Development Exam 3 Flashcards
Zygote
fertilized egg, right after conception. Myelinization occurs in this trimester. 2 week period of rapid cell division.
Embryo
the developing human organism from about 2 weeks to 8th week.
Fetus
9th week to 38 weeks from conception is developing the fetus. Neurons to get bigger in this stage. They can recognize and respond to sounds two months before
B. Teratogens
any environmental agent that can harm the embryo or the fetus. Alcohol and tobacco for example. Those who drink during pregnancy, their kids are born with fetal alcohol syndrome. Their facial features may be impaired. They tend to have IQs that are low. They also tend to have problems with attention regulations, and that is a permanent condition.
C. Doing research with newborns:
habituation. Comes from operant conditioning. They are interested in new things they haven’t seen before. For example, as soon as they are born they are not surprised by their moms voice because they are used to it.
Preferential looking technique: they tend to stare more at the new things that they haven’t seen before. They don’t have much of a memory for it like other things.
Development: Infancy & Childhood
A. Physical development
1. Perception
Sight:
in newborns is relative to what it going to be when they are five. But all the other senses are about the same.
Newborn mimic facial expressions. Making them more likable.
Motor skills:
Human babies don’t have many reflexes. They can grasp, and they have a rooting or a sucking reflex. Average walking without assistance is about 12 months
Brain development – pruning
At birth babies have the most neurons they will ever have in life. Most neurons are present at birth. The connections between neurons that help neurons talk to each other get rich very early on. We see a lot of development in that. Frontal lobes which are responsible for higher thinking, grows a lot in the first couple years in life. And most of those are myelinated making the process quick.
Comparing enriched developments to less enriched environments. Less enriched dev doesn’t perform myelinated connections as quickly.
Pruning
natural reduction of unused neurons, making exiting connections that re-used more often healthy.
Memory
3 4 years when we start remembering. Infants seem to have implicit memories (leaned association) which tend to develop earlier. Learning implicitly is present early. signing a lullaby
Piaget’s stages:
Human’s as they grow up develop schemas about the word: which is a concept that helps us organize the world. Tying things together as a theme makes it easier to tie things together. We have a framework about things.
a. Sensorimotor (0-2) – object permanence
Because kids don’t have much cognitive sophistication, we learn how the world works through our senses and movement. Interacting with the world makes think happen.
Object permeance
something continues to exist even though they are no longer directly perceived. They not directly Infront of them. Occurs at around 4 months.
Preoperational stage (2-6) – laws of conservation, egocentrism
kids at this stage can use language but they haven’t gained the ability to have consistence use. Kids don’t yet understand laws of conservation.
Laws of conservation:
Physical properties of an item or a concept don’t change even though the visual appearance changes
. Two glasses of milk in a same size container are presented; you ask the kids which one has more milk in it they will say they have the same amount. But when we pour it into a different container, they will say the one that is fuller will have more since it is higher. They are confused because the physical appearance has changed.
