Chapter 3: Physical and Cognitive Development in Infancy Flashcards
TRUE or FALSE: height and weight are smooth and continuous
FALSE: they can be considered epidsodic
what is a neuron?
a nerve cell
name the structure of a neuron
dendrites, cell body and nucleus, axon with myelin sheaths, and axon terminals
at what point does the brain reach 75% of its adult weight?
after 2 years old
how would you map out the brain?
2 hemispheres: left and right
4 lobes: frontal, partial, temporal and occipital
why is brain development important in the first 2 years?
-infants grow physically (learn to crawl and walk, reflexes and fine motor skills)
-infants learn emotions
-infants increase their senses! (vision, hearing, touch, pain, smell)
Is an infant’s perception influenced by nature or nurture?
two answers:
-nativists emphasize nature
-empiricists emphasize learning and experience
(note that these are the extreme views and it should be somewhere in the middle)
TRUE or FALSE: perceptual and motor development interact and influence each other
TRUE!
who is Jean Piagent?
she founded the Cognitive Development Theory
-children actively construct their own cognitive worlds. this describes how children think in different developmental stages
what processes do children use as they construct their knowledge of the world?
-organization: to make sense of their worlds, children cognitively organize their experiences
-equilibration: mechanism by which children shift from one stage of thought to the next
-stages of development: cognition is qualitatively different in one stage compared to another
why is sleep important?
helps with cognitive development
what is the sensorimotor stage of Piaget’s Theory?
from birth to about age 2
-infants construct an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences w physical, motor actions
what does piaget argue is one of infancy’s landmark cognitive accomplishments?
object permanence: understanding objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen or touched
TRUE or FALSE: infants learn through operant conditioning
TRUE
what is attention?
the focusing of mental resources on select information
