Exam 2 Flashcards
What are Jean Piaget’s 4 stages?
Sensory motor
Preoperational
Concrete Operational
Formal Operational
Explain the Sensorimotor Stage proposed by piaget:
Timeframe: birth to 2 years
Huge variety of new sensory experiences
Core facets of intelligence expressed through experimentation with developing motor faculties
Examples: Tracking objects visually, Grasping objects with near hands, placing objects in mouth, turning head towards sound.
Piaget Suggests that infants cognitive deficits are mostly do to object permanence.
Explain the Preoperational Stage proposed by Piaget:
Timeframe: 2-7 years
This is where kids start to develop imagination.
Interaction with worl not limited to physical movements. (Developement of symbolic representations)
In this stage, they focus on a single feature among many when making decisions about objects (like thinking that the taller glass has more water when the shorter glass is fatter.
A notable deficit here is that they have difficulty in perceiving the world from another’s point of view. ( video of the kid saying what he sees on the hill thing)
Explain the Concrete Operational stage:
Timeframe: 7 years and 12 years old
here they start to be able to consider multiple dimensions/ point of views.
Difficulty with abstract reasoning and hypotheticals
Explain the Formal operational stage:
Timeframe: 12 years to an undertermined age
this is where they are able to think abstractly and reason hypothetically
what are some Caveats to Piaget?
- Children’s mental stratagies do not generalize across problem types within a given stage
- Infants struggles with object permanence may be overstated by measurment technique
- Underestimates impact of the social world
- Doesn’t explain the underlying cognitive processes or mechanisms of change.
Infants as little as three months old will still look at the object under the towel.
a lot of things are also teachable and probably not a mental deficit, would just need to be experienced.
One really good thing that Piaget is good at is describing what things look like
Explain information Processing
Child has a limited-capacity processing system
- Multiple memory systems subserved by multiple disparate regions of the brain
- Working Memory
- Severe capacity limit—- give or take 3 to 4 items
10-12 years olds tend to struggle lots with working memory
what are some sources of variability in information processing?
Ecoding & retrieval
strategy use
speed of processing
selective attention
content knowledge
Explain Core Knowledge:
” Children must have specialized language learning mechanisms to grasp the immense syntactic complexity of language”
through evolution our brains are made for learning (natural selection for adaptable brains, Hard-wiring behaviour = no variability based on human universals of experience)
children learn language incredibly quick
Explain Dynamic Systems:
Developement does not occur in a bubble
each developmental changes impact the way a child interfaces with their own environment
Crucial to consider with the acquisition of new skills in development
what is the Nativist view on Nature and Nurture?
Experience allows us to grow our knowledge
Nature:
Children are born with innate knowledge
-Grammar, objects, time & spase, causality, number & the human mind (basic things the brain can do)
Children have specialized learning mechinisms to acquire this knowledge
Nurture:
Experiences shape knowledge beyond the initial level that all children are born with (but initial knowledge is present at birth)
What is the Empiricist View
We need to experience things to acquire knowledge.
Nature:
Children are born with general learning machanisms to acquire knowledge ( ability to perceive, make associations between objects, generalize, remember
Nurture:
Exposure to different experiences results in knowledge about various topics. (grammar, time & space, causality, number & the human mind)
Perceptual categorization:
grouping objects with similar appearance
by 3-4 months, infants categorize along numerous dimensions (color, shape, size, movement)
May also categorize based on the prominent feature or function (presence or absence of legs)
Explain Categorical Hierarchies:
Children use cause and effect to make categories of things.
what helps children aged 4-5 years old to identify wugs?
if you told them what their features were for
explain Naive psychology:
an understanding of other people & oneself
major developments in infancy: joint attention, intentionality, understanding others emotions
what is the nativist view of naive psychology?
children born with intrinsic understanding of human psychology
what is the empiricist view of Naive Psychology?
experiences with other people & processing capacities influence how we understand others’ actions
At what age can a child connect beliefs and action? but yet still struggle with false-belief problems?
by three years and continues to improve up to 5 years of age
what is the Nativist view of theory of mind?
theory of mind module develops in 1st 5 years
- Amygdala, brainstem atypical in Autism
what is the Empiricist view of Theory of Mind?
