Physical & Cognitive Development Flashcards

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1
Q

What is maturation?

A

Biologically based changes that follow an orderly sequence, each step setting the stage for the next step according to an age related timetable.

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2
Q

What is a critical period?

A

Periods of special sensitivity to specific types of learning and sensory stimulation that shape the capacity for future development.

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3
Q

What is a sensitive period?

A

Times that are more important to subsequent development than others.

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4
Q

What is the ongoing debate regarding development?

A

Whether or not it occurs in critical periods or sensitive periods and whether or not it occurs in stages.

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5
Q

What is a stage?

A

Relatively discrete steps through which everyone progresses in the same sequence as opposed ti a steady and gradual change.

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6
Q

What occurs in brain development withing the first two years?

A

The formation of major synapses in auditory, visual and language areas.

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7
Q

What needs to occur for neural connections to survive?

A

They require stimulation: Those that are not stimulated are pruned.

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8
Q

What is Myleanation?

A

The coating of neural fibers with insulating fatty sheath that improves efficiency of message transfer.

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9
Q

What can change refer to?

A

The acquisition or the loss of a behavior or function.

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10
Q

What are the ways change can occur?

A
  1. Continuous: The gradual alteration of behavior
  2. Discontinuous: Refers to stages of growth that are qualitatively different and that are usually ordered in a fixed sequence.
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11
Q

What are the three types of design used in research of development?

A
  1. Cross-sectional: Compares groups of different ages at a time.
  2. Longitudinal: compares same group at multiple time points.
  3. Sequential: Combination of cross-sectional and longitudinal.
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12
Q

What are the three periods of prenatal development?

A
  1. Germinal period: The fertilized egg (zygote) enters a 2 week period of rapid cell division
  2. Embryonic period: The developing human organism (embryo) from 2 weeks through 2nd month.
  3. Foetal period: The developing human organism (foetus) from 9 weeks after conception to birth.
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13
Q

What is a teratogen?

A

An environmental agent that harm the embryo.

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14
Q

What are four types of teratogen?

A
  1. AOD
  2. Chemicals
  3. Radiation
  4. Virus
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15
Q

In development, what is a reflex?

A

Innate motor responses elicited by critical stimuli and are adaptive.

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16
Q

Name two reflexes,

A
  1. Rooting reflex: a touch on the cheek induces the infant to move its mouth toward the source of the touch.
  2. Sucking reflex: Tactile stimulation of the mouth produces rhythmic sucking.
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17
Q

what is puberty?

A

The stage when individuals become physically capable of reproduction.

18
Q

What is associated with early maturing males?

A
  1. Positive body image

2. Satisfaction with physical self.

19
Q

What is associated with early maturing females?

A
  1. Negative body image

2. more dissatisfied than on time or late maturers with physical self.

20
Q

Whats is menopause?.

A

Cessation of the menstrual cycle.

21
Q

What is ageism?

A

Predjudice against old people: Can lead to employment discrimination.

22
Q

What two methods do researchers use to study infant perception and cognition?

A
  1. Orienting reflex: The tendency to pay greater attention to novel stimuli than familiar.
  2. Sucking reflex: Sucking rate increases with novel stimuli and decreases with familiar stimuli.
23
Q

Describe the visual and auditory capabilities of infants.

A
  1. Auditory capabilities are well developed even from birth.

2. Visual perception is poor at birth though improves to 20/100 by 6 months.

24
Q

What is intermodal processing?

A

The ability to associate sensations of an object from different senses or to match their own actions to behaviors they observed visually.

25
Q

What is infantile amnesia?

A

Lack of explicit memory for events before the age of three or four years.

26
Q

According to Piaget, what does cognition refer to?

A

Mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering and communicating.

27
Q

What did Piaget argue children posses?

A

Schema’s

28
Q

What is a schema?

A

An organized pattern of thought or behavior: They are the basis of knowledge.

29
Q

What are the two ways Schema;s operate in children?

A
  1. Assimilation: Taking in new information and incorporating it into existing schemas
  2. Accommodation: Adjusting current schema to meet new information.
30
Q

What are Piaget’s stages of development?

A
  1. Sensorimotor: 0-2 thought and action is identical. Infant explores through senses.
  2. Preoperational: 2-7 Symbolic thought develops. Object permanence.
  3. Concrete operational: 7-12 The child is able to perform reversible mental operations on representations of objects.
  4. Formal operational: 12+ Logic can be applied abstractly. Hypothetical thinking.
31
Q

What is object permanence?

A

The realization that an object continues to exist even if it cannot be seen.

32
Q

What is egocentrism?

A

A cognitive view in which the child understands the world to have only their view. (difficulty in understanding the views of others).

33
Q

What is conservation?

A

Understanding that the basic properties of an object are constant even if the object changes shape.

34
Q

What are the main criticism’s of Piaget’s theory?

A
  1. Focus on rational thinking
  2. Strict stage approach
  3. Underestimated the capabilities of infants and preschool children.
  4. Rarely considered the roles of culture in cognitive development.
35
Q

Describe Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of cognitive development.

A

Emphasized the role of social interaction as a motivation for cognitive gains and learning.

36
Q

What is the zone of proximal development?

A

Stretches from sole performance to collaborative cooperation.

37
Q

What does the information processing approach to cognitive development focus on?

A
  1. Processing speed: Mental quickness increases as children age.
  2. Automatisation: The ability to perform some tasks automatically.
  3. Knowledge base: Children gain knowledge with experience
  4. Cognitive strategies: More sophisticated ones are developed.
  5. Metacognition: Thinking about thinking.
38
Q

What do Neo-Piagetian Theories aim to achieve?

A

They combine Piagetian and information-processing theories.

39
Q

What is psychomotor slowing?

A

Older people require more time to process information.

40
Q

How does memory change in the elderly?

A
  1. Short term memory: relatively unchanged.
  2. Working memory: difficulties in complex tasks
  3. Long term memory: Storage unchanged but retrieval becomes more difficult.
41
Q

In what ways do fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence change with age?

A
  1. Crystallized intelligence increases

2. Fluid intelligence decreases