Discuss the perspective that newborn infants are competent to deal with the world when they are born

Question 1

In the past how were newborns characterised?

Answer 1

In the past, newborns were often characterised as fragile and helpless little organisms who were simply not prepared for life outside the wombe

Question 2

Why was the view that newborn infants were fragile and helpless once highly adaptive?

Answer 2

Because it helped to ease parents’ grief in earlier eras when medical procedures were primitive and a fair percentage of newborns died.

Question 3

Even today, in cultures where many newbornsdie because of poor health and medical care…

Answer 3

parents often do not name their newborns until they are 3 months old and have passed the critical age for newborn death (Brazelton, 1979)

Question 4

The surprising fact is that newborns are…

Answer 4

much better prepared for life than many doctors, parents, and developmentalists had initially assumed.

Question 5

All of a newborn’s X are in good working order, and they see and hear well enough to detect what is happening around them and respond adaptively to many of these sensations

Answer 5

senses

Question 6

Very young infants are also quite capable of…

Answer 6

learning and can even remember some of the particularly vivid experiences they have had.

Question 7

Two other indications that neonates are quite well adapted for life are…

Answer 7

their repertoire of inborn reflexes and their predictable patterns, or cycles, of daily activity.

Question 8

How would you structure an essay on the perspective of newborns being competent to deal with the world when they are born? (7 steps)

Answer 8

1. Introduction
2. Introduce structure
3. Infant sensory capabilities (hearing; taste and smell; touch, temp and pain; vision)
4. Newborn reflexes (survival and primitive)
5. Infant states
6. Learning
7. Conclusion

Question 9

Newborn infants X their environments better than was originally perceived

Answer 9

sense

Question 10

How well do infants hear in the first hours of life?

Answer 10

As well as an adult with a head cold

Question 11

Neonates are capable of discriminating sounds that differ in…

Answer 11

loudness, duration, direction, and frequency (Bower, 1982).

Question 12

As well as being able to discriminate sounds that differ in loudness, duration, direction, and frequency - what else can infants do in relation to sound?

Answer 12

Infants also impart meaning to sounds very early on.

Question 13

Young infants also impart meaning to sounds very early on - what are they particularly attentive to?

Answer 13

Young infants are particularly attentive to voices, especially high-pitched feminine voices.

Question 14

Young infants are particularly attentive to voices, especially high-pitched feminine voices - what did research by DeCasper and Fifer (1980) find?

Answer 14

That newborns suck faster on a nipple to hear a recording of their mother’s voice than a recording of another woman.

Question 15

DeCasper and Fifer (1980) found that newborns suck faster on a nipple to hear a recording of their mother’s voice than a recording of another woman. Why might this special responsiveness to their mother’s voice be adaptive?

Answer 15

This special responsiveness to their mother’s voice after birth may be highly adaptive if it encourages a mother to talk to her infant and to provide the attention and affection that foster healthy social, emotional and intellectual development.

Question 16

Are infants born with taste preference?

Answer 16

Infants are born with definite taste preferences - they prefer sweet tastes.

Question 17

Infants are born with definite taste preferences: they prefer sweet taste - why is this adaptive?

Answer 17

This is adaptive as breast milk, the baby’s nutrition of choice, has a high lactose content making it quite sweet.

Question 18

Newborns are also capable of detecting a variety of odors, and can recognise the sell of their mother - how?

Answer 18

They can recognise the smell of their mother and her milk from the smell of others, by the smell of her breasts and underarms (Cernoch and Porter, 1985)

Question 19

Receptors in the skin are sensitive to X, Y, and Z

Answer 19

touch, temperature and pain

Question 20

How do newborns demonstrate considerable confidence in dealing with temperature? 2 things and one reference

Answer 20

They refuse to suck if the milk in their bottles is too hot, and they maintain their body heat by becoming more active should the temperature of a room suddenly drop (Pratt, 1954)

Question 21

It was previously thought that infants were insensitive to pain; however, this is not the case - how do we know? Why is this adaptive?

Answer 21

1 day old infants cry loudly when pricked by a needle for a blood test; this adaptive pain response helps newborns to avoid harmful situations, and arouses the attention of the caregiver should one arise.

Question 22

Which is the least mature of the newborn’s sensory capabilities?

Answer 22

Vision

Question 23

Do neonates see the world in colour?

Answer 23

Yes, but they have trouble discriminating blues, greens, and yellows from whites (Adam and Courage, 1998)

Question 24

How good is neonates visual acuity?

Answer 24

Not good 20/600

Question 25

what is visual accommodation?

Answer 25

the process by which the vertebrate eye changes optical power to maintain a clear image or focus on an object as its distance varies.

Question 26

Do newborns have good visual accommodation?

Answer 26

No

Question 27

Despite the fact that the newborn’s visual system is not operating at peak efficiency, they still show some adaptive visual functions that help to make them compotent at dealing with their visual world.

