Midterm 2 Flashcards
Are neonates (newborns) abilities fully developed? Explain.
- born with some abilities but not fully developed…
- skin modality (touch is primary way they interact with environment, feel temperature, show pain during circumcision)
- chemosensation (ex: taste preference for carrots when having carrot juice in utero)
- audition (ex: prefer mom reading cat in hat over another story)
- vision (bad vision at birth, better at 6 months, almost perfect by 12 months)
What is perceptual completion?
seeing a figure as complete when part of it falls in a blind area of the visual field (filling in what is behind an occluder)
Explain habituation/dishabituation with sound
- repeat the same sound over and over until they get bored (ex: Pa sound)
- play a new sound (ex: Pa sound)
- if they get interested again, they can detect the difference (dishabituation)
Describe the visual paired comparison
- measuring preference based off the fact that infants prefer novelty (not which they like more)
- present one stimulus until they get bored (encoding)
- show 2 stimuli (the 1st and a difference one) and observe which the infant prefers (the actual test)
- if they can tell the difference between the stimuli they will look at the new/novel stimuli
After habituation with the rod behind the box, which will infants look at if they understand perceptual completion?
- they will look at the “broken” looking rod because they got bored of the full rod
- (because they filled it in and could tell it was a full rod even when it was behind the box)
- if they don’t do this/show no prefernece, they don’t understand perceptual completion
Does movement of the rod behind the box matter for 4-month olds?
- yes, with movement they can understand perceptual completion
- but without it they can’t
What is the mechanism underlying the development of perceptual completion?
- mechanism = efficient visual attention (they know where to look)
- stems from increasing cortical/endogenous control of oculomotor behavior (brain maturation)
With the rod behind the box experiment, which scanners understand perceptual completion?
- vertical scanners don’t understand it
- horizontal scanners do (b/c they. understand that the important info is in the middle)
Describe the motor skills study with non-sitters, tripod sitters, and independent sitters.
- 60 second structured play session where infants were offered toys
- independent sitters engaged the most
- they understand 3D object completion because they have the most ability to explore objects with their hands and eyes
- (this is an example of dynamic systems theory)
What is phonology?
- the sound system of a language and the rules for combining these sounds to produce meaningful units of speech
- ex: R & L are different phonemes –> rip and lip have different meanings
Describe the magnet effect and how we perceive phonemes.
- phonemes are on a continuum but we perceive them categorically
- even when they’re played on a spectrum we still hear them categorically as our ear is magnetically drawn to the dominant phoneme
- we pull out the extra sound & categorized a combination of phonemes as the dominant one
Compare acquired distinctiveness and acquired similarity
- Acquired distinctiveness: we become better at perceiving stimulus properties that are critical for distinguishing native language sounds
- Acquired similarity: we become worse at perceiving properties that are not critcial for distinguishing native language sounds (because we’re not encountering them as much)
What is the sensitive period for the development of categorical perception of phonemes?
- 10 to 12 months
- this is when they lose the ability to differentiate the sounds (the baby is now specialized in native language)
Describe the conditoned head turn procedure
- play a sound repeatedly to a baby in the lab
- when the sound changes, a curtain pulls back showing a musical bunny as a reward
- eventually they realize the bunny will pop up after a sound change so they look in anticipation of the bunny once they hear a change in sound
- if they can differentiate the sounds, they will look for the bunny but if they can’t they won’t
- they can differentiate until about 10-12 months old
What is morphology?
- specified how words are formed from sounds & their relationship to other words in the same language
- relates to structure of words and parts of words
- basically the same a grammar
- ex: walk vs walked, cat vs cats
What are semantics?
- the expressed meaning of words and sentences
- ex: hit and hug have fundamentally different meanings
What are pragmatics?
- principles that underlie the effective and appropriate use of language in social contexts
- when to use polite forms (ex: don’t email hey girl to professor)
- how to take conversational turns (ex: be quiet when others talk)
- how to adjust speech to listener (ex: how you talk w/ friends vs teachers)
- when and how to ask questions
- offering/responding to expressions of affection appropriately (ex: i love you too in response to i love you)
What is fast mapping?
