Exam 1 (Ch 1-4) Flashcards
What benefits are there in studying child development?
- Knowledge of child development can help parents and teachers meet the challenges of raising and educating children.
- Use to make informed decisions about social-policy questions that affect children.
- Understand human nature
How did Plato and Aristotle view children?
The long-term welfare of society depends on children being raised properly
What is Plato’s approach to raising children?
- emphasis on self-control and discipline
- fit children into the same mold/ideals (i.e. shape child to fit the enviornment)
- children are born with innate knowledge
What is Aristotle’s approach to raising children?
- shape the environment to fit the needs of the individual child (acknowledges that all children are different)
- child start off as a blank slate; knowledge come from experience
How did Aristotle’s stance influence later philosophers?
John Locke: child is a tabula rasa and should start off highly disciplined and then gradually increasing the child’s freedom
Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Parents and society should give the child maximum freedom from the beginning
How did Darwin’s work on evolution influence child development studies?
Inspires research in child development in order to gain insights into the nature of the human species.
What is Freud’s stance on child development?
Forces within the child (biological drives) exert a crucial influence on development.
What is Watson’s stance on child development?
Children’s behavior is shaped largely from the rewards and punishments that follow particular behaviors (i.e. shaped by external/environmental factors)
Define: Nature and Nurture
Nature: our biological endowment (what we’re born with), esp the genes we receive from out parents
Nurture: wide range of environments, both physical and social, that influence our development
Define: Continuous Development
Age-related changes occur gradually
-A graph of age vs. level of development would show a smooth gradual positive slope up
Define: Discontinuous Development
Age-related changes include occasional large shifts so that children of dif ages seem qualitatively different
-A graph of age vs. level of development would show a positive stair step up
Name factors that create individual differences. How fast do these differences arise?
Individual differences arise very quickly in development.
Factors: Genes, treatment by other people, subjective reactions to other people’s treatment of them, choice of environment, etc.
Define: Preferential Looking
Test used to see whether babies can differentiate between two different visual stimuli.
-Useful in diagnosing cataracts in young children
Define: The Scientific Method
Def: An approach to testing beliefs
Steps:
- Choosing a question
- Formulating a hypothesis
- Testing the hypothesis
- Drawing a conclusion
What are the three ways of gathering data?
- Interviews
- Naturalistic Observation
- Structured Observation
What are the 2 types of interviews? What is the caveat?
- Structured Interview: a research procedure in which all participants are asked a standard set of questions; no deviation
- Clinical Interview: a research procedure in which questions are adjusted in accord with the answers the interviewee provides; has deviation
Caveat: although interviews can yield a large quantity of data fast and in-depth info about specific children, answers to interview questions are often BIASED
When is naturalistic observation used and what are its limitations?
-Used when the primary goal of research is to describe how children behave in their usual environments
Limitations:
- Variation in naturally occurring contexts is so large–>makes it hard to know which ones influence the behavior of interest
- Researchers don’t always have the opportunity to observe target behavior if it only happens occasionally in natural environment
Define: Structured Observation
What is its limitation?
Def: An identical situation is presented to a number of children and each child’s behavior in situation is recorded. Used to make direct comparisons of dif children’s behavior and makes it possible to establish the generality of behavior across dif tasks.
Limitation: Doesn’t provide as much info about children’s subjective experiences and doesn’t provide as natural a situation.
What is the goal of correlational design studies?
To determine how variables are related to one another (causation).
Define: Correlation Coefficient
Measure of the direction and strength of a correlation
Is correlation the same as causation? Why or why not?
NO
-it’s not possible to tell from a correlation which variable is the cause and which is the effect (i.e. Direction of causation of problem)
Def: Third-Variable Problem
A correlation between two variables may arise from both being influenced by some third variable
What is the difference between correlational and experimental design?
