Sensory and Motor Development 2 Flashcards
The development of touch
8 weeks
10 weeks
12 weeks
8 - foetuses respond to the area around the lips being touched
10 - reflexive grasp response when palm is touched
12 - toes curl when soles of feet touched
=shows response of touch is a very low level biological process (as it’s present in womb)
for the 1st 6 months, newborn infants show an automatic grasp reflex, after 6 months usually replaced by conscious top-down controlled processes
Touch and attachment
-study
touch(particularly skin contact) is an essential part of attachment bonding for infants
-Harlow - monkey mothers, one feeds one cuddly
= found monkeys spent most time on cloth mother = need skin to skin contact
Children using different modalities
-study by Sann and Steri(2007)
experimental work looking at what children can perceive in one modality (eg. touch)
- can children recognise objects presented in one modality using another modality? eg. do they know what something looks like by just touching it? (+vice versa)
–>matching touch to vision:
newborn infants (mean =41.8hrs old, Apgar = 9/10)were given small objects to hold until habituation 1)small cylinder OR 2)small prism
can newborn infant discriminate between them?
then shown larger versions of these shapes
found: infants looked longer at the larger novel object (one they didn’t hold), compared to the large object similar to the one they held
conclusion: no visual recognition as they haven’t seen larger objects before, but they can generalise from touch info to visual modality
(remember these are newborns = v impressive)
–> matching vision to touch:
newborns shown 1 of 2 objects, until habituation 1) large prism OR 2) large cylinder
tested how long child held smaller shape for
found: infants don’t hold novel object for longer than the familiar object
=don’t see any transferring of info from visual to tactile modality
suggests:
-at birth, cross-modal matching is NOT bi-directional
-Infants CAN identify an object they’ve previously held by visual means only
-Infants CAN’T detect an object that they’ve previously seen by touch only
Motor development
in 1st 12 months = gross motor skills/ fine motor skills?
-1-3 months = automatic reflexes generally
gross: stepping reflex, lift head, sit upright
fine: grasps objects, sucks, controls eye movements, smiles
- 2-4 months =
gross: lifts head and uses arms for support
fine: grasps things near hand
- 5-8 months =
gross: sits without support
fine: reaches for and grasps objects using 1 hand
- 5-10 months =
gross: stands with support and pulls self to stand
fine: pincer grip(thumb and finger grip)
- 5-11 months -
gross: crawls
fine: grasps, direct food to mouth
10-14 months=
gross:stands alone, walk alone
fine: more complex motor sequences eg.builds tower
13-18 months =
gross: walks backwards and sideways, climb, run, stairs
18-30months =
gross: runs easily, jumps, skips, rides tricycle
fine: vocab and articulation increases rapidly
Motor developments consequences on cognition
-Herbert study
Crawling def
notable with onset of crawling(5-11 months)
– demonstrate preference = cog. independence
acquiring ability to move independently brings concurrent improvements in memory (Herbert)
-study (Herbert):
9month olds able to crawl vs. those who can’t
(‘crawling’ = ability to traverse at least one metre using arms and/ or knees)
-infants shown how to play with a novel toy
(press bottom of toy=face lights up and music plays)
-24hrs later can they remember this with same toy?
-24hrs later can they remember this with different toy?
(use past experiences in novel situations)
found:
-control: don’t press button(same for crawlers and non)
-no change in toy: both able to remember to press button
-context change: crawlers able to produce gesture in a novel context, non-crawlers weren’t
=crawling brings with it greater memory flexibility– likely brings with it new experiences of being in different and changing contexts.
(likely these new experiences are likely to affect cognition, rather than just moving)
From crawling to walking
change requires?
Adolph study?
change requires muscle development, different patterns of limb coordination and balance control
walking= more hazardous but faster and can see more and more access to distant objects
adolph study(2014)-
head-mounted eye tracker - 11 month olds-
=can see their view of the world +eye tracker measures pupil
found: walker can see a lot more of environment around them – allows different interactions with them eg. allows them to see others perspective and helps learn language as they can look at object being referred to
However, skilled walking takes months to master
Perception and cognition
perception def
cognition def
Violation of expectation tasks
perception = how we see/hear or directly experience the world
cognition = how we form/use and act upon internal thoughts/states or pictures
–> known as mental representations
studying cognition in infants involves understanding the content of their mental representations of the world
-not just about what they see, but what they think about
A lot of what we know is from using the ‘Violation of Expectation’ task
–children shown an event repeatedly until they habituate
shown 1 of 2 variations of same event
if they look at 1 event for longer, it suggests they’re surprised by it (ie violated their expectation)
Counting in infants
-VoE task
VoE task to test what infants understand about number
(Wynn, 1992)
-4 and 5 month olds were shown an event where objects were moved behind a screen, then the screen was moved
event was either possible or impossible
(mickey mouse toys, 2 shown, hand removes 1, screen drops. 1 toy left = possible, 2 left = impossible)
found: 4 and 5 yr olds looked longer at impossible event
Object perception def piagets view constructivism def 9months? The A not B task
OP = understanding an object still exists even when we can’t see it (around 4-5months)
piaget coined term
–> piagets view of development was founded on the idea that children aren’t born with knowledge of the world. Instead, they gradually construct knowledge and the ability to internally represent the world around them = constructivism
Piaget observed:
-before 9 months, infants made no response to an object after it was hidden (even with desirable objects)
-at around 9 months, infants are able to search for objects that are out of view = suggests they can act on the basis of thought, rather than just perception however, their performance is still not adult-like –> shown by ‘the A not B task’
–A not B task
locationA: teddy here, so baby sees (Child understands teddy is here)
locationB: teddy is moved here in full view of child
found: 9 month olds try to retrieve toy from location A= A not B mistake
1 yr= able to use new location
–these studies involve measuring infants actions towards objects - more recent research uses: eye-tracking/ looking paradigms=found different findings
Object permanence using VoE paradigm
study presented a series of events to 6-8month olds (Baillargeons 1986)
-watch truck roll down ramp (until habituation) behind a screen
testing phase-1 = object not on track(=not blocked) and truck rolls past
2= object on track(=blocked) and truck rolls past (not possible)
found: 6 and 8 month olds look longer at impossible event
a screen was blocking sight of the blocked path- which shows the babies must have object permanence as they know the block continues to exist behind screen
-replicated with 4 month olds - who also looked surprised at impossible events
–> different to piagets findings as he stated we don’t have object permanence until 9 months
Explaining piagets findings:
they differ to Baillargeons findings
-what do we do when findings contradict?
we look at how they differ!
eg. some children studies look at looking patterns, while others study childrens action
-when we measure childrens understandings of object permanence through looking =around 4 months, BUT not when measured by their actions
-it appears that children have knowledge of the world from early in infancy.. but that they only become gradually able to act on that knowledge (eg. A not B task is an example)
-cognitive development in the 1st year of life involves building links between their knowledge and their actions
