Lifespan Human Development Exam 3

Genetic Epistemology

source of knowledge, where does it come from

Intelligence

• adaptation to the environment

• cognitive equilibrium

  • too much=stagnation 

Constructivistic

• constructing reality/knowledge

  • child is active

Concepts- Piaget

• equilibrium/disequilibrium

  • taking the same route/taking a new route

  • same thing=no more brain enrichment

  • Knowledge=schema (actions, thoughts)

    • organizes actions/thoughts

• Accommodation

  • chase in schemas as a function of learning

• Organization

  • taking all schemas and putting them all together

Object Permanence

• Understanding that objects still exist when not seen, heard, touched

• One of infant’s most important accomplishments

  • acquired stages

• Causality and violation of expectations testing

  • someone opens the door but no one comes in→ violation

Object Permanence Stages

• Stage 1(newborn): will follow a moving object… out of sight out of mind

• Stage 2 (1-4 months): stare at the place where object was last seen

• Stage 3 (4-8 months): reach and grasp for object…search for partially hidden objects

• Stage 4 (8-12 months): search for completely hidden objects… A not B phenomenon

  • comes in one door and leaves through other door, child will check door that they came in

• Stage 5 (12-18 months): strong notions of object permanence… problems with hidden displacement

  • toy, wrapped and wrapped again and hidden under the bed→ tell child toy under bed they loose interest, tell them to unwrap it, they loose interest, etc.

• Stage 6 (18-24 months): no problems of hidden displacement

  • failure to check thoroughly 

Challenges of Piaget’s Account of Sensorimotor Development

• Neo-nativism

  • substantial knowledge about physical world

  • knowledge does not have to be constructed

  • infants are symbolic, have some memory

• New Research

  • Piaget’s theory need to be modified

  • Some abilities develop earlier

    • Intermodel perception, substantially and permanence of object

  • Transitions not as clear-cut; AB error

    • infants develop the ability to understand how the world works at very early age

  • Baillargeon: 3 month old demonstrate object permanence

Train vs Baby Study

• possible event: train gets stopped due to block, train keeps going due to no block in the way

• impossible event: train keeps going even though block is in the way

• Dependent variable: fixation time, baby staring

Sensorimotor

• birth to 2 years

• sensory developing- touch, feel, seeing

• hand-eye cordination

Sensorimotor: 1

• pupil reflex, eye blinking 

• smiling reflex

Sensorimotor: 2

• primary circular reactions 

• directed toward self/body

• repetitive 

  • e.x. constantly playing with hair, no other objects involved, sucking thumb 

Sensorimotor: 3

• Secondary Circular reactions

• directed toward environment 

• repetitive 

  • e.x. taking notes in class

Sensorimotor: 4

• Coordination of Secondary circular Reactions

• kicking of feet and babbling gets caregiver to come

• discovered by accident 

  • music playing→ you start taping your foor

Sensorimotor: 5

• Tertiary Circular Reaction 

• removed from self 

• curious, exploring 

• novelty, creativity

Sensorimotor: 6

• Internalization of Schemes

• inside the mind 

• child doesn’t have to act out behavior in order to understand emotions 

  • e.x. someone drags nails on chalkboard → you didn’t actually hear it but your mind knows what it sounds like

Pre operational Stage: Symbolic Thought

• Represent the world with symbols

• Sensiormotor stage based on physical terms; touching, tasting, etc  

• this stage child can just look and realize

• Strengths of preoperational thought 

  • socially sharable 

  • faster and more efficient 

  • internal and mobile 

  • scope is expanded

Preoperation Stage

• not ready to perform operations

• internalized actions

  • allow children to mentally what they only did physically before

• handle invisible displacement 

• deferred imitation 

• appearance of words: can talk about things, not just label 

• reversible mental action 

Symbolic function (age 2-4)

• mentally represent an object not present

  • object permanence

• Egocentrism: difficulty of taking someone else’s perspective

• Animism: inanimate object had life

• when egocentrism is high, empathy is low, role taking is low, helping behavior is low

Intuitive thought

• primitive(immature) reasoning, seeks answers to all sorts of questions

• Certainly of knowledge in absence of rational thinking

Centration

• focusing attention on one characteristic to exclusion of others 

  • too much focus

Conservation

knowing that object is constant on its physical properties despite change of appearance

Concrete Operational Phase

• age 7-11

• can perform concrete operations 

• logical reasoning (if applied to specific, concrete examples)

• replaces intuitive/symbolic reasoning 

• consider several characteristics of object at once (decentration) 

• cross-cultural variation

Seriation

• organizing crayons lightest to darkest 

• creates many groups 

• each group has very few members

Formal Operational Stage (11-15 years old)

