Developmental Psych 1-5 Flashcards
Precocial species
Species develop earlier and are more mature and able to handle themselves after birth
Altricial species
Born helpless and need to mature and go through the process of growth
What type are humans, altricial or precocial?
Altricial. Infants can talk, walk or see very well, regulate their body temp, feed or defend themselves.
What is the size of a babies head compared to chimpanzees at birth?
Babies brains are 25% of their adults size at birth, and become 50% of their adult size at 3 month
Chimpanzees are 50% of their adult size at birth
Compared to apes, how in charge of their young are humans?
Compared to apes humans are less directly in charge of their young and relay more on others
What is the theory for why humans relay more on other for childcare than other Altricial species?
We walk upright, which means we have to a smaller birth canal, meaning we have to give birth to babies earlier, meaning we have more babies in a shorter period which there are more people leading many peers, many siblings and multiple caregivers.
Nature v Nurture
How much of our development is from our biology and how much of our development is from our envioroment?
Naitvism
Humans are born with innate ideas and all knowlegde comes from innate sturctures and cogntive development and brain matruataion.
Empirmicism
There are no innate structures and knowledge comes only from experiencing the world. Children are blank slates
What can be an issue with the ideas of Nature v Nuture?
Can lead to the idea that people cannot change when then actually can or the naturalistic fallacy (natural=good)
Constructivsim
Piaget, the in between of nativism and empiricism and that children’s thinking’s is biology and it’s influenced by their environment?
Core Knowledge Theory
Knowledge about specific conceptual domains are present from birth but there are signature limits. AKA Modern Nativism
Modern empiricism
Minds are like computers, born with hardware which improve with maturation and early knowledge is limited.
Quantitative Change
The beginning state and end state are fundamentally the same but improvement/growth happens over time
Qualitative Change
Beginning state and end state are fundamentally DIFFERENT in nature
Active learning
The learners is engaging with the environment to learn a skill
Passive learning
Learner is learning by watching a person perform a new skill
Global Change
Multiple domains develop simultaneously
Local Change
Different domains develop on different timelines
Development Cascade
Change in one domain may indirectly cause change within another skill. Can be positive or negative
Microgentic approach
Meaning that development doesn’t happen as all or nothing. Its more of a waxing and weaning where we learn new things and base it off our stress level we may go back to simpler methods.
Reciprocal effect
Responding to children continuously and having immersive conversation could benefit language development BUT children who
Independent vs Dependent Varaible
Independent: Hypothetical cause of behavior experiment the variable manipulated by the experimenter
Dependent: The hypothetical effect of the independent variable-NOT manipulated by the experimenter
Operational definition
The way the experimenter measures a construct and how its made observable
Gametes
Contains half genetic material of offspring, Ova in female and sperm in males
Genes and Alleles
G: Traits we have
A: Different versions of the gene
Genotype v Phenotype
G: Inherited Genetic Material
P: Observed expression of genetic material, jus because you have genotype doesn’t mean you’ll have the phenotype
Mutations
When chromosomal DNA does not copy identically from parent to offspring: Effect depend on the mutation
Polygenetic inheritance
The outcome we study are often products of more than one gene
What percent of genes to we share with our: Parent, sibling, and identical twin?
