Module 5 - Conceptual Development Flashcards
1
Q
General ideas or understandings that can be used to group together objects, events, qualities, or abstractions that are similar.
A
Concepts
2
Q
Infant’s visual system
A
They have poor visual acuity (sharpness), resulting in blurry vision until about 8 months
They also need to develop control over their eye muscles, but can track objects with their eyes by 3 months (if not earlier).
Lastly, infants also have limited colour perception at birth, and therefore prefer stimuli with high contrast.
3
Q
Three common eye gaze methodologies that developmental psychologists use to study infant cognition
A
Habituation
Preferential looking
Violation of expectation
4
Q
Habituation
A
Using eye gaze, researchers record time to habituate - decreased response to a stimulus after repeated exposure.
Habituation is commonly used to study infant visual development (e.g., can they perceive tiny differences in perceptual stimuli, can they discriminate colours, etc), as well as conceptual and cognitive development.
Even very young infants have visual perception and control over their eye movements, making this method an ideal tool to use during infancy.
Generally, the infant must be at least 3 months to obtain reliable data.
5
Q
research consistently demonstrates that faster habituation time during infancy predicts
A
later intelligence (and is often a better predictor of later IQ than infant IQ tests!).
6
Q
Concepts help us…
A
understand the world and act effectively in it by allowing us to generalize from prior experience
7
Q
What are the themes in research on conceptual development
A
1) nature and nurture
2) active child
3) how change occurs
4) sociocultural context
8
Q
Nature and Nurture theme in conceptual develoment
A
Children’s concepts reflect the interaction between their specific experiences and their biological predispositions to process information in particular ways.
9
Q
Active child theme in conceptual development
A
From infancy onward, many of children’s concepts reflect their active attempts to make sense of the world.
10
Q
How change occurs theme in conceptual development
A
researchers who study conceptual development attempt to understand not only what concepts children form but also the processes by which they form them.
11
Q
Sociocultural theme in conceptual development
A
the concepts we form are influenced by the society in which we live.
12
Q
What do Nativists believe about conceptual development?
A
That innate understanding of basic concepts plays a central role in development.
They argue that infants are born with some sense of fundamental concepts, such as time, space, number, causality, and the human mind, or with specialized learning mechanisms that allow them to acquire rudimentary understanding of these concepts unusually quickly and easily.
nurture plays an important role in helping children move beyond this initial level of conceptual understanding, but not in forming the basic understanding.
13
Q
What do empirists believe about conceptual development?
A
That nature endows infants with only general learning mechanisms, such as the ability to perceive, attend, associate, generalize, and remember.
Within the empiricist perspective, the rapid and universal formation of fundamental concepts such as time, space, number, causality, and mind arises from infants’ massive exposure to experiences that are relevant to these concepts
14
Q
2 groups of developmental concepts
A
1) used to categorize the kinds of things that exist in the world—human beings, living things in general, and inanimate objects—and their properties.
2) involves dimensions used to represent our experiences: space (where the experience occurred), time (when it occurred), number (how many times it occurred), and causality (why it occurred).
15
Q
Infants and young children divide objects into three general categories:
A
inanimate objects
people
other animals
(they are unsure for many years whether plants are more like animals or more like inanimate objects)
16
Q
children form innumerable more specific categories such as:
A
vehicles, tools, furniture, sports equipment, and endless others.
Children tend to organize these categories of objects into category hierarchies
17
Q
Category Hierarchies
A
a category that is organized by set–subset relations, such as animal/dog/poodle
18
Q
Dishabituated
A
looking time increased.
19
Q
How early can infants form categories?
A
Even in first months of life.
20
Q
perceptual categorization
A
the grouping together of objects that have similar appearances
Infants frequently use this.
