child development

Piaget trained as

a biologist

piagets interest

The qualitative development of cognitive structures.
Origins of knowledge (epistemology)

Piaget Key Concepts

- stressed that children actively construct their own cognitive worlds.

Piaget: Schemas

Babies' schemes are structured by simple actions.
Older children's schemes include strategies and plans for solving problems.

Piaget: Accommodation

adjusting schemes to fit new information and experiences.

Piaget's 4 stages of development

sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational

Sensorimotor

-Birth to 2 Years of Age
-The infant constructs an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences with physical actions.

simple reflexes

sensorimotor stage 1
This substage corresponds to the first month after birth.
Sensation and action are coordinated through reflexive behaviors, such as rooting and sucking.
Infants begin to produce behaviors that resemble reflexes in the absence of the usual stimulus for the reflex.

First habits and primarily circular reactions:

sensorimotor stage 2
Develops between 1 and 4 months of age.
Habit: a scheme based on a reflex that has become separated from its eliciting stimulus.
Primary circular reaction: a scheme based on an attempt to reproduce an event that initially occurred by chance.
Habits and circular reactions are stereotyped—that is, the infant repeats them the same way each time.

Secondary circular reactions:

sensorimotor stage 3
Develops between 4 and 8 months of age.
Infants become more object-oriented, moving beyond preoccupation with the self.
Secondary circular reactions: actions are repeated because they bring interesting or pleasurable results.
The infant also imitates some simple actions and physical gestures.
An infant coos to make a person stay near; as the person starts to leave, the infant coos again.

Coordination of secondary circular reactions:

Sensorimotor Substage 4
Develops between 8 and 12 months of age.
The infant must coordinate vision and touch, hand and eye.
Actions become more outwardly directed.
The infant readily combines and recombines previously learned schemes in a coordinated way.
Intentionality is present.
Example: knocking over one block to reach and play with another.

Tertiary circular reactions, novelty, and curiosity:

Sensorimotor Substage 5
Develops between 12 and 18 months of age.
Tertiary circular reactions are schemes in which an infant purposely explores new possibilities with objects, continually doing new things to them and exploring the results.

Internalization of schemes:

Sensorimotor Substage 6
Develops between 18 and 24 months of age.
The infant develops the ability to use primitive symbols.
Symbol, in Piaget's model: an internalized sensory image or word that represents an event.

Object permanence:

the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived

preoperational stage

-Lasts from approximately 2 to 7 years of age.
-They form stable concepts and begin to reason.
-Two substages: the symbolic function substage and the intuitive thought substage.
-Children in this stage do not yet perform operations: reversible mental actions that allow children to do mentally what they previously only did physically.

The Symbolic Function Substage

-pre op stage 1
-the child gains the ability to mentally represent an object that is not present. Between ages 2 and 4, the child scribbles designs representing people, houses, cars, etc.; and begins to use language and pretend play.

The Intuitive Thought Substage

-pre op stage 2
-Between ages 4 and 7 years old.
-"Why?" questions signal the emergence of interest in figuring out why things are the way they are.
The substage is called intuitive because young children seem unaware of how they know what they know.

Conservation

orange juice experiment

Concrete operational stage:

-children can perform concrete operations and they can reason logically as long as reasoning can be applied to specific or concrete examples.
- Lasts from about 7 to 11 years of age.
-Concrete operations allow children to coordinate several characteristics rather than focus on a single property.
-They do not conserve all qualities or conserve on all tasks simultaneously.
-One important skill that characterizes children in this stage is the ability to classify things and consider their relationships.
-seriation and transivitiy

Formal operational stage:

-individuals move beyond concrete experience and think in more abstract and logical ways.
-Appears between 11 and 15 years of age.
-Adolescents develop images of ideal circumstances. ---They begin to think more as scientists, and they use hypothetical-deductive reasoning—they develop hypotheses, or best guesses, and systematically deduce which is the best path to follow in solving the problem.
-Critics point out there is more individual variation in formal operational thought than Piaget envisioned.