Correlational: Comparison of EXISTING groups of kids or examination of relations among each child’s scores on dif variables
Experimental: Random assignment of children to groups and experimental control of procedures presented to each group
Def: Experimental Design
- Study where the research has the ability (experimental control) to determine the specific experiences that children have during the course of an experiment
- Children in the EXPERIMENTAL group receive an experience of interest, the INDEPENDENT variable
- Children in CONTROL group do not receive this experience
- DEPENDENT variable=a behavior that is hypothesized to be affected by the independent variable
Advantages of Correlational Design
- Only way to compare many groups of interest (ex. rich/poor, boys/girls)
- Only way to establish relations among variables of interest (ex. IQ/achievement, popularity/happiness)
Disadvantages of Correlational Design
- Third-Variable Problem
2. Direction of Causation Problem
Advantages of Experimental Design
- Allows causal inferences because design rules out direction of causation and third variable problems
- Naturalistic experiments can demonstrate cause-effect connections in natural setting
Disadvantages of Experimental Design
- Need for experimental control often leads to artificial experimental situations
- Cannot be used to study many differences and variables of interest (ex. age/sex/temperament)
What are the 3 designs for examining development?
- Cross-Sectional
- Longitudinal
- Microgenetic
Def: Cross-Sectional Design
-Children of different ages are compared on a given behavior or characteristics over a short period (ex. thumb sucking)
Def: Longitudinal Design
- The same children are studied twice or more over a substantial period of time
- Assumption: only difference in the child over time is how old they are
- Usefulness: allows you to look at the degree of stability within an individual
Def: Microgenetic Design
- Children who’re thought to be on the verge of an important developmental change are provided with heightened exposure to the type of experience that’s believed to produce the change and are studied intensely while their behavior is in transition
- Usefulness: provides an in-depth depiction of processes that produce change
Advantages/Disadvantages of Cross-Sectional Design
Advantages:
- yields useful data about differences among age groups
- easy to administer
Disadvantages:
- uninformative about stability of individual differences over time
- uninformative about similarities/differences in individual children’s pattern of change
Advantages/Disadvantages of Longitudinal Design
Advantages:
- Indicates the degree of stability of individual differences over long periods
- Reveals individual children’s patterns of change over long periods
Disadvantages:
- Difficult to keep all participants in study
- Repeatedly testing children can threaten external validity of study
Advantages/Disadvantages of Microgenetic Design
Advantages:
- Intensive observation of changes while they’re occurring can reveal process of change
- Reveals individuals change patterns over short periods in considerable detail
Disadvantages:
- Does not provide info about typical patterns of change over long periods
- Does not reveal individual change patterns over long periods
What was Aristotle’s view on prenatal development?
- Rejects idea that the individual is preformed at the start of life
- Believes in Epigenesis: New structures and functions emerge during development
What are the 4 major developmental processes that transform a zygote to a embryo to a fetus?
- Cell Division: results in proliferation of cells
- Cell Migration: movement of cells from their origin point to somewhere else in embryo
- Cell Differentiation: transforms the embryo’s unspecialized stem cells into dif types of cells
- Apoptosis: genetically programmed cell death, also enables prenatal development
Def: Phylogenetic Continuity
The idea that because of our common evolutionary history, humans share some characteristics and developmental processes with other animals, especially mammals.
By the 4th day of conception, what happens to the zygote?
The zygote arranges itself into a hollow sphere of cells with a bulge of cells, the inner cell mass, on one side (inner cell mass will eventually become the embryo)
How do you get identical twins?
Inner cell mass splits completely in half.
How do you get fraternal twins?
Two eggs are released into the fallopian tube at the same time and are fertilized by different sperm.
Def: Neural Tube
- U-shaped groove formed from the top layer of differentiated cells in the embryo
- It eventually becomes the brain and the spinal cord
What comprises the embryo’s support system?
- Placenta
2. Umbilical Cord
Role of Placenta
- Allows exchange of materials between the bloodstream of the fetus and that of the mother
- Act as a barrier against some (but not all) toxins and infectious agents
Def: Umbilical Cord
-Tube that contains the blood vessels that travel from the placenta to the developing organism and back again
Def: Amniotic Sac
- Membrane filled with fluid in which the fetus floats in
- Provides a protective buffer for the fetus
How is ingesting amniotic fluid helpful in feta development?
Swallowing amniotic fluid…
- Promotes normal development of the palate
- Aids in the maturation of the digestive system
Inhaling/Expelling amniotic fluid..
1. By moving the chest wall helps the respiratory system become functional
(Behavioral Cycles of the Fetus):
- When do these cycles become stable?
- How are these cycles near the end of pregnancy?
- During the 2nd half of pregnancy; circadian rhythms are also apparent
- Sleep/wake states are similar to those of a new born
The fetus develops sensory structures early on, describes its sensory experiences.
