Infant & Child Review Quiz #2

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)

a condition in which an infant suddenly dies without an apparent cuase

What is the triple-risk hypothesis of SIDS

biological vulnerability, under 6 months of age, exposed to stressors that affect breathing

Cephalocaudal pattern of growth

growth that proceeds from the head downward to the rest of the body

Proximodistal pattern of growth

growth that proceeds from the center of the body outward

Saltatory growth

sudden jumps in size within the course of one day

Synaptogenesis

the formation of new synapses on dendrites

Pruning

elimination of extra synapses during development

Myelenation

formation of myelin around axons

What is one source of atypical brain development in children with down syndrome

failure of dendrites to grow and synapses to form

Experience-expectant brain development

the brain is set up in ways that anticipate experiences universal to the human species (reflexes & typical experiences)

Experience-dependent brain development

the brain responds to the unique experience of the individual (individual experiences specific to a child’s lifetime that aren’t evolutionarily beneficial)

Stunted growth

lack of development of weight and height that leads to brain complications

How often do newborns sleep and eat

15-17 hours, waking up every 2 hours to eat

How often do 1 year olds sleep and eat

13 hours, eating 3 meals a day

How long is breast/bottle feeding recommended?

exclusively for 6 months, and combined with other foods through 24 months

Canalization

the idea that development is largely determined by genes, and one will return to the course of normal development after deviating from it

Catch-up growth

growth that occurs after deviating from the genetic course of development (canalization)

Why do reflexes disappear during the first year of life

because they are being replaced by voluntary/goal-directed behavior

Moro reflex

when infants experience a feeling of falling or hear a loud sound, they spread their arms out and bring them back together towards their torsos

Maturationist view

the order of development of motor skills depends primarily on physical maturation with only a limited role for experience

Dynamic systems view

complex motor movements are the product of four major interacting factors:

goals of child, body movement capacity, brain development, practice and environmental support

Gross motor skills

skills involving movements of the large muscles of the body (crawling, walking)

Fine motor movements

movements of the smaller muscles (hand, face)

Development of grasping

reflexive at 0-4 months, ulnar or palmar (whole hand grip) at 5-6 months, pincer at 7-9 months

Proprioceptive cues

feedback from the muscles about the location of the body/body part in space

How do motor skills aid in perception

being able to crawl or walk aids babies in exploring their surroundings and gaining spatial awareness

How do motor skills aid in language/cognition

being able to walk and point at things fosters conversation

Other-race effect

babies become better at distinguishing people from their own racial groups that other racial groups

Low-level vision

basic aspects of vision, including visual acuity, visual contrast sensitivity, and peripheral visionC

Contrast sensitivity

ability to detect subtle differences in shadings and patterns

Intermodal perception

ability to perceive the correspondence between info available simultaneously from two senses

Amodal information

info that is not specific to one sensory modality, but is shared by more than one

Stereopsis

the fusing of input from two eyes to create a perception of an object in depth

Development of vision

it is the least mature sense at birth, at 2-3 months the baby is able to track objects, gains color vision, binocular vision, and switches from scanning to identifying objects

How to examine reactions of infants

eye movement, suck rates, brain waves

Piaget’s constructivism

our intellectual structures are gradually constructed, stage by stage, through the interactions of a person with their environment 

Cognitive Equilibrium

cognitive state in which infants’ mental capabilities allow them to act successfully on the environment or understand it

How do infants achieve equilibrium

adaption and organization

Adaption

gradually overcoming disequilibrium by using and modifying schemes (assimilation and acommodation)

Assimilation

interpreting experience using existing schemas

Acommodation

modification of existing schemas to fit experiences

Piaget’s 6 sensorimotor stages

reflexes, primary circular reactions, secondary circular reactions, coordination of secondary circular schemes, tertiary circular reactions, mental representations

Stage 1 of Piaget’s sensorimotor stage

0-1 month, reflexes, only assimilation is being used, senses are operating separately

Stage 2 of Piaget’s sensorimotor stage

primary circular reactions, 1-4 months, learning ways of modifying schemas (acommodation) through use of own body

Stage 3 of Piaget’s sensorimotor stage

secondary circular reactions, 4-8 months, learning ways of modifying schemas through the external environment

Stage 4 of Piaget’s sensorimotor stage

Coordination of secondary circular schemes, 8-12 months, combining schemes to get a desired result (goal-directed behavior), immature object permanance

Stage 5 of Piaget’s sensorimotor stage

tertiary circular reactions, 12-18 months, acting in novel ways to observe what happens, imitating more complex behaviors

Stage 6 of Piaget’s sensorimotor stage

mental representation, 18-24 months, improvement of communication and understanding of objects and images, deffered imitiation

A-not-B Search Error

If an infant is expecting an object to be hidden in location A, they will either give up or only check location A after the object is moved to location B, even in plain sight.