21
Q
Category Hierarchies
A
Superordinate, subordinate, basic
22
Q
superordinate level
A
the general level within a category hierarchy, such as “animal” in the animal/dog/poodle example
23
Q
subordinate level
A
he most specific level within a category hierarchy, such as “poodle” in the animal/dog/poodle example
24
Q
basic level
A
the middle level, and often the first level learned, within a category hierarchy, such as “dog” in the animal/dog/poodle example
25
Causal Understanding
In their first months, infants have a rudimentary understanding of causal interactions among objects, such as interactions involving gravity, inertia, and support, an understanding that gradually increases during their first year.
understanding cause–effect relations helps children learn and remember. ex: wugs and gillies
26
naïve psychology
a commonsense level of understanding of other people and oneself
is crucial to normal human functioning and is a major part of what makes us human
27
What are 3 concepts of naïve psychology that we all use to understand human behavior?
desires, beliefs, and actions
28
Three properties of naïve psychological concepts
1) many refer to invisible mental states
2) psychological concepts are linked to one another in cause–effect relations.
3) they develop surprisingly early in life, though how early, and the process through which the capability occurs, remains a subject of heated debate
29
Naïve Psychology in Infancy (Nativists vs Empircists)
Nativists (e.g., Leslie, 2000) argue that the early understanding is possible only because children are born with a basic understanding of human psychology
Empiricists argue that experiences with other people and general information- processing capacities are the key sources of the early understanding of other people.
30
The emergence of self-consciousness
Infants seem to be born with a kind of implicit self-consciousness, a rudimentary understanding that they are separate from other people
By age four months, infants show basic understanding of what they can and cannot do; they reach for small objects within their grasp, but not for larger or more distant objects
By age 18 to 24 months, they try to wipe smudges off their faces when they see them in mirrors and make efforts to look good to other people, reflecting a more explicit kind of self-consciousness
31
What are the several important aspects of psychological understanding that emerges in the second year?
(1) a sense of self, in which children more explicitly realize that they are individuals distinct from other people;
(2) joint attention, in which two or more people focus intentionally on the same referent;
(3) intersubjectivity, the mutual understanding that people share during communication.
32
Theory of mind
an organized understanding of how mental processes such as intentions, desires, beliefs, perceptions, and emotions influence behavior
33
One important component of such a theory of mind—understanding the connection between other people’s desires and their actions—emerges by what age?
end of the first year
34
false-belief problems
tasks that test a child’s understanding that other people will act in accord with their own beliefs even when the child knows that those beliefs are incorrect
(3 year olds thinking the next group tested will think pencils are in the smarties box, whereas 5 year olds know the next group will also think smarties are in the box)
**Unless the task is presented to 3 year olds in a way that facilitates understanding. Ex: experimenter gets the child in on the "trick" of filling a smarties box with pencils.
35
theory of mind module (TOMM)
a hypothesized brain mechanism devoted to understanding other human beings
(Investigators with a Nativists position have proposed the existence of TOMM)
36
What do advocates of theory of mind module argue?
that among typical children exposed to a typical environment, the TOMM matures over the first 5 years, producing an increasingly sophisticated understanding of people’s minds
37
What is ESDM
Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) treatment
Autistic children ages 1-2 had roughly 15 hours per week of sessions with trained therapists, during which time the therapists and children practiced everyday activities, such as eating and playing, and used operant conditioning techniques to promote desired behaviors.
After 2 years, children who received the ESDM treatment showed considerably greater gains in IQ score, language, and daily living skills than did peers who received the community-based treatment
38
Theorists who take an empiricist stance suggest what explanations for the emergence of theory of mind?
Some suggest the role of learning from experiences with physical situations and with other people
Others emphasizes interactions with other people
Other investigators who take an empiricist stance emphasize the growth of general information-processing skills as essential to understanding other people’s minds
39
pretend play
make-believe activities in which children create new symbolic relations, acting as if they were in a situation different from their actual one
emerges between 12-18 months
40
object substitution
a form of pretense in which an object is used as something other than itself, for example, using a broom to represent a horse
41
One way that children learn about other people’s thinking, as well as about many other aspects of the world
Play
earliest play occurs in the first year and includes behaviors such as banging spoons on high-chair trays and repeatedly throwing food on the floor.
majority of college students reported:
-engaged in pretend play at least weekly when they were 10 or 11 years old
-engaged at least monthly when they were 12 or 13 years old
Boys and only children tended to report engaging in pretend play at older ages more than did girls and children with siblings.