Give an example.
Johnson et al., 1991 have suggested why this is adaptive - outline their explanation

Answer 27

Newborn infants are more likely to track faces (or face like stimuli) than other patterns. It may be that babies display this preference as an adaptive reflex which serves to orient babies to their caregivers and promote social interactions (Johnson et al., 1991)

Question 28

One of the newborn’s greatest strengths is what?

Answer 28

A full set of useful reflexes

Question 29

What is a reflex?

Answer 29

An involuntary and automatic response to a stimulus, as when the eye automatically blinks to a puff of air

Question 30

What are the 2 categories of newborn reflexes?

Answer 30

survival and primitive

Question 31

Why are survival reflexes so called?

Answer 31

Because they have clear adaptive value

Question 32

What are 4 survival reflexes?

Answer 32

1. breathing reflex
2. eye-blink reflex
3. sucking and swallowing reflexes
4. rooting reflex

Question 33

What is the rooting reflex?

Answer 33

A reflex whereby an infant who is touched on the cheek will orient in that direction and search for something to suck

Question 34

Not only do survival reflexes offer some protection against aversive stimulation and enable an infant to satisfy very basic needs, but they may also have a positive impact on caregivers. Give 2 examples.

Answer 34

Mothers, for example, may feel quite gratified and competent as caregivers when their hungry babies immediately stop fussing and suck easily at the nipple; and few caregivers can resist the feeling that their baby enjoys being close when he/she grasps their finger tightly as his palm is touched (Palmer grasping reflex).

Question 35

Indeed, such survival reflexes endearing infants to older companions who can protect them and attend to their needs is…

Answer 35

one of the strongest pieces of evidence that suggest infants are more ready for life at birth than they was previously thought.

Question 36

It is notable that other, so called ‘primitive reflexes’ are not nearly as useful. What is believed about them?

Answer 36

That many are believed to be remnants of our evolutionary history that have outlived their original purpose.

Question 37

Give an example of an evolutionary reflex that seems to have outlive its original purpose.

Answer 37

The babinski reflex - why would it be adaptive for infants to fan their toes when the bottom of their feet are stroked? We don’t know

Question 38

Other primitive reflexes may still have some adaptive value (Bowlby, 1969). Give 3 examples

Answer 38

The swimming reflex - may help keep an infant who is accidentally immersed in a pond or river afloat.

The grasping reflex - may help infants who are carried. in slings or on their mother’s hips to hang on

Stepping reflex - might be a forerunner of useful voluntary behaviours such as crawling and walking that develops later in infancy (Helen, 1984)

Question 39

Why do primitive reflexes normally disappear in the first few months of life?

Answer 39

Because they are controlled by the lower subcortical areas of the brain and are lost once the higher centres of the cerebral cortex mature and begin to guide voluntary behaviours.

Question 40

How can primitive reflexes provide useful diagnostic tools?

Answer 40

If these reflexes are not present at birth, or if they last too long, then there is reason to suspect there is something wrong with the babies nervous system

Question 41

In sum, a full complement of infant reflexes tells us that newborns are…

Answer 41

quite prepared to respond adaptively to a variety of life’s challenges.

Question 42

Newborns also display [blank] that are predictable and foster healthy developmental outcomes.

Answer 42

organised patterns of daily activity

Question 43

In a typical day, how many infant states or levels of arousal do neonates move in and out of?

Answer 43

6

Question 44

How much of their time do neonates (1 month olds) spend sleeping?

Answer 44

70% (16-18 hours)

Question 45

Infants spend 2-3 hours a day in what state?

Answer 45

The alert, inactive state when they are most receptive to external stimuli (Berg and Berg, 1987)

Question 46

How long are a neonates sleep cycles?

Answer 46

Brief - 45 minutes to 2 hours

Question 47

The fact that neonates pass through a predictable pattern of states during a typical day indicates what?

Answer 47

that their internal regulatory mechanisms are well organised, a further factor that highlights their readiness for life.

Question 48

What kind of studies most highlight the neonate’s ability to learn?

Answer 48

studies of infant hearing

Question 49

DeCasper and colleagues conducted a study that might indicate infant familiarisation and learning - what was it?

Answer 49

Mothers were asked to recite a passage from a book during the last 6 weeks in their pregnancy; their newborns then sucked faster and harder to hear those particular passages than to hear other samples of their mother’s speech

Question 50

DeCasper and Spence (1991) conducted a study where foetuses in their third trimester experienced changes in their heart rate between familiar and novel passages read by their mothers - what was this an indication of?

Why might this be adaptive?

Answer 50

a clear indication that the foetuses were learning sound patterns before birth.

This special responsiveness to their mothers voice after birth may be highly adaptive if it encourages a mother to talk to her infant and to provide the attention and affection that foster healthy social, emotional and intellectual development.

Question 51

To conclude…

Answer 51

it is clear from their developed sensory abilities, capacity to induce care from adults, ability to learn, and their well organised regulatory mechanisms, that infants are a lot more competent at dealing with the world at birth than they were previously given credit for.