infancy Flashcards
babies vision at birth
babies have poor vision and eye focus and have a visual acuity of 1/30th the level of an adult improves in first 6 months
spontaneous visual preference test babies
- infants presented two visual stimuli, spaced out in the left and right visual field
- lead to preferential looking
- which stimulus do they look at the longest and then find most interesting
Frantz findings
face, jumbled face, contrast control, infants prefer face at 5 days olds suggesting a preference for faces
bushnell findings
Infants just 12 hours old found to prefer looking at their mother’s face than a stranger’s , could be that there was a smell they prefered rather than mothers face
when do infants get central vision?
2months
do infants prefer more attractive faces
- 2 month olds and newborns look longer at attractive faces (Langois et al., 1991; Slater et al 1998).
- Infants may be drawn to these as they reflect a prototype.
- Innate facial recognition.
why can a 6 month baby tell the difference between primates but 9 month cannot?
9 month baby couldnt tell the difference but a baby of 6 months could because they have loads of sysnapses more than what we dont use, the ones we dont use die tahts why ten months coulndt
in what ways can habituation be used as a diagnostic tool?
- Birth difficulties can result in slower habituation - may indicate neurological defects.
- Early habituation speed predicts later IQ after up to 10 years (Bornstein & Sigman, 1986).
- Visual recognition memory (degree of preference for novelty) predicts IQ at age 11 (Rose & Feldman,1985).
when do infants show interest in unnatural events?
they do show interest at 7 months but not at 5
what is Baillargeon Drawbridge task
- infants familiarised with event of of a flap roatating on the table 180*
- there was a possible and impossible event
- possible = flap roatated but stopped when met cube
- impossible = goes full 180*
- 3 and a half months could pick up on it
how is high amplitude sucking used in habituation
- Sucking an innate reflex.
- Infants can vary rate and pressure at which they suck.
- Dummy is connected to a pressure transducer.
- When it reaches a predetermined level a stimulus appears.
- Can be used in habituation procedures.
at what age do people fail the drawbridge task?
3 months
at what age can infants differentiate between phonemes
2 months old they can differentiate between bat and pat
at what age can japanaese infants difernetiate between sounds
6-8
ra and la
evidence of transnatal learning
- newborns prefere - mothers voice
- newborns remeber stories heard in the womb - react more too them
- HR responds to sounds at 12 weeks gestation
what is high density event related potentials
- Involves placing ‘geodesic net’ composed of large number of electrodes onto head.
- Sensors pick up the natural electrical changes at the scalp as groups of neurons are activated within the brain.
- Infants’ brains show more widespread activation when presented a face than adults – evidence gradual specialisation and pruning of connections with development.
neural basis for caregiving
there are biological mechanisms that give us an inclination to care more for a child even if there no biological relationship
explanation of neotified
found that people would have a more positive response to babified, cute things. making products more appealing.
infant smile before on month
Before 1 month, infants’ smiles are reflexive not in a social context
when do babies start to smile in social contexts
1-2 months
when infants use smiling as a means to get something else
8 months they start to use smiling in order to build attachments
can babies smile before birth
yes evidence for prenatal smiling at 24-26 weeks gestation
what is considered complex emotions
an emotion that arise from having a sense of self
what is michael lews cognitive arributational model
- cognitive-attributional model of the self conscious emotions:
- emotions depend on cogntive ability
- Self conscious emotions require sense of self (embarssment, jealousy, empathy, shame etc)
mirror self recognition task - whgen do they start to pass?
nfants given red dot on head, look in mirror, can teh ysee that the dot is on them, 12-24 months they start to pass this test.
do young infants experience complex emotions
coy smile
Mothers play with babies in front of the mirror, infants would stare at babies in the mirror then show these smiles. perceived as shy, or embarrassed, these don’t necessarily mean complex and sense of self
in 2-4 month babies
children with someone in mirror study
80 babies, 4 conditions, no self-reflection and reflection, child on its own or with someone, mirror = smiling increases = increases the most with stranger, representing need to explore and interact with the world?
when do babies show jealousy
6 month year old, negagtivity when mothers were positive towards a doll rather than a book
when did piaget say babies are jealous
8 months
is crying a social signal?
- could just be for homeostasis
- highest at 6 weeks
- crying isnt common in all culturs and no negatives of this
Field experiment
babies 36 hours old, live model of face and babies mirrored the behaviour - doesnt necessarily mean they understood the expression
emotions and actions, happy and not, being nice to teddy or not.
how often do infants cry in first weeks ?
1- 3 hours per day in the first 6 weeks of life.
3 patterns Schaffer (1971
- 3 patterns Schaffer (1971) recognized by mothers:
- Basic (e.g. hunger) starts arhythmically, builds up.
- Mad/angry: with phases varying in length.
- Pain: sudden onset, long loud cry-breath holding.
proto conversations
- infants orientate their eyes to someone eslse and this is reciprocated at 6 weeks to learn about the world
- pre-speech lip, movements, hand getsure and coos
- tronick still face procedure, 2m old infants play with mum then mum stops face and baby cries to try get her attention.
reasons for gesturing
- reducing anxiety
- help understand others
- to help us think
- to increase affiliation between us and the listener
what is a gesture?