42
sociodramatic play
activities in which children enact miniature dramas with other children or adults, such as “mother comforting baby”
43
Distinguishing living things from non living things
infants in their first year distinguish people from other animals and that they distinguish both from inanimate objects.
BUT it is difficult to assess knowledge of many other properties of living and nonliving things until the age of 3 or 4 years, when children can comprehend and answer questions about these categories.
it is not until age 7 to 9 years that a clear majority of children realize that plants are living things
44
Understanding biological processes
Inheritance
Growth
Illness
45
Inheritance
3- and 4-year-olds know that physical characteristics tend to be passed on from parent to offspring
Older preschoolers also know that certain aspects of development are determined by heredity rather than by environment.
Ex: 5-year- olds realize that an animal of one species raised by parents of another species will become an adult of its own species
46
essentialism
the view that living things have an essence inside them that makes them what they are
47
Growth
Preschoolers realize that growth, like inheritance, is a product of internal processes. They recognize, for example, that plants and animals become bigger and more complex over time because of something going on inside them
Three- and 4-year-olds also recognize that the growth of living things generally proceeds in only one direction (smaller to larger) at least until old age, whereas inanimate objects such as balloons can become either smaller or larger at any point in time.
48
Illness
Three-year-olds have heard of germs and have a general sense of how they operate. They know that eating food that is contaminated with germs can make a person sick, even if the person is unaware of the germs’ presence
Conversely, they realize that psychological processes, such as being aware of germs in one’s food, do not cause illness.
49
How do children gain biological knowledge?
Nativists propose that humans are born with a “biology module” much like the theory of mind module described earlier in the chapter. This brain structure or mechanism helps children learn quickly about living thing
Empiricists, by contrast, maintain that children’s biological understanding comes from their personal observations and from information they receive from parents, teachers, and the general culture
50
What three main arguments to support the Nativists idea that people have a biology module?
During earlier periods of our evolution, it was crucial for human survival that children learn quickly about animals and plants.
Children throughout the world are fascinated by plants and animals and learn about them quickly and easily.
Children throughout the world organize information about plants and animals in very similar ways (in terms of growth, reproduction, inheritance, illness, and healing).
51
Causality - origins of understanding physical causes: Nativists vs Empiricists
nativists to propose that infants possess an innate causal module or core theory that allows them to extract causal relations from the events they observe
Empiricists proposed that infants’ causal understanding arises from their observations of innumerable events in the environment and of the causal effects of their own actions
52
Causal reasoning in infancy
6 months - infants perceive causal connections among some physical events
9- to 11-month-olds are shown actions that are causally related (e.g., making a rattle by putting a small object inside two cups that can be pushed together to form a single container), they usually can reproduce the actions
when similar but causally unrelated actions are shown, children do not reliably reproduce them until a year later, at age 20 to 22 months
End of their second year, and by some measures even earlier, children can infer the causal impact of one variable based on indirectly relevant information about another (toy turtle problem solving)
53
Causal reasoning preschool period
When 4-year-olds see a potential cause produce an effect inconsistently, they infer that some variable that they cannot see must cause the effect; when the same effect occurs consistently, they do not infer that a hidden variable was important.