- attaching meaning to words after hearing it applied to its referent after only a few times
- ex: adults told kids to “bring the chromium tray, not the blue one, but the chromium one” –> kids assume the other color is chromium and can come back weeks later still thinking that
- errors: overextension, underextension, overregularization
What is overextension?
- tendency to use specific words to refer to broad class of objects
- ex: car in reference to all moving vehicles
ex: coke in reference to all sodas
What is underextension?
- tendency to use a general word to refer to smaller set of items
- ex: candy referring to just choclate
What is overregularization?
tendency to overuse grammatical rules when they don’t apply
- ex: 1 mouse, 2 mouses instead of 1 mouse, 2 mice
What is prosopagnosia?
- the inability to recognize faces
- ex: woman in video couldn’t recognize herself or mom in a photo & lost this ability from a brain injury
Are humans better at detecting faces or houses?
- better at detecting faces than other objects
- skill improves with age
What is the fusiform face area (FFA)?
- the area activated when we see faces
- cluster of neurons that light up when we see faces
What is the parahippocampal place area?
- the area that’s activated/lights up when you indoors/outdoor scens but NOT faces
- (houses, rooms, cities, landscapes, etc.)
What is the modular view on organization of the brain?
- the idea that each section of the brain lights up for certain things
- each area for different, specific things
Do infants prefer faces or top-heavy stimuli?
- they just prefer top-heavy stimuli and faces are included that
- this changes at 3 months though and they do prefer faces
Does the preference for face-like stimuli increase linearly from birth?
- no, not linear
- declines from 1-4 months
- goes back up between 3-5 months b/c they start to learn that they’re agents and can do things
Describe the sticky mittens study
- 4 month olds had or didn’t have velcro mittens on their hands while sitting on caregiver’s laps
- there were toys to play with and those with mittens started to realize they could move the objects b/c they stuck to the mittens
- infants with mittens looked back and made eye contact with caregivers b/c they were given a new ability & are realizing they are agents w/ power
- they look at their caregivers b/c they realize if they can do it, their caregivers probably can too
What is the perceptual narrowing hypothesis?
early in postnatal life, we undergo a process of narrowing our expertise to a set of stimuli at the cost of perception for non-needed (non-present stimuli)
Describe the other-species effect study on if infants and adults can distinguish diff faces in humans/primates. What’s the critical period?
- all infants and adults can distinguish difference bwtn 2 human faces
- infants can tell difference bwtn primate faces up until 9 months but can’t after that (neither can adults)
- critical period is btwn 6-9 months for being able to distnguish primate faces
- this is the other-species effect
Describe the other-race effect
- own-race faces are better recognized and remembered when compared with faces of another, less familiar race
- chance of misidentifying in eyewitness accounts goes up by 50% when not the same race
Describe the FFA study on car and bird experts
- brought participants who were either bird experts or car experts into an fMRI scanner
- Fusiform face area lights up for car experts when shown cars and lights up for bird experts when shown birds
- it lights up for both when shown faces (b/c they are face experts)
- this shows that the fusiform face area lights up for things of the person’s expertise
Describe the greeble study
- trained adults to be experts on greebles & compared to novices who weren’t trained
- Fusiform face area was activated when shown faces for both groups
- when shown greebles, the experts FFA was activated but the novices wasn’t
- shows that the FFA responds to other novel objects people are experts on
At what age do people reach a level of expertise on faces?
face experts at 12-14 years old
Summarize face processing
- face processing skills increase with age/experience
- environment plays a major role in shaping brain development
- modular view is challenged but there is support for the distributed/experiential model
- development is driven from experience with faces
- infants prefer face-LIKE stimuli over non-face like stimuli (not actual faces specifically)
What is cognition? What is cognitive development?
