Psych 223 Second Midterm

Early Childhood growth

Growth slows a bit

Girls gain fat while boys gain muscle

boys are typically more active and more risky

Obesity

Body weight that is more than 20% higher than the average weight for a person of a particular height and age

indication that the lifespan could be decreasing

variety of low-fat and high-nutrition foods could help

Accidents

Leading cause of death for preschoolers

boys have a higher rate of injuries

inhibiting response is difficult for children

Brain Development in 2 Ways

Number of interconnections increases (synaptogenesis: more learning grows synapses and they are strengthened)

Amount of Myelin increases: facilitates the speed of neural processing (myelin makes signal response time faster)

Lateralization of Hemispheres

Each hemisphere develops specialized functions

left: primarily involved in verbal, sequential tasks

right: primarily involved in nonverbal, simultaneous, pattern processing

Gross Motor Skills

Preschool children can now engage in activities that require a high degree of coordination

eg bike, ski, climb

practice and brain development play a critical role in skill development

boys typically have more muscle strength and a higher activity level

girls have an advantage on tasks that require limb coordination

Toilet training

Best to not push a child

if a kid stays dry for 2+ hours through the day, or wake up dry after a nap, or has regular predictable bowel movements…. they may be ready to potty train

Fine Motor Skills

Involve delicate and smaller body movements

skills require practice

right or left handedness develops (90% of people are right handed, more boys than girls are left handed)

Preschool children and far-sightedness

Many preschool children are farsighted and unable to see close up as well as they can see far away (changing with screens tho)

by first grade, most kids can focus eyes and sustain attention on close objects

PIAGETS stages of Cognitive Development

Sensiorimotor stage: birth-2, sensory and motor schemes act on the world

Preoperational Stage: 2-7yrs, acquire symbolic schemes such as language and fantasy, symbolic schemes are used to think and communicate

Concrete Operational Stage: 7-11yrs, children begin to think logically and become capable of solving problems

Formal Operational Stage: 11+ years, logically about abstract ideas and hypothetical situations

Preoperational Stage

When children acquire semiotic (symbolic) function,

18-24 months, once it happens a child is in the preoperational stage

2-3 years of age, babies begin to pretend in their play

Sensorimotor Play

12 months of age,

grab objects and put in mouth or move objects around

Constructive Play

2 years

construct, build, play

First Pretend Play

15-21 months

when they begin to pretend

Substitute Pretend Play

2-3 yrs

object for something else

eg broom for horse

Sociodramatic Play

preschool years

taking on a role in a game

Rule Governed Play

5 or 6

rules on how each role gets to play

eg smallest child is the baby

functional fixedness

adults struggle with this as they can only see an object for one purpose

Egocentrism

a beleif amoung young children that everyone sees and experiences the world the way they do

assuming their reality maps on to everyone else

piagets three mountain test

Centration

A tendency among children to think of the world in terms of one variable at a time

Animism

simple heuristic that everything that moves is alive

centration example

Conservation

The understanding that matter can change in appearance without changing in quantity

identity: knowinng that quantities are consistent unless something is added or removed

Compensation: wideness of a container

Reversibility: manipulation can be reversed

Autobiographical Memory

becomes increasingly accurate throughout the preschool years

events still need to be particularly salient

memories are organized into scripts (broad representations in memory of events and the order in which they occur)

Forensic Developmental Psychology

A field that focuses on the reliability of children autobiographical memories in a legal context

All Memories are Mine Blip

Source memory develops around 4 where everything they see they think as their personal experience but will grow out of it as they age

Digit Number Long term memory

2-3 digits for 2 yr olds

5 digits for 5 yr olds

7± 2 for adults which is similar to a 7 yr old

Short Term Memory

retention of information for up to 15-30 seconds without rehearsal of information

individuals can retain information longer by using rehersal

information must be relevent if you want to encode it to long term memory

Working memory

a mental workbench where individual manipulate and assemble information when making decisions, problem solving, and comprehending written and spoken language

more active in modifying information than short-term memory

Attention to Relevant Information

increases through elementary and secondary school

older children and adolescents are better at shifting attention from one activity to another as needed

increase in multitasking linked to use of multiple electronic media

multitasking will reduce attention to key task if the key task is complex

inhibitory control is needed when shifting attention (Fagan test looks at this)

Primitive Stage

learns primarily through conditioning until langue develops

cognitive devlopment stage

Naive Psychology Stage

learns to use language to communicate but still does not completely understand symbols

Egocentric Speech Stage

uses language as a guide to solving problems

articulate verbal methods (eg saying “be careful” when they do something

Ingrowth Stage

Internalization of speech routines

talking to ourself through the day