More interaction & experience with other
- children with siblings develop ToM earlier
- particularly if older siblings of opposit sex
Increased general processing skills
- Improved complex reasoning
- Ability to inhibit one’s own reactions
what percentage of children report having an imaginary friend?
63% of children report imaginary friend at 3-4 years, 7-8 years, or both
-30% of children 3-7 years
what are some characteristics of kids with imaginary friends?
More likely to be the first born or only-child
watch relitively little tv
Verbally skillful
Advanced Theory of Mind
explain egocentric representations:
Coding of object location relative to self without regard to surroundings
Self-locomotion improves understanding of space beyond one’s self
Use of landmarks helps navigating through space
-development of spatial skills depends on cultural importance
By what age do infants gain the ability to replicate the other of events shown in a series of two pictures?
12 months
what age can infants replicate the order of events shown in a series of three pictures?
20 months
what memory systems come online first in children?
Implicit and Procedural
sense of duration starts at about what age ?
4 months
how did the study the sense of duration in infants?
through observing their change in heartrate.
Their heartrate goes up just before the light goes off as if they are predicting that the light will shut
What kind of sense of duration can preschoolers discriminate from?
weeks / months
precision with time discrimination continues to develop into middle childhood
when do kids develop the ability to understand and think of past and future ?
by the age of 6, by this time passage of time almost adult like
- likely related to class experience
what do children rely on to understand why physical and psychological events occur?
causality, children and adults have better understanding of psychological than physical causality: we can tell you why someone would change the channel better than we can describe how the remote works.
would a child have better recall for events with a causal relationship or a non-causal relationship?
causal, we are more interested in things that have an actual cause
when do magi tricks become interesting for kids?
at about 5 years old
preschoolers expect ______ in cause-effect relationship.
consistency
understanding of numeracy happens at what age?
trick question, it varies across culture and language.
wha is working memory’s capacity limit for infants about 5-6 months?
1-3 items
if the numbers are large, young infants (6 months) can discriminate between what?
between sets of numbers with a 2:1 ratio, more precise with age. Numeracy for large numbers develops earlier than for small numbers
by three years old, how high can most children count to?
10
1-to-1 correspondence:
each object can only have a single nubered label
Stable order:
recited in same order (numbers go from 1-10)
Cardinality:
number= last of the set
Order irrelevance
“you’ll have the same number of objects, no matter what order you count them in”
Abstraction:
anything can be counted
which culture would have a difference in the rate at which children can learn?
china, their numbers are quicker to say therefore easier for a child to remember
what is general intelligience?
Aspect of intelligence that is tapped into whenever intelligence is measured.
Influences ability to think & learn
Correlated with :
- Academic performance
- Speed of processing
- Speed of brain functions
- Brain volume
what is fluid intelligence ?
ability to think & problem solve in the moment.
Correlated with:
- Ability to learn
- Speed of processing
- Working memory capacity
- Attentional control
- Size of the cortex
- prefrontal & parietal functions during attention and problem solving tasks
What is Crystalized intelligence?
Factual knowledge about the world
Reflects long-term memory
- Vocabulary
- Math Facts
- Periodic table
Closely related to language ability
Hippocampus crucial to this type of intelligence
what is the Three-Stratum Theory?
so basically there’s general intelligence that breaks down into Moderately general abilities which then break down into specific processes. (like a big diagram that breaks down)
Hierarchical model (Carrol, 1993; 2005) : -g influences all moderately general abilities and bot g and moderately general abilities influence the specific processes
Conclusion: Intelligence involves all three levels
- intelligence is likely one, a few, and many factors all together
what are the pros and cons of intelligence tests?
Pros:
Better than alternatives at predicting outcomes
valuable for deciding about special education needs
relatively bias free
Cons:
Doesn’t capture the compexity of intelligence
tests are culturally biased
reducing one’s intelligence to a single number is over-simplified and ethically questionable
language questions nut utilized until children typically have language skills
WISC-IV: Wechsler Intelligence Scale for children 4th edition:
Relfects Carrol’s three-stratum theory
provides an overall score and separate scores for moderately general abilities
heavily involve working memory and attention skills in these types of spacial tests
Intelligence Quotient (IQ):
Overall measure relative to same-aged children
Based on a normative distribution
- 68% of scores fall between 85-115 IQ
- 95% of scores fall between 70-130 IQ
Highly stable over time:
-Scores across time highly correlated
Changes occur due to:
- Randomness
- Alertness on testing days
- Knowledge of specific items
- Environmental factors
- Change in household make up
- Change in neighborhood
Intelligence Quotient (IQ) as a predictive factor:
IQ shown to predict:
- Academic outcomes
- School success
- Long-term achievement
- Achievement test scores
- Occupational success
Childhood environment
Self-discipline:
ability to inhibit actions, follow rules, avoid impulsive reactions.
