Quiz #4 Flashcards
Steps in Information Processing
Overseen by the executive function
* Attention
* Discrimination
* Organization
* Memory
Attention
- Awareness of a learning situation and active cognitive processing
- Orientation - directing focus to the stimulus
- Children are especially motivated by moving or changing objects
- Bright colors are also motivating
- Reaction - amount of time required for an individual to respond to a stimulus
Discrimination
- The ability to identify relevant vs. non-relevant information
- Requires working memory (WM): involves the simultaneous storage and processing of information
Organization
The organization of information for future retrieval
Two kinds of organizational strategies:
* Mediational strategies: a symbol forms a link to some information (e.g., an image may facilitate recall of an event)
* Associative strategies: one symbol is commonly linked with another (e.g., cat/dog, boy/girl)
Short Term Memory
Storage for a small amount of information to be retrieved soon
* Recalling items on a shopping list
* Recalling a phone number
Long Term Memory
- Information that has been rehearsed and organized
Explicit Memory
- Facts and events
- Meaning and concepts
- Important names, dates, etc.
Implicit Memory
- Consists of knowing how to do something, such as putting words together or asking for something
(recall memory)
Transfer or Generalization
The ability to apply previously learned material to similar but novel problems
* When the two are very similar, generalization is called near transfer
* When very dissimilar, generalization is called far transfer
Top Down Processing
- Conceptually driven or affected by expectations about incoming information
(e.g., the cat caught a …)
Bottom Up Processing
- Data-driven; analysis occurs at the levels of sound/syllable discrimination and proceeds upward to recognition and comprehension
(e.g., the cat caught a /b/ …)
Early Cognitive Development
- Humans actively contribute to their own cognitive growth by observing, exploring, experimenting, and seeking information
Sensation
- Reception of sensory information
Perception
- Use of sensory information and previous knowledge to make sense of incoming stimuli
Motor Control
- Muscle movement and the sensory feedback that informs the brain of the extent of that movement
(e.g., movement initiated - baby laughs and lifts arms to be picked up)
Cognition
Mental abilities involved in:
* Comprehension of information
* Langauge acquisition
* Executive function
* Use of knowledge
Early Cognitive Development: Perception
- Babies perceive blurry faces at birth and learn to direct their attention at faces quickly
- 2 months - prefer a “typical face”
- 3 months - perceive facial differences
- Between 4 and 6 months - respond more positively to a smile
- Between 5 and 8 months - begin to perceive their own face
Early Cognitive Development: Motor Control
- Fetus
- Discernible movement begins at seven weeks
- Hand to face contact and body rotation are seen at 10 weeks
- Rhythmic such-swallow pattern established at 6 months
- Newborn
- Movements consist of twitches, jerks, and random movements
- Involuntary motor patterns called reflexes
- 2 months
- Oral muscle control to stop and start movement
- Tactile stimulation is still needed
Early Development: Cognition
- Both biology and experience contribute to determining cognitive development and enabling language
- When a child hears speech sounds over and over, neurons in the auditory system stimulate “connections” in the child’s auditory cortex
Speech Development
- “Cooing” and “Gooing” - noncrying vowel-like sounds
- Babbling: consonant + vowel (CV) combinations
- Reduplicated Babbling: CV - CV repetitions
Consonant repertoire: /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /g/, /k/, nasals, and the approximant /j/ - Echolalia speech, or echolalia: immediate imitation of another speaker
Variegated Babbling: adjacent and successive syllables are not identical; sound sequences may also include VCV and CVC structures (bada)
Jargon: a pattern consisting of long strings of unintelligible sounds with adultlike prosody and intonation
Emergence of Early Speech Patterns
- Phonetically consistent forms are consistent prosodic and speech sound patterns (e.g., ‘puda’ - family cat or dog) created by a child
- May not be an imitation of the adult form but an indication of sound meaning relationship
Information Processing & Language Development
- Attention
- Processing Speed
- Memory
- Representational Competence
Attention
- The ability of an infant to focus on something while their mother discusses or manipulates it is important for learning and may be a precursor of focusing on a conversational topic
Joint Attention
- When one person purposefully coordinates their focus of attention with that of another person
- Involves two people paying attention to the same thing, intentionally and for social reasons
Recall Memory
- The ability to remember something without being prompted
Development of Communication
- During the first 3 months, a caregiver’s responding teaches a child the signal value of specific behaviors (stimulus-response sequence)
- Immediate positive parental responsiveness increases a child to communicate
Development of Intentionality
- Intentionality is exhibited when a child begins to encode a message for someone else
- Initially, communication intentions are expressed primarily through gestures (i.e., requesting, interacting, and attracting attention)
Stages of Intentionality: Preintentional Stage
- Begins at birth
- Caregivers interpret the infant’s behavior and respond accordingly
- Toward the end of this initial period of intentional development
- become more interested in manipulating objects
- begin to use gestures that demonstrate an understanding of an object’s purpose or use
Stages of Intentionality: Gestural Intentions
- Begins at 8 to 9 months
- Infants use conventional gestures, vocalizations, or both to communicate intentions
- Extends objects towards others to show/ bring attention to them but does not release them
Stages of Intentionality: First Words
- Intent becomes encoded in words with or without gestures
- Each language allows only certain syllable and phoneme sequencing structures, so predictability is high within words
- Predictable, familiar words and phrases become associated with familiar contexts, helping early meanings to form
Conventional Gesture: Pointing
- Pointing may include the whole hand or single finger with the arm extended
- By 12 months, infant pointing to share with others, is a full communicative act
Infant Caregiver’s Behavior
- Infant-elicited social behavior consists of material adaptations in speech and language, gaze, facial expression, facial presentation and head movement, and proxemics
- Maternal responsiveness is determined by maturational level of the infant and culture-specific interactional patterns
Infant Directed Speech
- Characterized by higher pitch, short utterance length, simple syntax, and use of core vocabulary
- Mothers paraphrase and repeat themselves
- Children who are deaf and exposed to maternal signing from birth achieve all linguistic milestones at or before hearing children
- Gain and hold the infant’s attention
- Establish emotional bonds
- Enable communication to occur at the earliest opportunity
Additional Adaptations
- Facial Presentation and Head Movement
- Proxemics
Gaze
- A mother may remain in eye contact with her infant for a longer duration than in adult-directed conversations
- During play, maternal gazing occurs up to 70% of the time, simultaneous with vocalization
- A mother monitors her infant’s gaze, adjusting conversational topic accordingly
Facial Expression
- Mock surprise is used to initiate, invite, or signal readiness
- An exchange can be maintained or modulated by a smile or an expression of concern
- Mothers use expressions to maintain infants’ attention and aid comprehension
Protoconversations
- Contain the initial elements of emerging conversation
- Initiation, mutual orientation, greeting, a play dialogue, and disengagement
- Involves turn taking
Interactions Between Infant and Caregiver
- Infant and caregiver interactions are crucial for infant learning and being able to participate in joint experiences
Infant-Caregiver Interaction: Joint Reference
- Joint Reference: Presupposes that two or more individuals share a common focus
- Identification of Autism Spectrum Disorder is partly based on lack of joint reference
Infant-Caregiver Interaction: Joint Action
- Joint Action: refers to shared behaviors in familiar contexts, providing a structure in which language can be analyzed (i.e., a routine)
- Familiar Contexts
- Game playing
- Routines