Parent: 50%, Sibling: 50% an Identical Twin: 100%
Environment-gene interaction
A person genotypes affects the environment the person chooses to experience
Germinal
- 0-2 weeks, Formation of zygote and once the egg is fertilized, the cell division begins rapidly. This stage ENDS with implantation in uterine wall
Embryonic
- 3-8 weeks, named embryo, most rapid and sensitive period, mall major body structures and organ system forming, most sensitive to Tetragons
Fetal
9 weeks- Birth
Teratogens
Agents that harm prenatal development
Issues to think about when studying effects of teratogens
Timing: when was the teratogens exposed during the babies development
Individual differences in susceptibility
Sleeper effects : may not show up til later in life
Does respond due to dosage
Cell Migration
Newly formed cells move from the place of division their final destination
Genes create proteins which determine which type of cell it will become
Cell Differenation
Newly formed stem cells are flexible and haven’t specialized yet
Apoptosis
Genetically programmed death of cells (ex: the cells between fingers die in the hand development
Support system alongside the embryo
Amniotic sac: Protective buffer
Placenta: exchange center
Umbilical cord: Tube containing the blood vessels connecting the fetus and placenta
Neurogenesis vs Synaptogenesis
Neuro: Proliferation of neurons through cell division, begins around 3 weeks and occurs rapidly between 5-25 weeks
Synapto: The process where neurons form synapse with each other, starts in embryonic stage and is rapid before and after birth and for the first 2 years of life
Synaptic pruning
When synapses are eliminated to increase the efficacy of neural communication
Myelination
Formation of myelin around axon and increases info processing abilities and begins in 3rd trimester and speeds up AFTER birth
Plasticity
Brains ability to adapt to environment input
Experience expectant plasticity vs Experience dependent plasticity
Expectant: A form of brain plasticity in which the brain adapts in response to sensory information and is nearly universal to humans
Dependent: The brain wiring occurs in response to an individuals unique personal experiences and life circumstances
Temperament type: Easy
Positive mood
Regular/rhythmic
Adaptable
Mild/moderate reactions
40% of babies
Temperament type: Difficult
Negative mood
Irregular rhythmic
Unadaptable
High intensity reactions
10% of babies
Temperament type: Slow to warm
Tend to withdraw
slow to adapt
Low to moderate reactions
Low in activity
15% of babies
Issues with Categorical Temperament
Everyone can only be assigned ONE, doesn’t allow for understanding of individuals,
Rothbart and Bates temperament
Breaks it down into three measures
Negative reactivity
Indexes infant fear
Frustration
Sadness
Low soothablity
Surgency
Measure an infants activity level and intensity of pleasure
Orienting regulation
Refers to an infant’s ability to regulate attention towards goals, and away from distressing situations
Sensation
Registration of senseory infomation from the external world by sensory receptors in the sense organ and brain
Perception
The process of organizing the interpterion sensory information
What is epigenetics
The study of looking t the environmental experiences and see why things in your DNA
What are some of the senses we are born with?
Grip: sucking thumb
Taste
Sound: Infants prefer the sound of their caregiver compared to stranger
Smell: Infants prefer the smell of their birther compared to stranger in hospital
Eyesight: Born with, but literally terrible. Like really bad
What the ways that we test infant eyesight
Preferential looking Procedure: Using boards with black and white stripe that get smaller and closer together till they look grey. Infants will favor looking at the more interesting board of stripes compared to a grey board so we can measure their eye based on how long they look at one image next to another.
Habitational Procedure: After looking at the same image, infants get bored at looking at it and their looking time will decrease, and then if you show them a fresh image their looking time will increase. By using the black and white striped boards, you can test how long it takes for the baby to see a different board the
How does eyesight develop?
Since the eyesight is based on the pupils position to the lens, the brain improves our eyesight by growing our eyes to that they are lens properly bounces light into our retina so it is not blurry anymore. When our eyes decide that it’s clear enough, our eyes stop growing (to my our eyesight better)
The chick eye experiment
An experiment that had chicks either get fitted with a lens that improved or worsened their eyesight. Chicks with the improving lens developed small eyes and chicks with the lens that worsen eyesight developed large eyes.
At want age does an infants eyesight get close to an adults vison.
At about 3-4 years old
Sensitive periods
Time periods in which specific experiences are necessary for typical development to occur
Category boundaries’
The region where humans generally divide a continuous stimulus into two different categories.
What’s an example of Category boundaries in humans?
The way we perceive a color line. We don’t look at the in-betweens, a color is either red or orange.
Do infants have category boundaries to color like we do?
Yes. We tested this using habituation procedure and
Do infants understand faces from birth?
Yes they seems to have some understanding of what a face is and what it isn’t even at hours old.
How do we study what faces a babies prefer?
A procedure called “Preferential looking” where they
What are some examples of babies preferring human faces?
Fantz (1950): Presented stimulus to baby of a human face or a nonhuman face ( newspaper, bullseyes). No matter the age, the baby always prefer the human face
Johnson Morton (1991): Held a large protector over their head with human face on their and moved it side to side to follow the face. They were an hour old. Also questionable.
