Week 13: Cognitive Development Flashcards
Assumption that categories are well defined
- provides necessary features for category membership
- features must be jointly sufficient for membership
Sources of Typicality
- Frequency: items are more typical if they have features frequent in their category and vice versa (family resemblance theory)
- Hierarchies: concrete categories nested into larger, abstract categories
- objects can fall under multiple categories
Basic level of categorization
- not too big not so small and is the most preferred
- preferred level consists of both level of diff in the world but also people’s knowledge and interest in categories
- subordinate and superordinate
subordinate
overly specific
superordinate
overly general
Differentiation in the basic levels of categories
basic level categories of both the level of differentiated, which explains why they are more preferred
Prototype approach/theory
- Theory: ppl have a summary representation of the category; a mental description meant to apply to the category as a whole
- set of weighted features (weighted by frequency in category)
Exemplar approach/theory
- Theory: denial that a summary representation exists; instead, a concept is remembered by the many observations you have experienced; you compare new exemplars to your past observations
- Closer similarity: people often become fooled when new items similar to old items were presented but with slight adjustments
Knowledge Approach/psychological essentialism
- we try to learn new concepts and connect them to past knowledge we already have
- psychological essentialism: members of a category have an unseen property that causes them to be in the category and to have properties associated w it
a) objects believed to be in or out of category w no inbetween
b) resistance to change of category membership or of properties connected to the essence
c) for living things, the essence is passed on to the progeny (offspring/descendant)
Cognitive development
development of THINKING across a lifespan
piaget’s stage theory
development occurs through sequence of discontinuous stages
- sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational
sociocultural theory
Lev Vygotsky; other ppl and surrounding attitudes, values, and beliefs influence child development
information processing theories
David Klahr; describes cognitive processes that underlie thinking at any one age and cognitive growth over time
Nature vs. nurture
w/o either there would b no child; it is complex
Distinct stages: Quantitative changes
gradual, incremental change (e.g. height)
Distinct stages: Qualitative changes
largely fundamental changes (e.g caterpillar grows into butterfly)
Piaget proposed four discrete stages:
1) sensorimotor (0-2 yr): children discover reality of objects
2) preoperational reasoning (2-7 yrs): children represent objects thru drawing and language but cannot solve logical reasoning problems
3) concrete operational reasoning (7-12): children can think logically about concrete situations but not engage in systematic scientific reasoning
4) formal operational reasoning (12+): adolescents gain reason
object permanence task/sensorimotor stage
distinctive of sensorimotor stage in which <9 months fail to search for an object removed from sight and if not allowed to search immediately for the object, act as if they do not know it still exists
- piaget claimed they did not understand objects existed when out of their sight
conservation problems/preoperational stage
physical transformation of set objects change a perceptually salient (most noticeable) dimension but not the quantity that is being asked about
- during preoperational stage, children focus on a single dimension
concrete operations stage
logical thinking w/o systematic scientific reasoning
6-12 yrs
logic only applied to objects seen or that are real
formal operations stage
gaining reasoning powers; often occurs with exposure to formal education in scientific reasoning
- 11-12 yrs to lifetime
- can think logically + advanced reasoning
criticisms of piaget
cognitive development is more continuous and should not be compounded into four separate stages
phonemic awareness
awareness of component sounds within words
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
developmental disorder often emerging in first three years that persists throughout one’s life
- presence of profound diff in social interactions and communications + presence of repetitive/restricted interests, cognitions, and behaviours
symp: difficulty w simple behaviours (eye contact), advanced behaviours (group convo), processing difficulties in both visual and auditory senses, repetitive behaviours, language deficits
phenotypic heterogeneity
high degree of variability in the genes underlying ASD
social perception
initial stages of processing of info that culminates in the accurate analysis of the dispositions and intentions of others; essential to more sophisticated social behaviours (thinking about motives)
social brain
set of neuroanatomical structures that allows us to understand actions and intentions of others
- amygdala, orbital frontal cortex (OFC), fusiform gyrus (FG), posterior superior temporal sulcus (STS)
a) amygdala: recognizes emotional state of others
b) OFC: “reward” feelings
c) FG: facial detection and recognition
d) Posterior STS: biological motion recognition
How to detect social brain activity in people with ASD
- using fMRI (high spatial) and ERP (high temporal) complementary imaging methods
- children w ASD show low sensitivity to biological motion = reduced STS activity
- ppl w increased ASD risk but who do not develop symptoms often have increased STS activity - a compensatory mechanism that offsets genetic vulnerability
Endophenotypes
Characteristics not immediately observable that still reflect a genetic liability for disease and a more basic component of a complex clinical presentation
When do development disorders like ASD need to be diagnosed and why
- Must be diagnosed early in life
- Early deficits to attention to biological motion derail subsequent experiences of higher social information
- Lack of reliable predictors/biological tests have impacted the effective treatment of ASD ==> treatment often becomes delayed
