UCI COGS 120D Midterm 1 Flashcards

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Quantitative Change

A change in the amount, frequency, or degree of a behavior (e.g., Vocabulary growing from 1 to 50 words).

Qualitative Change

A change in the type of behavior (e.g., Progressing from words → phrases → sentences).

Gene-Environment Interaction

The concept that development is a product of your genes plus your environment and lifestyle.

Orchid Child (Gene-Env)

A child who thrives in an enriching environment but struggles in a difficult one.

Dandelion Child (Gene-Env)

A child who is resilient and has positive outcomes in both enriching and difficult environments.

Developmental Cascades

The idea that development in one domain (e.g., language) impacts development in another domain (e.g., socio-emotional).

4 Domains of Development

Cognitive, Language, Physical, Socio-Emotional.

Theory (in Dev Psych)

A set of statements that explains observable events. Must be testable and falsifiable.

Evolutionary Theory (Darwin)

Behaviors seen today are those that were most adaptive to human survival (e.g., infant crying).

Psychodynamic Theories

Focuses on personality development as a product of conscious and unconscious forces.

Freud's Psychosexual Theory

Behavior is driven by subconscious "sex" drives (survival/reproduction).

Freud: Oral Stage

(0-1 yr) Pleasure via the mouth (sucking, biting).

Freud: Anal Stage

(1-2 yrs) Pleasure via the anus (elimination).

Freud: Phallic Stage

(3-6 yrs) Pleasure centered on genitals; interest in opposite-sex parent.

Freud: Latency Stage

(7-puberty) Sexual urges are submerged; focus on skills.

Freud: Genital Stage

(Adolescence+) Seek to satisfy adult sexual desires.

Freud's Theory (Pros/Cons)

Pro: Acknowledges subconscious processes. Con: Untestable, unfalsifiable, not supported by research.

Erikson's Psychosocial Theory

People go through stages and must resolve "crises" that shape their personality.

Erikson: Trust vs. Mistrust

(0-18 mo) Infants learn to rely (or not) on caregivers.

Erikson: Autonomy vs. Shame/Doubt

(1.5-3 yr) Toddlers learn to be in control or to doubt themselves.

Erikson: Initiative vs. Guilt

(3-5 yr) Children learn to effectuate goals or feel guilty.

Erikson: Industry vs. Inferiority

(5-12 yr) Children learn to be effective members of their community or feel inferior.

Erikson: Identity vs. Role Confusion

(12-18 yr) Adolescents establish a sense of self.

Erikson: Intimacy vs. Isolation

(18-40 yr) Young adults form close relationships or risk loneliness.

Erikson: Generativity vs. Stagnation

(40-65 yr) Adults feel productive (contributing to next generation) or feel stagnant.

Erikson: Integrity vs. Despair

(65+ yr) Older adults look back with pride or feel despair/regret.

Erikson's Theory (Pros/Cons)

Pro: Accurately describes common life struggles. Con: Culturally specific; assumes sequential stages.

Behaviorism

Views learning as a change in observable behaviors resulting from environmental influences (all nurture).

Classical Conditioning (Watson)

Pairing a neutral stimulus with a reflex to form an association.

"Little Albert" Study

(Watson) Classically conditioned an 11-month-old to fear a white rat by pairing it with a loud sound.

Operant Conditioning (Skinner)

Using "conditioning" (reinforcement) to produce a specific reaction.

Positive Reinforcement

Reward behavior by adding a pleasant stimulus.

Negative Reinforcement

Reward behavior by taking away an aversive (bad) stimulus.

Constructivism (Piaget)

Children are active learners who construct their own knowledge as they encounter the world.

Schemas (Piaget)

A mental framework for organizing information (e.g., Schema for "Ball" = anything round).

Assimilation (Piaget)

Incorporating new information into an existing schema (e.g., Sees a hula hoop, calls it a "ball").

Accommodation (Piaget)

Modifying a schema to fit new information (e.g., "Balls" are solid; "hula hoops" are hollow).

Piaget: Sensorimotor Stage

(Birth - 2 yr) Schemas limited to sensory experiences and motor actions.

Piaget: Preoperational Stage

(2 - 7 yr) Capable of mental representation (language, symbolic play).

Piaget: Concrete Operational Stage

(7 - 11 yr) Develop logical, organized thinking, but limited to concrete experiences.

Piaget: Formal Operational Stage

(11+ yr) Capable of abstract and hypothetical thinking.

Sociocultural Theory (Vygotsky)

Humans learn best when guided by a more knowledgeable social partner (adult/peer).

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

The "sweet spot" of learning: tasks the learner can do with assistance.

Bioecological Theory (Bronfenbrenner)

Children develop within a complex, interconnected system of environmental and biological factors.

Bronfenbrenner: Microsystem

The child's immediate environment (Family, School, Peers).

Bronfenbrenner: Mesosystem

Interactions between parts of the microsystem (e.g., parent-teacher conference).

Bronfenbrenner: Exosystem

Indirect influences; settings the child isn't in (e.g., Parent's work environment).

Bronfenbrenner: Macrosystem

The overarching attitudes, ideologies, and values of the culture.

Bronfenbrenner: Chronosystem

The element of time and socio-historical conditions (e.g., a pandemic).

Discovery-Based Science

Observing development without a specific hypothesis.

Hypothesis-Based Science

Uses the scientific method to test a prediction.

