Chapter 4: Infant physical, sensory and perceptual development

Question 1

What is the purpose of synaptogenesis and synaptic pruning?

Answer 1

-synaptogenesis is the creation of synapses and synaptic pruning makes the brain more efficient

Question 2

What happens to myelin’s in the first 2 years? What does it help explain? (2)

Answer 2

-rapid myelination during the first two years
-an explanation for developmental changes

Question 3

What are adaptive reflexes? What is a type of adaptive reflexes? (2)

Answer 3

-they help the infant survive, things like sucking
Rooting reflex: infant turns its head toward a touch on the cheekW

Question 4

What are primitive reflexes?

Answer 4

-controlled by primitive parts of the brain and disappear in infancy

Question 5

What are two types of primitive reflexes?

Answer 5

-moro startle and baninski

Question 6

What is the moro startle reflex?

Answer 6

-infant arches and throws its arms and legs out and brings them back in

Question 7

What is the babinski reflex?

Answer 7

-if the sole of the foot is stroked, the toes fan out

Question 8

Describe sleep and wakefulness in infants,.

Answer 8

-infants move through different states of consciousness, but sleep a lot of the time

Question 9

Discuss crying for babies

Answer 9

-baby’s have different cries for different needs and prompt attention to crying in the first 3 months is related to less crying later

Question 10

What is colic?

Answer 10

-inconsolable bouts of crying for more than 3 hours a day

Question 11

What does the acquisition of motor skills depend on?

Answer 11

-brain development and changes in other body systems (like bones increasing in size etc)

Question 12

What are the three types of motor skills discussed for infants? (3)

Answer 12

-locomotor skills
-non-locomotor skills
-manipulative skills

Question 13

What are locomotor skills?

Answer 13

-getting around, crawling

Question 14

What are non-locomotor skills?

Answer 14

-controlling the body such as head movements

Question 15

What are manipulative skills?

Answer 15

-use of hands and fingers

Question 16

What are developmental milestones?

Answer 16

-they are nearly universal, age-related events like walking, being able to move their head

Question 17

While different babies will reach developmental milestones at different times, what is seen universally across babies?

Answer 17

-all children usually follow the same sequence despite variations in timing (we are seeing maturation, like a biological aspect)

Question 18

What is a baby’s least developed sense at birth? Discuss this (2)

Answer 18

-vision
-less visual acuity and more trouble with visible tracking, do not see colour very well until 4-5 months

Question 19

What is visual acuity?

Answer 19

-how well someone can see details at particular distance

Question 20

What is visual tracking?

Answer 20

-following moving objects

Question 21

Why do infants need visual stimulation early in life?

Answer 21

-there are critical times when an infant needs a specific quality of visual stimulation in order to develop normal perception

Question 22

What is a sleeper effect when it comes to visual stimulation for infants?

Answer 22

-when early experience is lacking, visual capability fails to develop normally many years later

Question 23

How well do infants hear? Touch and taste? (2)

Answer 23

-they hear largely as well as adults do
-touch and taste is also good

Question 24

What are the three different research techniques they use to study infants? (3)

Answer 24

-preference technique
-habituation/dishabituation
-operant conditioning

Question 25

What is the preference technique?

Answer 25

-which of two repeated pictures does a baby look at longer? if the time is uneven, they prefer one

Question 26

What is the habituation/dishabituation technique?

Answer 26

-showing a picture for a little bit of time until the baby gets bored, then showing a picture with a slight change, if the baby doesn’t seem to care then they don’t notice but if they do look at it they seem to care

Question 27

What is the operant conditioning technique?

Answer 27

-lets say you play a tone and then give them a reward for turning their head, you do it enough. Then if you play a different tone, you can see if the baby can tell the difference between the two tones

Question 28

Based on the techniques previously discussed for researching baby’s, what have they found for what baby’s like looking at?

Answer 28

-they initially scan for light-dark contrasts and edges as well as objects moving

Question 29

Describe the three stages discussed for baby’s depth perception. (3)

Answer 29

Kinetic cues (by 3 months)
-objects move more when they are near
Binocular cues (4 months)
-using cues from two eyes; the closer the object the more the view from each eye differs
Monocular/pictorial cues (5-7 months):
-interposition, one object partially hides another

Question 30

Can infants discriminate sounds in a language? Describe this. (2)

Answer 30

-yes they can
-it begins to fade at 6 months for unheard sounds though

Question 31

Can newborns discriminate their mothers voice from another woman?

Answer 31

-yes

Question 32

What is intermodal perception?

Answer 32

-senses work together to form a single perception