• abstract thinking

• beyond concrete operations 

• children: problem solved by trial and error

• adolescents: think more like scientists

• abstract, idealistic, and logical thinking 

  • everything is possible

• verbal problem solving ability increases 

  • counteract arguments

• metacognition

  • knowing how to think

• idealism and possibilites in thought

  • what is possible in life 

• Hypothetical-deductive reasoning 

  • if I do this, what will happen

    • develop hypothesis

    • systematically problem-solving 

    • assimilation dominates initial development

Piaget and education: Contributions

• constructivist approach 

  • children as active, constructive thinkers

• facilitate rather than direct learning 

• consider child’s knowledge, level of thinking

• use ongoing assessment 

• CRITICISMS 

  • some estimates of children’s competence are inaccurate

  • development not uniformly stage-like

  • effects of training underestimates 

  • culture and eduction influence development 

Adolescent Egocentrism

• imaginary audience

  • belief that others are as interested in them as they are

  • attention-getting behavior 

  • female>male

  • delinquents higher than non- delinquents 

Walter Schaie: Acquisition

• childhood and adolescent

• protected environment

• assimilation of information, primarily

Walter Schaie: Achievement

• early adulthood

• less protected environment

• achieve a potential 

• more accommodation involved

• capability better defined

• metacognition increases 

Walter Schaie: Responsible Stage

• middle adulthood

• responsible for others as well

• acts as a mentor

Walter Schaie: Executive Stage

• middle adulthood

• acts as a leader, needs to know answers

Walter Schaie: Reintegrated Stage

• older adulthood

• integrates at a more complex level

• focus on simplification, meaningfulness

• motivation and consciousness decreased

• less energy for other activities and others

Fisher’s Theory of Cognitive Development (last 3 stages)

• Abstract mapping

  • ability to relate to someone else at abstract level 

  • segmented conversation

• Abstract Systems

  • person is able to communicate back and fourth in smooth manner 

  • continue conversation

  • significant other-best friend, parent, partner

  • coordinate

• System of abstract systems 

  • an individual can coordinate and integrate multiple abstract systems, often involving a deep understanding of complex, interacting principles and their implications across different contexts

Perry’s Theory of Cognitive Development

1. Dualistic Thinking (adolescents)

   1. thinking is polar 

2. Multiple thinking (adulthood) 

   1. diversity of opinion 

   2. others opinion differs from me- egocentrism should go down

3. Relative subordinate thinking

   1. evaluative approach 

   2. compare and contrast 

4. Full Relativism 

   1. truth is relative 

Mechanism of Change: Encoding 

mechanism by which information enters memory

Mechanism of Change: Automaticity

ability to process information with little or no effort

Mechanism of Change: Strategy Construction

discovering new procedure for processing information

Mechanism of Change: Metacognition

cognition about cognition, or “knowing about knowing”

Changes in Speed of Processing Information

• improves dramatically through childhood and adolescents 

• myelination/experience

• decline (longer/slower) from middle adulthood into late adulthood

Does Processing Speed Matter?

• linked with competence in thinking

• everyday tasks, speed unimportant

• efficient strategies 

  • compensate for slower reaction time and speed 

    • planning ahead 

• processing linked

  • to accumulated knowledge and abilities to perform 

Selective Attention

focusing on specific aspect of experience that is relevant while ignoring others 

Divided Attention

concentrating on more than 1 activity at a time- multitasking

Sustained Attention

maintaining focus on selected stimulus over prolonged period; called vigilance

Executive Attention

focus on action planning, goals, errors, and compensation monitoring, and unknown

Infancy

• first year: orienting/investigative process

  • directs attention to locations (where)

  • recognize objects and their features (what)

  • attention becomes flexible and fast 

    • sustained (focused) attention increases 

Sustained Attention linked to:

• Habituation: decreased responsiveness to stimulus after repeated presentations

• Dishabituation: recovery of a habituated response after change in stimulation 

Joint attention begins about 7-8 months of age

• individuals focus on same object or event and requires

  • ability to track another’s behavior

  • one person directing another’s attention

  • reciprocal interaction → 2 sided

• frequency of caregiver- infant interaction affect language development and vocabulary size

• Gaze following: begins 10-11 months of age 

Childhood

• ability to control attention increases with age 

• preschool child: defects in attention control

  • attention to salient stimuli→ how to differentiate people

  • planing improves as part of plan fulness

• young children: most advances in executive executive and sustained attention 

  • affected by early experiences and education

Adolescence

• processing of irrelevant information decrease

• ability to shift from one activity to another at will

  • better at tasks that require this skill

• Better at multi-tasking

  • number of competing tasks increases with age

  • expands information attended to; distracting

  • processing ability varies among adolescence