Cognitive Development 1: Infancy

Question 1

What is habituation?

Answer 1

Habituation is a gradual reduction in the strength of a response due to repetitive stimulation.

Question 2

What is an indicator of loss of interested (perhaps due to habituation)

Answer 2

Looking, heart rate and respiration rate declining.

Question 3

How does responsiveness to the environment return to a high level after habituation?

Answer 3

A new stimulus or change in the environment will cause responsiveness to return to a high level, this increase is called recovery

Question 4

What is recovery?

Answer 4

Once habituation has occurred, the responsiveness needs to return to a high level for learning to continue. This is known as recovery, where a change in the environment or new stimulus occurs causing responsiveness to return to a high level.

Question 5

How does habituation promote efficient learning?

Answer 5

Habituation promotes efficient learning by focusing our attention on aspects of the environment we know least about and phasing out aspects we are familiar with.

Question 6

What is the relevance of habituation and recovery in terms of infant cognitive development?

Answer 6

Habituation tasks test a child’s perception, cognition and recent memory. It can also test sensitivity of fetus’ to external stimuli.

Question 7

Whats habituation tasks can be carried out to test a child’s perception and cognition

Answer 7

A baby who first habituates to a visual pattern (a photo of a baby) and then recovers to a new one (a photo of a bald man) appears to remember the second one as new and different. This method of studying infant perception can be used with newborns and preterm infants.

Question 8

What habituation task can be carried out on fetus’?

Answer 8

Changes in a fetus’ heart rate when various repeated sounds are presented can test the fetus’ sensitivity (and therefore habituation/recovery) to external stimuli. (Doherty & Hepper, 2000)

Question 9

How can a child’s recent memory be tested using habituation tasks?

Answer 9

A child is shown a photo of a baby until they look away, habituating to the stimuli.
The child is then shown the same photo of the baby, and a photo of a bald man next to it, this is the test phase.

If the test phase is carried out soon after the child has habituated (e.g. minutes, hours or days), the child is able to distinguish between the two photographs and show recovery towards the new stimulus (the bald man), by spending more time looking at it, this is a novelty preference.

However, if the test phase is delayed (e.g. weeks, months) the child shows a familiarity response, recovering to the old familiar stimulus (the photo of the baby) rather than the novel mans face.

Question 10

How long do newborn/preterm babies take to habituate?

Answer 10

3-4 minutes

Question 11

How long do 4-5 month old babies take to habituate?

Answer 11

5-10 seconds

Question 12

Why do newborn babies take a long time to habituate?

Answer 12

Because they have difficulty disengaging their attention from interesting stimuli (Colombo, 2002)

Question 13

What brain changes make a child’s attention more flexible?

Answer 13

The development of structures in the cerebral cortex which controls eye movements (Blaga & Columbo, 2006)

Question 14

Why, by 4 months, are babies’ habituation times quicker?

Answer 14

Because their attention becomes more flexible

Question 15

During the age of one, what do children attend to most?

Answer 15

Novel and eye catching events

Question 16

Why does attention to novelty decline in toddlerhood?

Answer 16

Because children become more capable of intentional behaviour.

Question 17

As attention to novelty declines in toddlerhood, what increases?

Answer 17

Sustained attention improves.

Question 18

In what context is sustained attention improved in todderhood?

Answer 18

When the child is playing with toys because it is goal-directed. For example, when a child is stacking blocks or putting them in a container, they must sustain attention to reach the goal. As plans and activities become more complex, so does the duration of attention.

Question 19

As plans and activities in childhood becomes more complex, what happens to attention?

Answer 19

The duration becomes longer.

Question 20

What is sensitisation?

Answer 20

The opposite of habituation, an increase in strength response to a repeated stimulus.

Question 21

What two things work together in infant learning?

Answer 21

Sensitisation & Habituation

Question 22

What two aspects of cognition can give us an insight into a child’s early memory?

Answer 22

Operant conditioning and habituation

Question 23

Over infancy and toddlerhood, what aspects of memory increase dramatically?

