DP chapter 4-7

piaget’s theory

posits that cognitive developemnt involves a sequence of 4 stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational stages that are constructed throught the process of asimilation, accommodation and equilibration.

babbling

producing syllables made up of a consonant followed by a vowel (“pa,” “ba,” \n “ma”) that are repeated in strings (“mamama”)

produced as sounds (or hand movements (for learners of sign language)

produced during early phases of language development preparation for production

asimilation

process by which people translate incoming information into a form that fits concepts they already understand

accommodation

process by which people adapt current knowledge structures in response to new experiences

equilibration

process by which people balance assimilation and accommodation to create stable understanding

equilibrium-1st phase

people are satisfied with their understanding of a particular phenomenon. people do not see discrepancies between their observations and their understanding of the phenomenon

disequilibrium-2nd phase

they recognize shortcoming in their understanding of the phenomenon due to new information, but cannot generate superior alternative

developing more sophisticated understanding-3rd phase

eliminates at least some of the shortcoming of the old one, creating a more advanced equilibrium within which a broader range of observations can be understood

sources of discontinuity

depicted as products of the basic human tendency to orginize knowledge into coherent structres

qualitative change-central properties

children of d different ages think in qualitatively different ways, different represents a qualitative change because two children are basing their moral judgements on entirely different criteria

broad applicability- central properties

type of thinking characteristic of each stage influences children’s thinking across diverse topics and contexts

brief transitions-central properties

a transition period in which they fluctuate between the type of thinking characteristics of the new, more advanced stage and the type of thinking characteristic of the old, less advanced one

invariant sequence-central properties

everyone processes through the stages in the same order without skipping any of them

sensorimotor stage

birth-2 years

intelligence is expressed through sensory and motor abilities which they use to percive the world around them

intelligence bound to their immediate perceptions/actions and allows them to form fundamental concepts (time, space, causality)

object permanence

the knowledge that objects continue to exist even when they are out of view, during one year

A-not-B error

tendency to reach for a hidden object where it was last found rather than in the new location where it was last hidden

deferred imitation

repetition of toher people’s behaviour a substantial time after it originally occured, between 18-24 months

preoperational stage

2-7 years

become able to represent their experşences in language and mental imagery, allowing them to remember experineces longer and from more sophisticated concepts

unable to perform certain mental operations, such as considering multiple dimensions simultaneously (narrow cup/wide cup)

symbolic representation

use of one object to stand for another

egocentrism

tendency to perceive the world solely from one’s own point of view, cannot perspective take

centration

tendency to focus on a single, perceptually striking feature of an object, balance-scale problem

conservation concept

the idea that merely chnaging the apperance of objects does not necessarily change the object’s other key properties

concrete operatiıns stage

7-12 years

children cannot reason logically about concrete objects and events(narrow cup/wide cup)

they cannot think in purely abstract terms or generate scientific experiments to their their believes

formal operations

12-beyond years

people become able to think about abstractions and hypotherical situations

piaget’s legacy

theory is vague about mechanisö that gives rise to children’s thinking and that produce cognitive growth

infants and young children and more cognitively competent than piaget recognized

theory understates the contribution of the social world to cognitive developemtn

stage model depits children’s thinking as more consistent than it is

information-processing theories

theories that focus on the structure of the cognitive system and the mental activities used to devlop attention and memory to solve problems

task analysis

research tecniquie of specifying the goals, obstacles to their realization, and potential solution strategies involved in problem solving

allows information-processing research to formulate a computer simulation

problem solving

process of attaining a goal by using a strategy to overcome an obstacle

working memory

memory system that involves actively attending to, maintaining, and processing information

long-term memory

information retained over a life time

executive functioning

control behaviour and thought processes

3 key functions are inhibition, enchancement of working memory (attending to the most important info), and cognitive flexibility (imagining another person’s perspective)

basic processes

simpliest and most frequently used mental activities

include assocating events with one another, recognizing objects as familiar, recalling facts and procedures, and generalizing from one instance to another

encoding

process of representing in memory information that draw attention or is considered important

improved speed of processing plays a key role in the development of memory, problem solving, and learning (peak from 8 to 10/ or 11)

rehearsal

process of repeating info multiple times to aid memory of it

selective attention

process of intenitonally focusing on the info that is most relevant to the current goal

overlapping waves theory

an information-processing approach that emphasizws the variability in children’s thinking

increasing efficient execution of existing strategies, and frequent choice of strategies that fit particular situations

core-knowledge theories

based on the view that children begin life with a range of specific cognitive competencies

children are especially skillful at acquiring evolutionarily important info (language, spatial and numerical information, understanding other people’s thinking, and face recognition)

domain-specific

understanding in areas allow children to disguish between living and nonliving things

nativism

theory that infants have substantial innate knowledge of evolytionarily important domains

constructivism

thoery that infants build increasingly advanced understanding y combining rudimentary innate knowledge with subsequenct experiences

sociocultural theories

approaches that emphasize that other people adn surrounding culture contribute greatly to children’s development

guided participation

process in which more knowledgeable individuals orginize activities in ways that allow less knowledgeable people to learn

social scaffolding

process in which more competent people provide a temporary framework that supports children’s thinking at a higher level than children could manage on their own

