Cognitive Development & Intellegence Flashcards
What are the 4 approaches to cognitive development?
Neurobiological
Developmental
Psychometric
Information Processing
What are the 4 lobes of the brain?
Frontal
Parietal
Temporal
Occipital
What are the two man parts of the brain? (not lobes)
Cerebrum
Cerebellum
What are 2 technological techniques that have been important in the discovery of cognitive functions of the brain?
PET -Positron Electron Tomography
fMRI - Functional Magnetic resonance Imagery
What do PETs produce?
3D images of the functional processes in the body.
What do fMRIs detect?
Neural activity in the brain by looking at blood flow related to changes in energy used by brain cells.
What is the neural development associated with Infancy?
brain growth
What are the neural developments associated with childhood?
Lateralisation
Plasticity
What is the neural development associated with adolescence?
cortical changes
What are the neural developments associated with adulthood?
gain/loss dialectic
What is the weight of the brain at birth?
25% of adult weight
What is the weight of the brain at 2 years?
80% of adult weight
The ______ neurocognitive growth spurt during infancy is differentially ________ across different areas, structures, and functioning of the brain.
rapid
distributed
At birth subcortical structures are ______mature.
most
At birth the _________ __________ is most immature,
particularly frontal areas.
Cerebral cortex
Mechanisms of __________self-control and deliberate self-regulation of _____ responses are rare in children younger than 4 years old.
voluntary
reflex
At birth, infants have all of their _______ _____, but the ______ _________ between these cells are not developed.
brain cells
neural connections
What is the result of the rapid growth of the dendrites and synapse connections and cortical maturation?
control of neck muscles
sitting up right
socialization
What is the positive Babinski sign?
toes not clenching when tickled
What are 4 things that allow for an in increase
in brain weight in infancy
Neurons.
Dendrites.
Synapses.
Myelination.
What is Transient exuberance?
The initial dramatic burst of dendrite growth - brain can
response to stimulation from outside world.
What is the growth of synapses followed by to simplify the brains wiring?
Pruning
What does pruning do to the synapses?
streamlines brain activity- most efficient
What is process of Myelination governed by?
Glial Cells
What 3 processes does Myelination involve?
Speedy transmission of neural impulses.
Rapid information processing.
Brain gains control over motor functioning.
What two developments of the cortex are particularly significant?
medial temporal lobe
frontal lobe
What does the development of the medial temporal lobe allow you to do?
remember and imitate actions
recognize picture of object
When does the temporal lobe develop?
6 months -1 year
When does the frontal lobe develop?
Later childhood
What does the development of the frontal lobe allow you to do?
Master higher cognitive functions (reasoning)
What does brain plasticity result in?
potential for growth and flexibility to change in response to experiences
What is involved in arborization?
Only most efficient and functional brain connections remain in human brain = enhances plasticity
When does reticular formation end?
Adolescence
What is reticular formation?
alertness and arousal
What does the hippocampus help?
memory
Lateralisation is when?
The cerebral cortex becomes specialised for particular functions
Which side of the brain is specialised during lateralisation for speech, problem solving and language skills?
Left
What side of the brain is specialised during lateralisation for music, art, perception, spatial recognition, intuitive thought
Right
Specialization for _____ and _______begins in preschool and ends at puberty.
handedness
language
By adolescence, _______ abilities are significantly more developed than in childhood.
cognitive
In comparison with childhood cognition, adolescent cognition is:
Abstract
Metacognitive
Multidimensional
Relativistic (not absolute)
What are the 3 aspects of brain maturation linked
with behavioral, emotional, and cognitive development during adolescence:
Cortical synapses
Neurotransmitters in limbic system
Synaptic pruning and myelination
What is the limbic system responsible for?
motivation, emotion, learning, and memory
Growth in cortical synapses means more efficient and focused?
information processing
What effect does the increase in neurotransmitters in the limbic system during adolescence have?
More emotionality
more responsive to stress
less responsive to rewards
What is the result of synaptic pruning and myelination of the prefrontal cortex?
More efficient at high level cognitive tasks
What have neurological and brain imaging studies shown in recent research?
That brain cells continue to grow and regenerate throughout adult life
What does exercising the brain do?
Wards off decline
Enhances psychological function (reaction time)
What did the London Taxi Driver Study show about the hippocampus?
Drivers had larger hippocampus than other adults and it grew larger when they were on the job
What happens to the brain when it ages?
The weight of the brain declines from 40 years old
What does SOC have to do with the decline of the brain?
There are both gains and losses in the aging of the brain - need to realize the balance
What does SOC stand for?
Selection, Optimization, Compensation
What are the main effects of the development of the frontal lobes of the cerebral cortex and the limbic system in young adulthood?
Less impulsivity
Abilty to consider broad, wise plans/ decisions
Cognitive abilities improve until the age of?