Adolescent egocentrism:

-the heightened self-consciousness of adolescents.
-It is reflected in their belief that others are as interested in them as they themselves are.
-It can be thought of as two types of social thinking

Evaluating Piaget's Theory

-Some cognitive abilities emerge earlier than Piaget estimated; others, later.
- ex. Many adolescents still think in concrete operational ways or are just beginning to master formal operations.
-

Piaget vs. Vygotsky

see powerpoint

Vygotsky

-emphasized that children actively construct their knowledge and understanding.
-Vygotsky emphasized the role of the social environment in stimulating cognitive development.

Expert Others

Langauge

-private speech is used for self-regulation—to plan, guide, and monitor their behavior.
- As children age, they can act without verbalizing, and self-talk becomes internalized into inner speech.

ZPD

-the range of tasks that are too difficult for children to master alone but that can be learned with guidance and assistance from adults or more-skilled children.
-The lower limit of the ZPD is the level of skill reached by the child working independently.
-The upper limit of the ZPD includes the additional responsibility the child can accept with the assistance of an able instructor.

Scaffolding

Adjusting the support offered during a teaching session to fit the child's current level of performance

Self-Regulation

inhibit

Information-Processing Theory

a perspective that compares human thinking processes, by analogy, to computer analysis of data, including sensory input, connections, stored memories, and output

Theory of mind:

awareness of one's own mental processes and the mental processes of others.

False Belief and Appearance-Reality tasks

- Children are asked to predict how a person will act based on that person's belief about reality.
- Smartie experiment when the child belived she thought a pencil was in there the whole time and that her friend would also believe there was a pencil in the smartie case

Early memories and infantile amnesia

the inability of adults to recollect early episodic memories, is associated with the rapid forgetting that occurs in childhood.

early memories and eyewitness testimony

eyewitness testimony is not always reliable because we have the ability to remember things that didnt actually happen

Eyewitness Testimony: Interviewing Strategies

reverse order or changing the perspective

False memories

fuzzy trace theory

memory is best understood with two types of representations:
Verbatim memory trace: precise details of the information.
Gist: the central idea of the information.

tests of creativity

Divergent thinking, Convergent thinking, Artistic assessments and Self assessments

Intelligence vs. creativity

Intelligence associated with convergent thinking
Creativity is associated with divergent thinking

convergent vs. divergent thinking

convergent- believing there is a single correct answer
divergent- thinking there are multiple possible answers to a problem

Gardner's Intelligence Theory

- says there are many types of intelligence, or frames of mind:
- Proposes schools should foster all intelligences

Gardner's types of intelligence

Verbal skills, such as among journalists;
Mathematical skills, such as among engineers;
Spatial skills, such as about architects;
Bodily-kinesthetic skills, such as among surgeons or dancers;
Musical skills, such as among musicians and composers;
Intrapersonal skills, such as among psychologists;
Interpersonal skills, such as among teachers; and
Naturalist skills, such as among farmers and ecologists.

Charles Spearman's general intelligence factor

Sternberg's theory of intelligence

-Involves using one's abilities skillfully to achieve personal goals
-analytic ability ,creative ability, practical ability

IQ

-William Stern then created the concept of intelligence quotient
-today: compare children's test performance to that of others their age.

Measuring IQ

- stern: mental age/chronological age x 100

culture-fair intelligence tests

Raymond Cattle - developed intelligence tests devised using items common to many cultures

stereotype threat

1. Stereotype threat is a situational predicament (difficult/unpleasant situation) in which people are or feel themselves to be at risk of confirming negative stereotypes about their social group.
2. Stereotype threat refers to being at risk of confirming a negative stereotype about one's group

Test-taking styles

fluid intelligence

sequential reasoning

chrystalized intelligence

our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age

Thought and language

Elements of Language

phonology, semantics, grammar, syntax, pragmatics

Syntax

word order

Semantics

Meaning of words and sentences

Pragmatics

the appropriate use of language in different contexts

How do babies percieve speech

-Young babies can hear phonemes, even those not in their language
-stress at beginning of words

Infant-directed speech

a type of speech directed toward infants, characterized by short, simple sentences

Language acquisition device

-innate ability to learn language, understand conventions and syntax
- chomsky

Innate Grammar Mechanism theory support

-the human brain contains an innate mental grammar that helps humans acquire language.
- Children have been observed to pick up grammar and syntax (rules of grammar governing how words and sentences are combined) without being taught vocally

Broca's area

a region of the left frontal lobe involved in speech production and grammatical processing;

Wernicke's area:

a region of the brain's left hemisphere involved in language comprehension.

critical period for learning language

Must learn before puberty or lose the chance forever because cannot learn grammar or how to form sentences a part of the brain that should be stimulated before this period was up and becomes underdeveloped.

