Development I Flashcards
What is development?
Changes and continuities that occur within the individual between conception and death
What are the two processes that lead to developmental change?
Maturation
Learning
What is maturation?
Biologically timed unfolding of changes within the individual according to the individual’s genetic plan
What is learning?
Relatively permanent changes in our thoughts, behaviours, and feelings as a result of our experiences
How do learning processes help you?
Allows you to acquire new info and guide optimal strategies to respond to events and stimuli
What is the interactionist perspective?
The view that maturation and learning interact during development
How does biological maturation affect the timeline of learning from the environ?
Essential bio systems must be in place before learning proceeds
Ex. You won’t learn to walk until you’ve developed muscles in your torso/limbs
How does learning from the environ affect maturation? Give an example
Maturation is absent or delayed without some level of input from the outside world
Ex. If you gave a child proper nutrition but isolated them in a dark room, there would be problems in the development of normal vision, speech, social skill, etc.
Which changes are more dramatic, those that occur early in life or those that occur later in life?
Early
What are the four methods of measuring abilities in infants?
Habituation
Event-related potentials (ERP)
High amp sucking
Preference
What is the habituation procedure used for?
Det if infant can detect difference between two stimuli
Describe the habituation procedure
Repeatedly present the infant with the same stimulus while measuring changes in physiological responses
How will the infant typically respond to the habituation procedure?
Initial burst of activity
Responses return to normal level as the same stimulus is repeatedly presented
What is habituation?
Decrease in responsiveness to a stimulus following its repeated presentation
Once the infant has habituated to the stimulus, does it still recognize it as a stimulus?
Yes— it’s just no longer important or interesting
What is dishabituation?
Increase in response to a stimulus that is DIFF from the habituated stimulus
What are event-related potentials (ERPs)?
A measure of the brain’s electrical activity evoked by the presentation of a stimulus
How do they measure ERPs?
Cap with electrodes placed on scalp
Detects changes in electrical activity across a pop of neurons in the brain
Particular behaviours will evoke changes in various brain regions of interest
If you presented a visual stimulus to an infant hooked up to ERPs, which region would show changes in activity?
Occipital lobe (responsible for visual processing)
Describe the hypothesis behind the high-amp sucking method
The rate of sucking indicates the level of preference
Describe the high-amp sucking method
First, measure baseline sucking rate with no stimulus
Infant given control over presentation of a stimulus
Sucks faster than baseline –> switch in pacifier causes the stimulus to be presented
Stop sucking —> stops presentation of the stimulus
Describe the preference method
Infant put into a looking chamber to simultaneously look at two diff stimuli
Level of attention towards one stimuli relative to the other indicates preference
What images do infants tend to prefer?
Big patterns with black and white contrasts
Faces