Object & physical, Social and Conceptual knowledge

Question 1

Define specialised learning mechanisms

Answer 1

Mechanisms which enable infants to acquire knowledge rapidly and efficiently in some domains

Question 2

What term is used to describe the type of mechanisms which enable infants to acquire knowledge rapidly and efficiently in some domains?

Answer 2

Specialised learning mechanisms

Question 3

Define general learning mechanisms

Answer 3

Mechanisms that gradually strengthen infants’ mental representations of the world

Question 4

What is the term used to describe the type of mechanisms that gradually strengthen infants’ mental representations of the world?

Answer 4

General learning representations

Question 5

List the factors affecting whether children
make the A-not-B error

Answer 5

1) Age of the child
2) Length of delay
3) Number of hiding locations
4) Number of times the object was hidden in location A

Question 6

How does the number of times the object was hidden in location A affect the A-Not-B error?

Answer 6

When an object is hidden under location A many many times, the infant develops some sort of memory of the object being hidden there.

This creates a habit of reaching towards location A even when the object is hidden at location B

Because the object is hidden at location B less often than it was hidden at location A, the infant has a weaker memory of the object hidden in location B and is less likely to search in location B

Question 7

Who proposed early evidence for object permanence?

Answer 7

Hood and Willatts

Question 8

What makes infants perform better at the A-Not-B task?

Answer 8

If we test them via visual attention measures (how long they take to look at where the object is hidden) rather than tests that require them to take action

Question 9

Describe Hood and Willatts’ test for object permanence

Answer 9

1) 5-month-olds are shown an object to the left/right

2) The lights switch off

3) Infant reaches to where they last saw the object

Question 10

What do the results of Hood and Willatts’ test for object permanence suggest about infants’ object permanence?

Answer 10

Young infants (before 8 months as how Piaget claimed) are in fact able to mentally represent and think about the existence of invisible objects and events

Question 11

Describe the violation-of-expectancy procedure

Answer 11

When infants are shown an event that should evoke surprise or interest if it violates something that the infant knows or assumes to be true

Question 12

Who proposed the violation of expectancy procedure?

Answer 12

Baillargeon (1987)

Question 13

Which test involved presenting infants with an event which evoked surprise or interest if it goes against something the infant knows or assumes to be true?

Answer 13

Violation of expectancy procedure

Question 14

What did Baillargeon do in her violation of expectancy experiment?

Answer 14

1) Presented infants 3½ months of age with a screen rotating back and forth at 180 degree

2) Infants habituate to the screen rotating back and forth after seeing it multiple times

3) A box is then placed behind the screen which blocks the movement of the screen

4) Infant does not seem surprised or intrigued

5) But the box was placed again except this time, the screen moves back and forth

6) Infant looked longer at this and showed interest (because how can the screen still moves back and forth when there is a box “blocking” it?)

Question 15

What do the results of Baillargeon’s violation of expectancy experiment suggest?

Answer 15

The infants mentally represented the box (understood object permanence) even when it was occluded and were surprised when the screen seemed to pass through the box

Question 16

Why do children show object permanence with a VoE procedure, but not A-not-B task? List 3 possible reasons.

Answer 16

1) memory limitations
- infants could’ve forgotten that the object was hidden under location B because they were only shown it once relative to the number of times the object was hidden under location A

2) problems with inhibitory control associated with immaturity of the prefrontal cortex
- prefrontal cortex influences attention
- if the prefrontal cortex is immature, infants have really short attention spans and may not have paid attention when the object was hidden under location B

3) competition between a representational system and a response system
- even if they understand that the object has moved (mental imagery of object permanence), they will still continue to look in the same place (reaching to location A becomes a habit, automatic)

Question 17

When does knowledge of gravity begin in infants?

Answer 17

In the first year

Question 18

How do you know that infants are aware of the concept of gravity?