Genie case study

child must have interaction with humans and learn to speak before puberty or they will never learn at all.

behaviorist perspective

focuses on the idea that all behaviors are learned through interaction with the environment and reinforcement

Why do we have emotions?

-Help people adapt to their environments
-Lead to avoiding danger (fear)
-Strengthen relationships (happiness)
-Keep people away from things that make them ill (disgust)

Emotions experienced by newborns

pleasure and distress

Basic emotions (Universal)

fear, surprise, anger, disgust, happiness, sadness

development of basic emotions

2-3 mos: social smile
4-6 mos: generalized distress, anger
6-9 mos: stranger wariness; fear

characteristics of an emotion

physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, conscious experience

complex emotions

- self conscious emotions
-Feelings of success and failure
-empathy, pride, embarrassment, shame, guilt

development of complex emotions

-Emerge around 15-18 months
-18-24 months: understanding of self; guilt, embarrassment; pride

Cultural differences and similarities in expression of
Recognizing emotions

-Infants in many countries approach Strange Situation in similar ways
-Different cultural interpretations of infant behaviors in Strange Situation

Development of Emotion Regulation strategies

-Parental Interaction:
-Interactive Play and Tests of Wills:
-Learned through interaction
-Social referencing

display rules

-Specify the circumstances under which various emotions should or should not be expressed
-Learned through interaction

temperament

a person's characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity

Thomas and Chess

identified three basic temperaments for infants; difficult, slow to warm and easy

difficult temperament

a child's general responsiveness marked by a more negative mood, intense responses, slow adaptation to change, and irregular patterns of eating, sleeping, and elimination

slow-to-warm-up child

a child who has a low activity level, is somewhat negative, and displays a low intensity of mood

easy child

A child who is generally in a positive mood, quickly establishes regular routines in infancy, and adapts easily to new experiences.

Rothbart Dimensions of Temperament

extraversion, negative affectivity, and effortful control

extraversion temperament

an outgoing and expressive pattern of behavior and social interaction

negative affectivity

higher levels of distress, anxiety, and dissatisfaction, and tend to focus on the unpleasant aspects of themselves, the world, the future, and other people, and also evoke more negative life events.

effortful control

a child's ability to utilize attentional resources and to inhibit behavioral responses in order to regulate emotions and related behaviors

Nature vs. Nurture of Temperament

Both play a role. Genes shape basic temperament but the degree to which they are expressed in behavior is determines by nurture.

stability of temperament over time

stays relatively the same but depends on the person

attachment

A lasting emotional tie between two people who each strive to maintain closeness to the other and act to ensure that the relationship continues

Bowlby's 4 phases of attachment

Secure Attachment: display stranger anxiety and separation protest; uses mother as secure base (60-65%)
Insecure Avoidant Attachment: not distressed and not enthusiastic about reunion (20%)
Insecure Resistant/Ambivalent: mixed pattern of responses to mother (10-15%)
Insecure Disorganized Attachment: inconsistent, contradictory behavior (5-10%)

Preattachment

the stage of development of attachment from birth to 6 weeks, in which infant sensory preferences bring infants into close connection with parents

Attachment in the making

Second phase of Bowlby's attachment sequence, when, from 4 to 7 months of age, babies slightly prefer the primary caregiver.

true attachment

- 6-7 months to 3 years
-separation anxiety when parent leaves
-stranger anxiety in the presence of an unfamiliar person

Reciprocal Relationships

Two-way relationships in which information and power are shared; based on mutual respect, trust, cooperation, and shared responsibility.

Harlow's Monkeys

Showed that tactile and comfort was favored over nourishment

Ainswoth Strange Situation

-Security of Attachment: extent to which the infant feels he or she can count on parent to be there to meet his or her needs
-structured observational procedure that reveals security of attachment when infant is placed under stress

Roedell and Slaby

psychological contact, proximal mode, distal mode, non-interactive mode

Adaptation

is the ability to adjust to new information and experiences.

Assimilation

interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas

A-not-B error

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

symbolic thought

The ability to use words, images, and symbols to represent the world.