Chapter 12 - Physical and Cognitive Development Flashcards
Developmental Psychology
studies the way humans develop and change over time. A life-span developmental perspective examines both constancy and change, and gains and losses in functioning that occur at different points over the human life cycle.
Maturation
Refers to biologically based changes that follow an orderly sequence, each step setting the stage for the next step according to an age-related timetable.
Critical Periods
Periods of special sensitivity to specific types of learning and sensory stimulation that shape the capacity for future development.
Sensitive Periods
Times that are more important to subsequent development than others. Particularly important but not definitive for subsequent development.
The Nature of Change
Change can refer to the acquisition or the loss of a behaviour or function.
continuous
Refers to a gradual alteration of behaviour.
discontinuous
Refers to stages of growth that are qualitatively different and that are usually ordered in a fixed sequence.
Stages
Relatively discrete steps through which everyone progresses in the same sequence.
Cross-sectional studies
Studies that compare groups of different aged participants at a single time to see if differences exist amongst them and provide a picture of age differences.
Cohort effects
Differences among age groups with differences in culture i.e.comparing 80 yr old woman and 20 yr old woman today - had very different life experiences. Cross-sectional studies are most useful to study this.
Longitudinal Studies
Studies that follow the same individuals over time and thus can directly assess age changes rather than age differences.
Sequential Studies
Studies that minimise the confounding variable of cohort effects by studying multiple cohorts longitudinally.
Prenatal period
A period divided into 3 stages: germinal (Zygote first two weeks), Embryonic (embryo 2 weeks to 2 months) and Foetal (fetus 9 weeks on)
Teratogens
Harmful environmental agents such as alcohol that can affect prenatal development. Drugs, radiation, viruses like rubells and toxic chemicals.
Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)
a serious condition affecting up to half the babies born to alcoholic mothers. These babies are born with many physical deformities and a wide range of mental abnormalities, i.e. learning disabilities, behaviour problems, attention difficulties.
Infant reflexes
Adaptive reflexes present from birth which promote survival. Rooting reflex, sucking reflex.
Puberty
Period where individuals become physically capable of reproduction: Girls experience menarch 11-13 yrs of age; boys produce mature sperm 14.5 yrs of age.
Psychological Impact of
Early maturing male - positive outcomes. Early maturing female - negative outcomes.
Aging
Changes such as, wrinkles, greying, sensory changes; vision, hearing (Presbycusis - inability to hear high frequency sounds), slowing of physical and mental speed.
Ageism
Prejudice against older people such as condescending treatment and reduced employment opportunities. Different to other cultures who hold elders in high esteem for their wisdom and experience.
Orienting reflex
the tendency to pay greater attention to novel stimuli than to familiar stimuli.
Sucking reflex
sucking rate increases with novel stimuli and decreases to familiar stimuli
Intermodal Processing
The ability to associate sensations about an object from different senses and to match their own actions to behaviours they observe visually. Present at birth.
Infantile Amnesia
Lack of ‘explicit’ memory for events before the age of three or four. This does not imply that experience is not registered.
Explicit Memories
Memories that can be consciously recalled.
Implicit Memory
Memory expressed in behaviour that may not be represented consciously.
Working Memory
Information held briefly in consciousness.
Cognition
Mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering and communicating.
Piaget
First psychologist to trace cognitive development in a systematic way. He was interested in Epistemology: the branch of philosophy concerned with the acquisition of knowledge. Interested in the way children develop. He suggested that children knew differently from adults, rather than less than adults.
Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory
Developed ‘stage theory’ of Cognitive Development. CD involved the modification of intellectual schemas as the child seeks to understand its world.
Assimilation
Interpreting actions or events in terms of one’s previous way of thinking/schemas - that is, fitting reality into one’s existing ways of understanding.
Accommodation
Involves modifying old schemas to fit new situations/reality. At the behavioural level accommodation takes place
Equilibration
The process of balancing the two process of Assimilation and Accommodation - the driving force behind cognitive development.
Schemas
An organised, repeatedly exercised pattern of thought or behaviour, such as an infant’s tendency to suck anything that will fit into its mouth (a nipple, a finger, a dummy etc).
Piagests States of Cognitive Development
Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete Operational, Formal Operational
Sensorimotor Stage
First of four stages - Primarily takes the form of perception and action. Infants think with their hands, mouths and senses. Egocentric. Birth to two.
Object Permanence
Recognising that objects exist in time and space independent of their actions or observation of them.
Preoperational Stage
2-7 - Second of four stages. Emergence of symbolic thought which allows children to imagine solutions to problems mentally rather than through action. Remain egocentric. Children are not able to Operate or perform Operations on things - i.e. do things to them to transform them.
Concrete Operational Stage
7-12 - Third of four stages. Children can do things to objects that change their properties. Can keep multiple things in mind at once. Can perform mental operations systematically.
Operations
Mental actions the individual can use to manipulate, transform and return an object in ways that are reversible.
Conservation
The idea that basic properties of an object or situation remain stable even though superficial properties may change.
Formal Operational Stage
Fourth of four stages. Characterised by the ability to reason about formal propositions rather than concrete events. The adolescent can apply logic more abstractly; hypothetical thinking develops.
Vgotsky’s Sociocultural Theory of Cognitive Development
Emphasises the role of social interaction on learning. Proposes children collaborate and strive together on tasks to enhance their levels of understanding.
Vgotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
ZPD - children also learn fby imitating, watching and listening to parents and other significant people from their social worlds. Children achieve more understanding by socialising cooperatively with a skilled partner (adult or advanced peer) rather than by working alone.
Information Processing Approach to Cognitive Development
Focuses on development of different aspects of cognition. Focus on continuous, quantitative changes rather than Piaget’s broad, qualitative changes.
Four most important aspects of Information Processing Approach
Processing Speed, Automatisation, Knowledge Base, Cognitive Strategies, Metacognition.
Processing Speed
Speed of processing increases to about age 15, then levels off. Increased speed allows more information to be held in working memory at any moment to facilitate problem solving.
Automation
Executing mental processes automatically and relatively effortlessly, with increasing efficiency and decreased attention.
Knowledge Base
Store of accumulated knowledge.
Cognitive Strategies
More sophisticated cognitive strategies are developed. Young children tend to rely on rote repetition, as they get older can use more sophisticated rehearsal strategies.
Metacognition
Knowledge about how one’s mind works, or thinking about thinking. Like being aware of inner speech and consciously using it to assist in problem solving.
Neo-Piagtian Theorists
Attempt to integrate stage conceptions with research on information processing and domain specific knowledge.
Common Declines with Age
Psychomotor slowing - older people require more time to process information. Difficulty with explicit memory retrieval and decreased speed and efficiency with problem solving. Fluid Intelligence (speed of processing) declines. Crystallised Intelligence (knowledge base) increases with age.
Dementia
A disorder marked by global disturbance of higher mental functions. Well over half the cases of Dementia result from Alzheimer’s disease.
