Developmental and Evolutionary

Question 1

what does ontogeny and phylogeny mean

Answer 1

ontogeny - development

phylogeny - evolution

Question 2

what is development and what is evolution

Answer 2

development - how an organism changes from birth
evolution - how organisms change over generations giving rise to diverse species and different adaptations from common origins

Question 3

what is morphogenesis and does it occur in development or evolution

Answer 3

emergence of new forms

process of elaboration of a new form, pattern or structure out of something different

Question 4

three factors underlying darwins evolution

Answer 4

competition
variation
heritability

Question 5

is human development after birth growth or morphogenesis

Answer 5

physically largely growth with some small episodes of morphogenesis (sexual features)
behaviourally - morphogenetic with new forms of behaviour emerging

Question 6

what are the two possible views on the nature of psychological development

Answer 6

Plato & Descartes - nativist / innate, at birth cognitive abilities already present: they need to be activated and matured
Aristotle & Locke & Hume - empiricist, cognitive skills and behaviour are progressively acquired through experience and learning shaped by the environment

Question 7

kant’s solution to the nature of psychological development

Answer 7

constructivism, cognitive skills and behaviour are progressively built through a complex, dynamic interaction between innate abilities and the environment
development = innate components x external environment`

Question 8

two rival views on the organisation of knowledge

Answer 8

domain generality - a single intelligence capable of knowing the different aspects of the world through the same underlying mechanisms
domain specificity - we have different mechanisms of cognition for dealing with different domains of knowledge

Question 9

piaget’s four stages of cognitive development (just the labels)

Answer 9

sensorimotor
preoperational
concrete operations
formal operations

Question 10

sensorimotor

• age
• brief description

Answer 10

0-2 years

practical intelligence

Question 11

preoperational

• age
• brief description

Answer 11

3-6 years

symbolic intelligence

Question 12

concrete operations

• age
• brief description

Answer 12

7-11 years

internalized logical operations. reasoning about concrete things

Question 13

formal operations

• age
• brief description

Answer 13

+12 years

hypothetical deductive reasoning

Question 14

what type of theory is piaget’s on development

Answer 14

constructivist - development is a succession of increasingly complex types of intelligence that are neither the result of maturation nor learning alone
they emerge out of the interaction between the individual and the environment
domain general - each type of intelligence constitutes unitary system that cuts across different domains of knowledge
cognitive morphogenesis

Question 15

what does the conservation of liquid quantity Piagetian task show
what other task do they fail

Answer 15

preoperational children claim there is more liquid in the long thin beaker (despite seeing it poured from fat beaker)
flower class inclusion

Question 16

how did piaget carry out his experiments

Answer 16

not just looking for their answer but how they explain their responses
do they understand the logic behind the experiment and can they give appropriate explanations?

Question 17

what do piagets mechanisms of cognitive change show

Answer 17

children use the available systems of intelligence at any one time to assimilate the world (even if it many be wrong)
assimilation is always accompanied by accommodation
each system of intelligence eventually reorganises itself into a more complex system

Question 18

three scientists who studied sensorimotor intelligence

Answer 18

Jacqueline
Laurent
lucienne

Question 19

who disagreed with piagets ideas on sensorimotor intelligence an what did he think (and his work)

Answer 19

Arnold gesell - Atlas of Infant Behaviour 1934
provided detailed and well documented descriptions of sequences of development
sole explanation of development was maturation - infants programmed to develop in that form, their behaviour naturally grows

Question 20

how did piaget collect evidence to support his ideas

Answer 20

longitudinal studies on the development of his tree children from birth to 2 years old

Question 21

what are the six stages piaget divided the sensorimotor stage into

Answer 21

reflexes
primary circular reactions
primary schemes coordinated
secondary schemes coordinated
tertiary schemes coordinated
discovery of new means by mental combinations

Question 22

six stages of sensorimotor development
what
when
1 - reflexes

Answer 22

grasping suckling etc

0-1 months

Question 23

six stages of sensorimotor development
what
when
2 - primary circular reactions

Answer 23

habits like thumb sucking

1-4 months

Question 24

six stages of sensorimotor development
what
when
3 - primary schemes coordinated

Answer 24

seeing so grasping
also secondary circular reactions
4-8 months

Question 25

six stages of sensorimotor development
what
when
4 - secondary schemes coordinated

Answer 25

means to an end eg moving an object out of the way

8-12 months

Question 26

six stages of sensorimotor development
what
when
5 - tertiary circular reactions

Answer 26

intelligent groping

12-18 months

Question 27

six stages of sensorimotor development
what
when
discovery of new means by mental combination