Answer 18

If infants seem surprised or stare intently/longer when objects violate expected motion trajectories

e.g. 7-month-olds are surprised to see a
ball roll up a slope without anything pulling or helping it up (Kim & Spelke, 1992)

Question 19

7-month-olds are surprised to see a
ball roll up a slope without anything pulling or helping it up (Kim & Spelke, 1992)

What does this tell us about the infant?

Answer 19

They have knowledge of gravity

Question 20

When does knowledge of support relations begin in infants?

Answer 20

Between 3 months - 12 1/2 months

Question 21

How do you know that infants are aware of the concept of support relations?

Answer 21

If infants seem surprised or stare intently/longer when objects violate expectations of what physical support the infants believe are possible

Question 22

Describe Baillargeon’s experiment testing for understanding of support relations

Answer 22

Infants were presented with a box and a support (a 2nd box)

1) At 3 months
- Infants look longer if the box remains in the air without the help of the support

2) At 5 months
- Infants look longer if the box does not fall when it is at the side of the support rather than on top

3) At 6.5 months
- Infants look longer if the box remains steady with only a small amount of contact with the support

4). At 125 months
- Infants look longer if the box is an asymmetrical object which remains stable on a support that’s much smaller

Question 23

What happens at 5 months according to Baillargeon’s experiment testing for the understanding of support relations?

Answer 23

An infant understands that in order for a box to remain stable, it must make contact with the support

An infant looks longer if the box makes contact with the support sideways rather than on top and does not fall

Question 24

What happens at 125 months according to Baillargeon’s experiment testing for the understanding of support relations?

Answer 24

An infant looks longer if an asymmetric object does not fall despite a substantial part of it being above and in contact with the support

Question 25

What happens at 3 months according to Baillargeon’s experiment testing for the understanding of support relations?

Answer 25

An infant looks longer if the box is not in contact with the support and does not fall

Question 26

What happens at 6.5 months according to Baillargeon’s experiment testing for the understanding of support relations?

Answer 26

An infant looks longer if only a small portion of the box makes contact with the support and does not fall

Question 27

Define social knowledge

Answer 27

• Knowledge about people and their behaviour
• Distinguishing animate and inanimate entities
• Knowing that the behaviour of others is purposeful and goal-directed

Question 28

Who thought of the experiment which involves infants who see a human arm repeatedly reach for an object in the same location assume that the action is directed toward the object, not the place?

Answer 28

(Woodward, 1998)

Question 29

What did Woodward discover in his experiment to test for understanding of intentions in infants?

Answer 29

1) Infants who see a human arm repeatedly reach for an object in the same location assume that the action is directed toward the object, not the place

2) When the object is swapped with another object in the opposite location and the arm reaches for the 2nd object in the previous location, the infant was surprised

3) 6-month olds looked longer when the hand went to the new object in the old place rather than the old object in the new place

Question 30

What was the experiment performed to test for knowledge on attributing dispositional states?

Answer 30

Kuhlmeier et al.

Infants watched a film that adults interpret as a ball “trying and failing” to get up a hill as it is being “helped” by a triangle and being “blocked” by a square

Infants looking behaviour indicated that they expected the ball to approach the “helpful” triangle while avoiding the “hindering” square

Question 31

What do the results of Kuhlmeier et al.’s study on attributing dispositional states suggest about infants’ social knowledge?

Answer 31

Infants often create a personality for objects or things that move around and”behave” in a certain way

e.g. There is a circle trying to climb the hill, a triangle helping the circle and a square pushing the circle down

Infants will think of the square as a bully and refuse to interact with the square

Question 32

Define conceptual knowledge

Answer 32

General ideas or understandings that can be used to group together objects, events, qualities, or abstractions that are similar in some way

Question 33

What do nativists (nature) argue about conceptual knowledge?

Answer 33

The understanding of concepts are innate and plays a central role in development

Question 34

What do empiricists (nurture) argue about conceptual knowledge?

Answer 34

That the understanding of concepts arises from basic learning mechanisms

Question 35

What term is used to describe a major way in which infants figure out how things in the world are related to one another?