Visual Experience=negligible
Tactile Stimulation: comes from result of its own activity, and tastes and smells the amniotic fluid
Response to Sound: Possible from at least the 6th month of gestation
How well do babies do in fetal learning?
- At 32 weeks gestation, fetus is able to habituate (decrease response to repeated/continued stimulation)
- Newborn infants are able to recognize rhythms and stories presented before birth
- Newborns prefer smells, tastes, and sound patterns that are familiar because of prenatal exposure
Define: Miscarriage
- Spontaneous abortion that occurs during prenatal development
- Maj of these embryos have severe defects
Def: Teratogens
Environmental agents that have the potential to cause harm during prenatal development, can be legal and illegal substances
-Normally has a positive correlation (higher exposure=more damage) but also depends on the individual
Why is timing crucial in preventing hazards to prenatal development?
- Many agents cause damage ONLY if exposure occurs during a sensitive period in development
- With correct timing, you can minimize the severity of the effects from potentially harmful agents
Why is it hard to identify teratogens?
Due to the existence of sleeper effects–impact of a given agent may not become apparent for years
Name some teratogens
- Cigarettes
- Alcohol
- Illegal Drugs
- Environmental pollutants
- Chicken pox
- Gonorrhea
- Occupational Hazard
What is the effect of cigarettes on prenatal development? How can you reduce this effect?
- Retarded growth and low birth weight
- Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)
Prevention/Reduction:
- Don’t Smoke
- Put babies to sleep on their backs, not stomachs
- Use firm mattresses and no pillows
- Avoid wrapping infant in lots of blankets or clothing
What is the effect of alcohol on prenatal development? How can you reduce this effect?
-Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD)–mental retardation, facial deformity, and other problems
Reduction: curb your drinking, don’t be an alcoholic
What is the effect of marijuana on prenatal development?
-Affects memory, learning and visual skills after birth
What is the effect of cocaine on prenatal development?
-Cognitive and social defects like irritability, awkward, unsocial, and disruptive
What is the effect of PCBs (an environmental pollutant) on prenatal development?
PCBs=polycholorinated biphenyls
-Small head sizes as newborns and slightly lower IQ scores as long as 11 yrs later
What are some examples of occupational hazards that could affect prenatal development?
Exposure to:
- car exhaust
- pesticides
- chemicals
- noise pollution
- radiation
What are some maternal factors that could affect prenatal development?
- Age
-best time to have a baby is 23-29 yr old - Nutrition
-must have adequate nutrition/vitamins esp
folic acid - Disease
-STDS can be hazardous - Emotional State of Mother
During birth, how is it possible that the baby’s head can come out vaginally?
- Baby head is about 60% the size of an adult human and also not fully formed
- Pressure on the head during birth causes the separate plates of the skull to overlap (“cone head)
- Head deformity corrects itself after birth
Def: State of Arousal
- The infant’s level of arousal and engagement in the environment
- Ranges from deep sleep to intense activity
- Important influence in newborn’s exploration of the world
What are the 6 states of arousal?
- Active Sleep
- Quiet Sleep
- Crying
- Active awake
- Alert awake
- Drowsing
What arousal state do newborns spend the most amount of time? Least amount of time?
Most Time: Active sleep and quiet sleep
Least Time: Drowsing
Def: Rapid Eye Movement (REM) Sleep
An active sleep state associated with dreaming in adults and is characterized by quick, jerky eye movements under closed lids
Def: Non-REM sleep
A quiet/deep sleep state characterized by the absence of motor activity or eye movements and by regular, slow brain waves, breathing, and heart rate
How much of a baby’s sleep is REM sleep? Is it the same for pre-matures? And why does it need so much REM sleep?
Baby: 50% of total sleep time is REM and decreases to about 20% when they’re 3-4 yrs old
Pre-Mature: Need more REM than a regular baby because they need more self-stimulation
Use of REM sleep: Makes up for natural deprivation of external stimuli and facilitates the early development of the visual system
What is the function of crying?
In Early Infancy: represents discomfort or frustration
In Late Infancy: becomes a communicative act
Why is America still the 20th highest nation in the world for infant mortality?
