child development exam

developmental psychology

the study of how people grow and change across a lifespan

Lloyd Morrisett

developmental psych researcher, wanted to provide high quality home education to disadvantaged preschool children

Conception

Union of sperm and ovum

Gamete

reproductive cell containing half the genetic material of the donor

zygote

fertilized egg cell, beings dividing within 12 hours of fertilization

amniotic sac

fluid filled membrane that protects the developing organism

placenta

temporary support organ with semipermeable membrane allowing fro exchange of material between mother and fetus

Embryo

developing organism from the 3rd to 8th week

major systems begin to develop

cephalocaudal development

organs nearer to the head develop first

fetus

9th week to birth

9 week fetus

all major organs present

16 week

external genitals develop

28 weeks

lungs and heart sufficiently developed

what does a fetus do in utero

kicking, thumb sucking, hiccups, swallows fluid, sleeping and waking

teratogens

any external agent or substance that can cause harm to an organism during prenatal development

fetal alcohol syndrome disorder

range of conditions found in people who where exposed to alcohol prenatally

MAOA

an enzyme that regulates mood, aggression, and other things

neurogenesis

rapid increase of neutrons through cell division

synaptogenesis

formation of synapse with other neutrons

synaptic pruning

process by which synapse that are rarely activated are eliminated

plasticity

capacity for brain to change based on experience

critical period

window of development where the brain must receive specific stimulation for the brain to develop as it normally would

experience-dependant plasticity

the ongoing rearing of neural connections following ones unique life experience

behaviourists take on children

no innate temperaments, everything is learned

Piagets core idea

children are/can;

think differently than adults

are active learners

learn without being taught

intrinsically motivated to learn

assimilation

interpreting new info based on concepts and knowledge you already havea

accommodation

adjusting your understanding in response to new info

equilibration

balancing assimilation with accommodation to create stable understanding of the world

equilibrium

existing knowledge structure is working as it should

disequilibrium

new info is challenging our knowledge structure

sensorimotor stage 0-2

learning about their bodies, the world, and the rules of interactions

a not b error

development mistake where infants 8-12 months continue looking for object in a familiar place after they’ve seen it moved to an unfamiliar one

pre-operational stage 2-7

represent idea w/ language, mental imagery, and symbolic thought

egocentrism in toddler

only focus on own thoughts goals, and intentions

centration

tendency to focus on only one prominent feature of an object/event

conservation concept

idea that changing the appearance of an object does not change its key properties.

concrete operational stage 7-12

able to reason logically about concrete objects, and events

formal operation stage 12+

reason about hypothetical situations, entertain multiple perspectives, engage in systematic thought

counterfactual reasoning

ability to entertain hypothetical questions that run “counter to the facts” about what actually/typically happens

counter factual reasoning & concrete operation stage

tend to get stuck on counterfactual premise

counterfactual reasoning & formal operational stage

able to apply logic despite counterfactual premise

attention

focusing your awareness on to range of stimuli

memory

ability to acquire, store, maintain, and retrieve information when you need it

encoding

taking in information from the world and putting in in a form that can be stored in memory

working memory

system evolved in actively tending painting and processing information

long term memory

system that stores information for retrieval long after its left your working memory

executive functions

cognitive processes associated with the intentional regulation of thinking and behaviour

selective attention

ability to intentionally focus on the information that is most relevant to your goal

inhibition

ability to override restive or temping behaviours in order to facilitate more deliberate actions

cognitive flexibility

ability ti adjust your thinking, considering multiple perspectives, reinterpret events to simtuli

core knowledge theories

children have:

1. innate knowledge in certain domains of special evolutionary importance

2. domain specific learning mechanisms for quickly, and easily gaining knowledge in those domains

domain specific

information and learning specific to a particular domain of cognition

nativism

infants have substantial innate knowledge in domains of special evolution significants

guided participation

knowledgeable individuals organizing activities in way that allow less knowledgeable people to learn

intersubjectivity

cognitive perspectives of the teacher and learner align to build a shared understanding

joint attention

social partners intentionally focus on a common referent in the external environment

social referencing

using another person’s reaction and expression to guide one’s learning and behaviour

social scaffolding

providing children with a temporary framework that allows them to think they’d achieve at a higher level than they could normally manage on their own

preferential looking paradigms

using spontaneous visual attention to examine how infants understand/categorize different concepts and stimuli

habituation

a decreased réponse to repeated or continued stimulation

dishabituation

a new stimuli rekindles interest following habituations

sensation

the deception and processing of basic information from the external world

perception

how we organize interpret and make sense of this incoming information

vision in infancy

poor vision, low visual acuity, low contrast sensitivity

month five in reference to eyesight

capable of categorical discrimination

visual scanning

infants cannot smoothly track moving stimuli until 4 months

infant face perception

within first year they have perceptual narrowing

perceptual narrowing

get better at discriminating kinds of faces they most often see

other race effect

children from racially diverse households can discriminate equally well between the races they are frequently exposed to

auditory localization

new borns turn their head towards sounds played on either side, but struggle to pinpoint exact location

binaural disparity

adults use info from both theirs ears to locate a sound

neonatal reflexes

rooting- turn head towards finger when touches

sucking- when lips/mouth is simulated

tonic neck- fencers pose

startle reflex

grasping

stepping

statistical learning

process of detecting and learning from statistical patterns in one’s environment

rational learning

ability to use prior experiences to predict what will occur in the future

violation of expectation paradigm

shows infants different outcomes to an event, and measure how long they look at each outcome. more looking = more surprise

imitation

happens after 6months