Answer 27

insight

18-24 months

Question 28

what is the mechanism of cognitive change

Answer 28

assimilation and accommodation

each system of sensorimotor intelligence eventually reorganises itself into a more complex system

Question 29

notion of practical intelligence in animals debate
between who and when
what experiments

Answer 29

1930s
behaviorist and gestalt
was animal learning blind trial and error associations or do they show some insight or intelligent learning
thorndike - cats in puzzle box - successful behaviour progressively learner by blind trial and error
kohler - the Tenerife experiments on chimpanzee tool use and problem solving, they do show sudden insightful solutions to problems

Question 30

what is object permanence

Answer 30

understanding that objects are things situated in space, that you can perceive and manioulate in different ways, but that exist independently of yourself, even when you cannot see them

Question 31

piaget’s view on object permanence

Answer 31

initially infants world is without permanent solid objects - just a collection of separate scenes that appear and disappear
notion then is progressively constructed by child during 6 sensory motor stages

Question 32

6 stages in the development of object concept (nb ages are same as piaget’s other six stage development)

Answer 32

separate uncoordinated sensory experiences
inability to retrieve hidden objects
hidden objects retrieved but with a not b errors
hidden objects always retrieved but inability to understand invisible displacement
invisible displacement understood

Question 33

what is the a not b error

Answer 33

perseverative search in location where object was first found despite clearly seeing that it has been moved elsewhere

Question 34

mechanism of sensorimotor development

Answer 34

infants assimilate (again accompanied by accommodation) the environment with their available action schemas
when there is resistance in the schematic (eg A not B error), the sensorimotor system re-prganises itself into a more complex system

Question 35

are the stages of sensorimotor development universal

what about compared to animals (what is the special term)

Answer 35

yes studies with other cultures show they are
also macaque monkeys (but they stop at stage 5 short of understanding invisible object displacements)
but humans develop much slower than apes and macaque - Heterochronies (different timing in sensorimotor development)

Question 36

problem: actions were piaget’s source of information about what infants know, what if infants cannot demonstrate what they know about objects due to other limitations?
how do we fix this

Answer 36

habituation dishabituation through looking time methods

Question 37

what di Baillargeon’s 1958 turning screen study show

Answer 37

against piaget
4.5 month old babies understand about the solidity of objects and their relations = complex object knowledge before object manipulation

Question 38

after Baillargeon’s other experiments what is the conclusion

Answer 38

Baillaregon - babies are born with predispositions to learn perceptually about objects and their relations in space
Spelke - a notion of objects as spatially bounded entities that exist continuously in time while moving through space, maintaining their unity and boundaries is innate
in either case, whatever happens during Piaget’s object permanence is the ability to make use of knowledge that young infants already have, either innately or as a result of very quick, biologically prepared, perceptual learning
so piaget is correct in the physical actions of object permanence but not about the knowledge the infants hold

Question 39

problems after baillergeon’s research on piagets object permanence

Answer 39

why do babies not search manually for objects until 8 months if they have the concept of object permanence at 4 months
why once they start searching for objects do they commit the a not b error

Question 40

why do babies not search manually for objects until 8 months if they have the concept of object permanence at 4 months
possible explanations?

Answer 40

motor immaturity (but we know they will search for objects if under transparent cover)
inability to plan actions / limited working memory

Question 41

why do babies commit the a not b error despite having the concept of object permanence

Answer 41

many hypothesis, no solution yet…

Question 42

hypothesis in why do babies commit the a not b error despite having the concept of object permanence

Answer 42

• an executive problem of inhibition and working memory
• maybe infants do know where the object is but fail to inhibit a proponent response - their motor memory is in conflict with their perceptual memory

Question 43

how did diamond study working memory

problem with her research

Answer 43

longitudinal study with human babies between 7.5 and 12 months
experimenter controls when baby can start searching for the object
delay required to produce a not b error increases linearly with age
but
- not simply infants simply forget as infants systematically go to wrong old location, they don’t randomly search for the object
- also problem of inhibiting a proponent response, the motor memory of the previously successful search

Question 44

Diamond study on maybe infants do know where the object is but fail to inhibit a proponent response - their motor memory is in conflict with their perceptual memory

Answer 44

found temporary conflict between perceptual representations and action representations but action wins

Question 45

what is intersensory or crossmodal coordination

Answer 45

linking of senses. eg same object can be touched, seen, heard, smelled and tasted

Question 46

when do babies gain intersensory or crossmodal coordination

Answer 46

piaget - 4/5 months when they start coordinating their initially separated schemas
modern research = contradicting, its earlier than this eg streri and spelke

