paper
when do children start engaging in pretend play
around the ages of 2 or 3, start differentiating between make-believe and reality at the age of 1.5
difference between pretend and false-belief
children know that their concept doesn’t match reality
why did brain mechanisms that enable and motivate pretend play come about in evolution
such play provides a foundation for understanding nonliteral mental states
correlation between false-belief and pretend play
strong + children who have older siblings are better at false-belief
autism or ASD
disorder which is characterized by severe deficits in social interaction and language acquisition, a tendency toward repetitive actions, and a narrow focus of interest
deficit in language in autism
actually secondary to the lack of interest in communication - rarely use gestures as an alternative form of communication and when they do it’s for instrumental purposes
mindblindness
lacking a fully developed theory of mind - in autism
children with autism false-belief test/false-picture test
false-picture tests assess the understanding that a photo might misrepresent reality, ppl w autism preformed poorly on the false-belief test, but better than 4-year-old children on the false-picture test
do children with autism and down syndrome engage in pretend play
autism no, down syndrome yes - develop false-belief
characteristics of human language
symbolic, grammatical, varies with culture
morphemes
smallest meaningful units of a language, smallest units that stand for objects, events, ideas, characteristics, relationships + prefixes or suffixes
2 characteristics of morphemes
arbitrary (no similarity needs to exist between its physical structure and that of the object) and discrete (can’t be changed in a graded way to express gradations in meaning)
hierarchical structure of language
top level is the sentence which can be broken down in phrases, which can be broken down into words/morphemes, which can be broken down into phonemes
what are phonemes
elementary vowel and consonant sounds
grammar
rules of every language, specify permissible ways to arrange units at one level to produce the next higher level in the hierarchy
how is people’s implicit knowledge of grammar demonstrated
in their ability to distinguish acceptable from unacceptable sentences
when do babies hear the difference between any two sounds that are classified as different phonemes in any of the world’s languages + what happens
younger than 6 months, after that they become better at discriminating between sounds that represent different phonemes in their native language + worse in other languages
how do babies start communicating
from birth can cry and produce other vocal signs, at 2 months they can coo, at 6 months they can babble - most often when infants are happy
do deaf infants also coo
yes!
when do infants begin to babble in ways that mimic pattern of their language
at about 8 months, at about 10 months babbling sounds increasingly like syllables of their native language
mommy daddy experiment
6-month-olds shown pictures of their parents, looked more at mothers when heard “mommy”
what’s the purpose of infant’s first words
playful, not instrumental
word sprint
fast learning of words happening at about 15 to 20 months of age
how many words to children learn between 2 and 17
60 000, about 11 per day
is gaze following related to language learning
yes, children who show the most reliable gaze following at 10-11 months of age show the greatest gains in vocab
mutually exclusivity assumption + experiment
strong tendency to link new words with objects for which they don’t already know the name
2 and 3-year-olds shown toy animals that they could name + one they couldn’t, told the name they didn’t know - assumed it’s the new animal
children able to use knowledge of grammar experiment
when 2-year-olds told that “the duck and the bunny are biffing”, assumed biffing is an action they’re doing - synaptic bootstrapping
taxonomic assumption
infants as young as 12 months behave as though they assume that a newly learned label applies not just to the specific object labeled, but also to objects that are perceptually like the original one
overextension
child defines a new word in terms of just one or a few of the prominent features of the original object
telegraphic speech
at about 18 to 24 months - kick billy, billy kick
what anatomical structures in the throat enable us to produce a broader range of sound
larynx and pharynx
what makes language possible for humans
anatomical structures in the throat, brain areas, preference for listening to speech, ability to distinguish among the basic speech sounds of any language, mechanisms that cause us to exercise our vocal capacities through a period of cooing and babbling
what are chomsky < 3 syntactic structures
grammatical rules as fundamental properties of the human mind
universal grammar
innate property of the human mind, account for the universal characteristics of language
language acquisition device
set of innate mental mechanisms that enable a child to acquire language quickly and efficiently
what does the LAD include
inborn foundations for universal grammar + set of inborn mechanisms that guide children’s learning of the unique rules of their culture’s language
support for the concept of LAD
observations of language-learning deficits in people who have suffered damage to certain brain areas or have a particular genetic disorder (difficulty in articulating words, distinguishing speech sounds from other sounds, learning grammatical rules)
pidgin and creole
when people without a common language start talking to each other - pidgin, second generation - creole (grammar!)
deaf children in Nicaragua
in 1977 new school for deaf children - manual pidgin - became an actual language
children over the age of 10 weren’t able to contribute
by what age does the LAD function more effectively
by age 10, children deprived of the opportunity to hear and interact with a language great difficulty learning it later on (Genie)
acquiring second language (LAD)
LAD isn’t as important, but after 10ish, people will almost always speak with an accent and don’t acquire the grammar as fully or easily as when younger
LASS
Language-acquisition support system - provided by the social world into which the baby is born
infant-directed speech
enunciating words more clearly, using a more musical tone of voice, using shorter sentences that focus on here and now, repeating and emphasizing salient words, using gestures
correlation between the degree to which mothers speak to their infants and the rate of language development
strong, but problem: more vocal mothers genetically have more vocal kids
study of children adopted at birth and language acquisition
adopted infants’ rates of language development correlated more strongly with their biological mothers’, but the linguistic environment also played a role - started speaking more rapidly
what happened when parents were trained to engage frequently in back-and-forth verbal play w infants
they developed language more rapidly
simultaneous bilinguals
exposed from birth to two languages, typically equally fluent in both
sequential bilinguals
learn a second language after mastering first, can gain proficiency in a second language, first one usually dominant
brains of bilinguals from birth and not from birth
first group - the same brain areas lit up for both languages
second group - the pattern of brain activation was different between languages
disadvantages of children being bilingual
delay in syntactic development + smaller vocab in a single language
advantages of children being bilingual
able to recognize a wider range of phonemes than monolinguals and are often more sensitive toward the cultural values of the speakers of both languages
