Exam 2 Flashcards
Developmental Patterns (Prenatal)-
Production: The Neural Tube
Migration: Movement Within the Neural Tube
Aggregation: Gathering of neurons
Differentiation: distinctions in functions
Connections: making synapses
Formation: creation of brain region
Growth: further dev. Of regions
Developmental Patterns (Postnatal)-
Quadrillions of connections within 2 years.
Growth of axons
Growth cone: looks for particular proteins
Growth of dendrites
Transient Exuberance– The great but temporary increase in the number of dendrites that develop in an infant’s brain during the first two years of life.
Synaptogenesis- Formation of synapses
from 2,500 neuron connections at birth to 15,000 at six months. This decreases as we age due to neural pruning
Highest rate: first 6-8 years (6-10 highest density), plateaus, and then decreases
Motor cortex: 2 months old
Visual cortex: 3 months old
Prefrontal Cortex: 6 months old
Hippocampus: 8 months old
Myelination– Growth of myelin sheath, especially in the cortex
Increased Lateralization and Specialization of the cortex
left hemisphere
reading, writing, speaking, arithmetic reasoning, logic, and understanding
Right hemisphere
Perceiving and expressing emotion, recognizing faces, copying drawings, spatial relations, intuition, recognizing melodies.
spatial relations: being able to imagine objects in space–video games, etc.
Pruning
unused connections in brain die – brain then can develop in accordance with sociocultural context. stimulation increases strength of connection.
timing: greatest amount of pruning appears to be between 10 and 18 years
result: Simpler structure, more efficient, quicker response time
neural plasticity
brain capacity for modification and reorganization
method 1: Write itself with new synapses: if neurons destroyed- nearby neurons may make new connections to replace old ones
method 2: Select new uses for pre-wired circuits: area of brain damaged other areas may reorganize and take over functions
timing: decreases over time; especially after age 11
Abuse:
Physical injury to the brain: shaking or dropping infant- brain trauma;
shaken baby syndrome-motion that ruptures blood vessels in brain and breaks neural connections death or life long intellectual impairments are consequences
Overproduction of stress hormone cortisol
May inhibit synaptogenesis
May result in smaller hippocampus (involved in memory)
-May increase activity of locus coeruleus (involved in vigilance and arousal)
Neglect:
infants of depressed mothers.
reduced activity in the left frontal lobe- related to positive emotions
key factor: emotional tone of exchanges between mother and infant.
Experience -dependant brain functions
brain functions depend on particular variable experiences and therefore may or may not develop in particular infant
Experience-Expectant brain functions
Brain functions require certain basic common experiences (which an infant can be expected to have) in order to develop normally
EX: Every baby needs at least one steady caregiver (experience-expectant): Without that stability the brain might not develop normal emotional responses.
Motor skills:
learned abilities to move some part of the body (any movement ability)
Gross motor skills:
physical abilities involving large body movements ex: jumping and walking Dynamic system of motor skills: muscle strength brain maturation practice
Fine motor skills:
physical abilities involving small body movements
ex: moving hands and fingers (picking up a coin)
motor skills sequence
sensation-perception-cognition
Factors influencing growth`
experience, time, and motivation
sensory capacities
hearing, taste, smell, touch, temperature, pain, vision
hearing
Discriminates sounds based on loudness, duration, direction, and frequency
prefer mother’s voice to other women
sensitive to phonemes, even better than adults
taste and smell
prefer sweet over sour. , recognize mother by smell (if breast fed)
touch, temperature, and pain:
Touch enhances development and allows exploration of environment. Babies can be comforted by touch. Some experiences that are painful for adults (circumcision, setting of a broken bone) are much less so to newborns.
vision:
Least well developed sense. can see patterns, colors, and motion, can see as well as adults by 12 months. Depth perception demonstrated at 3 months old.
Perceptual capacity
interpretation of what is sensed
methods used to test it:
- The preference (attention) method: discriminate between stimuli
- The Habituation method: familiarity leads to a lack of response
Dishabituation: response to new stimuli
- The method of evoked potentials: present stimulus & record brain waves (dif stimuli produce dif brain Wave patterns )
- The high-amplitude sucking method: rate of sucking on a pacifier controls presentation of a stimuli, shows preference and discrimination
-has to do with infants responsiveness to sound and sucking
immunization:
Causes antibodies to defend against attack by a particular disease
breast is best:
provides antibodies and decreases allergies. essential nutrients for the brain and body
colostrum: a thick, high-calorie fluid secreted by the mother’s breast at birth. After 3 days, the breast produces milk
malnutrition:
person doesn’t consume sufficient food of any kind
results→ stunting growth and wasting (severely underweight)
Head-sparing: A biological mechanism that protects the brain when malnutrition disrupts body growth. The brain is the last part of the body to be damaged by malnutrition
Stunting- The failure of children to grow to a normal height for their age due to severe and chronic malnutrition.
Wasting- The tendency for children to be severely underweight for their age as a result of malnutrition.
Chronically malnourished infants and children suffer in three additional ways:
Their brain may not develop normally.
Malnourished children have no body reserves to protect them against common disease.
Some diseases result directly from malnutrition
Injury prevention (3 levels)
primary prevention: Overall situation is structured to make harm less likely (reduces everyone’s chance of injury)
ex. Sidewalks, speed bumps
secondary prevention Averting harm in high-risk individuals
ex. school crossing guards avert harm from kids
tertiary prevention: After an injury occurs (limiting damage)
ex. law against hit and runs
Assumptions
individual is active, curious, and inventive
the factors that influence development (below) are related to cognitive growth
Intelligence:
a basic life function that helps the organism to adapt to its environment
Factors that influence development
maturation of N.S
physical experience
social interaction
Nature of development-
cognitive development changes over life span in stages (discontinuous fashion)
sensorimotor period: 0 - 2 Way infants think by using senses and motor skills, reflexes (I see, I act)
Sensory=feeling; motor=acting
preoperations: 2-7 (Transitional Stage) (Before logical thinking→ operations = logical thinking). Basic language
the ability to picture words and images in your head and use them to problem solve
concrete operations: 7-12 (Simple here and now logic (ex. math)
thinking logically
only concrete thoughts
formal operations: 12+ (Formal/Abstract Logic)
hypothetical thought
postformal operations: 18+?
Research Methods
observations of natural behavior
clinical (interview) method:
Interview with child about some problem or task
Child’s responses to each question or problem determines what the interviewer asks next.
questions not always standardized across children
Dimensions of Cognition
content, structure (schema), & function
1) content: Current thoughts, actions. What is occupying your thoughts right now
2) structure (schema): an organized pattern of thought or action that one constructs to interpret some aspect of one’s experience (strategy or a concept)
Behavioral: action. Ex: While we drive we don’t have to think about every move we make, we just drive.
Cognitive (Mental Representation): images, words. All the words and definitions of words in our heads.
Operational: logical connections among schema. Logical sequence you follow to do something. EX: When we get on our computers we just know the logical sequence of how to get on the web and log on to Facebook. We don’t have to think about every little step
3) function: (organization, adaptation)
Organization: an inborn tendency to combine and integrate schema into coherent systems or bodies of knowledge
Adaptation: an inborn tendency to adjust to the demands of the environment
Organization & Adaptation (Assimilation & Accommodation)
assimilation (organize): Process of making new information fit existing schema (knowledge structures) Ex. Toddler sees a lion and assumes it is a kitty
accommodation (adapt): Process of developing new schema or modifying old schema in order to incorporate or adapt to new experiences Ex. Toddler sees a lion and identifies it as a lion not a kitty