cultural tools

innumerable products of human ingenuity that enhance thinking

vygotsky phase 1

children’s behaviour is controlled by other people’s statements

vygotsky phase 2

children’s behaviour is controlled by their own private speech, in which they develop self-regulation and problem solving abilities by telling themselves aloud what to do, much as their parents did in the first phase

vygotsky phase 3

children’s behaviour is controlled by internalized private speech, in which they silently tell themselves what to do

intersubjectivity

mutual understanding that people share during communication

age 6 months, where infant can learn novel behaviours by attending to another person’s behaviour

joint attention

process in which social partners intentionally focus on a common referent in the external enviornment

increases children’s ability to learn from other people and enable infants to evaluate the competence of other people and use those evaluations to decide whom to imitate

ages 8-18 months

dynamic-systems theories

focus on how to change occurs over time in complex systems

propose that there is no period in which substantial change is not occuring

how children’s actions shape their development

view development as a self-organizing process that brings together components as needed to adapt to a continuously changing environemnt

sensation

processing of basic information from the external world by receptors in the sense organs and the brain

perception

process of organizing and interpreting sensory information

preferential-looking technique

method for studying visual attention in infants that involves showing infants two images simultaneously to see if the infants prefer one over other

habitation

another method to study sensory and perceptual development

involves repeatedly presenting an infant with a particular stimulus until their response declines, then introducing a novel stimulus

visual acuity

sharpness and clarity of vision

contrast sensivity

ability to detect differences in light and dark areas in a visual pattern

infants have poor contrast sensitivity

poor contrast sentitivity due to…

the immaturity of their cone cells: light-sensitivity neurons that are highly concentrated in the fovea and are involved in seeing fine deatil and colour

smooth pursuit eye movement

visual behaviour in which the viewer’s gaze shifts at the same rate and angle as a moving object

perceptual constancy

perception of objects a being of constant size, shape, colour etc in spite of physical differentces in the retinal image of the object

object segregation

indentification of separate obkects in a visual array

commen movement

lead infants to perceive disparate elements moving together as parts of a unitary objects

object permanence

when an infant failed to search for an object that has disappeared from sight, it is because the object has also disappeared from the infant’s mind which is false

violation-of-expectancy

procedure used to study infant cognition in which infants are shown an event that should evoke surprise or interest if that goes against something the infant knows

optical expansion

a depth cue in which an object blocks increasingly more of background, indicating that the object is approaching

binocular disparity

the difference between the retinal image of an image in each eye that results in two slightly different signals being sent to the brain

closer the object, greater the disparity between two images

emerges at around 4 months of age

stereopsis

process by which the visual cortex combines the differing neural signals caused by binocular disparity, resuşting in the perception of depth

monocular depth cues

perceptual cues of depth that can be perceived by one eye alone

infants become sensitive to it at 6-7 months of age

pictorial cues

perceptual cues of depth are known as

because they can used to portray depth in picture

auditory localization

perception of the location in space of a sound

perceptual narrowing

development changes in which experience fine-tunes the perceptual system

food neophobia

where in children avoid unfamiliar foods

intermodal perception

combining information from two or more sensory system

visual and auditory

reflexes

tightly organized patterns of action

some have adaptive values, others dont

rooting-common neonatal reflexes

turning of the head and opening of mount in direction of a touch

sucking and swallowing-common neonatal reflexes

oral response of the rood of the mount is stimulated

tonic neck-common neonatal reflexes

when head turns and arms on the side of the body extend, while the arm and knee on the other side flex

moro-common neonatal reflexes

throwing back the head and extending arms, then drawing them in response to sudden sound/movement

grasping-common neonatal reflexes

closing of fingers around object that is pressed to the palm

stepping-common neonatal reflexes

stepping or dancing feet when being help upright with feet touching solid surface

affordances

possibilities for action offered, or offered by objects and situations

realizing that small objects afford the possibility of being pick up, while flat surfaces can be used for stable walking

self-locomotion

ability to move oneself around in the environment

scale error

attempt of a young child to perform an action on a miniature object that is impossible due to the large discrepancy in the relative sizes of the child and the object

classical conditioning

form of learning that consists of associating an initially neutral stimulus with a stimulus that always evoke a particular reflexive response

unconditioned stimulus (ucs)

stimulus that evokes a reflexive response, food

unconditioned response (ucr)

a reflexive response that is elicited by the unconditioned stimulus, salivation

conditioned stimulus (cs)

a neutral stimulus that is repeatedly paired with the unconditioned stimulus, bell

conditioned response (cr)

the originally reflexive response that comes to be elicited by the cınditioned stimulus, salivation

instrumental (operant) conditioning

learning the relation between one’s behaviour and the consequences that result from it

positive reinforcement

a reward that reliably follows a behaviour and increases the likelihood that the behaviour will be repeated

rational learning

ability to use prior experiences to predict what will occur in the future

active learning

learning by engaging with the world, rather than passively observing objects and effects

symbols

systems for representing our thoughts, feelings and knowledge, and for communicating them to other people

language comprehension

understanding what others say

sign or write

language production

process of speaking

signing or writing

generative

a system in which a finite set of words can be combined to generate an infinite number of sentences

phenomes

smallest units of meaningful sound

rake and lake differ in one phenome

morphemes

smallest units of learning language

dog comes from two morphemes; sog and s indicating the plural

syntax

rules specifying how words from different categories can combined

pragmatics

knowledge about how language is used, in specific context

infant-directed-speech (IDS)

distinctive mode of speech used when speaking to infants and toodlers