PSYC 302 UBC - Susan Birch Final

two basic forms of learning for infants

classical and operant conditioning

other forms of baby learning

habituation and recovery

imitation

how does dynamic systems theory of motor development view each new skill

a joint product of central nervous system development, the body's movement capacities, the child's goals, and environmental supports for the skill

intermodal perception

the combining of information from two or more sensory systems

differentiation theory

infants actively search for invariant features of the environment and constantly look for ways in which the environment affords possibilities for action

how many microbes is our body composed of

10 trillion

developmental psychobiology

an interdisciplinary field, incorporating insights and methods form developmental psychology, neuroscience, and many other areas of biology

- field covers all phases of development

how does body growth happen over the first 2 years of life

body size increases dramatically

when does baby fat peak

9 months, followed by a decline lasting into middle childhood

how do different parts of the body grow

they grow at different rates following the cephalocaudal trend, and proximodistal trend

cephalocaudal trend

the head-to-foot direction of motor development

proximodistal trend

The center-outward direction of motor development.

how to best estimate a child's physical maturity

skeletal age (measure of bone development)

structure closest to adult size at birth

brain

how do neurons send messages

release of neurotransmitters which cross the synapses between the neurons

programmed cell death

death of many surrounding neurons as neural fibers and their synapses increase rapidly, which makes space for these connective structures. (apostis)

synaptic pruning

a process whereby the synaptic connections in the brain that are used are preserved, and those that are not used are lost

glial cells

cells in the nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neurons, also responsible for myelination

different measures of brain function

EEG, ERP, fMRI, PET, NIRS

EEG

electroencephalogram

ERP

Event Related Potentials

fMRI

functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

PET

Positron Emission Tomography

NIRS

near-infrared spectroscopy

last part of the brain to stop growing

cerebral cortex

part of brain containing the greatest number of neurons and synapses

cerebral cortex

prefrontal cortex

responsible for complex thought, consciousness, and various executive processes

lateralization

the specialization of functions of the two hemispheres of the cerebral cortex

brain plasticity

The capacity for the brain to alter its structure and function.

Experience-expectant growth

ordinary experiences "expected" by brain to grow normally

Experience-dependant growth

denotes changes in the brain that are not linked to specific points in development and that vary across individuals and across cultures

parent-infant co-sleeping

the norm for approximately 90% of the world's population

factors affecting early physical growth

Heredity, nutrition, emotional well-being (nutrition especially crucial)

in impovrished nations breast fed babies are

less likely to be malnourished and far more likely to survive the first year of life

bottle feeding vs. breast feedinf for babies from industrialized nations

do not differ in the quality of mother-infant relationship or in later emotional adjustment

rapid weight gain in infancy is later linked to

obesity

what contributes to 1/3 of worldwide infant and early childhood deaths

malnutrition, which is widespread in developing countries and war-torn areas

Marasmus

A disease of severe protein-calorie malnutrition during early infancy, in which growth stops, body tissues waste away, and the infant eventually dies.

Kwashiorkor

protein deficiency

classical conditioning

a type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events

operant conditioning

a type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher

habituation

decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a visual stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner.

mirror neurons

Frontal lobe neurons that fire when performing certain actions or when observing another doing so. The brain's mirroring of another's action may enable imitation, language learning, and empathy.

babies are born with a primitive ability to learn through

imitation, via mirror neurons

gross motor development

development of motor abilities including balance and posture as well as whole-body movements such as crawling

which motor skill plays the greatest role in infant cognitive development

reaching

perceptual narrowing affect

infants perceptual sensitivity becomes increasingly attuned to information most often encountered

statistical learning capacity

by analyzing the speech stream for patterns-repeatedly occurring sequences of sounds infants acquire a stock of speech structures for which they will later learn meanings, long before they start to talk around age 12 months

when does infant visual acuity reach adult levels

by 4 years

- beginning with sensitivity to motion

- followed by detection of binocular depth cues

- sensitivity to pictorial depth cues

do babies prefer to look at patterns or plain stimuli

babies prefer to look at patterned, as fine-grained detail improves, babies spend more time looking at more complex patterns

once they can take in all aspects of a pattern, they integrate the parts into a unified whole

what happens around 3 months with face perception

babies begin to make fine distinctions among the features of different faces

what happens around 5 months with face perception

babies perceive emotional expressions as meaningful wholes

at what age do children become as good as adults at distinguishing highly similar faces

