child development Flashcards
why can’t the information taken in the lab be applied to real world settings for kids?
Kids are environmentally sensitive- they may behave one way in a lab and different in natural settings
what did the crowley study (2001) see for differences between boys and girls?
- boys had more causal explanations from their parents than did girls (3x more)
- girls and boys were roughly equally likely to initiate engagement and manipulate the exhibits
- parents equally likely to talk to boys and girls how to manipulate exhibits and talk about visual, auditory or tactile info
- boys had more causal explanations from their parents than did girls (3x more)
self-report measures?
- distributed to parents as may be too complex for children
- parents are more likely to paint their kids in a positive light
how can we measure dishabituation in infants?
- through a look time measure
- kids look longer when surprised/interested
we can show them a pic of a cat and they will be engaged
when we continue to do this, they become less engaged and do not look as long (they habituate)
if we show a pic of a dog, and now their looking time increases again
we can see whether infants can discriminate between cat and dog
what influences whether an infant shows novelty or familiarity preferences?
- length of time: in the trial
- Age: younger kids show familiarity preference, older kids more novel
- complexity: termed the “goldilocks effect”, kids will look away if something is too boring or too complex as this may be overwhelming
how do we measure physiological measures?
EEG.
pros: dense time resolution
cons: sparse spatial resolution- knowing where the signal came from can be tricky
neuroimaging (fMRI)
- measure blood flow changes in brain
pro: dense spatial resolution
con: sparse time resolution- it takes 7-8 secs for blood to move around
Kids require ear protection and are given a recording to be played at home before coming into the lab to desensitise
what are measures of body states?
respiration, heart rate, skin conductance
pros: lots of data, not under conscious control
con: sitting still
what are measures of body movements/reactions?
eye tracking, reaction time, reflexes
we cant measure these via direct observation
pros: measure responses at basic level
cons: participants must follow instructions
measures of physiology
pros: can look for mechanisms that influence behaviour
cons: need to sit still, follow instructions
can be difficult to draw direct links between cognition and physical behaviours
what are cross-sectional designs?
- they tests different ages (cohorts) on the same thing
what are longitudinal designs?
we measure the same kids over periods of time
e.g. test at 6, 16, 26
what are time-lag/sequential designs
we contrast different cohorts at the same age
what are some advantages of cross-sectional designs?
they are inexpensive, representative, tests become obsolete
what are advantages of longitudinal designs?
we are measuring development as it occurs
face-validity
no cohort differences
what are advantages of time lag
they take into account cohort differences seen in IQ, health gains, education etc
confounds are identified
what are disadvantages of cross-sectional
cohort contrasts confound with age
what are disadvantages of longitudinal
we get test wise
prone to attrition
costs and lifespan of researcher
we might not be able to generalise to broader population
what happens in a still face procedure?/ what does this tell us?
babies typically gaze at parents 70% of time and smile 20%
parent interacts with 4-5 month old normally
parents they hold a neutral face for one minute
babies gaze drops to 50%
infants are sensitive to others’ expressions
what is the visual cliff procedure/ what does this tell us
where the visual cliff is, a mother displays a toy
if the parent is displaying a positive expression, the baby is more likely to cross
if the parent is displaying a negative expression, the baby is not as likely to cross
only 21% of infants were disqualified
infants can use other people’s expressions to guide their behaviour and can tell the difference between positive and negative feelings
can kids recognise different facial expressions- e.g. show me the person who is happy
2,3 and 4 yr olds, good at finding happy or sad, not angry or scared
age 5- can recognise most
how to kids show emotion socially- the tower building contest
kids were challenged to a tower building contest
sometimes they won, lost or played for fun
most kids showed happy when they won or lost
only 4 kids were sad when they lost
4-6 year olds displayed proud expression
how do kids show emotion when with peers or alone
kids were given a task to do with a friend either alone or together
they were either given a simple or really hard task
when alone, kids were more likely to stop expressing emotion
suggested this is when kids act like adults
how do kids that have been rejected by peers show expression?