Operational Definition

How a specific variable is defined and measured in a study.

Independent Variable (IV)

The variable you manipulate or control.

Dependent Variable (DV)

The variable you measure (the outcome).

Confounds

Extraneous variables that might inadvertently correlate with the dependent variable.

Random Assignment

Randomly assigning people to groups to diminish confounds.

Counterbalancing

Systematically varying the order of options to diminish confounds.

Convenience Sampling

Using participants who are easy to find (e.g., friends); limits generalizability.

Reliability (Internal Validity)

The consistency and objectivity of a measurement.

Construct Validity

The extent to which a study measures what it intends to measure.

Ecological Validity (External Validity)

The extent to which lab findings translate to the "real world".

Observational Studies (Pros/Cons)

Pros: Low cost, high ecological validity. Cons: Experimenter effects, low reliability.

Direct Assessment (Pros/Cons)

Pros: High reliability, standardized. Cons: Low ecological validity.

Longitudinal Study

Studying the same people over a long period of time. (Con: Attrition).

Cross-Sectional Study

Studying different groups of people at one point in time. (Con: Cohort Effects).

Attrition

The problem of participants dropping out of a longitudinal study.

Cohort Effects

A confound in cross-sectional studies; a difference between groups may be due to shared life experiences (e.g., Covid) rather than age.

Cross-Sectional Sequential Design

A hybrid: follows different groups of people over time.

Microgenetic Study

A short-term, intensive longitudinal study focusing on the onset of a specific skill.

Preferential Looking

(Fantz) An infant method: infers preference/discrimination based on which of two images a baby looks at longer.

Habituation-Recovery

An infant method: Show an image until the infant is bored (habituates). If they "recover" (look again) at a new image, they can tell the difference.

Contingent Reinforcement

An infant method: Pair a natural behavior (e.g., kicking) with a stimulus (e.g., a mobile moving). If the behavior increases, the infant likes/knows the stimulus.

Rovee & Rovee (1969)

(Contingent Reinforcement) Infants learned that kicking their leg made a mobile move.

DeCasper & Fifer (1980)

(Contingent Reinforcement) 3-day-old infants adjusted their sucking rate to hear their mom's voice.

Anticipatory Looking

An infant method: Infers expectations based on where a baby looks before an event happens.

Infant Taste Perception

Starts in-utero. Newborns prefer sweet and dislike sour.

Contrast Sensitivity

Difference in brightness; low in newborns.

Visual Acuity

Ability to see fine detail; low in newborns.

Infant Color Perception

(Bornstein et al.) 4-month-olds can discriminate between categories of color (e.g., blue vs. green) but not shades (e.g., light blue vs. dark blue).

Size Constancy

(Slater et al.) Perceiving objects as having a constant size despite changes in retinal image. Newborns have this.

Shape Constancy

Perceiving an object's shape as constant even when rotated. Infants have this.

Good Continuation

(Gestalt) By 3-4 months, infants perceive a partially occluded rod as one single object.

"Visual Cliff" Study

(Gibson) By 10 months, infants were nervous about crossing the "cliff," indicating they perceive depth.

Fetuses & Face Perception

(Reid et al.) Fetuses (in the womb) tracked a face-like configuration of dots more than a non-face-like one.

Infant Face Preferences

Newborns prefer faces over non-faces, attractive over non-attractive, and top-heavy features.

Perceptual Narrowing (Faces)

The loss of ability to discriminate between stimuli not in one's environment. 3-month-olds are better at discriminating other-race faces than 6-month-olds are.

Infant Hearing Preferences

(DeCasper & Fifer) 3-day-olds prefer: 1. Speech > Non-speech, 2. Mom's voice > Other voices, 3. Mom's voice as heard in utero.

Gesell's Motor Twin Study

(Maturation) Trained twin on stairs learned first, but untrained twin caught up. Conclusion: Maturation is key.

McGraw's Motor Twin Study

(Environment) Extensively trained twin was more proficient in trained skills (e.g., skating) but not untrained skills (e.g., walking).

"Back to sleep" campaign

(Environment) An environmental factor that led to motor delays (crawling/rolling).

"Sticky Mittens" Study

(Environment) 3-month-olds given experience "grabbing" with velcro mittens showed more object exploration.

Gahvora / Cradle Study

(Environment) Infants in cultures using cradles for 15-22 hours/day show motor delays but catch up by age 4.

Piaget: Sensorimotor Substage 6

(18-24 mo) Mental Representation.

Object Permanence (Piaget)

The understanding that objects continue to exist even when they are unseen.

"A-not-B" Error

(Piaget) A test for object permanence. Baby looks for a hidden object in the first location (A) even after seeing it hidden in the second location (B).

Deferred Imitation

(Piaget) The ability to reproduce an action seen hours or days earlier.

Nativism (Core Knowledge)

The theory that we are "hard-wired" with core capacities (e.g., intuitive physics, number, agency).

Violation of Expectations Paradigm

(Baillargeon) An infant method. If infants look longer at an "impossible" event, it suggests they understand the principle being violated.

Baillargeon (1985) Object Permanence

(Violation of Expectations) 5-month-olds looked longer at an impossible event (screen rotating through a hidden block), suggesting they do have object permanence.

Needham & Baillargeon (1993) Gravity

(Violation of Expectations) 4.5-month-olds looked longer at an impossible support event (a box floating), suggesting they have a core concept of gravity.