Most 3- and 4-year-olds fail to see the point of such tricks; they grasp that something strange has happened but do not find the “magic” humorous or actively try to figure out what caused the strange outcome
By age 5, however, children become fascinated with magic tricks precisely because no obvious causal mechanism could produce the effect
54
Magical thinking
Most 4- to 6-year-olds believe that they can influence other people by wishing them into doing something, such as buying a particular present for their birthday
Research has shown that young children not only believe in magic; they sometimes also act on their belief
Preschoolers and young elementary school children “live in a world in which fantasy and reality are more intertwined than they are for adults
the world of the imagination is most striking between ages 3 and 6, aspects of it remain evident for years thereafter.
A study demonstrated that many 9-year-olds and some adults reverted to magical explanations when confronted with a trick that was difficult to explain in physical terms
we never entirely outgrow magical thinking.
55
Spatial thinking
Nativists argue that children possess an innate module that is specialized for representing and learning about space and that processes spatial information separately from other types of information
Empiricists argue that children acquire spatial representations through the same types of learning mechanisms and experiences as those that produce cognitive growth in general, that children adaptively combine numerous types of spatial and nonspatial information to reach their goals, and that experience with locomotion, language, and cultural tools such as jigsaw puzzles shapes spatial development
56
Four common conclusions of spatial thinking between Nativists and Empiricists
1) from early in infancy, children show impressive understanding of some spatial concepts, such as above, below, left of, and right of
2) self-produced movement around the environment stimulates processing of spatial information
3) certain parts of the brain are specialized for coding particular types of spatial information; for instance, development of the hippocampus appears to produce improvements in place learning—the ability to encode information about the location and position of objects or events
4) geometric information—information about lengths, angles, and directions —is important in spatial processing
57
Effective spatial thinking requires:
coding space relative to oneself and relative to the external environment
58
egocentric spatial representations
coding of spatial locations relative to one’s own body, without regard to the surroundings
59
What did Paiget propose as the one kind of spatial coding that infants can do?
infants’ ability to code space involve infants remaining in a single location and coding locations relative to their bodies.
The reason, according to his theory, is that during the sensorimotor period, infants can form only egocentric spatial representations, in which the locations of objects are coded relative to the infants’ position at the time of the coding.
60
What is A major factor in helping infants acquire a sense of space independent of their own location?
self-locomotion.
Infants who crawl or have had experience propelling themselves in walkers more often remember the locations of objects on the object permanence task
61
Spatial concepts in blind/visually impaired
Even in infancy, however, spatial representations can be based on senses other than vision. Thus, when 3-month-olds are brought into a totally dark room in which nothing can be seen, they use sounds emitted by nearby objects to identify the objects’ spatial locations and reach for them
However, visual experience during infancy does play an important role in spatial development
Young adults with central eye cataracts that prevented any vision until they were removed during their first year (on average, at age 4 months) showed reduced brain activity in areas involved in face processing and reduced connectivity among neurons in these areas
although some spatial skills, especially face perception, require early visual experience, many blind people develop impressive senses of space without ever seeing the world.
62
Spatial relations in external environments (landmarks)
At 22 months, but not at 16 months, the presence of a landmark improves children’s ability to locate an object that is not hidden immediately adjacent to the landmark but that is fairly close to it
By age 5 years, children can also represent an object’s position in relation to multiple landmarks, such as when it is midway between a tree and a street lamp
Precisely coding locations in the absence of straightforward landmarks continues to be difficult for people well beyond 2 years of age.
Six- to 8- year-olds are not very good at it
12-year-olds are better
adults vary tremendously in their abilities to form this type of spatial representation
63
Experiencing time
-3-month-olds detected the repetitive order of events over time and used the information to form expectations of where the next photo would appear
-4-month-olds who were habituated to three objects falling in a constant order dishabituated when the order changed
-6-month-olds discriminate between two durations when their ratio is 2:1
-most 4-year- olds knew that a specific event that happened a week before the experiment (Valentine’s Day) happened more recently than an event that happened 7 weeks earlier (Christmas)
-Preschoolers often confuse past and future. For example, 5-year-olds predict a week after Valentine’s Day that the next Valentine’s Day will come sooner than the next Halloween or Christmas
64
What do nativists believe about number
that children are born with a core concept of number that includes special mechanisms for representing and learning about the relative numbers of objects in sets, counting, and approximate addition and subtraction (Feigenson, Dehaene, & Spelke, 2004).