- Pockets of poverty (ex. south, Detroit)
- Lack of pre-/post-natal care for some
- Lack of health insurance for some
What defines an infant as being of low birth weight (LBW)?
- If they weigh less than 5.5lbs
- If they’re born at or before 35 weeks after conception, then they are also labeled as premature
What defines an infant as being small for gestation age (SGA)?
-When their birth weight is substantially less than the norm for their gestation age.
Def: Gestation
The time when a fetus is developing inside its mother’s womb.
What difficulties do LBW infants face and how can they be helped?
Difficulties:
- More medical complications
- More developmental difficulties
- Special challenge for parents b/c parents feel guilty/inadequate, stressed from intensive care treatment, and infant’s disorganized states
Help:
- Extensive parent contact and touch
- Understanding the difference in LBW time scale of development
- Social support and intervention program
What is shown by multi-risk models?
- Risk factors tend to occur together
- A neg outcome is more likely when there are multiple risk factors
- Multiple risks is strongly related to socioeconomic factors (more risks for those in poverty)
- There are exceptions though where individuals end up doing well
Def: Developmental Resilience
Successful development in the face of multiple and seemingly overwhelming developmental hazards
What is a notable characteristic of a resilient child?
- Possess intelligence and and responsiveness to others
- Why: experience responsive care from a particular caregiver
Def: Range of Reactivity/Norm of Reaction
Level to which one’s particular ability can be increased/decreased by environmental factors
-Refers to al the phenotypes that could theoretically result from a given genotype, in relation to al the environments in which it could survive and develop
Where do child prodigies come from?
- Genes give them the INNATE ability for a particular talent/skill
- But it’s the environmental that they develop in that NURTURES that gift
Def: Genotype
The genetic material an individual inherits
Def: Phenotype
The observable expression of the genotype, including body characteristics and behavior
Def: Environment
Includes every aspect of the individual, his/her surroundings, other than genes (ex. school, family, nutrition, workplace, culture)
What are the 4 Fundamental Relations?
- Parents’ genetic contribution to the child’s genotype
- Contributions of the child’s genotype to his/her phenotype
- Contribution of the child’s environment to his/her own phenotype
- Influence of the child’s phenotype on his/her environment
Def: Genes
- Sections of chromosomes that are the basic units of heredity for all living things
- Passed onto the child via chromosomes (make up DNA)
How is sex determined?
By the sex chromosome.
- XX=Female
- XY=Male
- The Y chromosome encodes the protein that triggers the formation of the testes which will produce testosterone which will contribute to maleness
What are the 3 things that could occur to chromosomes to cause diversity and individuality between individuals?
- Mutations: changes in sections of DNA caused by random or environmental factors
- Random Assortment: Shuffling of the 23 pairs of chromosomes in the sperm and egg–>chance determines which member of the pair goes into the new sperm and egg
- Crossing Over: process by which sections of DNA switch from one chromosome to another during meiosis; increases genetic variability
How does the child’s genotype contribute to their phenotype?
-Although every cell in child’s body contains copies of all the genes you received from parents, ONLY SOME of those genes are EXPRESSED
What controls the continuous switching on/off of genes?
Regulator genes
-Turn genes on/off during developmental changes like puberty, graying hair, menopause)
Def: Dominant/Recessive Allele
-Forms that a gene can be in
Dominant Allele: the form of the gene that is expressed if present
Recessive Allele: not expressed if a dominant allele is present
Def: Homozygous/Heterozygous
Homozygous: describes a person who has inherited 2 of the SAME allele for a trait
Heterozygous: describes a person who has inherited 2 DIFFERENT alleles for a trait
Def: Polygenic Inheritance
When traits are governed by more than one gene
Examples of Traits: Empathy, intelligence, reading skills, ADHD, language delay, autism)
Def: Canalization
-What is it’s relation to development?
Def: highly genetic
- If something highly genetic/canalized, then genes are the sole driving force and is the ONLY thing that can affect the developmental path
- If something isn’t highly canalized, developmental path isn’t as straight/rigid because it can be influenced by other factors such as environment
Describe a trait that has a range of reactivity.
PKU (phenylketonuria): a disorder (related to a defective gene on chromosome 12) in which you’re unable to metabolize phenylalanine
- Early diagnosis and properly restricted diet–>can avoid mental retardation from PKU
- Will still have a mental decline though if the restricted diet is stopped before the brain finishes developing
Which disorders/diseases will occur via recessive gene?