~10-11

amodal sensory properties

information that is not specific to a single modality but that overlaps two or more sensory systems

what is intermodal perception crucial for

crucial for perceptual development and also facilitates social and language processing

how can perceptual development be understood

as a built in tendency to seek order and consistency, which becomes increasingly fine-tuned with age

circular argument for infant fear response with babies on brink

- infants avoid because they are fearful

- we know they are fearful because they avoid

what does babies behaviour on visual cliffs prove

that they adaptive, flexible responding

do infants show evidence of understanding the consequences of falling from a larger more dangerous height than a smaller one

no, their gaits when crossing a bridge do not change when the drop is larger or smaller

were infants accurately able to assess their abilities to accomplish a task when new variables were added to the situation

yes, as long as they were experienced in the posture they used when approaching the situation (ex. crawling, walking)

what happened if infants were not experienced in their posture when navigating obstacles

if they are a novice walker or crawler they will appraoch an impossible situation and try it because they cannot properly asses their abilities

specificity of learning between earlier and later postures

very robust, infants alternated between avoiding and plunging on consecutive trials when the experimenter started them in an experienced or novice posutre

what should happen if locomotor experience teaches infant fear of heights

adaptive avoidance responses should not depend on the posture in which infants are tested

affordance

fit between the infants physical capabilities and the relevant environmental properties

how do infants decide whether to cross a bridge or go over a drop off

by detecting information for affordances (e.g., limb length, muscle strength, and balance control relative to drop-off height)

how do infants learn to perceive affordances for locomotion

through locomotor experience

why do infants explore the edge of the visual cliff

to generate information about affordances

- exploration of the cliff increased on more challenging cliffs, gaps, slopes, and bridges as attempts to crawl and walk decreased

do affordances transfer to new postures

NO

- because the relevant information is not specific to the new posture (the relevant relations are different for new postures)

what is the visual cliff really testing

babies depth perception and awareness of their affordances

what is the visual cliff NOT testing

fear of heights

- babies are learning what is possible and what isnt

Sensorimotor stage

in Piaget's theory, the stage (from birth to about 2 years of age) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities

what happens by the end of the sensorimotor stage

Infants make strides in intentional behaviour and understanding of object permanence until, by the end of the second year, they become capable of mental representation

schemes (Piaget)

organized ways of making sense of experience

adaptation (piaget)

adjustment to the environment via assimilation and accommodation

assimilation (piaget)

According to Piaget this is the process of fitting new ideas or concepts into existing ideas or concepts. It suggests that a child may change or alter what he perceives in the outside world in order to fit his internal world.

accommodation (Piaget)

adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information

organization (Piaget)

how individuals systematize and organize mental processes and knowledge

circular reaction

A repetitive action that achieves a desired response; seen during Piaget's sensorimotor stage.

Substage 1 of Piaget's sensorimotor stage

birth-1 month, circular reaction provides a special means for babies to adapt their first schemes

Substage 2 of Piaget's sensorimotor stage

1-4 months, babies start to gain voluntary control over their actions through primary circular reactions

Substage 3 of Piaget's sensorimotor stage

4-8 months, babies' motor attainments strengthen the secondary circular reaction

Substage 4 of Piaget's sensorimotor stage

8-12 months, infants engage in intentional or goal-directed behaviour and begin to master object permanence

Substage 5 of Piaget's sensorimotor stage

12-18 months, the tertiary circular reaction emerges as toddlers develop the capacity to experiment and to imitate many more behaviours

Substage 6 of Piaget's sensorimotor stage

toddlers create mental representatoins, including both images and concepts

deferred imitation

the ability to remember and copy the behavior of models who are not present

allows for make-believe play

studies of violation of expectation method give evidence for _______

object permanence in the first half year

between 12 and 18 months toddlers use deffered imitation to

enrich their sensorimotor schemes, and they retain modeled behaviours for at least several months

when can infants begin to solve problems by analogy

10-12 months

displaced reference

the realization that words can be used to cue mental images of things not physically present

emerges around first birthday

video deficit effect

poorer performance after a video than a live demonstration

core knowledge perspective

babies are born with a set of innate knowledge systems, or core domains of thought. that support early, rapid development

3 parts of mental system for processing

sensory register

a memory system that momentarily preserves extremely accurate images of sensory information

short-term memory store

a place where non-sensory information is kept for more than a few seconds but less than a minute

long-term memory

the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. Includes knowledge, skills, and experiences.

working memory

active maintenance of information in short-term storage

indicator of the capacity of the short-term memory store

central executive

the part of working memory that directs attention and processing

Executive Function

conscious control of thoughts, emotions, and actions to accomplish goals or solve problems

recognition

a measure of memory in which the person need only identify items previously learned, as on a multiple-choice test

simplest form of memory

recall

A measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier, as on a fill-in-the-blank test.