- cognition = the process of acquiring knowledge and knowing
- cognitive development = changes in knowledge that are age-related
Which kind of conditoning is little Albert?
classical conditioning
Describe components of operant conditioning
- positive = presentation of something
- negative = removal of something
- reinforcement = increase the probability that behavior will occur again
- punishment = decrease the probability that behavior will occur again
- must identify behavior (the event), consequence (positive/negative), and effect (reinforcement/punishment)
What did Jean Piaget say about intelligence?
- intelligence is a basic life function that enables organisms to adapt to their environments
- was interested in how children gain knowledge
Which view does Piaget have?
constructivist
Describe the constructivist approach
- children learn many important lessons on their own & are intrinsically motivated to learn
- children construct knowledge for themselves
- infants have basic building blocks (reflexes) and they build knowledge/ gain intelligence from there
What is intelligence?
- comes in the form of schemas (organized patterns of thought)
- action based at first (motor patterns) then move to a mental level (thinking)
- ex: the way a restaurant works is a schema
What is cognitive equillibrium?
- a match between thought processes and one’s environment
- expectation of the way the world works matches what happens
- ex: you go to a restaurant and the normal script is followed
What happens if there is a mismatch (cognitive disequillibrium)?
- adaptation = the tendency to respond to the demands od the environment to meet one’s goals
- organization = the tendency to integrate particular observations into coherent knowledge
What is assimilation?
- the process by which people incorporate new information into already existing schemas
- adding to the schema
- ex: seeing a new kind of dog and adding it to the dog schema
What is accommodation?
- the process by which people modify a schema to incorporate new information
- ex: accommodating pet schema when seeing a turtle and realizing not all pets have fur
What is equilibration?
the process by which people balance assimilation and accommodation to create stable understanding
What are Piaget’s stages of cognitive development?
- children’s thinking at any particular stage is QUALITATIVELY different from that which preceded it and that which will follow it
- sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete-operational, formal operational stages
Describe the preoperational stage
- second stage, ages 2-7
- child gains knowledge through engaging in symbolic play (ex: using a broom as a pretend horse)
- mix of impressive cognitive acquisitions and limitations
- issue of egocentrism (they can’t see from other points of view… ex: mountain task)
- issue of centration (focus on perceptually striking features/events… ex: # of pieces of cake not size of pieces)
- don’t understand conservation concept (changing appearance doesn’t change properties… ex: water cups/coins)
Describe the concrete-operational stage
- third stage, ages 7-11
- child gains knowledge through the development of logical thought
- but only applicable to real/imaginable objects (no abstract thought)
- ex: if they sneeze every time they see a cat, they can logically deuce they’re allergic
Describe the formal operational stage
- fourth stage, ages 12+
- can apply logical operations to logical and hypothetical phenomena (ex: algebra)
- cognitive development allows abstract thinking/hypothetical reasoning (comes from formal education)
- can imagine alternative worlds & systematically reason possible outcomes of situations
- Piaget believed attaining this stage is not universal
What are weaknesses of Piaget’s theory (constructivism)?
- depicts children’s thinking as more consistent than it is
- infants/young children more competent than he thought (ex: object permanence
- understates contribute of social world to cognitive development (we learn from others)
- vague about mechanisms
Which theory is Vygotsky’s?
Sociolcultural
Describe the sociocultural perspective
- focuses on contribution of other people and the surrounding culture to children’s development
- guided participation = more knowledgeable individuals help less knowledgable people engage at a higher level than they could on their own
- Vygotsky said social learning comes before development (with learning, our development moves forward… opposite of Piaget)
- NEED CULTURE for children to become more complex/have higher mental functions (& culture affects how we think)
- tools of intellectual adaptation = allows one to use basic mental processes more efficiently through culture (teaches how to think not what to think)
- learn in zone of proximal development (scaffolding and stretching)
Which zone do we learn in?
- proximal development
- where you’re going just a bit further than you could on your own
- ex: slightly harder puzzle than one you are growing out of
What is scaffolding?
