Module 7 - Conceptual Development Flashcards
define concept
ideas or understanding that can be used to group together objects, events, qualities or abstractions that are similar in some way
- understanding what a dog is
- learning colours
- understanding that we all have our own minds
- cause and effect
- death
define categorical thinking
dividing the world into categories to use to make predictions about the world
- objects in the same category have similar properties, follow similar rules, etc.
what are the 3 general categories?
- people
- other animals
- inanimate objects
define category hierarchy
layers/levels dividing sets into subsets into smaller subsets, etc. It will start to emerge around 3 months old and is known from habituation studies.
- will have no reaction when shown multiple pictures of dogs, but when shown a cat, they have a change in expression, linking to the fact that they notice they are in different categories
- children and adults don’t always see the same basic categories
- kids will learn categories from other (accommodation and assimilation)
ex. inanimate objects–> furniture –> chairs –> brands
define perceptual categorization
grouping of objects with similar appearances (shape, colour,size)
- study looked at what basis do children generalize new category labels to new objects. Use unknown objects and got children to make assumptions about that object. before 5, only looked at superficial characteristics to guide categorization. from age 5 to adults, will look more into object function more than appearance
what are the levels of hierarchical catgeories?
superordinate: more general level with broad criteria (dog is a animal that moves and eats)
basic: middle level typically generates first (dogs have 4 legs and are good pets of humans)
subordinate: more specific, highly specific set of criteria (this dog have pointy ears and a curly tail)
- there will always be exceptions to our criteria rules, making quick judgements to how we will group things
define defining features
traits that define membership in a category, without these, they don’t belong in the category
ex. all cats are carnivores
define characteristic features
common or stereotypical traits of members of a category, but aren’t necessary for membership
ex. cats usually have fur, but some dont
how do children use characteristic and defining features to make categorical judgments?
- has 2 scenarios that describe robbers and see what children would say to me more accurately to meet the definition of a robber
- preschooler often rely on characteristic features when making the categorical judgement
- they get better at disregarding characteristic features to focus on defining
- STEREOTYPING
define naive psychology
baseline understanding of how humans and other living beings behave in the world
what are the 3 broad components of naive psychology?
intention: people act on the world independently and in line with their own goals ( <1year)
desire: people have their own wants and needs that vary across time and situations (1-2 years)
belief: peoples actions are guided by what they expect or think they known (5> years)
why is naive psych so cool?
- mental states are invisible - only see observable actions that result, cannot see hunger or goals
- can link mental states to other mental states - belief -> emotion -> subsequent actions
- while some aspects are evident early in life, others will take some time to come online - beliefs take up to 5 years to understand
define early self-concept
understanding that the self is separate from others
- newborns can discriminate source of contact - if someone touches their face, they will turn, but wont turn if they touch their own
- at four months, they start to understand their own limitations - how they can only reach for things in their reach and that they can grasp
- around 2 years, discover mirror self-recognition - understanding that a mirror is showing themselves and will respond to the image but interacting with their own body and not the mirror (<18month will touch own face, 18-24 will touch own face)
define the body-as-obstacle task used to help understand self-concept
- kid is placed on a string that will prevent the card from moving
- solution is to move to the side or front of the cart to be able to move it
- non western babies who struggled with mirror task will pass with ease
- western babies will do much worse, even when they were able to complete mirror task
what is the study that looks at children’s understanding of intentions?
- by 6 months, kids can understand actions of others as goal-direction
- habituated the children for a hand to reach to the left side to get a ball
- one condition was for a the hand to reach for a different location and new object - created surprise
- next condition was new object in the old location - surprise
- last condition was old object in new location - surprise
- shows that the child understand the goal as grabbing the ball (associated an intention with the hand)
- when this study was done again but with a mechanical claw instead of a hand, they did not attribute a goal to the claw (understanding that not all things have goals and intention)
define agency
the ability to monitor and act on one’s environment in accordance with one’s will or intention
- other people and animals are seen as agents for us
define the Theory of Mind (ToM)
an organized understanding of how mental processes such as intentions, desires, beliefs, perceptions, and emotions influence behaviour
- at a young age, children think that everyone has the same thoughts and beliefs as them. will learn to discover that it is not true as they grow up
- Understanding the connection between people’s desires and their emotions is important (emerges in the end of the first year)
what study did they do to understand desire?
- 12 month old observed an adults interactions with 2 cats, expressing desire to only act with one cats
- 2 conditions: one where the person was interacting with the act they desired interest in and one where they were with the other cat
- the condition where they were with the non-desired cats, they showed sign of surprise
- 8 month olds were not able to see the difference between the 3 interactions
define false beliefs
- at age 3, children start to understand beliefs but struggle with false beliefs
*false belief problems: test understanding that people will act on the basis of other own beliefs when the child known that those beliefs are incorrect
what is a sally-anne task?
- sally has a doll and then leaves the room
- her friend sally moves here doll to a different location
true-belief condition: all kids will pass
false-belief condition: 3 yrs old with fail to account for false belief, point to the new location. 5 yrs old with know that sally has a false belief and point to the original location
what is the appearance-reality tasks to look at children’s understanding of false belief?
- smarties tasks
- 3 years old will struggle to understand that others don’t have the same knowledge as them
- ask them what would be contained in a Smarties box, they assume Smarties
- show them that there are actually pencils in the box
- they get asked what someone else would think there is inside the box, and they say pencils (don’t fully understand that other people don’t have the same thoughts as them)
- 5 year old would recognize that another person would be fooled and would have a false belief
- there is a loophole, where if you tell the kid that you are gonna play a trick on the other person, they would get the answer right
what are the foundations of theory of mind?
innate: there is an assocation between age and passing ToM tasks across diverse cultures
–> theory of mind module (TOMM): theoretical cognitive system devoted to understanding mental states in others, innate capacity humans have evolved
learned: having older and other sex siblings, it is related to the improvement of performance, exposure to false beliefs (MORE SUPPORT)
ToM and ASD
common charactertistics: sensory sensitivites, heightened interest of fixation, impacted communication skills, difficulties with ToM and social reasoning (only <50% can pass these tasks from ages of 6-14)
- interventions can have great impacts: examples are Early Start Denver Model (for 1-2 years old to promote social orientation and adaptive skills through interactions, positive reinforcement of social behaviour is very big) and Applied behaviour analysis (can be applied at any time, using positive reinforcement to develop adaptive skills and foster resilience and independence)
causal reasoning in infants
- simple for example of one block hitting another and seeing that the one hit will move
- 6 months will first get habituation to the of movement
- test trials will be that the 2nd block starts to move before it gets hit, creating surprised response
- end of 2nd year, children can infer the causal impact of one variable based on indirectly relevant info about another