Answer 35

By dividing objects into categorial hierarchies

Question 36

Define categorial hierarchies

Answer 36

Categories related by set-subset relations

Question 37

What are the 3 levels of categorical hierarchies?

Answer 37

1) Superordinate (e.g. living things)

2) Basic (e.g. birds)

3) Subordinate (e.g. parrots)

Question 38

Out of the 3 levels in the categorical hierarchies, which level is the very general one?

Answer 38

Superordinate

Question 39

Out of the 3 levels in the categorical hierarchies, which level is the very specific one?

Answer 39

Subordinate

Question 40

Out of the 3 levels in the categorical hierarchies, which level is in between general and specific?

Answer 40

Basic

Question 41

Out of the 3 levels in the categorical hierarchies, which level do infants learn first?

Answer 41

Basic level

Question 42

Why do infants learn the basic level first out of the 3 levels in the categorical hierarchies?

Answer 42

1) Objects at the basic level share many common characteristics, unlike superordinate level categories

e.g. Cats and Dogs share more similarities than Living things and Non-Living things

2) Category members are relatively easy to discriminate, unlike those in subordinate level categories

e.g. Cats and Dogs are easier to tell apart compared to British shorthair cats and Scottish fold cats

Question 43

Define child-basic categories

Answer 43

When children’s generality is somewhere between basic and subordinate level categories (Mervis, 1987)

Question 44

How do children form child-basic categories?

Answer 44

Children use what they know about basic-level categories to form superordinate and subordinate categories with the assistance of adults

Question 45

How do infants form basic categories before their first birthday?

Answer 45

They group together objects that have similar appearances (perceptual categorisation)

e.g. colour, size, movement

Question 46

At what age do infants habituate at the sight of different breeds of cats but dishabituate when they see a cat and a dog?

Answer 46

Before their first birthday (3-4 months of age)

Question 47

Define perceptual categorisation

Answer 47

The grouping together of objects that have similar appearances (colour, size, movement, etc.)

Question 48

At what age would infants treat plastic toy birds and aeroplanes as if they were members of the same category?

Answer 48

Before their first birthday (7 months of age)

Question 49

Define perceptually similar objects

Answer 49

Objects that are similar in basic appearances

e.g. Toy birds and toy planes both have wings and can fly so infants assume they are in the same category

Question 50

Define conceptually different objects

Answer 50

Objects that are different in characteristics and purpose but may have similar appearances/ perceptual similarities

e.g. Toy birds and toy planes both have wings and can fly but that does not mean they’re in the same category (birds are living things, planes are not)

Question 51

Who proposed the perceptually similar and conceptually different toy birds and aeroplanes study?

Answer 51

Mandler & McDonough, 1993

Question 52

How do infants form basic categories before their second birthday?

Answer 52

Infants increasingly categorize objects on the basis of the overall shape

Question 53

At what age do infants form categories on the basis of function?

Answer 53

Before their second birthday (14 months)

Question 54

At what age would infants mime feeding a drink to a toy rabbit but not a toy motorcycle? (Mandler & McDonough, 1998)

Answer 54

Before their second birthday (14 months)

Question 55

Define forming categories on the basis of function

Answer 55

When infants use their knowledge of categories to determine which actions go with which type of objects

Question 56

As children get older, what happens to their ability to categorise?

Answer 56

1) They experience an increasing understanding of category hierarchies
2) They experience an increasing understanding of causal connections

Question 57

Define causal relations

Answer 57

Understanding why objects are the way they are

Question 58

Why is it important for children to develop causal relations?

Answer 58

This helps children learn and remember new categories

Question 59

Who proposed the wugs and gillies experiment to test for the knowledge of causal relations in children?

Answer 59

Krascum & Andrews, 1998

Question 60

What did Krascum & Andrews do in their wugs and gillies experiment?