- emblem isn’t considered, these are consciously known and understood, for example a wave. some can be culturally specific.
- sign language isn’t really considered a gesture
dietic gestures
pointing can be concrete or abstract
iconic and semantic gestures
gestures can mislead children, children had to watch a robbery then asked children questions and children (3-6) reported false information when gestures mislead them
metaphoric gestures
- maths and spelling is abstract (cognitive)
- beat gestures used by politicians
vgotsky
- they learn via response associations
- For example:
- Infant reaches towards something they want, the mother interprets this as the infant signaling, and gives them the item.
- Through repeated experience, the infant learns that this gesture (e.g., reaching or pointing) elicits a certain response (e.g., acquiring the object).
- Speech and gestures and tightly coupled that helps them learn and give insights into the language system
when does babbling start?
6 months 40%
does babbling occur with hadn movements
75% together
chidlren born with deeaf parents babbling
- Hand babbling increased
- delay in language development
- babbling is a linguistic act since children with deaf parents babble with their hands more
- study —> things strapped to hands, tracked hand movements and found that the deaf group did gestures close to their body as sign language users do
what age does word comprehension, deictic gestures (pointing) and culturally derived gesture routines (waving hello) begin?
around 8-10 months
what is an imperative point?
imperative get the adult to do something
what is a declaritive point?
getting the adult to know something
- to help look for objects
- to let others know their thoughts
at one year what gesture do infant do more of
impertaive
what does pointing tell us about infants?
1.They want others to feel things: expressive declaratives for sharing emotions and attitudes about things.
2.They want others to know things: informative declaratives for helping others by providing them with needed or desirable information.
3.They want others to do things: imperatives or requestives (either more individualistic or more co-operative) for asking others to help them in attaining goals.
at what age do infants do symbolic play?
around 12 months infants start using things in the environment, symbolic play, drinking from empty cup, holding bannana as a phone
evidence for cultural differences in gestures
america vs itally
- American children produced very few symbolic gestures compared to their high production of pointing gestures.
- Italian children produced as many symbolic gestures as points.
- Symbolic gestures of American children were typically conventional (e.g. No, All-Gone).
- Gestures of the Italian children referred to:
Objects (wiggling nose for RABBIT).
Actions (empty hand to mouth for EAT).
Characteristics (waving hands for HOT).
(Iverson, Capirci, Volterra & Goldin-Meadow, 2008).
hydrocephalus
brain CT scan of a white collar worker, he had hydrocephalus as a baby (water on the brain), neural plasticity allowed him to survive
what effect did zeka virus have on infants
abnormal skull - below average head size - brain doesnt grow at normal rate - microcephraly
what affect did chernobyl have on new borns
babies born with abnormalities and a peak of down syndroyme
what are the three prenatal stage?
zygote stage, embryonic, fetal
what is zygote (germinal stage) stage
- wo weeks after conception
- proceeds down fallopian tube, rapid cell division, implants in wall of uterus
- placenta forms to provide oxygen and nutrients and removes waste
what is embryonic stage?
- 3-8 weeks
- the amniotic sac, placenta and umbilical develop
- the core of our bodies start to develop
- hindbrain (subfunctions) - mid brain - forebrain (cerebral cortex) 90% optimsise SA sulki and the folds, 20% of our weight in the womb
what are the three layers of embryo?
- endoderm - organs
- mesoderm - muscles skeletons
- ectoderm - sensory cells, nervous system. neurulation - formation of neural tube and neural crest, foundation of the brain
describe birth of neurons
o have 100 billion neurons we need mass neural proliferation: on average about 250,000 new neurons are added every minute
neurogenesis - birth of cells
neurons develop from neural cells and progenitor cells
birth = most neurons
most neurons present at 25 weeks
Cellular development
glial cells - surround and protect the neurons
neural migration - cells migrate to parts of the brain - where they develop specialised structure
myelination - cells are insulated in a fatty sheath improving synaptogenesis
synaptogenesis - the forming of synapses begining in early prenatal life
what cells surround and protect neurons
glial
when is the most critical period of gestation for development
2-24 weeks of gestation - severe developmental problems - caused by viral infections and genetic abnormalities / insufficient blood supply
what is the foetal stage/
rapid development of muscles and nervous sytem
when do all body parts devlop
3rd month
by what month have reflexes like sucking and swalling have developed
5 months
at what month can eye open
6 months
at what time do babies have a chance of surviving premature birth
22 – 26 weeks = the age of viability – the fetus’s physical systems are advanced enough that it has a chance to survive if born prematurely.
descibe sleep in the womb
- 7 months most time sleeping
- every 20-40 minutes will alternate between REM and non-REM sleep
- yawning
what two processes reduce neurons and connecting fibres?
synaptic pruning
programmed cell death apoptosis
what is synaptic pruning
axons and dendrites disposed of if particular neuron not receiving much stimulation.