they show more facial and verbal anger than kids not rejected by peers
how do kids who have been subjected to abuse show expression
they are more likely to have neutral expressions that are harder to recognise
how do we learn language from nurture hypothesis
imitation and reinforcement
what evidence is there for nurture- case of johann
4 year old found living with chimps
did not speak but communicated with facial expression
he grew up to learn german
suggests he just needed exposure to learn language
what evidence is there for nurture-case of Genie
she was found around 13 yrs old strapped to a chair in a dark room
presumed she had no social interaction
had language abilities of a 1 year old
within 5 months, she could pass items of a test a 4 yr old could do and half of a 5-6 yr old
she acquired word rules but not morphological ones e.g. ed, ing
what hypothesis is genies case consistent with
consistent with sensitive period hypothesis NOT pure nuture
what is the critical/sensitive period hypothesis
we need to learn language at a certain time period (thought to end at puberty) or it will be disordered
what is the strong form of critical period hypothesis
language must be learnt at a certain time otherwise it cannot be acquired
what is the weak form of critical period hypothesis
language can be acquired outside a sensitive period but it will be disordered
what is overextension
this is where kids will label every furry animal a dog for example
words are extended to other things incorrectly
not imitation
what is overextension
this is where kids will label every furry animal a dog for example
words are extended to other things incorrectly
not imitation
what can learning theory not explain
overextension of words
learning complex words
speed of learning words
what is telegraphic speech
kids master word order but not morphological rules
e.g. get truck
what is over-regulation
kids say irregular words
i felled, i falled
kids learn grammatical patterns first, then irregularities
kids dont learn solely through imitation
what is sensorimotor period birth-2 years
sensory input
motor movement
object permanence
what is object permanence
- kids think create things in the world by reaching them
- incorrectly think things no longer exist when they are hidden
- mismatch between vision and motor movement
neonatal imitation
infants 8-12 months lack ability to engage in imitation
facial imitation is particularly difficult
why is piaget’s estimate half off with the giraffe experiment
because kids at 4 months old know the giraffe should be there
what is the pre-operational stage (2-7 years) characterised by
egocentrism, theory of mind, centration, irreversibility
whats irreversibility
kids think that things cannot go back to original form e.g playdough
what is egocentricism
kids cant take the perspective of others
what is the symbolic function substage
kids will use language and pretend to draw representations of things e.g. hold banana as phone
what is theory of mind
kids think people know what they know
what is the concrete operational period (7-11 years)
mastery of conversation
can think about 2 things
what is conservation and which stage does it occur
occurs in concrete operational period
if kids have concrete operations, they should know the water in the tube is the same as other tubes which differ in width or height
what is the formal operational period (11yrs-adulthood) characterised by
logic is more robust
can think about future
can think about abstract ideas, logical systematic thinking
this is not necessarily demonstrated in all areas in adulthood and varies across people
what is deductive reasoning
going from broad to specific
example of bears in snow
what is inductive reasoning
going from specific to drawing broad conclusions
piaget suggested it emerges in concrete operations and is established in formal operations
inductive reasoning experiment- coloured balls
woman pulls out 4 red balls, 1 white
infants then either see the woman pull out
1. more red balls than white
2. more white balls
at 8 months, kids look longer, gathering more info as they are confused
Piaget’s systematic thinking starting in stage 4 might begin earlier
what is fluid intelligence characterised by
ability to think and act quickly
respond to novel problems
encode short term memories
which intelligence is marked by acculturation and education
crystallised
what is crystallised intelligence
tests knowledge of general info
personality factors, education, motivation and cultural opportunity central its development
problem-focused action
obtain more info on how to do correctly
cognitive problem analysis
try to figure out on your own what you did wrong
passive-dependent behaviour
ask someone else to do it for you
avoidant thinking and denial
move blame onto others or things
what is post formal thought marked by
being: flexible open-minded adaptive individualistic
you can handle:
inconsistency
compromise
imperfection
wisdom and age
dont go together rather reflects life experiences
wisdom in Japanese vs americans
japanese use wise reasoning younger and dont change across lifespan. use both interpersonal and intergroup
americans develop wisdom through conflict across age and use more intergroup than interpersonal conflict
neither way is better, they way we learn about wisdom vary with culture
wisdom is marked by:
acknowledging other people’s point of view
appreciation of looking at things more broadly
sensitive to possibility of change in social relations
preference for compromise and conflict resolution
Why makes an emotion?
Expressions
Physiological
Coping behaviours
Cognitions