Reid et al : Minimal visual experience but at 34 weeks gestation age research found similar results to about shining lights on parents stomach and watching the baby on 4D ultrasound and they also preferred faces. (Questionable)
Machi Cassia et al : Showed babies two faces with the options of upright face(normal), inverted face, scrambled top heavy and scrambled bottom heavy, and Babies prefer upright faces
Babies prefer top heavy faces until 3 month and appear to look equally long at upright and top heavy then lose sensitivity to top heavy faces
Preferential looking
Show image of two faces side to side and measure how much time they spend looking at each image/face
What faces do babies prefer?
Babies prefer their moms face and get better at distinguishing mom by 2 month
By 3 months look longer at faces matching the sex of their primary caregivers
Perceptual narrowing
A diminished ability to distinguish among stimuli because of a lack of experience with them
Intermodal perceptions
The process by which an individual perceived and connects info that is available to multiple senses simultaneously
What are the earliest skills a embryo has.
Swallowing and Breathing and these are meant to prepare them for the outside world
What is an fetuses movement and rest cycles in womb.
5-10 weeks: Constants Movement
10-20 weeks: More perdioicedic movement
20+weeks: 3/4 of the time they are now quiet and in REM states. Tends to be inconvenient times, (ex; when you are still they wake when you are awake you sleep)
What are the three theories of way fetuses move?
- Practice for postnatal life
2.Responding to stimuli from the outside - For fun! Just like infants moving is fun.
What are reflexes?
Innate fixed patterns of actions that occur in response to specific sensory stimulation. Strong presence flexes at birth=healthy nervous system
What are some of the infant reflexes that stay throughout your life.
Coughing sneezing, blinking, withdrawing from pain
What are some of the infants reflexes
Rooting: Stroke side of mouth= Head turns toward stroke
Sucking: Put finger in mouth=start sucking
Swallowing=Put liquid in mouth=start swallowing
Moro=startle (movement/sound)=throw out hand sand extend arms
Grasp=Stroke palm of hand = hand grips stimuli in palm
Stepping= feet touch solid surface when held upright=appears to take steps and support weight on legs
Synaptic pruning
You’re not using this so the brain removed these brain connection to strengthen others one
Milestone
Posture Milestone
First major milestone, the position in which a person holds their head and body and ability to stably maintain the body’s position.
Sitting Milestone
Second big milestone, requires posture to sit and strengthening of neck, torso, legs and hips to help balance. Supported sitting helps promoted help develop infant sitting skill
Reaching and Grasping
Infant need months of practice just to get precise grasps on objects. This ability requires balance, posture, distance judgment and hand control.
Tool Use Milestone
This is a extension of reaching and grasping, objects are used to help develop them reach goals. Infants must have all the milestones of grasp and reach (This ability requires balance, posture, distance judgment and hand control.) and understanding of how the objects relate (ex: spoons relate to another object (food) to function)
Locomotion
Infants develop unique solution to get about Ex; Bumshuffling (using arms to propel themselves forward, Inchworm crawls, practice with crawling
After gaining Locomotion, how do babies develop their sense of danger?
As seen in the glass cliff experiments, they are
What is SIDS
This is Sudden Infant Death syndrome, majority of deaths for infants between 2-4 months, causes are still unclear but the main hypothesis is “inadequate reflexive response to respiratory occlusion
What are some suggested ways to reduce SIDS
1.Have infants sleep on there back,
2.have parent quit smoking,
- have infants sleep on a firm mattress, not pillows, pumpers or excess blankets and then have them sleep with a sleep sack.
4.Keep Infants cool as babies cannot regulate their temperature
- Share a room but not bed
What are things all languages share?
Creativity, Phoneme, morphology and syntax,
Phoneme
Smallest meaningful unit of sound
Morphemes
The smallest unit of a word that provides meaning. If you change a letter in a word, it would have a new meaning.
Syntax
The way that we put words together to make a valid sentence. Including word order, grammatical case and gender agreement (if applicable) .
Recursion in language
The fact that you can make infinite number for sentences because there are an infinite number of combinations.
