Exam 1 PSC 141

Cognition

The processes or faculties by which knowledge is acquired and manipulated

Development

Bidirectional relationship between structure and function drives change over time

Developmental function

What is generally true about the course and cause of childhood cognition

Individual differences

Differences in cognition among same-age children, or within a child

Nature: Heredity (nativism)

Maturational process guided by genes

Genetic determinism

nurture environment (empiricism)

Learning: experiences cause changes in thoughts feelings, and behavior

What is early learning?

Early or immature forms of cognition that help children adapt to their environment.

Can early learning interfere with later learning?

Yes, early learning can sometimes interfere with later learning.

Who conducted research related to early learning in 1959?

Harlow

Who conducted research related to early learning in 1977?

Papousek

Domain-general abilities

a single set of factors that affects all aspects of cognition

Domain-Specific abilities

specific areas of the brain perform specific cognitive tasks

Piaget's Theory

Piaget's theory focuses on nature-nurture interaction and continuities and discontinuities in development

What is Piaget's assumption about how children learn?

Children construct their own knowledge in response to their experiences.

What are structures (schemes) according to Piaget?

An organized group of interrelated memories, thoughts, and strategies that the child uses in trying to understand a situation.

What is a central theme in Piaget's theory?

Nature and nurture interact to produce cognitive development.

How do children organize knowledge according to Piaget?

Children use observations to build a body of coherent knowledge.

What is adaptation in Piaget's theory?

Children respond to the demands of the environment in ways that meet their own goals.

What are the two processes that help children organize knowledge in Piaget's theory?

Assimilation and accommodation.

What is assimilation in Piaget's theory?

People translate incoming information into a form they can understand.

What is accommodation in Piaget's theory?

People adapt current knowledge structures in response to new experience.

What are the properties of the distinct stages of cognitive development in Piaget's theory?

Qualitative change, broad applicability, brief transitions, invariant sequence.

Object permanence

the knowledge that things continue to exist when out of sight

Deferred imitation

the repetition of other people's behavior after a delay

Hypothetical (deductive) reasoning

Ability to think abstractly and reason hypothetically

Ability to engage in scientific thinking

Infants have a small set of innate, domain-specific systems upon which new and flexible skills are built by _________

natural selection

Core-knowledge methodology

Habituation: a decrease in response to repeated stimulation, revealing that learning has occurred

What is object constancy?

An object remains the same despite changes in how it is viewed.

When does an infant's understanding of object cohesion and continuity develop?

Over the first year.

What is visual expectancy in infants?

Infants form expectations for the future based on past experiences.

Joint attention

infants and social partners focus on a common referent

Social scaffolding

more competent people provide temporary frameworks that lead children to higher-order thinking

Autobiographical memory

memories of one's own experiences, including one's thoughts and emotions

vygotskian principles of cognitive development

Children are social beings shaped by their cultural contexts

Children are both learners and teachers

Children are products of their culture

Cognitive change originates in social interaction

Zone of proximal development

the range between what children can do unsupported and what they can do with optimal social support

Dynamic systems theory

Development is a self-organizing process; new forms of behavior emerge through consistent interactions between a biological being and his or her cultural and environmental contexts

Developmental cognitive neuroscience

interdisciplinary field of study that examines how the mind/brain develops

assumptions of evolutionary psychology

Any behavior or trait is best understood in terms of its adaptive value

Domain general and independent, domain specific modules have evolved over time

Biologically primary abilities: cognitive abilities selected in evolution

Acquire universally

Universal developmental course

Children have high motivation to perform them

Biologically secondary abilities: cognitive abilities built on primary abilities that are culturally determined

Not universal

Tedious repetition and external pressure often needed for their mastery

Developmental systems approach

Development proceeds as a result of the bidirectional interaction between structure and function over time at all levels of organization, from genetic through cultural.

Epigenesis

the process by which new structures and functions emerge during the course of development

Myelination

the process by which axons become coated with myelin, a fatty substance that speeds the transmission of nerve impulses from neuron to neuron

Neuronal development

Neurogenesis, Gliogenesis, Migration, and Synaptogenesis

Plasticity

the brain's ability to change, especially during childhood, by reorganizing after damage or by building new pathways based on experience

Dual representation

the ability to relate a real object to a symbol - to think about an entity in two different ways at the same time

Basic perceptual abilities

Taste and smell (Chemical) - develop before birth

Touch (tactile)

Visual preference paradigm

Preferential-looking technique: method for studying visual attention; show two patterns/objects at a time to see if infants have a preference

Vision

Infants have poor contrast sensitivity; they can see patterns only when composed of highly contrasting elements

Perceptual narrowing (including Scott & Monesson, 2009)

infants use environmental experience to become specialists in perceiving socioculturally-relevant stimuli

Experience based

Auditory perception

The infant auditory system is well developed at birth

Auditory localization: infants can turn toward the direction of a sound

As with vision, young infants learn auditory patterns and develop expectations based on these experiences

Scale errors

young children's inappropriate use of an object due to their failure to consider information about the object's size

Pretend play

make-believe activities in which children create new symbolic relations, acting as if they were in a situation different from their actual one

Sociodramatic play

pretend play in which children act out various roles and themes in stories that they create