Question 47

Streri and Spelke 1988 research on intersensory or crossmodal coordination

Answer 47

well established by 4 months
used habituation dishabituation method
babies habituated to objects they could touch but not see
the they saw a projected stimuli and they dishabituated more at the object depicting something different than they had been touching

Question 48

Meltzoff and Borton 1979 intersensory or crossmodal coordination research

Answer 48

1 month olds may already have crossmodal integration
preferential viewing method
1 month olds preferred to look at the picture of the dummy that correspond to the ne in their mouth
macaque monkeys do the same at one week - perhaps an innate ability of the primate brain

Question 49

Sann ans Streri et all 2007 conclusions on intersensory or crossmodal coordination

Answer 49

newborns may be able to recognise visual images of objects they have touvhed (but not the other way round)

Question 50

Starky, Spelke and Gelman 1983 research

Answer 50

can 6 month old babies detect numbers
habituation procedure
6 month old babies looked longer at slides with a different number of objects (maximum discrimination was 2 vs 3)

Question 51

what is the violation of expectation paradiagm

Answer 51

measuring looking time as an indication of surprise at an impossible or unusual event

Question 52

can babies add and subtract simple quantities research

Answer 52

Wynn 992
mickey mouse experiment
looking time method - violation of expectation
5 month old babies look longer at the impossible event (wrong changes in number of mickey mouse dolls when one is added or taken behind the screen)
so does this mean babies do possess the simplest rudiments of arithmetic operations
replicated by Simon et all 1995 (elmo and ernie study) and concluded babies do have some sort of primitive arithmetics but without conserving object identity

Question 53

what is going on in the elmo and ernie study - why do the 5 month olds not tell the difference between elmo and ernie

Answer 53

they can discriminate between the two dolls

but problem could be tackling both location and identity of objects = the problem of object individuation

Question 54

what is object individuation (is split into two things)

Answer 54

property of featural individuation - we know that there are two objects because they look different
Spatiotemporal individuation - we knoe there are two objects because, although they look the same, a single object could not be in two different places at the same time

Question 55

Xu and Carey’s duck and ball experiment 1996 method and conclusions

Answer 55

violation of expectation with 10 month olds
10 month olds do not realise if you take 1 object from behind a screen then another different objevt from behind the screen and put it back there must be two objects (12 month olds do understand this)
however if the objects are introduced from outside the screen one by one the ten month olds do anticipate there must be two objects
explained by indexing theory of infant arithmetics - mental index to each object. duck is given index behind screen, when ball comes frim behind screen it is now given the index of behind screen so this is why infant thinks only should be one object behind screen

Question 56

conclusions on object individuation

Answer 56

before 12 months property and spatiotemporal systems remain dissociated and infants rely on spatio/temporal cues to individuate objects
after 12 months they are integrated and property differences may trigger indexing of individual objects

Question 57

what was Xu and Careys hypothesis relating to language

how to test and conc

Answer 57

featural / property individuation could be triggered by the beginnings of language acquisition in 12 month olds (first words learnt to identify different objects and properties
how do monkeys and apes (who have no language) code objects - findings suggest they encode featurally and spatio-temporally, they re-reach more frequently if they find a different object to the one they saw being hidden
featural coding is a primate primitive pre-dating language

Question 58

what has work post-piaget focused on in preschoolers

Answer 58

much more positive outlook than piaget (who classified pre-schoolers 3-6 year olds as pre-operational ie without logical thought)
tried to provide a more positive characterization of pre-schoolers based on what they can do

Question 59

what did modern researchers suggest was the reason pre-schoolers failed piaget tests
what was McGarrigle and Donaldson’s solution

Answer 59

they thought the language was too complex for the children to follow
McGarrigle and Donaldson came up with the naughty teddy bear to change the number conservation task with the rows of counters

Question 60

what was the naughty teddy test of number conservation

Answer 60

the naughty teddy bears mucked up the laignement of the counters. now clear the researcher is asking a new question of the infants and simple language and more engaging so infants more likely to fully comprehend the question asked of them
4-5 year olds were more likely to give the correct conservation responses with this version
perhaps pre-schoolers can do more than was first thougth

Question 61

how was the class inclusion test modified

Answer 61

who would eat more grapes: the one who eats the green grapes or the bunch
changing to inclusive terms like bunch, army, all helped children understand the question better so 25% more 5-6 year olds gave the correct answer
but these collection terms can also produce errors so are these collection terms just prompts for the right answer?

