FRHD Test 2

patterns of growth

cephalocaudal pattern

proximodistal pattern

cephalocaudal pattern

head to tail (top to bottom)

explains why head occupies large proportion of new born’s body

proximodistal pattern

near to gar

growth starts at centre of body and moves towards extremities

growth in infants

most growth occurs during infancy

at 2 years old, 1/5 of adult weight and 1/5 of adult height

developmental cognitive neuroscience

how the brain develops and how developmental changes in neural activity affect social and cognitive development

fibres of neurons

axon and denstrites

myelin sheath

layer of fat cells that insulates and nourishes axon to help electrical signal travel faster

how does communication occur in the brain

neurons that send electrical and chemical signals to each other

release neurotransmitters in synapse

proliferation of synaspses

increasing of number of neural pathways

neural reuse hypothesis

neural pruning

synaptic connections that disappear because they are not used

lobes of the brain

frontal lobe - complex thought

occipital - visual processing

temporal - language processing

parietal -

forebrain

furthest from spinal cord

covered by cerebral cortex

lateralization

describes specialization of function within each hemisphere

left hemisphere - speech and comprehension (more activity when listening to speech in infants)

right hemisphere

pace of myelination in different areas of brain

1. visual

2. auditory

3. prefrontal

what is used to study infant brain development

electroencephalogram (eeg) - detects electrical signals in brain activity

functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) - uses low level of infrared light to monitor changes in blood oxygen

brain development

involved growth and differentiation of neurons, formation and loss of synapses, specialization of brain regions

neuroconstructivist view

emphasizes interplay of genes and environment

brain development influences child’s cogntive abilities, child’s thinking influences brain development

how many hours of sleeps for infants?

0-3 months = 14-17 hours

1-2 years =-1 year 11 - 14 hours

when do babies start sleeping through the night

~6 months

relationship between sleep and cognitive function and why

positive link

sleep has role in brain maturation and memory consolidation

benefits of breastfeeding 3

appropriate weight gain and reduced risk of obesity

reduced risk of SIDS

fewer respiratory tract infections

cons of breastfeeding 2

no desensitization to allergies

no benefit to cognitive and cardiovascular functioning

when should mother not breastfeed 3

1. has AIDS or other infectious disease that can be transmitter through milk

2. active tuberculosis

3. taking drug unsafe for infant

sensitive period for food in infants

young children exposed to high variety of vegetables or different food textures are more likely to eat variety of fruits and vegetables

reflex

built-in reactions to stimuli

gross motor skills

large muscle activities

ex. moving one’s arms, walking

fine motor skills

finely tuned movements

cross cultural studies provides evidence of the…

unfolding of motor development is influenced by parental beliefs and practices

why do babies need tummy time 3

avoid flat head, develop neck control, improve upper body strength

dynamic systems theory

action is motivated by perception

motor development is not a passive process

infant actively puts together a skill to achieve a goal within constraints of infant’s body

ex. baby learns to crawl when motivated to reach an exciting new toy

sensation

when information interacts with sensory receptors - eyes, ears, tongue, nostril, and skin

perception

interpretation of what is sensed

ecological view - designed for action

visual preference model

infants look at different thinks for different lengths of time

infants would gaze longer at patterned stimuli (faces or concentric circles) rather than single coloured discs

what does it mean when babies fail to show visual preference

cannot differentiate between two stimuli (poor visual acuity)

baby does not prefer one stimulus over another

habituation (familiarization)

stimulus is presented to infant until response (looking time) is decreased

infant is no longer interest in stimulus

dishabituation

recovery of habituated response after change in stimulation

if not shown, concluded baby cannot differentiate stimuli

eye tracking in infants

allows researchers to examine precisely where infants look

what is eye tracking equipment used to study

development of attention, memory, face processing, intermodal perception, language, object categorization, and understanding other’s needs

methodology

head mounted cameras

eye tracking equipment

visual acuity in infants

infants see clearly at 20ft, adult sees clearly at 600ft

visual acuity improves rapidly during first year of life

babies perceive a blurry world

depth perception in infants

suited with constructed visual cliff (Eleanor)

most babies did not crawl onto glass, indication that they can perceive depth

sensory systems that develop during infancy

sight, hearing, touch/pain, smell, and taste

intermodal perception

integrating information from two or more sensory modalities (multiple senses)

visual acuity after visual deprivation

Maurer and colleagues removed cataracts from infants eyes and gave them contacts

acuity improved rapidly

face perception

most important visual stimuli in human’s social environment

newborns look toward config (simple head outline)

look toward attraction faces

perceptual narrowing

experience helps infants tell faces apart

at 6 months, they can recognize faces across categories (upright vs invert, different ethnicities, human vs monkey)

cognitive development in infants

developing an understanding of how objects and people work

Piagets theory

infants and children develop motor skills and learn new things through adaption

interaction with objects and people play integral role in cognitive development

happens in 4 distinct stages

Piaget assimilation

children using existing schemes to deal with new information/experiences

Piaget accommodation

children adjusting their schemes to account for new information and experience

infant stage of Piaget

sensorimotor - object permanence (0-2y)