Produce v Receptive vocabulary
Produce: Words you can understand and say
Receptive: Words you can understand but can’t say
What are the months where babies are sensitive to all phonemes
From birth to about 4 month but they preference the melody of there own language
Phonemes Discrimination
Despite sound being on a continuum, adults AND babies hear speech sound as categorical
Infant Phonemic Discriminations
Phonemic boundaries differ between languages and at about 10 months babies stop being able to discriminate sounds that are not from their own language(s)
Speech Stream Segmentation
This is how you learn when a word ends and where breaks in a setence.
What are some of the transitional probabilities that babies learn to distinguish?
Learning that certain sounds will be at the end or beginning of a word (ex: ing is normally at the end of word)
Stressed syllables: Language where we stress in sentences which give clues were words go.
Infant directed speech: High pitch easier to distinguish words and more excited. Babies prefer this style but no evidence that it helps them learn better.
Fast mapping
Even without being told a word you are able to denounce what that word means through visual and environmental cue.
Words and learning
Using words when they have context for the language around them
What are some of the constraints that come with learning language
Whole object bias: When children learn a new word they will think the word applies to the whole object
Mutual Exclusivity: Assuming that all objects only have one label and can have nothing else
Shape Bias: Believe that is something is the same shape it is the same word can be overextension(too board) or under extension (too specific)
Grammatical/syntax cues: Using the common ways that language is used to identify what a word may mean. Most common in verbs
Joint Attention
When children (starting at 9-12 months) will look at where you are point and what you are saying to learn because they understand you are trying to teach them.
What is the progression of speaking in healthy children?
Babbling: starts at about 7 months, just random sounds and no meaning.
First word: starts at about 1 year. Will have a larger receptive vocab than productive, in American babies, there is a vocab explosion at about 14 months
Two word sentence: 18-24 months
Sentences: Starts around 24-48 months. There are consistent things that are grammatically incorrect but so common in toddlers that they have become it’s own style of language.( Daddy Book= Daddy read the book)
What words do infants say/learn more when in the first word stage?
Salient agent: Things that are important to there surrounding( mama, papa)
Objects: something they have ( cup)
Actions : Something they want to happen(up, down)
Recurrence: Something that they see often (car)
Social Routine: saying words (night night)
Overergulataztion
Use of regular form for irregular verbs. Show knowledge of rules even if it’s incorrectly imitated (EX: we wented out to dinner)
Noah Chomsky
Evidence for nativist position
What are some of the proof of the Nativist theory?
Production of new sentences
Poverty of Stimulus: So many combo of words and languages it’s impossible to hear it all
Constraint on word learning
Children impose syntactical structure on linguistic input: Common errors that are known across language not learned from parents
What are some of the proof of the Nurture theory?
Contributions of the environment: Native language
Sensitive period: When there a specific time period that someone can learn a language and be fluid
Multilingual people: Need to actively learn a different language
Individual difference
Critical/sensitive period
The critical period for language development is about 3 to about 5 years old for a FIRST language.
If you don’t learn a first language in that time, you will NEVER learn a language to native levels
Why are cochlear implant are treated as a must solution to deafness?
If you get them young, then you have the opportunity to be in that sensitive time period for verbal language development as well as sign language.
What are some of the issues with Cochlear implants?
Can cause deficits in orientations, side effects (tinnitus, taste disturbances) and loss of culture and belonging in relation to the deaf community
When is the drop of for native second language development?
Around 7 years old there is an initial drop and then there is a steep droop around 10-17 years old and by 30+ it is impossible to develop it to a native level because more of the brain is working when you are processing your second lanuage compared if you learn it later in life
Why was it ordinally reported that bilingual children had smaller vocabs than monolingual children?
Because if you are exposed to more than one language, your vocabulary will be smaller in both languages tested separately but it will be bigger overall compared to monolingual children.
Do bilingual children have a preference for one language over the other?
No. They will prefer both fairly equally.