60
Up until the age of 60 cognitive abilities improve in the areas of?
comprehension vocab general knowledge new skills reasoning and verbal memory
What intellectual abilities decline after late adulthood?
flexible manipulation of ideas and symbols
active thinking/ reasoning
mental effort
What intellectual decline does occur it is a result of?
disease
drugs
illness
institutions that are not stimulating
Baltes said that in late adulthood you gained?
Wisdom
What is wisdom?
Fundamental pragmatics of life- rich knowledge that is tolerant of uncertainty and can infer what others are thinking
Piaget’s stages are experienced in the _______, at about
the _______ and abilities in each new stage _________ __ abilities from previous stages.
same order
same time
builds on
What is the movement between stages in Piaget’s theory prompted by?
The need to make sense of experiences
The desire to construct more advanced understandings
What are the two dialectical processes that are key to Piaget’s theory?
Assimilation (fitting new information)
Accommodation (changing schemas)
What are the 4 stages of Piaget’s cognitive development?
Sensorimotor (birth)
Preoperational (2 years)
Concrete (7 years)
Formal Operational (11 years)
What are the 6 substages of Piaget’s sensorimotor stage?
reflexive primary reaction (habits) secondary reaction (copying) coordination of reactions (intentional behaviour) tertiary reactions (playing with hidden objects) mental representation (internal depictions- play)
Key milestone in sensorimotor stage?
object permanence and mental representations
what are the 2 substages of Piaget’s preoperational stage?
Preoperational
Intuative thought
What are the key milestones for Piaget’s preoperational stage?
symbols for representing
intuitive theories about the way the world works
What are the thought limitations at the preoperational stage?
Animism (inanimate objects are alive)
Egocentrism - everyone shares the same perspective as them
What are the 4 key milestones of the concrete operational stage?
Conservation (properties of an object remain constant)
Vertical decalage (order in which conversational abilities occur)
Classification (red flowers)
Seriation (ordering smallest to largest etc)
What is the order of vertical decalage?
number (5 years) length liquid mass area weight volume (10 years)
What of the four operations that come in t concrete operational stage?
reversibility
closure
associativity
identity
What is meant by the operation of reversibility ?
any operation has an opposing operation that undoes it (addition and subtraction)
what is meant by the operation of closure?
logical and mathematical operations are grouped so that all individual operations are part of the group
what is meant by the operation of associativity?
the order of operations does not affect the outcome (3+4=4+3)
What is meant by the operation of identity?
In any group of operations there is a null operation that doesnt change anything (0)
What are the key milestones of the formal operational stage?
Abstract
Logical
Idealistic thinking
What are the 2 sets of characteristics of formal operational thought?
scientific
applied
What are the scientific characteristics that are involved in formal operational thought?
hypothetico deductive reasoning
combinatorial logic
propositional logic
What are the 4 applied characteristics that are involved in formal operational thought?
abstract
hypothetical (third eye drawing problem)
metacognitive (empathy)
complex (sarcasm)
What are 3 contributions of Piaget’s cognitive development approach?
The ideas that:
shifts with age
knowledge is actively constructed
there are qualitative and quantitative differences between adult and child thought
What are 6 issues with Piaget’s theory
Underestimates ability conversational biases ignores social context doesn't examine adulthood too general (global)
What are 5 conversational biases?
Vacillation (easily change minds with leading questions)
Insincerity (give answer they think wants to be had)
Trust in experimenter (want to please them)
Fascination with task (want to prologue novel tasks)
Confusion over language
What is Vygotsky’s theory?
Zone of Proximal development
What is the most important technique that must be used when teaching children new tasks according to Vygotsky?
Scaffolding
When is peak mental performance according to Schaie?
50-60 years
When does Shaie suggest a decline in numeric ability begins to decline?
67
What were Shaie’s proposed stages of adolescence to old adult development? (5)
Acquisition Achieving Executive Re-organisation Re-intergrative/ Legacy creation
With intelligence you can? (2)
solve problems
adapt
Who were the 4 early scientists that looked at intelligence?
Galton
Binet
Terman
Weschler
What was Galton’s perspective on intelligence?
hereditary
What was Binet’s perspective on intelligence?
Mental age = abstract reasoning (intelligence scale)
What was Terman’s perspective on intelligence?
IQ (mental age/ chronological age x 100)
What was Welschler’s perspective on intelligence?
Adult Intelligence scale (normal distribution)
Verbal v. non verbal
Who were the theorists that supported the idea of multiple intelligence?
Spearman (two factor theory- general and specific)
Sternberg (Triarchic- analytic, creative, practical)
Gardner (multiple intelligence- 8 types)
What are Gardner’s 8 types of intelligence?
verbal mathematical spatial bodily-kinesthetic musical interpersonal intrapersonal (psychologist) naturalist