Question 62

problem with the modern takes on piages task

Answer 62

are they testing logical understanding or just prompting the correct response
remember piaget made the children then explain their responses to see if they could justify the logic behind them

Question 63

implicit knowledge vs explicit knowledge

Answer 63

implicit - knowing how to do something without being aware or able to explain how you are doing it
explicit - ability to do something and explain why it is done like that

Question 64

u shaped development

Answer 64

when learning new skill gets worse then gets better

eg with block balancing as you progress from implicit to explicit knowledge

Question 65

conclusions on piagets research from modern research on pre-schoolers

Answer 65

pre-schoolers more conmplex then piaget thought
piaget only assessed explicit knowledge, modern research also looks into implicit
child development = acquiring more explicit knowledge
piaget domain general notion of intelligence in doubt, cognitive development appears to be more domain specific with different developmental rates for different domains of knowledge eg number, language

Question 66

debate between Chomsky and skinner over language (and when)

Answer 66

1957-9
skinner - an s-r behaviour explained by conditioning
Chomsky - complex cognitive hierarchical structure so bears no resemblance to s-r behavioural sequence acquired by conditioning

Question 67

according to skinner what three things is language conditioning based on

Answer 67

reinforcement
imitation
chains of verbal responses (sentences are chains of verbal responses shaped by parents selectively reinforcing their children’s behaviour)

Question 68

Chomsky’s on the paradox of language acquisition

Answer 68

language is complex yet children learn language

• without effort and quickly
• independently of their intelligence
• following a similar acquisition sequence
• environment children grow up in very poor for language development
• without explicit parental teaching
• species specific

Question 69

Chomsky’s conc on language

Answer 69

therefore language must be largely innate, domain specific cognitive system acquired through a special LANGUAGE AQUISITION DEVICE - LAD which contains innate knowledge about grammar

Question 70

whzat is the universal sequence in language aquision

Answer 70

prelinguistic phase
0-6 months phoneme perception and babbling
7-12 months protowords / word understanding
linguistic phase
1-2 years one word phase
1.5 years vocabulary spurt
2-3 words two-word phase
3-4 years simple sentences
5+ years complex sentences

Question 71

research and evidence for parental shaping of language acquisition

Answer 71

brown and hanlon 1970
how frequently do parents correct their children
-parents tend to respond to children’s utterances based on their semantics over their grammatical correctness
-parents agree with ungrammatical utterances if true and can reject grammatical ones if false
also parents attempting to teach correct grammar to their children rarely works

Question 72

role of imitation in language acquisition

Answer 72

children find it difficult to imitate utterances they cannot spontaneously produce
also from an early age children produce utterances that they could never of heard

Question 73

why did most language students struggle to agree with Chomsky’s hypothesis (already accepted the behaviorist was wrong)
what did they propose instead

Answer 73

struggled to agree with the fact Chomsky believed language was innate and domain specific
looked for an alternative cognitive mechanism - the cognitive hypothesis

Question 74

what is the cognitive hypothesis for language acquisition

Answer 74

children use their general cognitive skills to crack the code of language
children may map their early utterances onto their sensorimotor notions of object, action, location, agent, etc
1-2 year olds aquire their first word combinations semantically using sensorimotor intelligence to organize the meanings of utterances
children’s early utterances may not have syntax, just semantics

Question 75

what is telegraphic speech

what is it evidence for

Answer 75

sentences where words are omitted
evidence for the existence of an underlying grammatical structure whose expression is limited by performance factors (like limited processing ability)

Question 76

if sensorimotor intelligence organizes telegraphic speech, then language structure would initially be…. rather than….

Answer 76

semantic rather than syntactic
semantic - rule based meaning
syntactic - abstract rules independent of meaning

Question 77

evidence suggesting the cognitive hypothesis for language acquisition may not be correct

Answer 77

lack or correlation between Piagetian sensorimotor development and language development
evidence that very young infants may be sensitive to syntactic markers - cookie monster experiment

Question 78

big bird / cookie monster experiment by hirsh-pasek and golinkoff 1991

Answer 78

preferential looking task
children looked longer at the video matching the sentence (‘looking bird is tickling cookie monster then show either that or cookie monster tickling big bird) suggesting evidence of very early syntactic understanding (not just semantic)

Question 79

thoughts in psychology after the failure of the cognitive hypothesis for acquisition of language

Answer 79

idea of LAD took hold
predispositions for perceiving and producing speech?
predispositions for learning grammar? innate grammar?

Question 80

werker’s studies on perceiving phonemic distinctions in infancy 1980s

Answer 80

English speaking infants 6-12 months of age
stimuli - phonemic contrasts from English and hindi languages
discriminated with sucking response
younger infants did discriminate between them but the ability to discriminate progressively disintegrates as the child gets older

Question 81

what is babbling and at what age does it start

Answer 81

playful production of speech sounds

from around six months of age

Question 82

are babbling infants simply imitating the sounds they hear?