Induvial differences when it comes to language in children
Children who had more infant directed speak they are quicker to identify the correct word and item
Infant speak vs Child speak
Infant speak: Higher pitch, more emphasis on breaks in sentences, more engaged
Child speak: Just means you are directing you conversation and speaking directly to your child
Dual Language learner differences in children
If you are exposed to more than one language, you understand that one object can have more than one label meaning that the mutually exclusivity mistake compared to monolingual kids
Order of language development
- Perceive all phonemic boundaries
- Babbling
3.Perceptual narrowing of phonemes
4.First word
5.Two word sentences - Critical period for first language classes
- Critical period for second language
What benefits comes from a children who hears more child directed speech and highly responsive language?
Bigger vocabulary size (heart and grizzly thirty million gap) and Combinational speech: When they are responded to within the proper gap ( the ability to make more than two word sentences)
What did Piaget believe children were born with?
Perceptual abilities: Sight, touch, etc
Reflexes: Thought this is how you learned through accidental reflexes
The ability to adapt: Learning mechanism and being able to learn and grow
Schemas
Patterns of thoughts, knowledge and behaviors that come from interacting with our environment
Assimilation v Accommodation
Assim: Doing/seeing something that reinforces your existing schema
Accom: Adding new information to an existing schema or making a new schema
What are the overarching ideas of Piaget’s Theory?
Invariant sequence:
Qualitative change
Domain General
Universal
Sensorimotor Stage
Babies need to learn Objects and how to interact with them and how they interact with the world
Preoperational Stage
Children are capable of abstract thought but tends to use heuristics and focus on single features.
Concrete Operational Stage
Children start to think in terms of logical structures and succeed on perceptual logical reasoning task but struggle with abstract concepts and hypotheticals
Formal Operational
Capable of hypothetical and abstract reasoning
What are the stages (in order) that Piaget believed babies learn object permanence
Birth: No object concept, only have reflexes
1-4 months: Begins noticing objects and begin to organize reflexes into behavior though it’s mostly centered around own body
4-8 months: Objects exist when visible and begin reaching for visible objects but not when hidden
8-12 months: Objects exist when not visible but understanding is very limited and will reach for objects but make the A not B error
12-18 months: Objects exist when not visible but understanding is very limited and while pass the A not B test, will fail the invisible displacement task
18+ months: Understand abstract concept relating to objects and have an adultish understanding of object permeance
Object Permeance
Knowing objects exisit even when we don’t see them
A not B error
Babies can find objects when they are hidden infonrt of them in the same spot but when they are hidden in front of them in a new spot, they will continue check the old spot expecting it to be there
Invisible displacement task
Infant will search for hidden object they were interested in even if they did not see the hiding happen
What are the main issues people have found with Piaget’s object concepts
Could be task depend: Maybe the babies know the concept but cant preform the task
Inhibitory control problem: For the A not B task it could just be the routine and they
Issue planning a 2 action sequence
Memory: They meant not remember
Competence-Performance Distinction
When developing task, there is a difference between competence (the underlying psychological ability) and performance (the ability to complete the task)
Concept
The idea that we view items in categories which range from Superordinate (extremely board)–> Basic (base level category)–> Suburbanite (extremely specific)
Contact and inertia
We understand that a moving object hitting another object will cause the object to move (Causal)
Object permeance continuity
Understanding that when watching an object go through space, it cannot disappear and then reappear
Gravity
Not understand at birth, understanding that an object cannot float without being held by someone
What are the two main number systems?
Analog magnitude system(AMS): Recognize approximate difference between larger quantities of objects. About 2:1 by 6 months
Object file system(OFS): Keep track of small of objects (x<4)
What is arbitrates of the sign?
Having to know what a symbol means as the symbol itself does not clue you to what it means. (Ex: dog tells you no clues that it mean a furry pet)
The capabilities that come with being able to count?
Learning number words and counting, meaning of each word, order in relation to eachother and each word can be used to label number of items in a set.
How do children count before knowing numbers?
Before learning count, they can categorize the amount without knowing: 1-knowers, 2-knowers, 3-knowers, 4-knowers
What are the cultural differences when it comes to children who count before knowing numbers?
Compared to the USA, Japanese and Russian children become 3 knowers sooner
Scale Model
We need to understand how to use more abstract symbols
