Lecture 2 Flashcards
maturation
biologically based changes that follow an orderly sequence
What is the focus of developmental psychology?
How humans develop and change over time
What is human development characterised by?
critical periods
What is nature (nature vs. nurture)?
our predisposition and genetics
What is nurture?
an individual’s environment and external factors
What do we assume about change?
It is inevitable, can occur across entire life span of person (conception to death)
What is the critical period?
brain is set to acquire function during limited time period- if key experiences don’t occur, function may not develop or be fully developed
What are the sensitive periods?
Times that are particularly important but no definitive for development, understanding related to research about childhood deprivation and maltreatment
What is change?
Acquisition or loss of a behaviour or function
What is continuous change?
gradual alteration of behaviour
What is discontinuous change?
Stages of growth that are qualitatively different, usually ordered in fixed sequence
What is cross- sectional designs?
Compares groups of different ages at same time- see if there are differences
What are the pros of cross-sectional design?
useful for assessing age differences
What are the cons of cross-sectional design?
not useful for examining age changes- each cohort has diff. life experience
What is longitudinal design?
Compares same group at multiple time points eg. 20, 30, 50, etc.
What are the pros of longitudinal design?
see how individual changes overtime- compare to past self
What are the cons of longitudinal design?
hard when you want to assess age changes over long period of time, not effective in making conclusions about general population
What is sequential studies?
examines different age groups at multiple time points (reduce cohort effects)
Differences between longitudinal design and sequential studies
similar but sequential does not compare current age to past age/results
only looks at current life
Periods in prenatal development (in the womb)
Germinal, Embryonic, Fetal
Germinal Period
fertilised egg (zygote) enters 2 week period of rapid cell division
Embryonic Period
developing human organism (embryo) from 2 weeks- 2nd months
Fetal Period
Developing human organism (fetus) from 9 weeks after conception - birth
Teratogens
environmental agents that harm embryo or fetus, eg. drugs, radiation, viruses, chemicals, nicotine, caffeine
What causes Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and what are the impacts?
Fetus exposed to alcohol- can cause physical and mental disabilities
What are the impacts of Rubella?
deafness, mental retardation
What are the impacts of significant maternal stress during pregnancy?
attention and motor development difficulties in children, can arise early on or later
caused by high cortisol levels from stress
What are reflexes?
innate motor responses elicited by critical stimuli, are adaptive
When do many infant reflexes disappear and why?
after first 6-7 months, since they gain more autonomy
What is the rooting reflex?
Touch on cheek induces infant to move mouth towards source of touch- helps guide feeding
What is the sucking reflex? Relation to novel and familiar stimuli?
Tactile stimulation of the mouth produces rhythmic sucking
Sucking rate increases with novel, decreases with familiar
infants can be trained to suck pacifier
Where do motor skills start to development from?
Head to toes
What is puberty?
Time where people become capable of reproduction
physical, mental, hormonal, life changes
maturational changes influence psychological development
When do females experience menarche?
about 11-13
When do males being to produce mature sperm?
about 14.5
When is physical growth mostly complete?
end of adolescence
When does muscle and sensory function show subtle decline?
30+ years
When do women experience menopause around?
51
women tend to undergo more change in later life than men
What is presbycusis?
inability to hear high frequency sounds
one of the substantial sensory changes that occur in later life
What is ageism?
discriminatory western stereotypical views that ageing implies decline
What is the notion of healthy ageing?
ageing not synonymous with physical and functional decline, instead view what they can contribute eg. knowledge
What is the orienting reflex?
tendency to pay greater attention to novel stimuli than familiar stimuli
longer fixation time ( focus time dec. with each repeated showing)
brain waves differ between novel and familiar stimuli
What does the orienting reflex teach about children?
Infants can remember things and form basic-level categories for animals by 10 months
What is an infant’s hearing like? Reponse to loud sounds?
well developed at birth
change heart rate (even in the womb)
What is an infant’s visual perception like?
poor at birth
improve to 20/100 by 6 mths, focus best on objects 18-20 cm away- mother’f face when nursing
why humans have breasts on chest- develop connection
What is intermodal processing? When is it present?
present at birth
infant turns eyes towards source of sound- integration of sight and sound
What is infantile amnesia?
Lack of explicit (conscious) memory for events before 3-4 yrs
What is representational flexibility?
Ability to retrieve memories despite changes in cue (environment)
What forms of implicit memory are present from birth?
Relationship between a movement and its consequences
faster response to previously seen stimuli
baby require cue/stimulus to remind them of implict (unconscious) memory
What does cognition mean?
mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, communicating
What was Piaget’s interest?
Epistemology- branch of philosophy concerned with the acquisition of knowledge
What was Piaget the first theorist to suggest?
children knew differntly from adults, not the assumption that they know less
What was Piaget’s theory of cognitive development?
Children have intellectual schemes that are modified/change as the child seeks to understand its world
Underestimated capacities of infants + preschool children
Rarely considered role of culture
proposed novel explanations of how chilcren acquire knowledge
conducted experiements to test hypothesis
What are schema?
organised patterns of thought or behaviour, are the basis of knowledge
like a script eg. birthday party
as we get older, adapt schema- allow us to better predict future events
What is assimilation?
Taking in new information and incorporating it into existing schema
a process that allows children to handle new information and situtations
What is accommodation?
Adjusting current scheme to meet/accomodate new information
a process that allows children to handle new information and situtations
What is equilibration?
The driving force between cognitive development
Involves balancing of these two processes
What is object permanence?
Realisation object continues to exist even if cannot be seen
What is egocentrism?
cognitive view where child understands world to only have their view- difficult to understand other’s views eg. mountain example
What is conservation?
Understanding that basic properties of object are constant even if object changes shape eg. water in containers, coins in row
What is the concept of theory of mind?
Understanding that others have thoughts and feelings different to their own
What approach did Piaget adopt to development?
Strict stage
What was Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of cognitive development?
Emphasised role of social interaction as motivation for cognitive gains and learning
Zone of Proximal Development- most learning happens in second ring
Children learn through collaboration, observation, imitation of significant others eg. parents
ZOPD stretches from sole performance to collaborative cooperation
What are the 5 processes in the information-processing approach to cognitive development?
Processing speed, automisation, knowledge base, cognitive strategies, metacognition
PS- mental quickness inc with age, A- ability to perform some tasks auto
Knowledge base- children gain knowledge with experience
What does non-piagetian theory integrate?
Piagetian and information processing theories
Why is assessing cognition as people age difficult?
- problems with experimental designs (cohorts)
- lack of motiviation- can produce what appear to be cognitive deficits
- different cognitive aspects may be influenced by aging in different ways
- cultural beliefs about aging- can affect how elderly subjects think and remember
What is psychomotor slowing?
Older people requiring more time to process information
What changes occur to short-term memory with age?
relatively unchanged
What changes occur to working memory with age?
difficulties in complex tasks
What changes occur to long-term memory with age?
storage unchanged, retrieval (recall) becomes more difficult
What changes occur to everday memory with age?
shows both gains and losses
What is fluid intelligence?
ability to process new information, think abstractly and solve problems
What is crystallised intelligence?
knowledge from prior learning and experiences
What is dementia?
- not inevitable part of ageing
- progressive and incurable disorder
- marked by global disturbances of higher mental functions
- only 1% population suffer dementia
- half of cases reltaed to Alzheimer’s disease
How is Alzheimer’s disease related to memory?
associated with brain damage + loss of neurons critical for memory