What do violation-of-expectations researchers believe about object permanance

object permanence is present in infants when presented as an event that violates expectation(ex block on train track, train can’t pass through)

What is the biggest update to Piaget’s research

infants can do tasks earlier

Core Knowledge Theory

nowledge or capability present early in development that may develop with no or little experience 

Evidence for core knowledge of numbers

infants can recognize when there is a higher quality of things in a picture 

Core knowledge about the properties of objects

persistence (solidity, continuity), intertia (objects at rest will remain at rest and objects in motion will follow a smooth path without abrupt change), gravity

Sustained attention

the ability to stay focused on a particular task (attention span)

Selective attention

the ability to focus only on relevant stimuli without being distracted by irrelevant stimuli

What is the Piagetian concept for grouping together similar things (grouping together dog, wolf and fox and penguin with other birds)

Schemes/organization

What is the information processing concept for grouping together similar things (grouping together dog, wolf and fox and penguin with other birds)

categorizationw

Why is a child able to categorize more correctly at 10 months than at 6 months?

the 6 month old is basing their categorization on the perceptual similarity between the two items (ex dogs and penguins) but a 10 month old is able to recognize subtle features of each item (features of the penguin that are specific to birds)

What would a Piagetian assessment of infant cognition look like?

interpreting what schemes the infant has and how they are using those schemes to interpret experience.  

What would an information-processing assessment of infant cognition look like?

examining the infant’s memory and attentional systems and comparing them to what is typical of infants at this age. 

Technoference

interruptions of social interactions or learning events by digital media (ex:less time interacting with children or children playing with toys when tv is on)  

Language development: birth

distinct crying sounds

Language development: 3 months

cooing

Language development: 6 months

babbling

Language development: 9 months

KEY SHIFT! gesturing, discriminate phonemes, more understanding, social gestures, joint attention 

Language development: 12 months

first word, responding to simple requests, instrumental gestures

Language development: 18 months

50-word vocab, puts two or more words together, understand grammer of simple sentences 

Language development: 24 months

300-word vocab, nderstand grammatical categories (noun and verb)

Phonology

understanding and producing the sounds of adult speech accurately enough for adults to understand them

Phonemes

the smallest meaningful units of sound in a language (ex: b and p differentiate the words bat and pat0

Semantics

producing a response that makes sense in the context

Syntax

putting words in the correct order that is understandable and resembles grammar

Pragmatics

comprehension and use of conventional aspects of communication such as making requests, asking questions, and responding appropriately to another’s requests

Statistical learning of language

the ability to pick out recurring words (statistical because babies keep track of how often sounds occur together to learn recognition of words)

Stress patterns

babies recognize the stressed parts of words/sentences as the beginning of the word

Phonotactics

the rules for combining sounds in words (language specific)

Underextension

the use of words applied to a narrower than normal range of objects. (ex: only using the word dog to refer to large dogs.)

Overextension

the use of words applied to a larger than normal range of objects (ex: calling a dog a cat.)

Holophrase

using a single word with different inflections to capture a variety of meanings (“milk.” vs “milk?”)

Telegraphic speech

using short sentences with only high-content words and omitting smaller words such as the, a, to, and, with and because.

Joint attention

when a child and their caregiver have shared attention on an item

Principle of reference

using words with specific meanings rather than emotional expressions such as “wow!”

Mutual exclusivity bias

when a child is presented with an object they already know the name of and an unfamiliar object + name, they will assume the unfamiliar name goes with the unfamiliar object

Whole word bias

a word that refers to an object as a whole (ex: car) rather than its specific parts (ex: wheel)

Pivot words

a word that a child often pairs with other nouns (ex: “more”)

Cooperative communication

infants allow others’ pointing, gesturing, and gazing to direct their attention toward particular objects in their environment and vise versa

Social refferencing

using the emotions and expressions of other to understand and regulate behavior

Imitation of intended actions

infants mimicking actions that are novel to them, that they have observed it the past

Mirror neurons

a process of similar brain activity during the observation of a task and carrying out the same task.

Emotions in the first postnatal month consist of

contentment, interest, and distress

Emotions at 6 months consist of

happiness, surprise, disgust, anger, sadness, fear

Self-conscious emotions

shame, embarrassment, pride, guilt, and empathy

Social cognition

thinking about one’s own and other people’s thoughts, feelings, motives, and behaviors

Nativist theory of social cognition

agents (animate vs inanimate) and core social cognition (recognizing people as individuals)

Neonatal imitation

limited form of imitation of primarily facial expressions that is seen in the first 2 months

Crying contagion

tendency of infants to begin crying if they hear another infant crying in the vicinity

Still face procedure

examining a child’s behavior after going from happy interaction to neutral interaction

Freud’s attachment theory

attachment relationships are a byproduct of the infant’s drive for oral gratification

Erik Erikson’s attachment theory

not oral gratification, but response to physical and emotional needs