- PKU
- Sickle-cell anemia
- Tay-Sachs disease
- Cystic Fibrosis
Which disorders/diseases will occur via single dominant gene?
- Huntington’s disease
- Neurofibromatosis
Which disorders/diseases will occur via polygenic inheritance?
- Cancer
- Heart disease
- Asthma
- Psychiatric disorders
- Behavioral disorders
What disorders/diseases are due to sex-linked inheritance?
- Male-pattern baldness
- Red-green color blindness
- Hemophilia
- Duchenne muscular distrophy
- Fragile X syndrome
What disorders/diseases are due to chromosomal anomalies?
- Down syndrome (trisomy 21)
- Kleinfelter syndrome (XXY)
- Turner syndrome (XO)
What disorder is due to a regulator gene defect?
-Genetic male with female genitalia
What disorder still has an unidentified genetic basis?
-Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
Explain the correlation between early childhood maltreatment and anti-social behavior in young men. What is this an example of?
Example of: Range of Reactivity
- Men who’d experienced more maltreatment in childhood=more antisocial behavior later in life
- Effect is much stronger for individuals who have a relatively inactive MAOA gene
What is the parent’s role/contribution to the child’s environment?
-Helps their child develop a sense of self, a sense of self-worth and a set of interests and values
How are children active creators of their environment?
- Kids continue things that they’re good at and value
- Actively select surroundings and experiences that support their interests, talents and personality characteristics
- They FIT their environment to themselves (likes/dislikes, strengths/weaknesses)
Define: Behavior Genetics
The science concerned with how variation in behavior and development results from the combo of genetic and environmental factors.
-Believe that most traits are multifactorial (affected by many environmental factors and many genes)
Why are people different from one another?
Behavioral traits are heritable (i.e. influenced by hereditary factors)
Describe the behavior genetics research design.
- Family study
- Measure trait among people with different degrees of genetic relatedness
- Correlations b/w the measure of train in individuals w/ dif relationships are looked at to see if they’re higher for individuals who’re genetically more similar or share the same environment
What are the 2 types of family studies?
- Twin-Study Designs
2. Adoption Studies
Define: Twin-Study Designs
Design where correlations for pairs of monozygotic twins on a target trait are compared to those of dizygotic twins (identical vs fraternal)
Define: Adoption studies
Looks at whether adopted children are more like their biological or their adoptive relatives
It’s been found that identical twins that have been reared in separate environments and never met, share similarities in traits like IQ, reaction to stress, and traditionalism. Give a possible explanation for this.
- Traits could be influenced by selective placement and similarities in fostering environments as well as genetic factors
- Selective placement= consciously place child in a home that is most similar to the home they come from (attempt to be culturally aware and sensitive to child)
Define: Heritability
A statistical estimate of the proportion of the measured variance on a given trait among individuals in a given population that’s attributable to genetic differences among those individuals
What are the limitations of heritability?
- only apply to populations, not individuals
- only apply to a particular group living at a particular time
- can differ markedly for groups of people who grow up in very dif environments
- high heritability does not imply immutability
- says nothing about the differences between groups
Give examples of the two sources of environmental effects.
- Shared Environment
- ex. growing up together in the same family
- has less of an impact on development than originally thought - Non-shared Environment
- Experiences unique to the individual
- ex. selection of friends, likes/dislikes
- has a much bigger effect on the individual and increases the differences among family members
Define: Neurons
Specialized cells that are the basic units of the brain’s info system
Define: Cell Body
Contains the basic biological material that keeps the neuron functioning
Define: Dendrites
Receives input from other cells and conducts it toward the cell body
Define: Axon
Conducts electrical signals to connections w/ other neurons
Define: Synapse
Space between the axon terminals of one neuron and dendrites of another; acts as a connection between them
Define: Glial Cells
The brain’s white matter that plays a role in communication within the brain
- Outnumbers neurons 10 to 1
- ex. glial cells make up the myelin sheath that insulates the axon of neurons
What are the four lobes of the brain and each of their functions?
