Lecture Notes on Intelligence Testing and Child Development

Practice vocabulary flashcards covering the history of IQ testing, developmental milestones for toddlers, Piaget's sensorimotor substages, and theories of intelligence.

Binet

Developed tests in $1900s$ France to identify students needing help, leading to specialized education and support.

Lewis Terman and Henry Goddard

Figures associated with the American eugenics movement who used IQ tests to claim ethnic inferiority and justify sterilization policies.

Cultural Bias in IQ Testing

The concept that IQ tests were used to support racist and classist policies because immigrants and certain groups did poorly due to language or cultural barriers.

Self-recognition (Video vs. Mirror)

At $2.5$ years old, recognizing oneself in video recordings is harder than mirror recognition and requires more advanced self-awareness and memory.

Prosocial behaviour

Actions such as sharing and helping that develop gradually; toddlers often prioritize their own needs and require adult prompting as empathy is still developing.

Vocab explosion

A period of rapid language acquisition that may occur later in development, noting that expressive language skills vary hugely at $2.5$ years old.

Co-regulation

The process where toddlers rely heavily on adults to manage their emotions because their own self-regulation skills and frustration tolerance are immature.

Emotion coaching

A strategy used to support social development that builds pro-social behavior and improves emotional understanding.

Object permanence

The main development of the sensorimotor stage where an infant understands that objects still exist even when hidden.

Primary circular reactions

Substage 2 ($1-4$ months) where a baby repeats actions involving their own body, such as sucking a thumb, because it feels interesting.

Secondary circular reactions

Substage 3 ($4-8$ months) where a baby repeats actions involving the outside world or objects, such as hitting a toy repeatedly.

Coordination of secondary circular reactions

Substage 4 ($8-12$ months) where intentional, goal-directed behavior begins and the baby shows the first signs of object permanence.

A-not-B error

Occurs when a baby searches for a toy in location A (where it was previously hidden) even after seeing it moved to location B; typically happens in Substage 4.

Tertiary circular reactions

Substage 5 ($12-18$ months) characterized by the 'Little scientist' phase where babies experiment by trying new variations of actions.

Mental representation

Substage 6 ($18-24$ months) where a child begins symbolic thought and can think about an object mentally without seeing it.

Twin studies

Research showing that identical twins usually have more similar IQ scores than fraternal twins, providing evidence for genetic influence on intelligence.

Flynn effect

The finding that average IQ scores have increased over generations, suggesting that environmental factors like nutrition and education affect intelligence.