Lecture 2: Prenatal development & Infancy

Question 1

Influences on development

Answer 1

• drugs eg thalidomide
• smoking=low birth weight, behavioural issues
• alcohol=fetus alcohol syndrome

Question 2

Birth complications

Answer 2

Pre-term and small for date:
-inc risk of infection, cognitive impairments
-problems for caregiving: can’t hold, irritable, unresponsive
Interventions: incubator, stimulation, parent training

Question 3

Infancy

Motor development

Answer 3

enables: exploration of objects, surrounding, soc interactions
supports development of: social skills, cognition, language
Reflexes innate reveal health of nervous system, some have survival value eg moro reflex

Question 4

Infancy

Motor Skills

Answer 4

Fine: 3-4 months
Gross: 12 months
Maturational Theory (Gessell 1940)=mental and physical development in infants, children, and adolescents are comparable and parallel orderly processes.
Cephalocaudal trend= infants learning to use their upper limbs before their lower limbs.

Question 5

Infancy
Motor skills
Cultural variation

Answer 5

• Japan:walk before they crawl
• Jamaican babies walk earlier than N.American
• Zinacanteco Indians motor progress discouraged so development slightly delayed

*under or over stimulation= slower motor development

Question 6

Perceptual Development of Newborn

Depth perception

Answer 6

=ability to judge distance between objects and from self which is necessary for reaching 
Visual Cliff (Gibson & Walk 1960)

Question 7

Perceptual Development of Newborn

Face recognition

Answer 7

newborns prefer face-like stimulation
track face like patterns more and look longer at attractive faces
prefer mother faces by 2 months
differentiate between strangers 3 months, emotions 7-10 months

Question 8

Perceptual Development of Newborn
Habituation
Gaze preference

Answer 8

Habituation=a decrease in response to a stimulus after repeated presentations.
Gaze preference
Habituation get them used to a picture, take it away give same picture of baby and another one of bold man
-idea that they’ve gotten bored of baby picture if they recognise the novel one

Question 9

Perceptual Development of Newborn

Memory Development

Answer 9

Operate condition
reinforces certain behaviours
Baby mobile attached to foot, kicking makes mobile move
3 months-remembers for a week
6 months-remembers for two weeks
Memory highly context specific eg changing bumper interfered with baby’s memory