- Occipital Lobe
- Processes visual information - Temporal Lobe
- Involved in memory, visual recognition and the processing of emotion and auditory information - Parietal Lobe
- Governs spatial processing and integrates sensory input with info in memory - Front Lobe
- Organizes behavior and is responsible for planning
Define: Cerebral Lateralization
-Phenomenon that each hemisphere is specialized for dif models of processing
Cerebral cortex is divided into 2 separate halves (left and right hemisphere) that communicate with each other through the corpus callosum (a dense tract of fibers)
-can strengthen a particular hemisphere by doing activities related to that side
Define: Neurogenesis
Proliferation of neurons through cell division
-Occurs mainly in the first 18 weeks of conception
- Process: neurons migrate to their destinations where they grow and differentiate
- axons elongate
- dendrites form spines that increase their capacity to form connections with other neurons
Define: Myelination
Formation of a fatty sheath of myelin around axons which increases the speed and info-processing abilities of neurons
Define: Neuropsychological Approach
Technique used to map the mind and look at the effects of brain damage on behavior
What are the 2 types of electrophysiological recording?
- EEG (electronencephalographic)
- records electrical activity generated by active neurons at 3 states; resting, activity involving a familiar stimulus, activity involving a non-familiar stimulus - ERPS (event-related potentials)
- records changes in the brain’s electrical activity in resonse to the presentation of a particular stimulus
If ERP responses show a kid subject with a faster ability of discriminating between new and familiar stimuli, what does this suggest about the kid subject?
Suggests that the kid is smart
-Or at least relatively smarter than another kid with a slower response time
Define: Plasticity
Capacity of the brain to be affected by experience
How does experience affect the brain?
-Experience has a role in determining which of the brain’s excess synapses will be pruned (gotten rid of) and which will be maintained (kept)
Define: Neural Darwinism
Synapses that are frequently activated activated are preserved while as those used less frequently are deemed unnecessary and pruned
Define: Experience-Expected Plasticity
Every experience that every normal human will have is expected by the brain, so it expects the stimuli that will allow it to develop that particular skill or part of brain
- Process by which neural connections are created and re-organized throughout life as a function of individual’s experience
- Accompanied by vulnerability
How does vulnerability affect experience-expected plasticity?
If the expected experience is not available, then development that’s supposed to occur in response to particular experience will not happen
ex. congenital cataracts in cats that were prevented from seeing for the first 10 days after they were born
Define: Sensitive Period
Periods in the human brain where it is particularly sensitive to particular kinds of external stimuli
-Experience-expected plasticity is all about timing
When is the greatest time of vulnerability in a human’s life?
Prenatal development and first year after birth because this is when neurogenesis and neuron migration are occuring
Define: Emergent effect of early brain damage
Individuals that get congenital brain damage at a young age do not appear any different than children of that age in terms of intelligence
-However as those individuals with early brain damage grow older, it’s easier to recognize them as brain damaged because the difference in intelligence level grows to the point of being significantly apparent
Describe growth in humans.
- Occurs for about 20% of life span
- Rate occurs unevenly across age; growth is fastest during first 2 years of life and early adolescence (puberty)
- Uneven over dif parts of body
Define: Failure-To-Thrive (FTT)
Condition in which infants become malnourished and fail to grow for NO apparent medical reason
-associated with disturbances in mother-child interaction stemming from characteristics of both mother and child
What are some ways of preventing/fixing FTT through nutritional behavior?
- Infant Feeding
- Breast feeding > formula feeding because it gives infant antibodies for immune support - Development of good eating habits
- Food preferences: some are innate but others are guided by parents
- parents who try to overly control child’s eating habits results in child having poor habits
- parents should give child more control in choosing what they eat - Obesity
- due to genetic and environmental factors
- result in social problems due to social stigma - Undernutrition
- ALMOST ALWAYS associated with poverty
- affects development by directly and indirectly leading children to withdraw from environment to reduce energy expenditure
What is the purpose of having developmental theories?
- Provides a framework for understanding important phenomena
- Raises crucial questions about human nature
- Motivates new research studies that lead to a better understanding of children
Why are there multiple theories instead of just one?
-Because child development is a complex and varied process so no one theory can account for all of it
Piaget’s Theory (constructivist): What is his view on the nature of children?
Children are:
- active
- learn many imp lessons on their own
- intrinsically motivated to learn
- (i.e. like “little adults”)
Piaget’s Theory (constructivist): How do nature and nurture interact to produce cognitive development?
