PS102 Wilfrid Laurier University

Longitudinal research

testing the same cohort at different times

Cross sectional research

compare different ages at same time

Sequential research

test several cohorts as they age

Cohort

group born at the same time

Germinal stage

first two weeks, zygote attaches to uterine wall

Embryonic stage

2nd to 8th week, placenta and umbilical cord development

Fetal stage

begins 9th week, 7 months = age of viability

Teratogens

environmental agents that may cause abnormal fetal development

Maternal malnutrition

miscarriage, premature birth, still birth, impaired brain development

Developmental psychology

examines changes in biological, physical, psychological and behavioural processes as we age

Maternal stress (hormones)

premature birth, infant irritability, attentional deficits

Newborn

comes equipped to survive and learn, communicates, discriminate speech sounds, simple observation, imitate facial expressions

Cephalocaudal principle

development proceeds from head to foot

Proxiomodistal principle

development proceeds from innermost to outer, arms berfore fingers

Piagets stage model

brain builds schemas to achieve understanding, modifid to create equilibrium between environment and understanding

Assimilation

new experiences incorporated into existing schemas

Accommadation

new experience cause existing schemas to change

Sensorimotor stage

birth to 2 years, understand the world through sesory experiences and interactions with objects, begin to acquire language

Preoperational stage

ages 2 to 7, world represented symbolically through words and mental images

Concrete Operational stage

ages 7 to 12, easily perform basic mental operations involving tangible

Formal Operational stage

ages 11 to 12, can think logically about concrete and abstract problems

Cognitive development

continual and gradual, not stage like. abilities gradually become more efficient

Sally Anne test

social cognitive test used by developmental psychologists

Kohlberg's stage theory

analysed responses to ethnical dilemmas, 3 levels

Temperment

biologically based style of behavioural and emotional reactions, relatively stable but predictions are difficult

Attachement

strong emotional bond betwee children and primary caregivers

Stranger anxiety

6 to 18 months, distress over contact with unfamiliar people

Separation anxiety

12 months to 3 years, distress over being separated from primary caregivers

Secure attachment

explore and react positively to to strangers, distressed when mother leaves, happy when mother returns

Resistant attachement

don't explore, high distress on departure, resist comfort on return

Avoidant attachement

little distress, ignore/avoid when return

Disorganized/Disoriented attachement

mixture of resistant and avoidant

Adolescence

physical development, rapid maturation in which person becomes capable of reproduction

Adolescent egocentrism

over-sensitivity to social evaluation (everyone is staring at me)

Phonemes

requires sound, smallest unit of sound recognized as separate in a given language

Morphemes

fundamental unit of meaning, combination of phonemes,

Syntax

rules for combining words together into meaningful phrases

Ambiguity

when the underlying proposition is not clear language development

Prelanguistic

babbling, internationals signers one word stage

Holophrastic

one word, many meanings

Overextensions

words used too liberally, specific word apply to things it should not

Underextensionsn

general word but child restricts to specific cases

Metalinguistic awareness

growing appreciation of ambiguities, playing with words

Primate studies

speech is not possible, have propositional thought, metal respresentations

Learning

process in which experience produces a relatively enduring change in behaviour or capabilities

Behaviourism

focused on how organisms behave, how experience influences behaviour

Respondent conitioning

based on internal responses to naturally occurring stimuli, some things we encounter in the world naturally elicit a response

Unconditioned stimulus

elicits a reflective or innate unconditioned response without prior learning

Unconditioned response

reflective or innate response elicited by the UCS without prior learning

Conditioned stimulus

through association with the UCS comes to elicit a conditioned response similar to the original UCR

Conditioned response

response elicited by a conditioned stimulus

Forward short delay pairing

CS (tone) still present when food (UCS) presented

Forward trace pairing

CS appears and the goes off, best if delay is no more than 2-3 seconds

Simultaneous pairing

presented at the same time, learning is slower

Backward pairing

presented afterward, little learning

Extinction

when CS is presented in absence of UCS, causes CR to weaken or dissapear

Spontaneous recovery

after a rest period without any new learning traits. the reappearance of a previously extinguished CR

Generalization

stimuli similar to initial CS elicit a CR, aids in survival

Discrimination

CR occurs to one stimulus but not to another

Higher order conditioning

chain of events which has 2 CS stimuli, expands influence of classical conditioning

Response dominace

refers to the relative strengths of responses elicited by the CS and UCS before they are paired, best when UCS is stronger

Gradual extinction

systematic desensitation

Non gradual extinction

flooding - real events, implosion - imagine events

Operant conditioning

behavioural changes as a result of consequences that follow it

Classical conditioning

behavioural changes due to association of two stiuli presented prioer to the response

Thorndike's Law of Effect

responses followed by a "satisfying" consequence became more likely to occur, responses followed by a "unsatisfying" consequence became less likely to occur

Skinnerian

assumes that behaviours are voluntary, under our control

Primary reinforcers

stimuli that are reinforcing because they satisfy biological needs (food, drink)

Secondary reinforcers

acquire reinforcing properties through association with primary reinforcers (money, praise)

Shaping

reinforce successive approximations toward a final response

Chaining

reinforce each response with an opportunity to perform the next response, sequence of behaviours

Continuous reinforcement

every response of a particular type is reinforced

Partial reinforcement

only some responses are reinforce

Ratio

certain percentage of responses are reinforced

Interval

certain amount of time must elapse between reinforcenments

Fixed

reinforcement occurs after a fixed number of responses or fixed time interval

Variable

reinforcement occurs after an average number of responses or passage of time

Encoding

acquiring information, detect information prepare to be placed in memory

Storage

encoded information has to be retained, has to be a memory trace

Retrieval

try to remember what was stored, recall, recognition

Short term memory

5 to 9 meaningful items can be store, chunking can increase storage, stores info, processes it, supports problem solving and planning

Long term memory

permanent, holds memories for knowledge gained, skills learned, personal experiences, it is very vast

Episodic memory

personal experiences

Semantic memmory

general factual knowledge

Procedural memory

non declarative memory, reflected in skills and actions

Primary effect

info transferred to long term memory

Recency effect

info still in short term memory

Mnemonics (memory strategy)

first letter, sentences, rhymes, key words

Elaboration (memory strategy)

verbal or imagery

Dual coding theory

memory enhanced if use both verbal and visual codes, more difficult with some stimuli

Overlearn

continued reherarsal

Distributed practice

learning over time

Schemas

A 'mental framework', organized pattern of thought

Associative networks

network of associated ideas and concepts

Spreading activation

activation of one concept leads to activation of other concepts = priming

Retrieval

strategies facilitate encoding and retrieval through mediators which gives us cues

Flashbulb memories

vivid, clear recollections, snapshot in time

Encoding specificity principle

memory enhanced when conditions at retrieval match those at encoding

Context dependent memory

easier to remember something in the same environment where encoded

State dependent memory

ability to retrieve better when internal state at retrieval matches that at encoding