Answer 82

babbling very similar across cultures and languages
even deaf babies do it but then it quickly ends)
later in life the ability to produce some phonemic sounds will disappear
an innate ability?

Question 83

is babbling due to an innate ability to produce the phonetic sounds of any language

Answer 83

learning by forgetting - infants initially know all sounds then forget ones not used by own language? eg h,d and b = 50% of consonant sounds in babbling
although sounds of babbling same across different cultures, rhythmic differences

Question 84

are there predispositions for perceiving and producing speech

Answer 84

infants gave specialized mechanisms to spontaneously produce some phonemic sounds and to learn further phonemic distinctions
these learning mechanisms work optimally during a critical period (critical period demonstrated by Lorenz’s ducks following him)
so language is domain specific and innate?

Question 85

3 facts Chomsky and his supporters argue support their notion of innate (or universal) grammar

Answer 85

dissociations - cases of people with impaired intelligence but intact or superior language skills or vice versa
critical periods of learning syntactic grammar - genie’s case
invention - of language by deaf children without language input

Question 86

examples of dissociations between intelligence and language

Answer 86

Williams syndrome - almost normal linguistic skills, but poor general intelligence
specific language impairment - normal intelligence, but poor linguistic skill
so clearly no connection between intelligence and language

Question 87

case study of critical period for learning language explained

Answer 87

Genie found aged 13.
From aged 20 months had been locked in a room and kept alone, punished for making sounds by deranged father
virtually no language when discovered
went on to learn some language with special instruction: acquired correct semantics, but incorrect syntax - appeard as if there is a critical period for leaning syntax
by aged 17 had a five year olds vocabulary
also Chelsea - initially diagnosed as mental retardation in fact just deaf - got hearing aids - good semantics now but very poor syntax

Question 88

research on critical periods of learning a second language

Answer 88

study on grammatical competence of Chinese and Korean emigrants to states - children who arrived after the age of 7 never became completely fluent = critical period for learning grammatical rules? so whats the effect of earlier schooling?
later studies suggested drop in competence no as dramatic as first found and partly depends on education level

Question 89

deaf children and language

Answer 89

two options face parents once child diagnosed
- sign language education from as early as possible
- oralistic education, parents choose to not teach sign language and wait until they can be taught spoken language with assistive technology (eg hearing aids)
= children whose parents go for this method tend to find children seem to invent their own rudimentary sign language without language input

Question 90

do deaf children create a protolanguage? include example

Answer 90

only for social settings
eg Nicaraguan sign language
when gov first opened a deaf school a new grammatically structured, shared protolanguage emerged

Question 91

two avenues of research as to why we have language and other primates dont

Answer 91

trying to teach language to apes

detecting precursors in natural communication

Question 92

teaching apes language

Answer 92

Nim Chimpsky and Herb Terrace
used behaviourist methods to try teach signs (vocally apes couldn’t talk like us)
dozens of signs learned following behaviourist techniques but lacked grammatical structure
often prompted by caretakers

Question 93

vervet monkeys - how do they relate to research into language

Answer 93

natural alarm calls - three different calls for three different predators all requiring a different escape action
when vervet monkeys played the calls without the predator actually present looked in the right place for each predator = the alarms had preferential meanings like words?

Question 94

apart from humans and vervet monkeys how do other primate species communicate
and what dos this suggest about the origins of human language

Answer 94

always been good at gestures
did human language start with gestures and only later speech evolved building upon the foundations of gestural communication = the gestural theory of the origins of language

Question 95

what is special about the social life of primates

Answer 95

most primates live in complex social groups organized in relations of dominance, family and friendship
complex social life from birth and key for survival
parental dependence especially in humans due to prolonged developmental period, but has become more complex than necessary

Question 96

why such parental dependence in primates especially humans (theories)

Answer 96

attachment - special affective bond that is formed between an infant and his/her caretaker from the beginning of life

• traditional view was that the attachment was formed because of the associations between contact with caretakers and obtaining food. attachment was thus a secondary motivation derived from the primary need for food (behaviourists proposed a version of this theory from contingencies of reinforcement)
• alternative view by john Bowlby, attachment is a primary need selected by evolution to maximise survival as parents protect young and help infants safely learn and explore their environment

Question 97

harlows monkeys

explain a few of the experiments

Answer 97

19060s
baby rhesus monkeys
wire mother with food and terrycloth mother without food
monkeys spend more time with terrycloth mother and when frightened go to terrycloth mother
object exploration only when surrogate mother present

Question 98

what is the strange situation test

Answer 98

a standard method to study and describe attatchment in children between 1 and 2 year olds
behaviour of infant is recorded
key responses are the reactions to re-union episodes with parent which are the basis for three different patterns of attachment

