Cognitive Development Flashcards
Quantitative Changes
result of growth
ex. height, weight
Cognitive Development (Define as a theory)
biological changes go along w/ social and cognitive changes
Qualitative Changes
harder to measure
ex. perceptions of world, behaviour, mature emotions
Continuous Development
-constant change over the lifespan
-Vygotsky
Discontinuous Development
any stage theory
-Piaget
Nature vs. Nurture Debate (give an example of an experiment)
the visual cliff experiment
-demonstrates fear of heights –> experience
-need perceptive depth
-need ability to crawl
What symptoms suggest that ppl with ASD may lack ToM
-lack of eye contact
-trouble with conversations
-difficulty with eye tracking
-difficulty with judging facial expressions
The Social Brain (broad definition, and list of the 4 parts)
-Regions that process social info
-Amygdala
-Orbital Frontal Cortex
-Fusiform Gyrus
-Superior Temporal Sulcus
Amygdala (function)
recognizes/regulates emotional states
Orbital Frontal Cortex (function)
decision making for emotional and reward-based feelings
Fusiform Gyrus (function)
facial recognition
Superior Temporal Sulcus
detects motion in other organisms
Autism decreases what abilities early life?
-ability to detect biological motion
-attention to human faces
Autism decreases what abilities both children and adults?
face perception and recognition
What is Phenotypic Heterogeneity?
genes present differently –> symptoms present differently
How could Functional MRI be used to understand ASD?
Could ask a person w/ ASD to do a facial recognition task while measuring the blood flow to the Fusiform Gyrus. High blood flow = high activation
Low blood flow = low activation
How could Event-related Potentials (ERPs) be used to understand ASD?
Could use EEG electrodes to measure current while performing a recognition task
ASD symptom: reduces activity of Fusiform Gyrus
The Prefrontal Cortex
-governs high-level processing
-executive of the mind
The Prefrontal Cortex stops developing at age 10 (T/F)
F -it develops into adolescence
Nutoscience Definition of Thought
unified activity of different regions of the brain
Psychological Definition of Thought
internal dialogue
Typicality (Explain)
-some items are more typical
-typical categorized and learned faster than atypical
Category
-real-world objects
-formed by concepts
Borderline Items
-categories are fuzzy
-Items that don’t quite fit
Prototype
-the most typical member
Give a example of category, concept, typical members, and atypical members for ‘bird’
category -bird
concept -wings, flight, etc
typical -robin, eagle
atypical -emu
Knowledge Approach (Explain)
when we learn new concepts, we try to connect them with things we already know
Prototype Theory (Explain)
we build summary representations of categories
What are weighted features
features not common to their category
Exemplar Theory (Explain)
concepts are based on remembering examples previously seen
-new objects are compared to one already seen
How many stages in Piaget’s -Stage Theory (List them)
-Sensorimotor
-Pre-operational
-Concrete-operational
-Formal-operational Schemes
Characteristics and age of sensorimotor
-Birth-2yrs
-explores senses and mobility
-schemas relate to basic traits (gravity, how food tastes)
-still developing object permanence
Characteristics and age of pre-operational
-2-7yrs
-express knowledge verbally
more complex sensorimotoror
i-imagine things not present
don’t understand operations (reversibility of events)
Concrete-operational
-conservation of objects
-cause and effect
-understands ‘how’ things happen
Formal-operational Schemes
able to think theoretically
-apply specific knowledge to general rules (vice versa)
what is an example of conservation of objects
understanding that liquid in different containers can have the same volume
What of Piaget’s stages is it best to start learning algebra, why?
Formal-operational Schemes b/c the child is then able to apply general rules (order of operations) to specific knowledge (equation).
What are 3 criticisms of Piaget’s theory
-ages may be inaccurate
-he doesn’t describe the causes that lead to moving b/w stages
-he underestimated the role of social learning
-he researched on his own children
Is Piaget’s theory continuous or discontinuous?
Discontinuous
Is Vygostky’s theory continuous or discontinuous?
Continuous
Explain Vygostky’s Sociocultural theory
society can affect childhood development
-development is continuous
-children have an actual developmental level that can be exceeded with assistance (zone of proximal development)
Zone of Proximal Development (define
What children are capable of with help of teacher/helper
Zones move outwards with time (T/F)
F -they move inwards
Information Processing Theories (Explain)
-David Klar
-thinks of mind as a computer
-we don’t just respond to the environment, but encode and process the info we receive.
