Lecture 4

Question 1

What is Cognitive Development?

Answer 1

• Development of thought

- Generally limited to non-emotional, social, etc. dimensions of thought

Question 2

What is a tool of Intellectual Development?

Answer 2

• An individual’s culture provides the tools to shape the way they think
• Language is perhaps the best example
• Where different words can influence how one thinks

Question 3

Do we create false memories?

Answer 3

• Memory is essentially finding the strongest connection based on keywords
• Children are more likely than adults to form false memories for plausible events
• Children create false memories in real life

Question 4

What the difference between Implicit and Explicit Memory?

Answer 4

• Implicit memory develops earlier, and is better at resisting brain injury
• Implicit memory is evolutionarily older than explicit memory
• Fewer differences between implicit memory in children versus adults (matures faster).

Question 5

What is Explicit Memory?

Answer 5

• Explicit memory is thought to be dependent on hippocampus development
• Hippocampus matures at approximately 18 months
• Hippocampus serves as an index for long-term memory
• Explicit memory also depends on language

Question 6

Whats is Metamemory?

Answer 6

• The knowledge of one’s memory capacity in terms of size, speed, and accuracy

Question 7

What do we know about fetal learning?

Answer 7

• The earliest observations of fetal learning (and therefore memory) have occurred at 32 weeks
• Newborn infants have been shown to prefer stimuli they were exposed to prenatally

Question 8

What is Infantile Amnesia?

Answer 8

• The inability to remember memories from early childhood
• Freud says it’s repression
• Encoding differences from child to adult. Missing one’s self when they are young