Practice Intelligence:
ability to read other’s emotions, Intentions
Genetic Influences on IQ:
Correlations between genes and IQ increase with age , likely because aspects of genetic influence realized in adolescence.
With age, children interact more with their own interests
_______ has more of an effect early in like on IQ and _____ have more of an influence later in life
Environment, Genes
Passive effects of genotype :
effect due to overlap between parent and child genotypes
Evocative effects of genotype:
effects due to childrens influence on other’s behavior
Active effects of genotype:
effects due to a child choosing an environment that the enjow
What are families influence on IQ
householde environment correlates highly with IQ
-BUT… parents & children also share genes
Environment accounts for higher degree of variability in IQ than genetics in children from lower SES Households
-opposite patter seen in higher SES children
Environment is more correlated in IQ for lower SES children
School Influence on IQ
Iq increases with greater academic experience
-Children in higher grades have higher IQ scores, even if they are the same age
IQ scores are higher during the school year than they are during the summer. (Especially in lower SES children)
Societal Influence in IQ:
Average IQ has risen over the past 75 years
-10 pts in the US and give or take 20 points in the Netherlands
Largest change in lowest IQ scores
- this could be due to better health care, nutrition, & education
- Countries with high equality —fewest change in IQ scores
Teaching to the test also helps
SES influences on IQ
Potential factors:
-Nutrition, health care, parenting, intelectual stimulation, emotional support. stress levels
Greater societal inequality–greater difference between lower and higher SES outcomes
risk factors and IQ
worse environment is associated to worse outcomes.
What is Language?
Comprehension : Understanding what others say, sign, or white
Production : Speaking, signing, or writing to others
Language Localization:
language production is highly localized in the brain
Hemispheric:
- In most right-handers —left hemisphere
- In 10-15% of left-handers—Right hemisphere
Specific aspects locolized within left hemisphere
- Brocas area: Speech production (fluency)
- Wernicker’s area: Language comprehension
Sensitive periods
After certain periods in developement, it is very difficult to achieve native-like languages processing
different aspects of language have different sensitive periods
Phonology sensitive period:
Within first 9 months (Weker and colleagues
Grammar sensitive periods:
within the first three years (Nevville & colleagues)
Semantics sensitive periods:
learnable throughout life (Neville & colleagues)
Infant directed speech “Motherese” occurs in almost all cultures, what is it?
Emotional tone (often described as sweet)
Exaggerated vocal pitch
Exaggerated prosody
Slower rate of speech (& longer pause time)
Often exaggerated facial expressions
Explain Phonology:
Phoneme: small unit of sound with meaning
- English has 34 distinct sounds
- Different sounds made by moving lips, jaw, toungue, vocal folds, & larynx
Combine phonenes to create morphemes (AKA words)
stage 1 of babbling:
0-8 weeks
Reflexive crying & vegetative sounds
- Cry burp, cough, sneeze
- Larynx high in neck; toungue fills oral cavity
- Allows infants to breathe & swallow simultaneously, but dificult to make sounds
Stage 2:
8-20 weeks
Cooing & laughter
-Pleasant sounds, especially durring social interactions (mostly vowels)
- Crying becomes more a sign of distress
- Sustained laughter begins
stage 3:
16 to 30 weeks
Vocal play
- transition from cooing to true babbling
- Begin to utter single syllables (ba ga)
- Vowels and consonant sounds
Stage 4:
25-50 weeks
Reduplicated babbling
- “true babling appears (mamamamama)
- CV patterns repeated with pitch variations
- Both in social setting and when alone
Stage 5:
9-18 months
Variegated babbling )non-repeated syllables “badayaga”
Sounds as though the infant is carying on a conversation
how long do congenitally deaf babies balle?