Question 99

what are the 7 episodes in the starnge situation test

Answer 99

to do with parent and child in room, 
stranger enters, 
parent leaves,
 parent returns, then stranger leaves,
 then parent leaves,
 then stranger returns,
 then parent returns

Question 100

3 patterns of attachment (related to strange situation test)

Answer 100

secure (assumed best type of response but has been criticized as a diagnostic tool due to cultural differences)
child explores toys and is friendly to stranger
may cry when parent leaves
parents return ends distress
insecure
-ambivalent / resistant
does not explore
difficulty separating from parent
does not approach stranger
very distressed when parent leaves, seeks and rejects comfort at the same time upon reunion
-avoidant
explores disconnected from parent
no distress or avoidance of stranger
avoids parent on reunion especially second time

Question 101

what is educational psychology

Answer 101

applying the knowledge of psychology to field of education
scientific approach to understand the problems, processes and products of education
look at behaviour of learner in relation to educational needs and environment
study the development of the individual in terms of learning achievements

Question 102

5 things in the scope of educational psychology

Answer 102

human growth and developemtn
learning
measuring and evaluation
personality and adjustment
techniques and methods of study

Question 103

aims of educational psychology

Answer 103

aims to improve
teaching methods
teaching materials
solve learning problems
measure learning ability and educational progress
devise achievement tests
investigate how children learn at different ages

Question 104

uses of educational psychology

Answer 104

educational administration
curriculum development
teacher training
helps us understand
-the learner
- the learning process
- the learning situation

Question 105

how would piaget be applied in a classroom

Answer 105

learning by exploration
learner-centered orientation
use of themes
focus on development of schemata

Question 106

Vygotsky’s ideas on social interaction

Answer 106

social interaction with adults essential for acquiring meaning and advancing cognitive development
social construction of meaning
associations between meaning and culture

Question 107

Vygotsky’s ideas on internalization

Answer 107

concepts acquired initially externally through dialogue or action with more knowledgeable person
gradually these concepts become internalized as ways of thought
children begin to give themselves their own instructions to guide their own behaviour
speech : social speech—> self-talk —-> inner speech

Question 108

Vygotsky’s ideas on cultural tools

Answer 108

behaviour influenced by culture
context
cultural tools are passed from generation to generation that help children make sense of the world

Question 109

three zones of proximal development

Answer 109

what I can do on my own
what I can learn or do with help (this is the zone of proximal development where Vygotsky would tailor a classroom towards)
what is beyond my abilities right now

Question 110

what is scafolding

Answer 110

one of vygotsjy’s principles
a support mechanism that helps a learner successfully perform a task within their zone of proximal development
changing the amount of support to suit the cognitive potential or the needs of the individual
slowly removing the support over time as the individual learns and is able to complete the task by themselves

Question 111

three things which would define vygotky’s classroom

Answer 111

emphasis on social learning
zone of proximal development
authentic learning - learning is tied to the context it is in

Question 112

how risk factors work in preschool children

Answer 112

there is a long list of risk factors. cumulative risk is what predicts poor child developmental outcomes -

Question 113

how resilience and protective factors work in disadvantage preschool kids

Answer 113

resilience - the ability to recover from challengs, life stresses, setbacks or difficult circumstances
protective factors work like risk factors, you want an accumulation of them

Question 114

brief what are Sameroff’s (2010) 4 models of development

Answer 114

personal changes model
contextual model
regulation model
representation model

Question 115

what is the personal changes model

Answer 115

explains development at individual level
individual becomes more complex as you move from infancy to childhood to adolescence to adulthood
eg piaget

Question 116

what is the contextual model

Answer 116

individual development cannot occur without a social context
eg Bronfenbrenner’s 1979 social ecological model
acknowledges social systems and settings that influence a child’s development, either directly or indirectly
nested subsystems like a Russian doll

Question 117

what is the regulation model

Answer 117

developing individual within a social context
this relationship is dynamic: social context effects the child and the child effects the social context
balance between self-regulation and other-regulation
eg ice cream cone in a can model
other regulation is can whilst self regulation is an ice cream cone inside getting wider and taking up more space in the can

Question 118

what is the representational model

Answer 118

model focuses on the parents and their cognitions
looks at how parents understand their own experiences and the world they live in
based on their own cognitions they make predictions and hold expectations about their children

Question 119

Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems model

Answer 119

overlapped circles going outwards
individual child
microsystem - immediate systems that a child interacts with / participates in
mesosystem - systems that link microsystems together, number of conncection and quality of connection important
exosystem - larger social system in which the child does not function directly
macrosystem - cultural values, customs and laws

