Chapter 12 - Physical and Cognitive Development

Question 1

Developmental Psychology

Answer 1

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.

Question 2

Maturation

Answer 2

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.

Question 3

Critical Periods

Answer 3

Periods of special sensitivity to specific types of learning and sensory stimulation that shape the capacity for future development.

Question 4

Sensitive Periods

Answer 4

Times that are more important to subsequent development than others. Particularly important but not definitive for subsequent development.

Question 5

The Nature of Change

Answer 5

Change can refer to the acquisition or the loss of a behaviour or function.

Question 6

continuous

Answer 6

Refers to a gradual alteration of behaviour.

Question 7

discontinuous

Answer 7

Refers to stages of growth that are qualitatively different and that are usually ordered in a fixed sequence.

Question 8

Stages

Answer 8

Relatively discrete steps through which everyone progresses in the same sequence.

Question 9

Cross-sectional studies

Answer 9

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.

Question 10

Cohort effects

Answer 10

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.

Question 11

Longitudinal Studies

Answer 11

Studies that follow the same individuals over time and thus can directly assess age changes rather than age differences.

Question 12

Sequential Studies

Answer 12

Studies that minimise the confounding variable of cohort effects by studying multiple cohorts longitudinally.

Question 13

Prenatal period

Answer 13

A period divided into 3 stages: germinal (Zygote first two weeks), Embryonic (embryo 2 weeks to 2 months) and Foetal (fetus 9 weeks on)

Question 14

Teratogens

Answer 14

Harmful environmental agents such as alcohol that can affect prenatal development. Drugs, radiation, viruses like rubells and toxic chemicals.

Question 15

Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)

Answer 15

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.

Question 16

Infant reflexes

Answer 16

Adaptive reflexes present from birth which promote survival. Rooting reflex, sucking reflex.

Question 17

Puberty

Answer 17

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.

Question 18

Psychological Impact of

Answer 18

Early maturing male - positive outcomes. Early maturing female - negative outcomes.

Question 19

Aging

Answer 19

Changes such as, wrinkles, greying, sensory changes; vision, hearing (Presbycusis - inability to hear high frequency sounds), slowing of physical and mental speed.

Question 20

Ageism

Answer 20

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.

Question 21

Orienting reflex

Answer 21

the tendency to pay greater attention to novel stimuli than to familiar stimuli.

Question 22

Sucking reflex

Answer 22

sucking rate increases with novel stimuli and decreases to familiar stimuli

Question 23

Intermodal Processing

Answer 23

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.

Question 24

Infantile Amnesia

Answer 24

Lack of ‘explicit’ memory for events before the age of three or four. This does not imply that experience is not registered.

Question 25

Explicit Memories

Answer 25

Memories that can be consciously recalled.

Question 26

Implicit Memory

Answer 26

Memory expressed in behaviour that may not be represented consciously.

Question 27

Working Memory

Answer 27

Information held briefly in consciousness.

Question 28

Cognition

Answer 28

Mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering and communicating.

Question 29

Piaget

Answer 29

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.

Question 30

Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory

Answer 30

Developed ‘stage theory’ of Cognitive Development. CD involved the modification of intellectual schemas as the child seeks to understand its world.

Question 31

Assimilation

Answer 31

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.

Question 32

Accommodation

Answer 32

Involves modifying old schemas to fit new situations/reality. At the behavioural level accommodation takes place

Question 33

Equilibration

Answer 33

The process of balancing the two process of Assimilation and Accommodation - the driving force behind cognitive development.

Question 34

Schemas

Answer 34

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).

Question 35

Piagests States of Cognitive Development

Answer 35

Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete Operational, Formal Operational

Question 36

Sensorimotor Stage

Answer 36

First of four stages - Primarily takes the form of perception and action. Infants think with their hands, mouths and senses. Egocentric. Birth to two.

Question 37

Object Permanence

Answer 37

Recognising that objects exist in time and space independent of their actions or observation of them.

Question 38

Preoperational Stage

Answer 38

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.

Question 39

Concrete Operational Stage

Answer 39

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.

Question 40

Operations

Answer 40

Mental actions the individual can use to manipulate, transform and return an object in ways that are reversible.

Question 41

Conservation

Answer 41

The idea that basic properties of an object or situation remain stable even though superficial properties may change.

Question 42

Formal Operational Stage

Answer 42

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.

Question 43

Vgotsky’s Sociocultural Theory of Cognitive Development

Answer 43

Emphasises the role of social interaction on learning. Proposes children collaborate and strive together on tasks to enhance their levels of understanding.

Question 44

Vgotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

Answer 44

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.

Question 45

Information Processing Approach to Cognitive Development

Answer 45

Focuses on development of different aspects of cognition. Focus on continuous, quantitative changes rather than Piaget’s broad, qualitative changes.

Question 46

Four most important aspects of Information Processing Approach

Answer 46

Processing Speed, Automatisation, Knowledge Base, Cognitive Strategies, Metacognition.

Question 47

Processing Speed

Answer 47

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.

Question 48

Automation

Answer 48

Executing mental processes automatically and relatively effortlessly, with increasing efficiency and decreased attention.

Question 49

Knowledge Base

Answer 49

Store of accumulated knowledge.

Question 50

Cognitive Strategies

Answer 50

More sophisticated cognitive strategies are developed. Young children tend to rely on rote repetition, as they get older can use more sophisticated rehearsal strategies.

Question 51

Metacognition

Answer 51

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.

Question 52

Neo-Piagtian Theorists

Answer 52

Attempt to integrate stage conceptions with research on information processing and domain specific knowledge.

Question 53

Common Declines with Age

Answer 53

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.

Question 54

Dementia

Answer 54

A disorder marked by global disturbance of higher mental functions. Well over half the cases of Dementia result from Alzheimer’s disease.