go through the first three stages
stages 4 onward is experienced based
Explain joint attention:
Critrical for communication
Early, child established while adult comments
6 months: infants follow adult gaze
9 months: infants follow adults pointing
11-12 months: infants can point themselves
about 2 years: infants intentionally direct attention
Phonology : Developement 2 years old, 6 years old and 9 years old:
2 years old : Pronouce 10-20 consonants
By 6 years old: mostly vowels & consonants
By 9 years old: can produce all sounds of their language correctly (75% of the time)
“Phonology: Awareness”
Around what age do kids realize that words are made of individual sounds
preeschool aged
- recognize syllables
- recognize word-initial sounds ( /k/ in “cat”)
- Learning to rhyme
- Identifying individual phonemes
what is Morphology
Morpheme: small language unit with meaning
- cannot be divided
- often appear in many different words
- Use is rule-based
What is a free morpheme:
stand alone (ex; fire, dog,grass)
what is a bound morpheme?
Cannot stand alone (ex; a-, un-, ed-, ness)
Explain the development of Morphology?
Children apply morphological rules widely
-and often incorrectly
Overgeneralization errors begin around 20 months; last until about 5 years
Ex; Walked, talked –> Taked Runned Goed
what is the Flynn effect?
where the average IQ has risen over the past 75 years, where the largest change is in the lowest IQ scores
What is the simon effect?
Reaction times are faster and more accurate to stimuli presented in the same relative location as the response
Explain what semantics are:
Meaning of words & the ways words relate
largely focus on vocabulary acquisition
What are on of the first words learned?
childs own name
By what timeframe do children recognize their own name?
4.5 months
what is infant directed speech?
where there is a distinct separation of words so that the child can have an easier time noticing which words are being said
when does semantic comprehension begin?
8-10 months
starts with basic commands
gestures important to vocabulary acquisition
when is the first word typically spoken?
at 1 year
what is required in semantic production?
requires knowledge of word + ability to produce in a way that an adult understand
how many words are learnt per month for the first little bit?
8-11 words
how many words would an infant know by 18 months?
about 50
Explain the semantics vocabulary spurt:
Rapid growth in vocabulary knowledge & learning from 18 months to 6 years
- 22-37 new words/ months
- Typically learning nouns (people, toys, foods)
- Also, social interaction words (Hi, Bye)
why does the vocabulary spurt happen?
learning that words refer to objects
learning that concept of categorization
leveraged learning
adults influence on experience
although vocabulary grows over lifespan, rate of growth peaked around :
20 months
Explain the human speechome project:
Caregivers tended to use words in shorter sentences as the child learned the word
mean utterance length decreased before word appeared in childs vocabulary
what is the difference between semantics and sintax
Semantics is something that occurs over your whole life and it takes effort vs sintax is something you learn automatically and requires less effort and you also learn it early in life
what are the differences/ similarities of verb tense as a function of Autism?
similar usage of verb tense
Autistic kid as productive, if not more so with usage of verb tense
autistic use of verb tense markers less consistent than normal kid
Syntac development at 2-2.5 years of age:
start producing more complex sentences
starting to put 4 or more words together
Syntax development at 3 years:
begin connecting ideas with “and”
Syntax development at 4 years:
most children use complex sentences using “if” “because” “until” “while”
Syntax development at 5 years:
largely developed language at this point but still some development continuing into school age
Syntax development at 6-7 years:
grammar generally adult like
what are holophrases?
one word sentences with the meaning of a sentence “juice!” could mean “hey mother, I would like some juice feed me”
what is telegraphic speecch?
utterances that leave out the little words
discrete emotions:
emotions are innate, (the look on a kids face for “Yummm” and “Yuck”
what are the three basic systems of emotion?
joy/ pleasure
Anger/Frustration
Wariness/fear
what refines emotion?
social experience
what is the basic function of emotion?
Basic function of emotion is is to acheive a goal in a specific context: Fear—> leave situation—> self-preservation
when does smiling emerge?
2-3 weeks… we see smiling in a childs sleep
3-8 weeks… see smiling in social interactions
4-5 weeks seeing smiles directed at others
by 7 months, smiles directed particularly at familiar people, unfamiliar people at 7 months could elicit a fear response
Negative emotions in infancy:
1st negative emotion are to hunger and pain
by two moths: differentiate between anger/sadness
by 4 months: wariness of unfamiliar objects/ events
by 6-7 months, fear of strangers appear
what are the self-concious emotions?
Embaressment, guilt, shame, pride
