Chapter 4 Life Span Growth Psychology

Schemes:

mental categories of related events, objects, and knowledge

Assimilation:

fitting new experiences into existing schemes, benefit from experience

Accommodation:

modifying schemes as a result of new experiences, allows for dealing with completely new data or experiences

Equilibration:

inadequate schemes are reorganized or replaced with more advanced and mature schemes

Schemes change from ???as the child develops

physical to functional, conceptual, and abstract

Sensorimotor period:

Birth–2 years, infancy

Preoperational period:

2–7 years, preschool and early elementary school

Concrete operational period:

7–11 years middle and late elementary school

Formal operational period:

11 years and up, adolescence and adulthood

Attention:

when sensory information receives additional cognitive processing

Orienting response:

emotional and physical reactions to unfamiliar stimulus

Habituation:

lessened reactions to a stimulus after repeated presentations

Classical conditioning:

a “neutral” stimulus becomes able to elicit a response that previously was caused only by another stimulus, pavlov dog experiment

Operant conditioning:

a behavior’s consequences make this behavior’s future occurrence more likely or less likely

Imitation:

learning a new behavior by observing others

4.1 According to Piaget, how do schemes, assimilation, and accommodation provide the foundation for cognitive development throughout the life span?

Children add and refine their schemes, fitting new schemes into existing ones, and modifying schemes from new experiences.

4.1 How does thinking become more advanced as infants progress through the sensorimotor stage?

Progress from simple reflexes; they begin to develop object permanence

4.1 What are the distinguishing characteristics of thinking during the preoperational stage?

Egocentrism, Animism, Centration

4.1 a) What are the strengths of Piaget’s theory?

Creates environments for children to actively learn how the world works; help children discover inconsistencies in their thinking; children profit from experience only when they can interpret this experience with their current cognitive structures

4.1 How have contemporary researchers extended Piaget’s theory?

Children develop specialized theories about much narrower areas

4.1 b) What are the strengths and weaknesses of Piaget’s theory?

Underestimates infants’ and young children’s cognitive ability; Vague about mechanisms/processes of change; Does not account for variability in children’s performance

4.2 What is the basis of the information-processing approach?

Mental Software and Mental Hardware

4.2 How well do young children pay attention?

Not well with task-relevant information, but it can be improved with pretend play

4.2 What kinds of learning take place during infancy?

Classical Conditioning, Operant Conditioning, Imitation

4.2 Do infants and preschool children remember?

Yes, infants remember events from the past and a cue could help recall a forgotten memory. Preschoolers sense of self can appear and their autobiographical memories are richer when parents talk about past events.

4.2 What do infants and preschoolers know about numbers?

Five month olds have basic number skills, preschoolers mastered three principles when it comes to five or fewer objects

Mental hardware:

mental and neural structures enabling the mind to operate

Mental software

mental programs allowing for performance of specific tasks

Rovee-Collier’s experiments reveal that three important features of memory exist in infants:

an event from the past is remembered; over time, the event can no longer be recalled; a cue can serve to reactivate a memory that seems to have been forgotten

Autobiographical Memories:

allows people to recall and organize memories

Preschoolers have mastered three principles when applied to five or fewer objects:

Preschoolers have mastered three principles when applied to five or fewer objects:

One-to-one principle, Stable-order principle, Cardinality principle

4.3 What is the zone of proximal development? How does it help explain how children accomplish more when

they collaborate with others?

The zone is the difference between what a child can do with assistance. Children learn better when someone skilled is teaching them a subject.

Intersubjectivity:

all participants having a mutual, shared understanding of an activity

Zone of proximal development:

The difference between what children can do with or without assistance

Guided participation:

cognition develops via structured activities with more skilled others

Scaffolding:

Giving just enough assistance to match the learner’s needs

4.3 Why is scaffolding a particularly effective way of teaching youngsters new concepts and skills?

You give the learner assistance that matches their needs, allowing them to learn for themselves; rather than just telling them what to do or leaving them alone to discover for themselves.

4.3 When and why do children talk to themselves as they solve problems?

They talk to themselves to self-guide or help self-regulate.

Private speech:

“Talking” to oneself to self-guide and self-regulate behavior

4.4 When do infants first hear and make speech sounds?

At 2 months, infants begin cooing. Babies hear phonemes from birth.

4.4 When do children start to talk? How do they learn word meanings?

1 year-olds are able to use simple vowel words. By year 2, they know a few hundred words. Children learn from referential style; words naming objects, persons, or actions. And by expressive style social interaction and question words

Fast Mapping:

rapid connection of new words to their exact referents

4.4 How do young children learn grammar?

Based of simple formulas. They can pick up on patterns and irregularities with the help of accurate communication

Underextension:

using a term too narrowly, like when children think only their family dog is called a dog.

Overextension:

using a term too broadly, like when children call all cats Nellie because that is their cat's name

Phonological memory:

the ability to remember speech sounds briefly

4.4 How well do youngsters communicate?

Before 2 years-old parents often model conversational turn-taking encouraged, and after 2 year-olds spontaneous turn-taking becomes common

Milestones of Language Development: Birth to 1 year

hear phonemes from birth, cooing at 2 months, and babbling at 6 months

Milestones of Language Development: About First Birthday

begin to talk and to gesture, showing they have begun to use symbols

Milestones of Language Development: 1-3 Years

Vocabulary expands rapidly and two-word sentences emerge at 18 months. Turn-taking in communication is common at 2 years

Milestones of Language Development: 3-5 Years

Vocabulary continues to expand, children begin to adjust their speech to listeners. But as listeners, ignore problems in messages they receive