Through adaptation and organization
Adaptation: tendency to respond to the demands of the environment to meet one’s goals
Organization: tendency to integrate particular observations into coherent knowledge
Piaget’s Theory (constructivist): What are the 3 sources of continuity that work together since birth to drive development forward?
- Assimilation
- Process by which people translate incoming info into a form they can understand - Accommodation
- Process by which people adapt current knowledge structures in response to new experiences - Equilibration
- Process by which people balance assimilation and accommodation to create stable understanding
Piaget’s Theory (constructivist): What are the 4 hierarchial stages that make up the sources of discontinuity?
- Sensorimotor (Birth-yr 2)
- infants know the world through their senses and actions - Preoperational (yr 2-yr 7)
- Acquire ability to internally represent the world through language and mental imagery. start to see world through other people’s perspectives. - Concrete Operational (yr 7-yr 12)
- Acquire ability to think logically, not just intuitive. Can classify objects into coherent categories and understand that events can be caused by multiple factors. Can solve conservation problems (limited to concrete situations) but systematic thinking (logically thinking of a whole) is still difficult. - Formal Operational (yr 12 and up)
- Can think systematically and reason about what might be as well as what is (make hypotheses). Allows them to understand politics, ethics, science fiction and scientific reasoning. Can think abstractly. Not everybody reaches this stage.
Piaget’s Theory (constructivist): What are the substages of the sensorimotor stage?
- (Birth-month 1) Infants begin to modify the reflexes with which they’re born to make them more adaptive
- (month 1-month 4) Begin to organize separate reflexes into larger behaviors (most of which are centered on their own bodies)
- (month 4- month 8) Develop object permanence and increasingly interested in the world
- (month 8-month 12) Make A-not-B error
- (month 12-month 18) begin to actively and avidly explore the potential uses to which objects can be put
- (month 18-month 24) able to form enduring mental representations and deferred imitation
Piaget’s Theory (constructivist): What is objet permanence?
Knowledge that objects continue to exist even when they’re out of view
Piaget’s Theory (constructivist): What is the A-Not-B Error?
Tendency to reach to where objects have been found before rather than to where they were last hidden
-Can be used to test infant’s skill in object permanence
Piaget’s Theory (constructivist): What is deferred imitation?
The repetition of other people’s behavior a substantial time after it occured
Piaget’s Theory (constructivist): What is SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATION (developed in preoperational stage)?
The use of one object to stand for another
-Once learned, makes a variety of new behaviors possible
Piaget’s Theory (constructivist): What is EGOCENTRISM (developed in preoperational stage)?
Tendency to perceive the world solely from one’s own point of view
Piaget’s Theory (constructivist): What is CENTRATION (developed in preoperational stage)?
Tendency to focus on a single, perceptually striking feature of an object or event
Piaget’s Theory (constructivist): What is CONSERVATION CONCEPT (not present in preoperational stage)?
Idea that merely changing the appearance of objects does not change their key properties
Piaget’s Theory (constructivist): WHat is the Inhelder and Piaget’s Pendulum problem?
Objective: Compare the motions of longer and shorter strings, with lighter and heavier weights attached to determine the influence of weight and string length and dropping point on the time it takes pendulum to swing back and forth.
Result: Children age 12 and under perform unsystematic experiments and draw incorrect conclusions
Piaget’s Theory (constructivist): What are weaknesses in his theory?
- Stage model depicts children’s thinking as being more consistent than it is
- Infant and young children are more cognitively competent than Piaget recognized
- Theory understates the contribution of the social world to cognitive development
- Theory is vague about the cognitive processes that give rise to children’s thinking about the mechanisms that produce cognitive growth.
Piaget’s Theory (constructivist): What does it imply about eduation?
- Children’s distinctive ways of thinking at dif ages need to be considered in deciding how best to teach them
- Children learn by mentally and physically interacting with the environment, relevant physical activities, accompanied by questions that call attention to the less of the activities
Information-Processing Theory: What are some distinct features of this theory?
- Task Analysis
- Helps information-processing researchers understand and predict children’s behavior - Emphasis on thinking as a process that occurs OVER TIME
- Emphasis on structure (organization of cognitive system)
- Emphasis on processes (specific mental activities)
Information-Processing Theory: What is its view of the nature of children?