As evidence, they note that specific brain areas, particularly the intraparietal sulcus, are heavily involved in representing numerical magnitudes and that specific neurons respond most strongly when particular numbers of objects (e.g., 5 objects) are displayed
65
What do Empiricists believe about number
That children learn about numbers through the same types of experiences and learning mechanisms that help them acquire other concepts and that infants’ numerical competence is not as great as nativists claim.
They also note the existence of large differences in numerical understanding among children from different cultures and document the contributions of instruction, language, and cultural values to these differences
66
numerical equality
the realization that all sets of N objects have something in common
Newborns already have some sense of numerical equality in a nonlinguistic (often called “nonsymbolic”) sense.
67
Discrimination's between numerical sets
-newborns show tendenc to discriminate between 6 and 18 syllables and objects, but not with 4 versus 8, suggesting that they could discriminate the 3:1 ratio but not the 2:1 ratio.
-By 6 months of age, infants discriminate between sets with 2:1 ratios (e.g., 16 versus 8 dots or sounds), but they still cannot discriminate between sets with ratios of 3:2 (e.g., 12 versus 8 dots or sounds)
-9 months, infants discriminate ratios of 3:2 but not 4:3 ratios
-adulthood, many people are able to reliably discriminate 8:7 ratios
68
Counting
Many children begin to count verbally at 2 years of age, but their initial understanding of what they are doing is severely limited. After counting flawlessly from 1 to 10, many 2-year-olds have no idea whether 3 is bigger than 5 or 5 is bigger than 3
-Toddlers associate the word “one” with 1 object;
-a month or two later, they associate “two” with 2 objects;
-and a month or two later, they associate “three” with 3 objects.
After this slow early acquisition period, toddlers seem to realize that these counting words indicate differing quantities
69
What are the five principles underlying counting that preschoolers understand?
1. One–one correspondence: Each object must be labeled by a single number word.
2. Stable order: The numbers should always be recited in the same order.
3. Cardinality: The number of objects in the set corresponds to the last number stated.
4. Order irrelevance: Objects can be counted left to right, right to left, or in any other order.
5. Abstraction: Any set of discrete objects or events can be counted.
70
Early categories of objects are based in large part on what?
perceptual similarity, especially similarity in the shapes of the objects.
71
Children form category hierarchies are what age?
By age 2 or 3 years, animal/dog/poodle, furniture/chair/La-Z-Boy, and so on.
72
From what age do children differentiate people from other animals and inanimate objects?
From infancy onward.
For example, infants smile more at people than at either rabbits or robots.
73
By what age do preschoolers develop a rudimentary but well-organized theory of mind for understanding people’s behavior?
By age 4 or 5 years.
A key assumption of this theory of mind is that desires and beliefs motivate specific actions.
74
Understanding that other people will act on their beliefs, even when the beliefs are false, is very difficult for what age?
3-year-olds; many children do not gain this understanding until age 5.
75
By what age do children develop an elaborate understanding of living things, including coherent ideas about invisible processes such as growth, inheritance, illness, and healing?
Age 4.
Both their natural fascination with living things and the input they receive from the environment contribute to their knowledge about plants and animals.
76
Debates between nativists and empiricists have increased our understanding of infants’ impressive understanding of fundamental concepts regarding what?
cause–effect relations
the human mind
space, time
and number
As well as the experiences and learning mechanisms that contribute to subsequent development of these concepts.
77
The development of causal reasoning about physical events begins when?
In infancy.
By 6 to 12 months, infants understand the likely consequences of objects colliding. Understanding causal relations among actions helps 1-year-olds remember them.
78
By what age do children seem to realize that causes are necessary for events to occur?