Question 120

who was vygotsky

Answer 120

Russian developmental psychologist (1898-1934)
founder of cultural-history or sociocultural approach to psychology
aka development as a function of social interaction and culture

Question 121

cultural history theory

Answer 121

human development as the product of social interaction and social mediation
against individualistic, decontextualized views of development. development is not a solitary affair - but a sociocultural phenomenon
fundamental to the mediating function of adults is the use of symbolic communicative tools such as language and cultural tools

Question 122

vygotskys views on kohlers monkeys

Answer 122

demonstrated natural intelligence that is independent of language and help identify what it distinctive of human intelligence
Vygotsky then went on to research how children behave when faced with Kohler type problems
- children first resort to adult humans seeking their help
-then they try and solve the problems themselves
mediated by knowledgeable others. children are adapted to rely on this mediation

Question 123

what does Vygotsky see as the role on language in development

Answer 123

a cognitive tool that reorganizes human intelligence taking it beyond its natural limits
for example inner speech can help a child plan their actions so they can achieve more than an ape
thought and language are mutually interacting cognitive systems

Question 124

testing the egocentric speech as cognitive tool hypothesis

Answer 124

pre-school children who are prevented from talking to themselves whilst solving problems (by making them keep a pencil in their mouths) perform worse when trying to solve problems because they cannot use language to help them think aloud about the problem

Question 125

what does every LAD must have a LASS stand for

Answer 125

language acquisition device

language acquisition support system

Question 126

what is motherese and is it useful in language aquisition

Answer 126

simplified language directed at young children
yes - kids like and attend to it
no - cultures with less or no motherese, language development occurs at about the same rate as cultures that use a lot of motherese

Question 127

the role of joint attention in the acquisition of word meanings

Answer 127

when infants hear new words they tend to assume that it refers to the object another person is looking or pointing at
social mediation therefore plays a key role in the acquisition of meanings of words but maybe not in acquiring grammatical rules

Question 128

two types of pointing

Answer 128

protoimperative - to request things
protodeclaritive - to show things
pointing is universal to all cultures but not always using index finger (eg lip pointing in some African tribes)

Question 129

when do infants start recognising faces

who investigated this and how

Answer 129

Robert fantz 19060s using looking time methods to study perceptual skills in very young infants
- when compared to similar patterns, faces only recognised at 2 months
Johnson and Morton used newborns and found they could discriminate between faces and non-faces using eye and head tracking movements
innate blueprint for faces?
or just s bias for top heavy stimuli, a simple evolutionary adaptation to facilitate babies very quick learning about faces
but there is a special mechanism for leaning about faces as it is a skill that becomes specialised with experience

Question 130

what is the visual cliff test

Answer 130

young infant will avoid crawling over visual cliff even though solid transparent panel means it is perfectly safe to crawl over

Question 131

social referencing in the visual cliff test

Answer 131

babies use their parents emotions to make decisions about unfamiliar objects and situations
more likely to cross the cliff if adult shows happy face, less likely if fear
in unfamiliar situations babies seek information from their caretakers facial expressions - social reference

Question 132

according to piaget when does imitation emerge

Answer 132

stage three imitation of known, visible actions
4 - known, invisible actions
5 - new visible and invisible actions
6 - delayed imitation

Question 133

neonatal imitation controversy

Answer 133

Meltoz and moore 1997 found neonate (12-21 days old) imitate facial gestures
but
- only about 50% of infants do it
-difficult to elicit
- similar response can be seen from nonsocial stimuli eg a pencil
- ability disappears at 2-3 months then re-appears at 8
-newborn apes and monkeys also do it

Question 134

delayed imitation

by what age

Answer 134

by 2 years old skilled imitators and can imitate actions from over 24 hours ago

Question 135

what are intentions

what is special about them relating to how they must be studied

Answer 135

a mental plan or representation of what one wants to do

intentions are mental states - something that cannot be directly observed and must be inferred

Question 136

what is theory of mind and how to test for it

Answer 136

the ability to understand that observed behaviour is caused by unobservable mental states
false belief test

Question 137

what is the false belief test

Answer 137

wimmer and perner 1983
two dolls sally and anne. anne hides object from sally - where does sally search for objct
realistic response - sally will search where anne put the object
mentalistic response- sally goes where she thinks the objects
can be repeated with smarties tube not filled with samrties. asked what they think is in the tube, shown it isn’t actually smarties then asked what someone else would think is in the tube

Question 138

stages in the developing of theory of mind

Answer 138

1 -18 months = joint attention, understanding of gaze, pointing, attention, intentions, emotions
18-24 months = pretend play
3-4 years = seeing > knowing
4-5 years = false belief / metarepresentation - has theory of mind