- Undergo continuous change (constantly occurring not in specific stages and occurs in small increments, not abruptly)
- Child is a limited-capacity processing system
- Child is like a COMPUTATION SYSTEM
- Child cog development is due to child gradually surmounting their processing limitations through:
a. increased efficiency in executing basic processes
b. expanding memory capacity
c. acquisition of new strategies and knowledge - Child= Active Problem Solver
- Problem Solving= a goal, perceived obstacle, strategy or rule
- Cognitive FLEXIBILITY helps them pursue their goals
Information-Processing Theory: What are central development issues focused on in this theory?
- How nature and nurture work together to produce development
- How change occurs
Information-Processing Theory: What are the components of the memory system?
Components of Memory System:
- Sensory Memory
- sights, sounds and other sensations that’re just entering the cog system and are briefly held in raw form until they’re identified - Working Memory (Short Term Memory)
- info from the environment and relevant knowledge are brought together, attended to, and actively processed - Long-Term Memory
- Information retained on an enduring basis
Components differ in info capacity and retention time.
Information-Processing Theory: What are the limitations of each component of the memory system?
- Sensory Memory
- Can hold average amount of info for a fraction of a second
- Capacity is relatively constant over most of development - Working Memory (STM)
- Capacity and speed of operation increase as you age
- Capacity and duration are limited - Long-Term Memory
- Retain an unlimited amount of info indefinitely
- Content amount increases as you age
Information-Processing Theory: What are basic processes?
The simplex and most frequently used processes in mental activities
- associating events with one another
- recognizing objects as familiar
- recalling facts and procedures
- generalizing from one instance to another
- encoding
Information-Processing Theory: What is encoding?
Def: process of representing in memory info specific features of objects and events
- people encode info that draws their attention or that they consider important
- fail to encode a great deal of other info
- some crucial info (ex. data on relative frequency of events) are encoded automatically
- depends on processing speed, mental strategies, content knowledge
Information-Processing Theory: What is processing speed?
The speed with which you execute basic processes
-Speed increases as you age due to an increase in myelination and increased connectivity among brain regions
Information-Processing Theory: What are mental strategies?
Strategies that allow you to remember better
- Rehearsal: process of repeating info over and over to aid memory
- Selective Attention: process of intentionally focusing on info that is most relevant to the current goal
Information-Processing Theory: What is content knowledge?
Knowledge you already know that you can use to put new info in context
Type:
-Autobiographical Memory: knowledge of the events of one’s life
- Infantile Amnesia: no remembrance of events that occurred when you were less than 3 yrs old
- verbal encoding of convos with parents and physiological maturation seem to be involved
Information-Processing Theory: Define overlapping-waves theory.
Children use a variety of approaches to solve problems and benefit from this strategic variability
-As grow older, successful use of strategies becomes more prevalent
Information-Processing Theory: Why do many children fail to plan in situations in which they would benefit from doing so?
- Frontal lobe (part involved in planning) is one of the last parts of brain to mature
- young children tend to be over-optimistic and incorrectly believe that they can succeed without planning
What is the sociocultural approach to child development?
Guided Participation
-process in which more knowledgeable individuals organize activities in ways that allow less knowledgeable people to engage in them at a higher level tan they could manage on their own
Cultural Tools
-use of present interactions that occur in sociocultural context that enhance thinking
Sociocultural Theory: What is Les Vygotsky’s view of children cog development?
Children Nature:
-social beings intertwined with other people who are eager to help them gain skills and understanding
Cog Development
- Continuous
- Change is qualitative rather than quantitative
Information-Processing Theory: What is private speech?
Second phase of Vygotsky’s internalization of thought process
-Children develop their self-regulation and problem-solving ability by telling themselves what to do
Information-Processing Theory: How are children products of of their culture?
- May of the processes that produce development are the same in all societies
- HOWEVER the content that children learn vary greatly from culture to culture
Information-Processing Theory: Define Intersubjectivity
- The mutual understanding that people share during communication
- Includes joint attention
Information-Processing Theory: Define joint attention
Process in which social partners intentionally focus on a common referent in the external environment
Information-Processing Theory: Define social scaffolding
Process in which more competent people provide a temporary framework that supports children’s thinking at a higher level than children could mange on their own
-Qualities of scaffolding that people provide tends to increase a special become older and gain experience