infants learn and navigate the world through senses

object permanence

the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, heard, or touched

babies do not understand it until 8-9 months

contemporary approach to infant development

core knowledge approach

core knowledge approach

infants are born with domain-specific innate knowledge systems

ex. number sense, object permanence, language

Skinner’s operant conditioning theory

cognitive development does not occur in distinct stages

the probability of a behaviour reoccurring is influenced by the consequence of it

attention

the focus on some stimuli while ignoring competing stimuli

ex. preferential looking

short lookers vs long lookers

short lookers - shift to gaze at new stimuli more quickly, numerous brief looks, stronger novelty attention, more beneficial

long lookers - become familiarized and bored

what is critical to development

to sustain attention

neural coupling

change in neural activity in infant’s prefrontal cortex, correlated with changes in neural activity in the experimenter’s prefrontal cortex

associated with better shared understanding

imitation

believed to be biologically based

memory

ability to recall an important life event

two different memory systems

implicit - memory without conscious recollection

explicit - conscious memory of facts and experiences

hard to differentiate in infants because communication is limited

what leads to improved memory

verbal cues, verbal cues DURING instructions, babies who crawl tolerate change more readily, naps between encoding and imitation

infantile/childhood amnesia

very little memories that adults are able to report in first few years of life

concepts

cognitive groupings of similar objects, events, people, or ideas

language

form of communication based on symbols

allows us to pass down information from one generation to another

phonemes

sound unit of language

mutual exclusivity bias

infants map novel words into novel objects

language production ( babbling and gestures)

crying - signs distress

cooing - expresses pleasure

babbling - strings of consonant-vowel combinations

gestures - showing and pointing

types of infant vocabulary

spoken - words child can speak

receptive - words child understands

pattern of vocabulary

increases significantly after first word

rapid increase is called vocabulary spurt

two word utterance

occurs 18-24 months of age

relies on gesture, tone and context to convey meaning

telegraphic speech

use of short, precise words without grammatical markers, auxiliary verbs, and other connectives

language milestones

birth - crying

2-4 months - cooing

5 months - understanding first words

6 months - babbling

7-11 months - changes from universal linguist to language specific listener

8-12 months - uses gestures, comprehension of words begin

13 months - first word spoken

18 months - vocab spurt starts

18-24 months - two word utterances

biological prerequisites for language

functional vocal apparatus and nervous system

areas of brain involved in language

Broca’s area - involved in producing words

Wernicke’s area - involved in language comprehension

aphasia

loss or impairment of language processing due to damage to Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area

Chomsky’s hypothesis

humans are biologically pre-wired to learn language

children are born with a lgnauge acquisition device (LAD) which allows child to detect various features and rules of language

relationship between words heard as infant and IQ

number of words heard as baby was correlated with language skills at 9-14 years old

higher SES families tend to take to their children more

cultural differences in language

Mexican, USA immigrants, Dominican - nonverbal communication was more common

lower SES linked to lower vocab and reading comprehension

emotion

a feeling or effect that occurs when a person is in a state or an interaction that is important to them

roles of emotions in infants

1. communication with others

2. behavioural organizations

primary emotions

emotions expressed within first six months of life

ex. surprise, joy, fear, sadness, anger

self conscious or other conscious emotions

later-developing emotions due to emergence of self awareness

heart rate variability (HRV)

physical marker of emotion regulation
higher baseline HRV is related to greater attention control, social competence, empathy, ability to regulate distress, lower levels of aggression

emotion socialization

allows infants and caregivers to bond and coordinate their social interactions

types of cries

basic cry

anger cry

pain cry

graduated extinction

gradually increase the delay before responding to baby crying

types of smile in infants

rreflexive smile - not result of response to external stimuli and appears during first month after birthef

social smile - response to external stimuli

general belief about fear

people are predisposed to quickly detest threatening stimuli

also depends on parents reaction

stranger anxiety

when infant shows fear of strangers

appears around 6 months, continues through toddler years

seperation protest

crying when caregiver leaves due to fear of being separated from them

cultural differences

social referencing

reading emotional cues of others to help guide their reaction in particular situation

emotional regulation

infants gradually deelops ability to regulate their emotions by having ability to inhibit or minimize the intensity and duration of emotional reactions

temperament

individual differences in behavioural styles, emotions, and characteristics ways of responding

classification of temperament

chess and thomas’

Kagan’s concept of behavioural inhabitation

effortful control (self regulation)

Chess and Thomas’s classification of temperament

easy child - child is generally in positive mood, adapts easily, quickly establishes regular routines in infancy

difficult child - reacts negatively and cries frequently, engages in irregular daily routines, slow to accept change

slow to warm up child - low activity level, somewhat negative, displays low intensity of mood

Kagan’s concept of behavioural inhabitation

focuses on the differences between a shy, timid child and a sociable extroverted bold child

inhibition - shyness with strangers

effortful control (self regulation)

effortful control - executive attention system where infant will inhibit dominant response in favour of a more adaptive subdominant one

high EC = keep arousal from getting too intense

low EC = UNABLE TO CONTROL AROUSAL (easily agitated)