4 or 5 years.
When no cause is obvious, they search for one. However, many preschoolers believe in magic as well as physical cause–effect relations.
79
Children who are born blind have...
surprisingly good representations of space, though some aspects of their spatial processing, especially processing of faces, remain poor even if corrective surgery is performed during infancy.
80
Infants are born with the ability to code
-some aspects of space
-some aspects of time.
Even 3-month-olds code the order in which events occur. Infants of that age can also use consistent sequences of past events to anticipate future events.
81
At what age can children reason about time?
Age 5.
In the sense of inferring that if two events started at the same time, and one stopped later than the other, the event that stopped later took longer. However, they can do this only when there are no interfering perceptual cues.
82
Infants discriminate differences between the numbers of objects, sounds, or events when the ratio of the numbers is...
Large.
During their first year, they become able to discriminate smaller ratios of objects and events, a trend that continues to adulthood. From infancy onward, representations of small sets, those with 1 to 4 items, is more precise than those with larger sets.
83
By what age do most children learn to count to 10?
3 years old.
Their counting seems to reflect understanding of certain principles, such as that each object should be labeled by a single number word. Children’s subsequent rate of learning about numbers reflects their culture’s number system and the degree to which their culture values numerical knowledge.
84
Sensation
the processing of basic information from the external world via receptors in the sense organs (eyes, ears, skin, etc.) and brain
85
Perception
the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information
86
preferential-looking technique
a method for studying visual attention in infants that involves showing infants two images simultaneously to see if the infants prefer one over the other (indexed by longer looking)
87
visual acuity
the sharpness and clarity of vision.
visual acuity develops so rapidly that by 8 months of age, infants’ acuity approaches that of adults.
88
The preferential-looking method enables researchers (and eye-care professionals) to assess what?
visual acuity
89
contrast sensitivity
the ability to detect differences in light and dark areas in a visual pattern
90
One reason for infants’ poor contrast sensitivity is...?
the immaturity of their cone cells
91
Cone cells
light-sensitive neurons that are highly concentrated in the fovea (the central region of the retina)
92
Newborns’ cones vs adults
Newborns are spaced 4 times farther apart than adults’ cones, and they catch only about 2% of the light striking the fovea, compared with 65% for adults
This is partly why in their first month, babies have only about 20/120 vision (a level of acuity that would enable an adult to read only the large E at the top of a standard eye chart)
93
smooth pursuit eye movements
visual behavior in which the viewer’s gaze shifts at the same rate and angle as a moving object
94
Visual scanning
Newborns start scanning the environment right away and are especially attracted to moving stimuli.
They have trouble tracking these stimuli because their eye movements are jerky.
Not until 4 months of age are infants able to track slow-moving objects smoothly
95
ORE
Other race effect.
a well-established finding, initially observed in adults, in which individuals find it easier to distinguish between faces of individuals from their own racial group than between faces from other racial groups.
The ORE emerges in infancy. Whereas newborns show no preference for own-race faces over other-race faces, 3-month-old White, African, and Chinese infants prefer own-race faces
By 9 months of age, infants have more difficulty discriminating between other-race faces than between own-race faces
96
perceptual constancy
the perception of objects as being of constant size, shape, color, etc., in spite of physical differences in the retinal image of the object
97
object segregation
the identification of separate objects in a visual array
98
Common movement is such a powerful cue that it leads infants to...
perceive disparate elements moving together as parts of a unitary object.
this seemingly very basic feature of visual perception must be learned. Newborn infants do not appear to make use of common motion as a cue to object identity
; this ability emerges around 2 months of age
99
violation-of-expectancy
a procedure used to study infant cognition in which infants are shown an event that should evoke surprise or interest if it goes against something the infant knows
100
Reflexes
fixed patterns of action that occur in response to particular stimulation
101
Common neonatal reflexes
Rooting
Sucking and Swallowing
Tonic Neck
Moro (startle)
Grasping
Stepping
These reflexes are not fully automatic; for example, rooting is more likely to occur when an infant is hungry.
