Flashcards ESS 212 EXAM 2

What is cognition?

all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

What are the ELEMENTs of cognition?

memory, attention, intelligence, learning, perception, language

Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

Explains how children actively construct knowledge through interaction with their environment

Schemata

Mental structure used to organize knowledge

Assimilation

Fitting new information into existing schemas.

Accomodation

Adjusting schemes to fit new information and experiences

Assimilation Example

Calling a cow "dog" because it had four legs and fur, matching the child's existing dog schema.

Accommodation Example

Creating a new "dog" schema after realizing dogs are different than cows

Sensorimotor Stage

in Piaget's theory, the stage (birth to 2yrs old) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities

Circular Reactions

Infants tend to repeat an action because it produces a pleasant or interesting result (ex. sound) and this reptation helps them learn and build new skills

Object Permanence

The awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived

Object Permanence Example

hiding a toy under a blanket, thinking it is now gone

A-not-B errors

tendency for 8-12 mth old infants to search for a hidden object in a place where they previously found it rather than in the place where the most recently saw it being hidden

Scale Error

The attempt by a young child to perform an action on a miniature object that is impossible due to the large discrepancy in the relative sizes of the child and the object

**disregard the size and continues normal interaction

Mental Representation

The ability to form internal images of objects and events

Competence is higher than Piaget expected

Development seems to be happening sooner, and cognition development is occurring quicker than motor development

Implicit Memory

Unconscious and automatic

Example: riding a bike

Explicit Memory

Conscious and requires active attention

Ex. Remembering birthdays

Infantile Amnesia

The inability to remember events from early childhood

Vygotsky Guided Participation

The process by which people learn from others who guide their experiences and explorations

Vygotsky Joint Attention

The shared focus on a target by two or more individuals

(tracking gaze, following other's direction, direction attention)

Language

our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning

Symbolic communication

the verbal and nonverbal symbolism used by others to convey meaning

Words and Ruies of Language

Vocabulary and Grammar

Infinite Generativity

The ability to produce an endless number of meaningful sentences using a finite set of words and rules

How do babies communicate with Adults?

crying, cooing (pleasure sound), babbling, gestures, sign language, facial expressions

Prelinguistic Communication

- Phonemes (similar sounds)

- Global recognition, universal listener, *1st 6 months

- 5months is when we recognize our own name

First Words

10-15 months

Gestures

Linguistic Speech (word production)

Receptive Vocab (understanding)

Spoken Vocab (verbally say)

**18months vocab spurt (over/underextension of words)

Two-Word Utterances

18-24 months: produce 2-word utterances that consist only of content words and no function words. Misinterpretations can occur because meaning often depends on context. Children are being creative.

Ex. "more outside", "dog bark", "mamma big".

Telegraphic speech

early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram—"go car"—using mostly nouns and verbs.

Syntax

Sentence structure

Fast-mapping

The fact that children can map a word onto an underlying concept after only a single exposure

Ex. swear in front of a kid once and use it

Genie

A girl who was locked up for 13 years and when she was found, she had missed the critical period where she could have learned language so she could not speak and was extremely socially avoidant. Mental age of a 18month old

Skinner's influence on language development

Language learning is shaped by what's around you

Chomsky's Nativism

Born with a capacity for language development

Language Acquisition Device, theoretical idea that since you are human you will be able to develop a language (Ex. Deaf)

Emotion Development

Children show most emotions by 2 years

*Birth:* distress/contentment, interest & attention

*3 mo:* joy, excitement, happiness to familiar faces, sadness & disgust

*4-6 mo:* anger

*6 mo:* surprise

*7-8 mo:* fearfulness

*18-24 mo:* self-awareness, embarrassment, empathy, envy

Self-conscious emotions

emotions such as guilt, shame, embarrassment, and pride that relate to our sense of self and our consciousness of others' reactions to us

Temperament

Basic emotional style that appears early in development and is largely genetic in origin and becomes a foundation of you.

Chess and Thomas' Classification

easy child(40%), difficult child(10%), slow-to-warm-up(15%) child, unclassified(35%)

Goodness of Fit

The match between a child's temperament and the environmental demands the child must cope with.