Answer 23

Retention of visual events

Question 24

What increases with age?

Answer 24

Duration of memory

Question 25

What operant conditioning method can be used to test infant memory?

Answer 25

Rovee-Collier, 1999 - By teaching 2-6 month olds to move a mobile by kicking a foot tied to it with a long chord

Question 26

What did Rovee-Colliers operant conditioning method show?

Answer 26

3 month olds still remembered how to activate the mobile one week after training.

6 month olds still remembered how to activate the mobile 2 weeks after training.

Question 27

What was Hartshorn et als method for testing infant memory?

Answer 27

Getting 6 to 18 month olds to press a lever to make a toy train move around a track.

Question 28

What did Hartshorn et als method show in terms of memory in children?

Answer 28

18 month olds still remembered how to press the lever 13 weeks after training

Question 29

What did Hildreth & Roveree Colliers find when an infant forgot an operant response

Answer 29

3-6 month olds that forgot the operant response only needed a brief prompt (adult shaking the mobile)

Question 30

When 6 month olds were given a chance to reactivate the operant response themselves what happened? (Hartshorn et al 1998)

Answer 30

6 months old allowed a couple of minutes to reactivate the operant response themselves their memory not only returned but also extended to about 17 weeks.

Question 31

Why could letting a 6 month old a chance to reactivate the operate response themselves extend memory further?

Answer 31

Permitting the baby to generate the previously learned behaviour strengthens memory because it reexposes the child to more aspects of the original learning situation

Question 32

What does habituation/recovery research show?

Answer 32

Infants learn and retain a wide range of information just by observing without being physically active.

Question 33

What is an example of an infant taking in information without being physically active?

Answer 33

5.5 month olds remembered a woman’s captivating action (brushing hair or blowing bubbles) 7 weeks after observing it.

Question 34

What is a disadvantage of babies being more attentive to movements of objects?

Answer 34

They tend to only focus on the movement of the object over anything else e.g. 5.5 month olds remember a woman’s action, but do not remember her face

Question 35

What are 3-5 month olds good at?

Answer 35

Discriminating faces

Question 36

What do infants remember by 10 months?

Answer 36

Novel actions and features of objects involved in those actions

Question 37

Over a babies second half year, sensitivity to what increases?

Answer 37

sensitivity to object appearance

Question 38

What does infants’ increasing ability to manipulate objects help them to do?

Answer 38

Learn about objects with observable properties

Question 39

What is recognition?

Answer 39

Noticing when a stimulus is identical or similar to one previously experienced

Question 40

What is recall?

Answer 40

A more challenging aspect of memory which involves remembering something that is not present.

Question 41

By the end of their first year, what are infants capable of?

Answer 41

Recall

Question 42

How do infants show they are capable of recall?

Answer 42

By their ability to find hidden objects and imitate other’s actions long after observing the behaviour.

Question 43

What does long-term recall depend on?

Answer 43

Connections among multiple regions of the cerebral cortex, especially with the frontal lobes.

Question 44

When do connections of the cerebral cortex start to rapidly increase?

Answer 44

During the second year.

Question 45

What basic forms of learning are infants capable of?

Answer 45

Classical and operant conditioning

Question 46

Besides operant and classical conditioning, how else do children learn?

Answer 46

Through their natural preference for novel stimulation.

Question 47

How do babies learn shortly after birth?

Answer 47

By observing others e.g. imitating the facial expressions and gestures of adults

Question 48

What is classical conditioning and how is it possible in young infants?

Answer 48

Newborn reflexes make classical conditioning possible in the young infant. In this form of learning, a neutral stimulus is paired with a stimulus that leads to a reflexive response.

Question 49

How does a neutral stimulus produce the same behaviour as a stimuli which leads to a reflexive response?

Answer 49

Once the baby’s nervous system makes the connection between the two stimuli the neutral stimulus produces the behaviour by itself.

Question 50

How does classical conditioning help infants understand the world?

Answer 50

Helps infants recognise which events usually occur together in the everyday world, so they can anticipate what is about to happen next. This makes their environment more ordered and predictable.