- process where more competent people provide a temporary framework that supports children’s thinking at a higher level than children could manage on their own
- provided by more skilled other
What is stretching?
- children can perform one step about their assessed competence when under the guiding hand of the more experienced partner
- ex: Andrew trying to cook an egg with Prof’s help
What is guided participation?
- how we learn
- consists of scaffolding (done by more knoweldgeable other) and stretching (done by the child)
What is internalization?
- internalizing the voice of the more knowledgeable members of society
- how cognitive change occurs
- Vygotsky says all psychological processes are originally social processes
Compare the 2 views on talking to yourself
Vygotsky:
- calls it private speech
- increases during tough tasks
- tool for kids to plan/regulate problem-solving activities
- says language drives cognitive development (learning speech leads to cognitive development)
Piaget
- calls it ecogentric speech
- nonsocial speech reflecting children’s egocentric perspective
- says cognitive development drives language (cognitive development lets us learn speech)
According to Vygotsky, why is cooperative learning ideal for cognitive development?
- motivation
- requires explanation & working through conflicts
- more likely to use high level processing when working as a group
Describe the information processing perspective
- our brain processes the info that comes in through our senses (something comes in, we do something to it, and it is converted to output)
- mind as a computer metaphor (hardware = nervous system, software = rules, strategies, mental programs)
- kids gradually pass limitations from increasing efficient processing, expanding knowledge, & learning new strategies)
According to information processing, cognitive development arises from children gradually surmounting the processing limitations through what?
1) increasing efficient execution of basic processes
2) expanding content knowledge
3) acquisition of new strategies
this brings cognitive development & the “software” becomes more sophisticated
Information processing theorists view cognitive change as __________. Explain.
- continuous cognitive change
- important changes are constantly occurring, rather than being restricted to special transition periods between stages
- cognitive change typically occurs in small increments rather than abruptly
What are the memory system components in the Atkinson & Shiffrin modal model.
1) sensory memory:
- sights, sounds, & other sensations that are just entering the cognitive system & are briefly held in raw form until they are identified
- moderate amount of info for fraction of a second & capacity remains constant (doesn’t improve with development)
- ex: meet Kelly at party & forget name right away
2) working memory:
- a workspace in which information from the environment and relevant knowledge are brought together, attended to, and actively processed
- limited in capacity & duration
- capacity/speed increase w/ development
- ex: you meet Kelly & she has the $20 owed to you so you work to make sure you remember her
3) long-term memory:
- refers to information retained on an enduring basis
- unlimited amounts of info indefinitely
- contents increase a ton over development
What are the 3 sources of learning/memory development?
1) processing speed
2) mental strategies
3) content knowledge
Describe processing speed
- speed with which children execute basic processes increases greatly over course of childhood (ex: kids take forever to put shoes on but but by adulthood you don’t)
- biological maturation & experience contribute to increased processing speed (myelination & increased connectivity in brain regions)
Describe mental strategies
- many strategies emerge btwn ages 5-8
- rehearsal: process of repeating info over & over to aid memory (ex: states song)
- selective attention: intentionally focusing on info that is most relevant to current goal (ex: paying attention to which parts of lecture will be on exam)
- utilization deficiency: initial use of strategies doesn’t improve memory as much as later use (ex: typing class)
Describe problem solving
- overlapping-waves theory: children use a variety of approaches to solve problems…
- children possess several diff strategies for solving a given problem
- more successful strategies become more prevalent with age (you use what works best)
- children benefit from this strategic variability
- ex: diff ways to solve math problem
Describe the study on content knowledge with chess pieces. What does it show?
- 10 y/o chess experts & typical adults asked to memorize placement numbers on a bard and chess pieces on a board
- adults remembered numbers better but 10 y/o chess experts remembered chess pieces better
- shows that memory span is affected by prior knowledge (the more you know, the more you can know)
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is best aligned with which notion of development?
active orientation