Answer 60

1) Children were presented with pictures of 2 mythical creatures/animal = wugs and gillies

2) The experimenters give explanations for the creatures’ appearances

e.g. Animals in the wugs category have claws to help them fight
Animals in the gillies category have wings to help them flee

3) 4 and 5-year-olds were told to match the pictures of the 2 mythical creatures with their respective categories (wugs or gillies)

4) The children categorised the pictures better than children who had not heard the explanation

Question 61

What did the results of Krascum & Andrews’ wugs and gillies experiment suggest?

Answer 61

That children are able to tell the difference and categorise things if they were given explanations as to why things are the way they are

Question 62

Between the ages of 4-10 years old, what are children confused with in terms of knowledge of living things?

Answer 62

1) Children believe that plants and animals were created to serve specific purposes, much like tools are (Kelemen, 2004)

2) Many children also confuse certain properties of living and nonliving things

Question 63

Who proposed an experiment to observe how children distinguish people from non-living things?

Answer 63

Poulin-Dubois (1999)

Question 64

What was the main aim of Poulin-Dubois’ experiment?

Answer 64

To study infants’ reactions when they see people and inanimate objects (in this case a robot) engaging in the same action

Question 65

According to Poulin-Dubois’ experiment, at what age do children show surprise when they see inanimate objects move on their own?

Answer 65

Before their 2nd birthday (9-12 months)

Question 66

What were the results of Poulin-Dubois’ robot-human experiment?

Answer 66

Both 9- and 12-month-olds show surprise when they see inanimate objects move on their own,

Question 67

What do the results of Poulin-Dubois’ robot-human experiment suggest?

Answer 67

That children understand that self-produced motion is a distinctive characteristic of people and other animals rather than inanimate objects

Question 68

What do pre-schoolers (3-4 year olds) know about hereditary?

Answer 68

Pre-schoolers know that physical characteristics tend to be passed on from parent to offspring, and that certain aspects of development are
controlled by heredity rather than environment

Question 69

Define essentialism

Answer 69

The view that living things have an essence inside them that makes them what they are

e.g. People refuse to buy a replica of a specific diamond ring because the replicas don’t have the “essence” of the actual diamond ring

Question 70

What is the most common mistake children make when it comes to hereditary and attributed gender differences?

Answer 70

Children often attribute gender differences to inherited essentialism

This means children believe certain characteristics of boys and girls are due to genetics

e.g. A boy’s “boyness” is inherited and is what makes the boy prefer playing with car toys rather than barbies

Question 71

At what age do children start to recognise the influence of the environment on gender differences? (Taylor, 1993)

Answer 71

Ages 9-10 years

Question 72

At what age do children realise that growth is a product of internal processes?
(Rosengran et al., 1991)

Answer 72

Ages 3-4 years

Question 73

What do children know about the growth and illnesses of living things?

Answer 73

1) Children know that plants and animals, unlike inanimate objects, have internal processes that allow them to heal

2) Children understand that illness and old age can cause a permanent state of death, from which there is no recovery
(Nguyen & Gelman, 2002)

Question 74

Baby Karl does not make the A-not-B error when tested via looking measures but still makes the error when tested via reaching measures.

What is the likely reason for Karl’s error?

A. An immature prefrontal cortex
B. Limited memory capacity
C. Problems with inhibitory control when a particular action has been previously performed
D. All of the above

Answer 74

D. All of the above

Question 75

Infants who gaze in the same direction as a faceless blob that has responded to their behaviour are exhibiting….

A. Attribution of dispositional state
B. Understanding of intention
C. Categorical separation of living and non-living things
D. All of the above

Answer 75

B. Understanding of intention

Question 76

“Cat” is an example of a…

A. superordinate category
B. basic-level category
C. child-basic category
D. subordinate category

Answer 76

B. basic-level category

Question 77

Naomi is five years old and has just broken a leg
on her favourite chair. Which of the following is she likely to believe?

A. The chair can heal itself
B. The chair can grow a new leg
C. The chair isn’t alive
D. Both A and B

Answer 77

C. The chair isn’t alive

Because children have knowledge on illnesses and growth by the age of 3-4 years