developmental psychology Flashcards
at birth the brains neurons are not what?
not fully myelinated or connected
where does infant development begin
in utero
when is the gestation period
9 months
how developed is a babies brain by 6 months
around 50% developed
what is the forming of a synapse between neurones called
myelination and synaptogenesis
what is the ability of the brain to form and maintain synapses called?
neural plasticity
what are teratogens
substances that cause a typical development for a child if exposed to them in the utero
what happens if a child is exposed to teratogens in pregnancy?
it has an adverse effect on development
what did Perera et al 2002 find
air pollution leads to genetic mutations in newborns
what did latini et al 2003 find
exposure to PVC elements can shorten pregnancy (early delivery)
what did Sokol, Delaney-black and nordstorm 2003
study show
if baby is exposed to alcohol in womb they can experience physical,mental and behavioural impairments
name cognitive behavioural impairents of FASD in infancy, pre-schoolers, childhood and adulthood
- longer reaction times
-decreased attention and hyperactivity
-learning problems, memory deficits
-impaired problem solving and higher rates of substance dependence
what is piaget’s theory of the ‘sensorimotor’ stage
-they do not grasp object permenance
- display perseverative reaching until 10-12 months old
-begin to understand object permenance at end of sensorimotor stage, use of mental imagery and objects can exist by themselves
when is piagets ‘preoperational stage’ and what does it consist of
-ages 2-7 years
-still display egocentrism (inability to see thing from other pov)
-children cannot yet use ‘operations’
what experiment did piaget use to display the pre operational stage
the 3 mountain task, a child and a doll are sitting across from one another and the child is asked what the doll sees when one of the mountains is covered
- when child can say what the doll can see from its perspective they pass this pre operational stage
what experiment did piaget carry out to show how children view in a conservation way in the pre operational stage
glasses filled with same amount of water, smaller and larger glasses so it appears more or less water to child, the inability them to grasp idea that there is the same amount of water is shown in this stage
when is the concrete operational stage and what does it consist of
-children able to perform operations, but needs to be visible to them
-use of hypothetical questions are found hard, find it easier to figure out using drawings to come to a conclusion
when is the formal operational stage and what does it consist of
- beyond 12 years
-perform operations and use hypothetical questions
-can think of hypothetical situations and use them to solve problems
-the way children SOLVE changes
what is it meant by constructivism
that children actively construct their understanding of the word and do not blindly absorb info
what is social constructivism
that children construct knowledge through interactions with other people, through communication and interactions
what is ZPD
- zone of proximal development
-the difference between what a child can do alone than with adult supervision
what did Pratt, Kerig, Cowan et al 1988 study show
- a 3 year old worked w parents on a block builidng task
- controlled: amount of suggestions parents gave, and wheter parents gave more support after failure and less support after success
- in an example of social referencing
what is social referencing
when a child uses the emotional responses of others to guide their actions
what is motionese
a specific action style adopted by adults when interacting with infants- e.g motherese language
what did johsnon et al. study do and what were the results
-showed newborns diff stimuli
-newborns followed the face stimuli more than scrambled/blank stimuli
- concluded newborns can discriminate different faces and emotions
what did Baillargeon et al. find
- 4-5 month olds looked longer at impossible events than possible events
- concluded infants had expectations about what was going to happen
-also said the expectations arise because children understood the contact principle at 4 months
what did viola, turati and simion 2004 study
- newborns less than 4 days
-they were sensitive to layout of faces
what is the contact principle
inanimate objects in motion act upon each other only when in contact
what did Leslie and Kneeble 1987 find
- 24 week olds appear to recognise the contact principle
what did sobel and kirkham 2006 find
children under 2 years can understand casulity in simple ways using the contact principle
what is theory of mind
understanding that other people have desires and beliefs
what are executive functions
the mental processes we use to initiate, control and monitor voluntary actions
what did Flavell, Everett and croft 1981 study find
-asked children to perform judgements of what other people could see
-3 year olds could jusge what others could see, but struggled how things looked to other until age 4
what is social cognition
study of processes used to understand the social world
who criticised the classic false belief tests for being too complicated
birch and bloom 2009
what does the violation of expectation task show
-tend to look longer where experimneter points to where toy is
-implies children at ages 2 and a half can understand people can be mistaken
what 3 things are executive functions made up of?
- inhibition
-working memory
-shifting
what do executive functions allow you to do?
-are abilities that let you perform voluntary behaviour by allowing you to set a goal, resist distraction and monitor your progress
what is it called if there is an emotional response involved in an executive function?
a hot executive function
what did baron-cohen et al 1985 find about children with ASD
they struggle with typical false belief tasks
what are mirror neuron’s
brain cells that are active when you watch an action being performed and when you perform the action yourself
what did Vivanti et al. 2011 study in children with ASD
- used eye tracking to see how children with ASD 10 to 16 years use diff cues to understand what other people are doing
in the 2011 study by vivanti et al. what issues did they find in eye tracking with children with ASD
-looking people in face
-imitating people when person was looking at them
-only using gazze direction to predict a persons intentions
