Week 2 - Infancy Flashcards
What encompasses Infant Motor Development? (Birth - 2yrs)
- Newborn reflexes.
- Unlearned, involuntary responses of which babies naturally grow out of.
- Primitive reflexes = disappear. If primitive reflexes persist too long, or re-engage later in the lifespan there may be a CNS or PNS problem.
What (2) trends does infancy motor development follow?
1) Cephalocaudal (head to tail) = control of head emerges, before control of the trunk (arms or legs).
2) Proximodistal (near to far) = e.g. control in the arms before control in the fingers.
- Gross motor skills occur before fine motor skills.
What (4) techniques might we use to understand Infant Perception?
1) Habituation = babies learn to be bored with a stimulus if repeatedly presented with it. If we see the baby regaining interest with another stimulus, it means the baby can discriminate between e.g. the plug or red light. Used to test for discrimination of stimuli by all senses.
2) Preferential Looking = infant presented with 2x simultaneous stimuli and see which they prefer to look at. If infant has a preference, it tells u they can discriminate between two things. However, if they look equally at stimuli it might tell us they don’t know the difference.
3) Evoked Potentials = response of the brain on an EEG. Assessing how infant’s brain responds to stimulation by measuring activity. Different response to different stimuli = discrimination.
4) Operant conditioning = learned response to stimulus by positive reinforcement. If we get the same response to a different stimulus, it might tell us the baby is perceiving it the same as the original stimulus.
What is infant perception (vision) like?
- Can only see high acuity within 25cm (feeding distance) .
- Visual preference = prefers objects with contour.
- Can only see bold colour.
- 2-3 months breakthrough:
~ 1 month = focus on outer contours (chin, hairline, top of head)
~ 2 months = explores interiors of figures (facial figures)
At what point does cognition change with regards to depth perception?
Depth perception:
- infants perceive cliffs however are not scared.
Experiment = clear perspects to represent edge of cliff. At 2 months , the infant can perceive drop off and is not scarred of it. At 6 months, infants develop adaptive perception and are able to fear the apparent cliff to keep themselves safe.
What is the theory behind Infant Cognition? (thinking skills)
Piaget’s theory of development:
1) Sensorimotor stage = infancy period
2) Pre-operational stage = early childhood
3) Concrete operational stage = middle childhood
4) Formal Operational = adolescence to adulthood.
Piaget developed one of the first standardised intelligence tests and found that children were making the same cognitive errors, at different ages.
Describe Piaget’s theory of Cognitive Development.
A) Sensorimotor stage = infants understand the world through senses and movement. (6) substages involved:
- a. Reflex activity (birth- 1month)
- b. Primary circular reactions (1-4months) = repetition of interesting acts centred on child’s own body, e.g. sucking thumb, kicking legs or blowing bubbles repeatedly.
- c. Secondary circular reactions (4-8months) = repetition of interesting acts on objects (shaking rattle repeatedly to make a noise).
- d. Coordination of secondary schemes (8-12months) = combinations of actions to resolve simple problems (first evidence of intentionality).
- e. Tertiary circular reactions (12-18months) = Finding new ways to solve problems, experimentation. Seeing how cat responds when whacking it.
- f. Beginning of thought (18-24months) = first evidence of insight, solving problems mentally using symbols for objects and actions.
When does Object Permanence develop?
During sensorimotor stage.
- 4-8months: out of sight, out of mind.
- 8-12months: A-not-B error. Looks for doll in location where they often find it. Tendency to look for object in place where it has been repeatedly found (rather than new location). This indicated object permanence was emerging as they are looking for something.
- 1 year = A-not-B error overcome. Continued with trouble with invisible displacement. Struggles to know where to look if it isn’t in normal spot.
- 18 months = object permanence mastered.
What might be some criticisms of Piaget’s Theory of object permanence.
- Due to visual inacuity, infants may not look for object.
- Might not be interested in looking in general.
- Might not have the maintained attention.
- Motor skills not developed enough to search for object.
Infant Psychosocial Development.
Emotions, sense of self & attachment.
- Earliest emotion = crying for various reasons.
- Joy & laughter (3-4months)
- Wariness (3-4months)
- Fear (5-8 months)
- Toddler = complex emotions.
Don’t see embarrassment, pride or shame until they establish they are a different entity and find a sense of self. E.g. in order to feel proud, I need to know I exist on my own.
When do infants develop a sense of self?
At 2-3 months infants understand cause & effect which is a trigger developing sense of self.
Infants develop implicit sense of self through perceptions of their bodies & actions.
After 6 months, infants realise they are separate beings to other people with different perspectives.
What is Joint Attention?
Social development of infants. When infant sees something interesting, they look and check caregiver to see if they also saw it and reacted.
Joint attention emerges around 18 months. Infants recognise themselves visually as distinct individuals.
EXPERIMENT: Rouge test. Babies put in front of mirror with red lipstick on forehead. At 18 months, babies would see the mark and try wipe it off. Whereas at 6 months they did not.
What are the different theoretical perspectives of attachment? Also, define what attachment actually is.
Attachment = strong, enduring emotional bond developed between infant & caregiver in the 1st year of life.
Reciprocal affection & shared desire to maintain physical & emotional closeness.
KEY WORDS of attachment: Reciprocal & shared. Attachment is not one-way. Always think of it as bi-directional.
Why do we develop these strong bonds? Describe the theoretical perspectives.
sychoanalytic = I love you because you feed me
Learning = I love you because you are reinforcing
Cognitive = I love you because I know you
Ethological = I love you because I was born to love
