Early Cognitive development Flashcards
Why is development of behavioural organisation important?
A newborn’s behaviour is disorganised, preventing neonates from efficient interaction.
Behavioural organisation is important for efficient interaction and adaptability to infant’s surrounding. Namely for coordination and improved physical control over muscles and limbs so they can perform deliberate actions.
Additionally, the ability to coordinate actions with caregivers actions, increases chances of survival.
Describe Infant arousal states (waking, sleeping, crying, quiet alert)
Infants experience 2 basic states: waking and sleeping ( with variations in each). Such as quiet alert (minimal activity, eyes wide and bright, most attentive to stimuli)
During the 1st year of life infants sleeps approx. 13 h a day (as a newborn). By 1st birthday it’s then around 10h a day. (shift in patterns). Sleep arrangements are based on economic status and culture.
Crying
Primitive mean of communication, evokes empathetic response in adults (77% crying followed up by intervention, Moss 67)
Crying decreases linearly with age, first months used for indicating hunger and discomfort. In 3-4 months social interaction, being picked up.
No cross-cultural differences, all moms respond by picking up the infant (Bornstein et al., 2017). fMRI scans suggest similar brain activity to crying, not seen in non mothers.
When I say Infants are capable of intermodal perception, what does it mean?
It means they are able to perceive an object or an event by more than one sensory system simultaneously. Most commonly it is audio-visual link ( mother’s voice and face) or visual-tactile.
Perceiving does not equal understanding.
How do newborns understand numbers and how can we explain their means of numeric coding?
According to findings of Coubart et al. (2014), newborns (less than 3 days old) could differentiate between pairs of large numbers in 3:1 ratio ( except when the smallest number is 2). 12:4, 9:3
Newborns most likely encode via Approximate number system (ANS) where numbers are encoded as internal magnitudes. Older infants also Object tracking system (OTS) that supports representations of sets of up to 3 items. Meaning that either newborns lack OTS or its ability is limited to 2 items..
What does the evidence suggest about infant’s pattern perception?
Held et al. (1980) found that infants are capable of depth perception by 20 weeks (prefered visual sphere to patterned disk). Considering these are adult cues for depth, revision of this paper suggest that infants simply displayed preference for pattern or motion. Singular study is not enough to support this finding.
Then what do infants understand about their world?
They understand that objects and people continue to exist independently beyond our interaction with them - known as OBJECT PERMANENCE. Piaget argued infants acquire this ability at the end of sensorimotor stage (18-24mo).
Infants can have OP but are unable to search for them because they do not have the necessary motor abilities.
Describe neuromaturational theory (Schacter & Moscovitch, 1984)
and its counter theory of selective attention
It describes two systems of memory, that develop consequently after another in concordance with progressive maturation of CNS and gaining control over lower reflexes.
Implicit memory (recognising experience) acquired and used unconsciously. Performing certain tasks without conscious awareness of its previous experience. Early maturing (1st ⅓ of infancy) supports gradual learning if perceptual and motor skills.
Explicit memory (recall experience)
conscious, awareness that the memory representation based on previous experience.maturation in Medial Temporal Lobe (hippocampus etc.)
Late maturing
xx evidence Rovee-Collier & Gilles (2010) memory processed don’t change, attention does —-
SELECTIVE ATTENTION: focusing on a certain object while simultaneously ignoring other occurring information
What is meant by exuberant learning? (The first 1/3 of infancy)
young infants form associations rapidly, on a single occasion, between simultaneously occurring events.
They also treat two, perceptually different stimuli as equivalent if each was previously associated with another common stimulus. Finally, their learning is enhanced in the presence of a more salient stimulus that had previously participated in an association.
Spear (1984) viewed infants’ rapid and exuberant learning as an adaptive strategy and attributed it to the fact that the younger infant’s attention is less selective than the adult’s. As a result, young infants notice more about the same event and actually form more intra-event associations (i.e., learn more) than adults.
What is one the alternative explanation of language learning?
Fast mapping: the ability of young children to learn new words quickly on the basis of only one or two exposures to these words
Bloom and Markson argued it is a general learning mechanism.
Why is there a difference between physical knowledge and action tasks?
Hespos & Baillargeon (2008) - Cognitive load
the processing demands of any action task depend on
the difficulty of the physical reasoning involved
the difficulty of the action involved
the infant may fail at an action task when the combined demands overwhelm their limited resources.
Motor development is traditionally described in - stages and increases the ability to explore the environment, influences communication with caregiver (carrying objects, speech.
Motor development is - . Motor skills can be acquired ‘___’, selectively accelerated and vice versa
Skills?
age-related
Fine motor skills: small muscles, reaching, grasping, manual dexterity
Gross motor skills : large muscles of the body, enables locomotion
culture dependent
‘out of order’
How do we define cognitive development in early childhood?
Uneven, varied, magical thinking (assigning human attributes to objects etc.)
Piaget was the first to mark that children go through different cognitive processes, “little scientists” that learn more about their thinking by debunking their incorrect responses/assumptions.
Most important abilities:
Deferred imitation: the ability to imitate an action observed in the past
Piaget: children acquired the capacity to represent experience by 18 mo.
Meltzoff (found evidence for 14 mo but x may be using emulation)
Emulation: the observer copies ends rather than means, reproducing the effect of an action
Gergely et al (2002) found that 14 mo emulate but also imitate (selectively)
What is deemed to be the reason for the 3 most common errors in reasoning?
- egocentrism; inability to take other person’s perspective (mountain problem)
- Confusion of appearance and reality (DeFries, Flavell) Cat or dog, rock or sponge? (3- dog, 4-5 confused, 6 - cat)
- Precausal reasoning: ‘cause’ and ‘effect’ confusion
What is the importance of understanding errors in reasoning? Causal learning
Legare et al (2012) - exploring mechanism for driving the process of causal learning. Children more compelled to explore objects when there was a problem to be solved.
Exploring knowledge acquisition, learning mechanism, explaining accuracy of predictions aids learning. Inconsistent events motivate children to construct explanation, promoting discovery/.
What happens if early motor development is disrupted?
Karasik et al. (2015) - binding infants in Tajikistan , their movement is restricted, their development of the ability to crawl and walk is delayed.
However, they catch up, by 4 years no notable differences