Programmed cell death (apoptosis
when new synapses are formed, some surrounding neurons die to provide more space.
what is the purpose of eliminating brain cells
helps achieve more efficient functioning
when do hearing and vision mature in the womb
6 months
what continues to develop into one year
cerebellum continues develop in y1 to help muscle tone and balance
what are the last areas of the brain to develop
prefrontal cortex
thalidomide
controlled for morning sickness - phocomelia - not fully formed limbs - 46 countries -10,000 cases - 20 - brain damage - 24 = limbs
what factors affect fetal development
- Drugs, illegal and legal: e.g. thalidomide, warfarin, tetracycline, heroin, cocaine.
- High caffeine dosage: miscarriage, low birth weight, prematurity.
- Parental factors: e.g. age, diet, emotional state.
- Disease: e.g. rubella, herpes simplex, chicken pox.
- Metals: e.g. lead, mercury.
- Radiation: e.g. cell death, chromosome injury.
effects of foetal alcohol syndrome
Physical defects:
- Flattened midface.
- Thin upper lip.
- Indistinct/absent philtrum.
- Short eye slits.
Growth suppression:
- Lower birth weight.
- Height and/or weight low.
Central Nervous System
- Impaired fine motor skills.
- Learning disabilities.
- Behaviour disorders.
perry and pollard study into neglected children ?
- erry and Pollard (1998) examined the brains via neuroimaging of 122 neglected children, some of whom also had pre-natal drug exposure.
Frontal Occipital Circumference (FOC): brain growth and organisation were all worse than a comparison group of non-neglected children
but if they were removed from negelct the brain can change
change is better quicker they are removed from neglect
diamon study into rats neglect
diamond - observed the cortical structure of brain of rats raised in enriched or impoverished environment
cortical thickness depended on environment
what can neonatess do (less than 4 weeks)
moro reflex - arm flinging
what procedures can we use to asses babies?
Looking time methods:
Spontaneous visual preference.
Habituation – novelty.
Violation of expectation .
Preferential sucking.
Eye tracking.
Physiological measures.
EEG, heart rate and more.
how does spontaneous visual prefernce work?
Infant presented two visual stimuli, reasonably well spaced to left and right in the visual field.
Stimuli often lead to preferential looking.
Possible to measure which stimulus the infant looks at longest and therefore prefers/finds most interesting.
Novel = more looking, bored = less looking.
Our dependent variable (DV) is therefore
looking time (seconds/milliseconds).
at what age do infants prefer faces?
5 days of age
found to look at mums at just 12 hours of age
how do infants look at human face?
1-month = edges
2-month = central
when do infants look at novel face?
6 months
how can habituation be used as a diagnostic tool?
Birth difficulties can result in slower habituation - may indicate neurological defects.
Early habituation speed predicts later IQ after up to 10 years (Bornstein & Sigman, 1986).
Visual recognition memory (degree of preference for novelty) predicts IQ at age 11 (Rose & Feldman,1985).
when do infants look at unnatural events?
show preference for unnatural events at 7 months but not at 5 months
what is high density event related potentials?
Involves placing ‘geodesic net’ composed of large number of electrodes onto head.
Sensors pick up the natural electrical changes at the scalp as groups of neurons are activated within the brain.
Infants’ brains show more widespread activation when presented a face than adults – evidence gradual specialisation and pruning of connections with development.
social refernicngt study with checkered floor
- babies put on checekered flaw with false drop (platstic screen) babies are less likely to go across if mother shows a scared face more likely to cross if happy, showing importance of non-verbal communication
- one year baby will cross if stranger tells them to if their mother looks happy
at ten months in terms of infantile communication, what happens?
infants have a three month lag
gesture speech
complementry - item
suplementry - giving aditional info
complementry before supplementry gestures
when is first words?
12 months
enactive naming
Around 12 months infants begin to produce actions carried out on object, e.g. holding phone to ear, drinking from empty cup.
These play schemes argued to be enactive names for things (Escalona, 1973).
Demonstrate infants’ ability of symbolic representation and form the beginnings of symbolic play (Inhelder et al 1971).
awareness of others experiment - 12 month old babies
- babies were shown a puppet behind a screen
- 12 month babbies pointed and expected paraent too look suggetsing they understood parents could unserstand
teratogens
-any agent that causes an abnormality following fetal exposure during pregnancy
- most damaging in the embryonic stage
- each organ has a different critical time - heart 20-40 days
-
evolution on baby development
- humans have largest brain
- head being 255 of infants body mass
- then to 2%
- only specie to show differential development
lissencephaly
- smooth brain
- lack of sulci and gyri
- severe developmental problems - seziures etc
- viral infections, not enough blood, genetics
potting metaphor
Neurogenesis/Synaptogenesis: clay formation.
Cell specialisation: sculpting
Synaptic pruning/cell death: sculpting
Perceptual narrowing: unused clay trimmed away.
Sensitive periods: the clay does not dry all at once, parts may harden before others.
