methods in developmental psychology

Question 1

what are the basic steps of research

Answer 1

• start with good ideas
• gain knowledge of literature
• translate question into experimental design
• obtain ethics approval
• conduct pilot study
• pre-register
• recruit PPs, obtain consent
• run study
• statistical analysis
• run follow ups
• communicate results

Question 2

what can infants do? - faces

Answer 2

• infants can sort of control their facial expressions
• provide stimulus that could encourage expressions

Question 3

what do infants do? - non nutritive sucking

Answer 3

infant can control their rate of sucking on a pacifier

link rate of sucking to stimulus

Question 4

what do infants do? - infant looking behaviour - following

Answer 4

infant can control where gaze is directed

move stimulus to see if infant follows it

Question 5

what do infants do? - infant looking behaviour - boredom

Answer 5

habituation/dishabituation paradigm:

show something until they get bored, then show them something new

Question 6

habituation/dishabituation study - high amplitude sucking paradigm

Answer 6

baseline level of non nutrition sucking

sound introduced, sucking rate increased (dishabituation)

over time, habituation occurs, rate of sucking decreased

new sound introduced, dishabituation occurs again

this indicates that babies are able to distinguish between different sounds

Question 7

what do infants do? - infant looking behaviour - surprise

Answer 7

violation of expectation paradigm

babies surprised to see unexpected things

measured by looking time

useful for studying babies understanding of physical objects and their properties

Question 8

what do infants do? - infant looking behaviour - preference

Answer 8

preferential looking paradigm

show two things, see which they prefer to look at

useful for studying visual preference, word learning, speech perception, and many other topics

Question 9

what can older children do?

Answer 9

• imitation
• communication (pointing/language)
• larger motor repertoire

Question 10

what should you consider when researching children

Answer 10

sustainability of the task/question/language

sustainability of the test environment

test situation

Question 11

what are some important things to do when studying children?

Answer 11

• have a child friendly warm up area
• consent forms for parents
• child friendly explanation
• friendly but neutral approach
• how are you going to record data?
• provide breaks if session is lengthy
• debriefing
• provide payment/gift to child/family