Psych unit 3 part 1

Rooting reflex

A natural instinct in infants that causes them to turn their head and open their mouth when their cheek is stroked, helping them find the nipple for breastfeeding.

Habituation

A decrease in response to a stimulus after repeated exposure, allowing infants to focus on new stimuli.

Moro reflex

A reflex in infants characterized by a startle response to sudden movements or loud noises, often involving spreading out the arms and legs.

Maturation

The process natural of growth and development that humans go through regarding the changes that occur from birth to death

Teratogen

A substance that interferes with normal fetal development, resulting in abnormalities (EX: drugs, alcohol, chemicals, certain diseases)

Association areas

Regions of the cerebral cortex which connects sensory and motor areas, and which is thought to be concerned with higher mental activities

Pruning

The process of eliminating unnecessary neural connections in the brain during adolescence, enhancing efficiency in neural pathways.

“Use it or lose it”

The principle that neural connections are strengthened through use and weakened or eliminated when not actively engaged, emphasizing the importance of experience in brain development.

How do babies’ early reflexes help them survive?

Babies' early reflexes, such as Moro and rooting, are automatic responses that aid in feeding and staying near caregivers, ensuring their survival and promoting early interactions.

Why do newborns tend to prefer their mother’s over the father’s voice?

Newborns tend to prefer their mother's voice due to prenatal exposure, as they become familiar with the sound of her voice while in the womb, which provides comfort and recognition after birth.

What do newborns like to look at after they are first born?

They like high contrast images that are 8-12 inches away, and they like things that look like faces

Where are neural networks located in a child’s brain?

Neural networks are primarily located in the cerebral cortex, where they develop through experiences and interactions, facilitating cognitive and motor skills.

On the day you were born, you had most of the ______________________ you would ever

have.

Brain cells

What brain area experiences the most rapid growth? What are the last cortical areas to develop?

1. The prefrontal cortex

2. The association areas linked with thinking, memory, and language

Why is pruning important?

It eliminates excess neural connections so it can focus its and energy to make sure the ones it doesn’t get rid of are good

What is the sequence of motor development in babies/young children?

Lifting head - sitting - crawling - standing up - walking assisted - walking unassisted - running

What is physical development in children mostly a result of? : (Social learning / Maturation)

Maturation!

Assimilation

Interpreting new things in terms of our schemas (ex: a toddler might call everything with a tail a dog)

Accomodation

Adapting our current understanding (schema) to incorporate new info/things (ex: a cat has a tail, but it’s not a dog, so the toddler will make a new schema for “cat”)

Schema

Concepts or mental molds which we put info into

Sensorimotor stage

Birth-age 2: babies take in the world through senses and actions (looking, hearing, touching, biting, grasping)

Object permanence

Awareness that objects continue to exist even when we cannot see them (starts around 8 months old)

Preoperational stage

Age 2 - ages 6/7: where a child learns to use language but doesn’t yet comprehend mental operations and concrete logic

Concrete operational stage

Age 7 - age 12: children gain mental operations that let them think logically about concrete events

Formal operational stage

Ages 12+: kids begin to think logically about abstract concepts and gain mature moral reasoning

Theory of mind

People’s ideas about their own and others mental states (feelings, perceptions, thoughts, behaviors) develops in the preoperational stage

Conservation

Principle that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of the objects (ex: a taller cup that has the same volume as a shorter cup doesn’t equal more liquid in the taller cup) develops in preop stage

Egocentrism

Preoperational Child’s difficulty seeing/understanding someone else’s point of view

Symbolic thinking

Being able to do pretend play basically (develops in preop stage)

Reversible mental processes

Things like familial relationships, and subtraction can be hard for preop kids

ZPD (Zone of proximal development)

The zone between what a child can do and what a child can’t do (it’s what a child can do with help, or contains things that are next for the child to master

Lev Vygotsky

Person who came up with the ZPD

Inner speech

Kids who talk to themselves while doing something generally become better at it than kids who don’t

Scaffolding

People like parents, caregivers, teachers, that help the child do new things

What is cognition?

The process of thinking/processing info such as languages, concepts, and images

What was Piaget core idea

There are 4 stages a child goes through when growing up

Schema

Concepts/mental molds that we put things into

What did lev vygotsky emphasize

That a child’s mind moves through the ZPD with help from parents, caregivers, and social interaction

Noah Chomsky

Argued that e language is an unlearned human trait, and that we are born with a language acquisition device that lets us learn any language.

Universal grammar

Birth with a predisposition to learn grammar

Babbling

By 4 months, babies sample sounds they can make, no language yet, but by 10 months, babbling indicates household language

Phonemes

Smallest distinctive sound units in a language (th - a - t)

Morphemes

Smallest language units that carry meaning (read - er - s)

One word stage

Around 1st bday, know sounds have meaning but only use one syllable at a time

Two word stage

Around 2nd bday, mostly says nouns and verbs (want juice), also called telegraphic speech

Aphasia

Damage to cortical areas that causes language impairment