Question 139

pretend play and what does Leslie say this means about metarepresentation

Answer 139

age 18-24 months make-believe play
leslie - pretend play demonstrates metarepresentation is present from a very early age in infants. the reason why the false belief test is not passed until 4 years of age is because the test makes other cognitive demands: linguistic and executive

Question 140

what are the two views on theory of mind development

Answer 140

modularity, no conceptual change
-innate ability for metarepresentation
-what develops is the ability to make use of this capacity
theory-theory, conceptual change
-construction of increasingly complex theory of mind cumulating in metarepresentation
-what develops is the very ability to metarepresent

Question 141

what does new research say on theory of mind

Answer 141

actually present from a much younger age
eg Onishi and Baillargeon false-belief understanding in 15 month olds when using looking time (violation of expectation) paradigm
also eye tracking by southgate et all show 2 year olds anticipate the agent will look in the false belief location

Question 142

do non human primates gaze follow

Answer 142

yes

Question 143

do chimpanzees really understand the mental state of seeing - the povinelli and eddy experiment

Answer 143

suggests they don’t
would ask blindfolded and distracted humans for food
even though they could follow the gaze they couldn’t read the humans mind
so no theory of mind, an exclusively human trait

Question 144

modern research post 2000 was mainly competed by which lab and what did it conclude about theory of mind in nonhuman primates

Answer 144

Leipzig laboratory
chimps and other primates may understand some mental states, especially seeing, intentions, perception, if tested in competitive contexts with conspecifics
eg monkeys steal from humans who cant see then who can see

Question 145

knowledge/ ignorance test with chimps

Answer 145

all groups chose the piece unknown to the competitor more frequently when the competitor went first –> they seem to realise that the competitor will have taken the piece that they both saw being hidden
but the false belief version of this test doesn’t work suggesting this last stage of theory of mind may not apply to monkeys

Question 146

metarepresentation and false belief test in monkeys

Answer 146

even with implicit tasks and looking time measurements still don’t succeed at false belief task
but great apes have been found to anticipate other individuals will act according to false beliefs so maybe they do have theory of mind on at least an implicit level
still open to debate…

Question 147

two scientists who simultaneously came across autism

Answer 147

Leo Kanner 1943 USA - ‘autistic solitude’
Hans Asperger 1944 Austria - high-functioning young adults with intact physical/mathematical intelligence and language but marked problems of social interaction an limited, obsessive interests

Question 148

key facts / incidence

Answer 148

4 per 10,000 but with increased awareness higher, 50-100 in every 1,000 (up1%)
4:1 male to female
usually identified 24-36 months
biological cause but very complex, neurological condition
siblings 10 times more likely to receive diagnosis
50% of people with autism also have other learning difficulties

Question 149

what are the triad of impairments in autism

Answer 149

social interaction
communication
activities and interests

Question 150

how behaviourists explain autism

Answer 150

a general problem with learning
however children with autism may learn some things very well but struggle with other things like social interactions
no theoretical explanation but good application of behaviourist techniques to teach life skills (aba)

Question 151

cognitive theories to explain autism

Answer 151

a problem with some cognitive functions, in the way different types of information are processed in autism
not a problem with perception in general, not memory in general, not intelligence in general…
main challenge = may be very good at some tasks and very poor at others = what is the specific cognitive problem

Question 152

autism and theory of mind

Answer 152

baron-cohen does autistic child have theory of mind
false belief test alongside down syndrome and normal children
the majority of children with autism fail the false belief test despite being older and having more general intelligence and better linguistic skills = specific deficit in theory of mind
also lack of spontaneous gaze following and pointing gestures
problems producing and understanding pretend play

Question 153

why doesn’t the lack of theory explain all of autism

Answer 153

doesn’t explain the positive features of autism

social impairments in highly intelligent people with autism who pass standard theory of mind tests like false belief

Question 154

the block task with autistic people

Answer 154

persons with autism are quicker and more accurate with unsegmented design models than with segmented design models
suggests their cognitive style may be less inclined to process configurations and better at focusing on detail

Question 155

what are the triad of assets in autism

Answer 155

attention to detail
islets of ability
accuracy/ systematicity

Question 156

what does recent research in high functioning individuals with autism who pass explicit ToM tests show

Answer 156

they attend to the mouth area of the face instead of eyes = a problem with lack of social cues could explain why they have such poor social skills
looking at toddlers with autism could be an innate problem?
done with siblings so could study from very early age (per-diagnosis). infants later diagnosed with autism initially showed normal amount of attention to the eye areas than others but this started to decline after 6 months = a derailed developmental process