PSYC 185 Exam 3 - Early Childhood

Executive functioning

A suite of abilities involved in coordinating attention or other behaviors involved in goal-directed actions

Inhibitory control

Ability to respond appropriately to a stimulus, while inhibiting an alternative dominant response (stroop task)

Cognitive flexibility

Ability for a child to adapt to changing circumstances like switching between rules and tasks

Working memory

Maintain and manipulate information in the mind; memory span tests

Planning

To successfully follow a plan, need to select, coordinate, and execute a sequence of actions while inhibiting certain actions and switching among others

Strategies for remembering

• rehearsal

• organization (you’re more likely to remember something if you can semantically encode, or add some sort of meaning to it)

Self-monitoring

• keeping track of one’s performance on a task and making adjustments

• metacognitive skills

Long term memory

the unlimited and long-lasting storehouse of knowledge

• comprised of declarative and procedural memory

procedural memory

memory that you know how to do but can’t explain why you know or how you know

Declarative memory

memory for facts and events — things that happen to you or independent information that you just know

Semantic memory

knowledge of facts, rules, and concepts

• developmental changes — scripts (routine we go through/way the world operates) expands over time (schemas change/evolve) — consolidation changes over time

Semantic + Working memory

• increased knowledge base decrease burden

• information processing: as semantic memory grows, information accessibility gets faster which frees up memory for other information

4 Schemas

1. Person schemas

2. Social schemas

3. Self-schemas

4. Event schemas

Episodic memory

type of long-term memory that involves conscious recollection of previous experiences together with their context of time, place, associated emotions, etc.

• Infantile Amnesia

• Forgetting

Infantile Amnesia (episodic)

difficulty remembering the first few years of life

• possible explanations: no long-term memory storage, language, short life span on early memories

Forgetting (episodic)

decay or degradations of memories over time 

• forget episodic memories faster than semantic

• forgetting increases as a retention interval increases

Reasons for forgetting

• degradation

• storm and stress: heightened emotionality, conflict with parents, and risk-taking behaviors associated with this stage

Developmental changes

• Less scaffolding for memory required as children age

• Eyewitness testimony

False memories

remembered information is incorrect

• can be manipulated - lost in as shopping mall (Loftus, 1995)

• suggestibility

  • interview structures 

  • every day rumors

Theory of Mind

The ability to attribute mental states such as knowledge, beliefs, and desires to oneself and others, and to understand that people have knowledge, beliefs, and desires that differ from one’s own

False-belief understanding

The ability to understand that people do not have the knowledge that you possess

Theory-Theory (explaining theory of mind development)

children actively seek out the causes and reasons about the behaviors of themselves and others

• modify their theories with age and experience

  • just because someone wants something does not mean they find them

Executive Functioning (explaining theory of mind development)

false-belief tasks are intensive. children need to know (chocolate example):

• where the chocolate is not located

• narrow possible places of where the chocolate is now located

• keep the two conflicting possibilities in mind

Brain development (explaining theory of mind development)

• maturation of the brain helps with theory of mind acquisition

  • delays with autism

  • EEF recordings and social cognitive skills

Lying, Deception, and Persuasion

Understanding that you can create a flase belief allows children to understand they can manipulate others through lies and deception

Lying

Children who performed well on false-belief task were better liars and sustained liars

• good at hide and week

• can keep secrets

Persuasion

children’s scores on false-belief tasks related to the number of persuasive arguments they generated

Phonology

the system of sounds in a language and the rules for combining them

Semantics

study of meaning in language — how words, phrases, and sentences convey meaning. focuses on how children learn to understand and use words to represent objects, actions, concepts, and relationships

• 10,000 words by 6 years old

• hierarchical categorization of words

  • General —> basic —> specific

Grammar

• Morphology (study of the structure and formation of words, focusing on how they are made up of smaller unites called morphemes)

• Joining clauses

  • smallest grammatical unit

• Rules of grammar

  • yes-no questions

  • pronouns and W’s

  • “Do”

• full proper grammar 3-4 years old

• overregularization

overregularization

children apply grammatical rules too broadly, often to irregular forms that don’t follow the typical pattern

Emergent literacy

• Is the suite of skills, knowledge, and attitudes that comes before reading and writing

  • vocabulary

  • grammar

  • narrative abilities

• start to achieve code-related skills

  • conventions of print

  • naming and writing letters

  • phonological awareness: ability to recognize and manipulate the sound structure of language, including ability to identify and work with sounds at different levels

Emotional Understanding

• complex and mixed emotions

  • emotion matching tasks

  • mixed emotions

Emotion regulation and temperament

• Emotion and behavior regulation 

  • display rules

  • delay of gratification

• Temperament

  • differences in abilities to regulate emotions

    • highly inhibited or shy children

    • under-controlled children

    • well-regulated children

  • effortful control

Attachment

• Assessing

  • preschool attachment classification system

    • secure

    • insecure avoidant

    • insecure ambivalent/dependent

    • insecure disorganized

  • attachment Q-sort

• Parenting

Secure Attachment

child feels safe and confident in exploring the world, knowing caregivers will respond to their needs

Insecure-Avoidant Attachment

child avoids or ignores the caregiver, showing little emotional response to their absence or return

Insecure-Ambivalent/Dependent Attachment

child is anxious, clingy, and unsure, seeking closeness but resisting comfort when the caregiver returns

Insecure-Disorganized Attachment

child shows inconsistent, disoriented behaviors, often due to fear of the caregiver or confusion about how to respond

Peers and Friends

• Play with peers and friends

  • shift from parallel play to cooperative play

  • prosocial behaviors

  • conflict and aggression

    • hostile aggression

    • instrumental aggression

    • relational aggression

Hostile aggression

driven by anger or the intent to harm or hurt others emotionally or physically

Instrumental Aggression

used as a means to achieve a goal or obtain something (toys, attention, etc.)

Relational Aggression

aimed at damaging relationships or social status (gossip, exclusion)