How the baby's emotions can affect the parents (socially)

Erikson's Trust vs. Mistrust

The first stage in Erikson's developmental stages in which the child needs to discover whether it can rely on its caregiver or not.

Freud's oral satisfaction (Comfort vs. Food)

Secure attachment is more than food it's about comfort

**Monkey study

Ainsworth's Strange Situation

Controlled observation procedure designed to measure the security of attachment a child displays towards a caregiver. It takes pace in controlled conditions (i.e. laboratory) and with a two way mirror through with the psychologists can research the child's behaviour. They looked for separation/stranger anxiety, exploration and secure base, proximity seeking, and response to reunion

Secure Attachment

A relationship in which an infant obtains both comfort and confidence from the presence of his or her caregiver

Insecure Attachment

Avoidant: avoid/no response to caregiver

Ambivalent (Resistant): clingy when the caregiver returns, takes a long time to calm down

Disorganized-disoriented: no specific pattern in response

Long-term effects of attachment style

Attachment styles formed in early childhood can profoundly shape adult relationships, emotional regulation, mental health, and social functioning.

Stranger Anxiety

The fear of strangers that infants commonly display begins by about 8 months of age

Separation Anxiety

An infant's distress when a familiar caregiver leaves, most obvious between 9 and 14 months

Reciprocal Socialization

The process by which children and adolescents socialize is how parents socialized them

Child Care

97% of infant/toddler childcare is private home/many unpaid

Care centers have to have education on development, how to care for children, ratios of children to caregivers, and continuity (trust with caregiver and caregiver stays consistent)

Siblings

80% of American children under 18 are living with a sibling

2-4 year old siblings have conflict every 10 minutes

Early Childhood

2-6 years

Middle/Late Childhood

6-11 years

Childhood average weight gains

5 pounds a year

Childhood average height gains

2-3 inches

Brain Development

At age 6, the brain is 95% of its adult size

What two changes continue from infancy (myelination, pruning)

PreFrontal Cortex

Part of frontal lobe responsible for thinking, planning, and language

Early Childhood Fine Motor Skills

Age 3: excellent towers, puzzles, handedness

Age 4: difficulty with towers (wants them precise and aligned, but knocks them over because not coordinated)

Age 5: more coordinated

Age 6: hammer, tie shoes

Age 8-10: write cursive

Age 10-12: adult skills

Gender Differences

Girls tend to have better fine motor skills than boys at the end of childhood

Early Childhood Gross Motor Skills

Age 3: jump/run

Age 4: take steps one at a time

Age 5: adventures/racers

Middle/Late childhood = smoother coordination

Sleep

Early childhood = 10-13 hours a day

Middle childhood = 9-12 hours a day

TedTalk: Why should we learn foreign languages

English is taking over

if you speak two languages, dementia is less likely

Good to know other languages to understand the culture

Wug Test

A test of a child's knowledge of morphology (word formation). Children were shown a picture of a Wug, and then shown a picture of 2 of these creatures and asked "There are 2...". Unanimously, the children said Wugs with the plural ending of -s.

Pragmatics

The practical use of language that includes the ability to adjust language communication according to the audience and context

Ex. how you talk to a baby vs. your friend

Theory of Mind

An awareness that other people's behavior may be influenced by beliefs, desires, and emotions that differ from one's own

Literacy

The ability to read and write

Emergent Literacy

The beginning phase of literacy. Learning that text and pictures provide meaning.

Oral language skills -> reading comprehension

Phonological skills -> word recognition

English Immersion Approach

Approach to teaching English as a second language in which instruction is presented only in English

Two-Way (Dual Language) Learning

Approach to second-language education in which English speakers and non-English speakers learn together in their own and each other's languages

Authoritarian Parenting Style

Parenting style in which parents are demanding and unresponsive toward their children's needs or wishes.

"Because I said so..."

Authoritative Parenting Style

Parenting style in which parents set clear standards for their children's behavior but are also responsive to their children's needs and wishes.

Permissive Parenting Style

A parenting style that allows freedom, lax parenting that doesn't set limits or enforce rules constantly

Neglectful Parenting Style

Parents do not take responsibility for raising and controlling children; they do not set limits and ignore their children's needs

Play in Childhood

Plays an important role in social development and helps develop the skills needed later in life