102
Moro (startle)
Throwing back the head and extending the arms, then rapidly drawing them in, in
response to a loud, sound, or sudden movement.
103
Tonic Neck
When the head turns or is positioned to one side, the arms on that side of the body extends, while the arm and knee on the other side flex.
104
Major milestones of motor development
Zero to 6 months. Prone, lifts head;
2 to 4 months. Prone, chest up, uses arms for support;
2 to 4.5 months. Rolls over;
3 to 6 months. Supports some weight with legs;
4.5 to 7.5 months. Sits without support; 5 to 10 months.
Stands with support (illustration shows a chair); 6 6o 10 months. Pulls self to stand;
7 to 12.5 months. Walks using furniture for support;
7 to 14 months. Stands alone easily;
11 to 14 months. Walks alone easily.
105
stepping reflex
a neonatal reflex in which an infant lifts first one leg and then the other in a coordinated pattern like walking
106
affordances
the possibilities for action offered, or afforded, by objects and situations
107
What can individual differences in motor maturity at 5 months of age predict?
children's academic achievement at 14 years of age - as indexed by motor control and exploratory behavior
This research suggests that infants who are better able to interact with their environment—by reaching for and manipulating objects, changing their body position, and so on—may have an advantage in perceptual and cognitive development by being better able to seek out new opportunities for learning.
108
At what age do infants begin successfully reaching for objects?
Around 3-4 months, although their movements are initially somewhat jerky and poorly controlled, and their grabs fail more often than not.
109
pre-reaching movements
clumsy swiping movements by young infants toward objects they see
110
At what age do infants achieve stable sitting and smooth reaching?
At about 7 months
111
At what age do infants become capable of self locomotion
At about 8 months
112
Infants first begin walking at what age?
about 11-12 months
113
scale error
the attempt by a young child to perform an action on a miniature object that is impossible due to the large discrepancy in the relative sizes of the child and the object
114
classical conditioning
a form of learning that consists of associating an initially neutral stimulus with a stimulus that always evokes a particular reflexive response
115
unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
a stimulus that evokes a reflexive response
116
unconditioned response (UCR)
a reflexive response that is elicited by the unconditioned stimulus
117
conditioned stimulus (CS)
the neutral stimulus that is repeatedly paired with the unconditioned stimulus
118
conditioned response (CR)
the originally reflexive response that comes to be elicited by the conditioned stimulus
119
instrumental (or operant) conditioning
learning the relation between one’s own behavior and the consequences that result from it
120
positive reinforcement
a reward that reliably follows a behavior and increases the likelihood that the behavior will be repeated
121
Carolyn Rovee-Collier (1997)
Ribbon/Mobile instrumental- conditioning procedure for studying learning and memory
Used extensively to see and under what circumstances, infants continue to remember the contingency between kicking and mobile movement
3-month-olds remember the kicking response for about 1 week
whereas 6-month-olds remember it for 2 weeks how long,
122
rational learning
the ability to use prior experiences to predict what will occur in the future
123
violation-of-expectation paradigms
use infants’ “surprise” at unexpected outcomes to draw inferences about their expectations
124
Rovee-Collier’s use of operant conditioning with mobiles tells us what about infants' long term memory?
Her data suggest that infants retain this information over weeks or months, depending on their age, and that long-term memory strengthens with age.
125
Newborns’ visual systems are relatively immature, with...
poor acuity, low contrast sensitivity, and minimal color vision. They begin visually scanning the world minutes after birth and show preferences for strongly contrasted patterns, including faces.
126
Contrary to Piaget’s beliefs about object permanence, experiments suggest that...
young infants can remember objects that are no longer visible.
127
Infants’ memory abilities support learning even before...
Birth, and develop rapidly over the course of the first postnatal year.
