Developmental psychology (year one) Flashcards
What is the stimulus response theory?
- behaviour is a response to stimuli
- only basic reflexes are inherited
What is instrumental conditioning?
- learning through trial and error (reinforcement and reward)
- B.F Skinner
What did Tolleman find?
- when a reward was introduced there was a rapid reduction in rate of errors
- evidence of latent learning (rats formed cognititive map of maze)
What is nativism?
- behaviours cannot be learned but must be the result of innate knowledge
What does Elizabeth Spelke believe?
- humans inherit core knowledge of the world
How does the violation of expectation paradigm work?
- present infants with 2 scenarios (impossible and possible scenario)
- infants look longer at impossible events (have knowledge of the law)
What is the innate concepts theory?
- infants inantely know rules about physical events that allow them to predict events
What is constructivism?
- proposes that the child actively builds a model of the world
According to Piaget, what two mechanisms lead to change in a child?
- assimilation and accomodation
- internal state of child drives development
What is ontogeny?
- development of the individual child
What is phylogeny?
- evolution of species over time
What does shared intentionality involve?
- two agents having a joint goal, which is shared and co-ordinating between eachother
What are newborns equipped with according to Heyes (cognititve gadgets)?
- prosocial temperament (species tolerance)
- attentional biases (to faces, voices, biological motion)
What was the aim of Donellan et al. study?
study intentional communication and responses from caregivers as a predictor of language learned
What was the sample in Donellan et al?
- 58 SES-diverse children
What type of study was Donellan et al?
- Longitudinal study (follow up at 15m,18m,24m)
Describe the method used in Donellan et al?
- Looked at vocalisations/ gestures in 10 mins of home free play with caregiver at 11/12 months
- Children followed up at 15,18 and 24 months to see what words they knew
- CDI used
- Vocalisations, gestures and gesture-vocal combinations used
Consonant + vowel (cv) and non-CV
Index finger point, open hand point
Give, show, conventional (e.g. raising hand to mouth for eating)
What were the two variations also looked at in Donellan et al? Describe the methods
- Infant communicative behaviour : looked at whether the infant looks at caregiver within 1 second of behaviour
- Rate of caregiver response : looked at whether or not caregiver gave a response relating to the infants action within 5 seconds
What were the main findings from Donellan et al?
- Increase in words from CV, show and index- finger point children
o The more CV produced, the greater amount of words at 19 months
o The more non-CV, the fewer amount of words they’ll have at 19 months - Decrease in words from non-CV, open hand point and non-CV/open hand combined
What were the infant communicative behaviour findings in Donellan et al?
- gaze-coordinated vocalisation and show produced the greater change in words at 19 months
Non-gaze co-ordinated actions/vocalisations produce fewer words produced at 19 months
What were the caregiver response findings in Donellan et al?
: gaze co-ordinated and responded-to vocalisations and responded-to-vocalisations produced highest change in words at 19 months
Rate of vocalisation is important predictor of language development
Important that caregiver responds to vocalisations and that child is gaze-coordinated
How many words does a child know by age 6
14,000
Name the three stages of Bate et al. study
Perlocutionary acts (birth-10months) : behaviours not intended as communicative, but does have consequences
Illocutionary acts (10-12 months) : intentionally communicate with unconventional forms e.g. pointing, prelinguistic vocalisations
Locutionary acts (12months+) : intentional communication, using conventional forms
Describe perlocutionary acts
: behaviours not intended as communicative, but does have consequences
Describe illocutionary acts
: intentionally communicate with unconventional forms e.g. pointing, prelinguistic vocalisations
Describe locutionary acts
: intentional communication, using conventional forms
Describe the stages of speech and give dates
o Crying, involuntary bodily function sounds
o 8 weeks : cooing, laugher
o 16 weeks : vocal play (squeals, yells, vowel sounds)
o 36 weeks : reduplicated babbling
o 48 weeks : non-reduplicated babbling
What does reduplicated and non-reduplicated babbling mean
- Reduplicated = adult like syllables in repetitive sequences (dada, baba)
- Non-reduplicated = adult-like syllables in non-repetitive sequences, shows rhythms of speech
Who studied initial consonant sounds and what did they find?
Most common sounds in babbling were also most common used in words
When do infants begin to point and what are the three purposes of pointing?
- 9-14 months : infants point
o Imperatively : to do something
o Declaratively : inform about something
o Interrogatively : request something
In Luke et al. study how many of the children were fingerpointing by 12 months?
- 47/59 children
What were the results of Luke et al study?
The 47 had better language abilities at 2 years of age
Open hand pointing risk for primary language delay at age 2
What is some evidence that language learning begins in utero?
- DeCasper & Spence, 1986 : infants prefer to listen to a story read to them in utero vs. novel story
What is infant-directed speech?
higher pitch, simplified, shorter words, more repetitive
What stories do infants prefer?
stories read to them in utero
When can infants discriminate between phoneme categories
within first 2 months
When do infants become attuned to their native language
10-12 months
How do babies pitch contours match their mother’s language?
- cries have different contours and pitches on spectrograms
- e.g french babies start off higher, german babies escalate higher
When do most infants start to produce language?
12 months
How many words are estimated to be said at 30 months?
200-600 words
What words are most commonly said first?
names for parents
What are some predictors of first words
frequency of word, relevance to babies, concreteness (e.g apple, ball etc.),
When is there evidence of comprehension of concrete words?
6-9 months (Bergelson and Swingley, 2012)
When are abstract words learned? (e.g hug, all gone, hi)
14-16 months
What is referential ambiguity?
- May be difficult to distinguish what thing in a scene the word actually refers to (e.g gavagai mapping problem)
What are some solutions to referential ambiguity?
Social knowledge
Innate word-learning constraints
When can infants identify other’s communicative intentions (e.g following gaze, pointing)?
12 months
When can infants know what an adult is referring to, even if they could not see it at the time of producing the label?
18-20 months
What are some innate word-learning constraints?
Mutual exclusivity/ principle of contrast
Whole object constraint
What is mutual exclusivity?
- Bias to accept one name per object
* If label is known, they are more likely to pick the object that doesn’t have a known label
What is whole object constraint?
• Infants will think an unknown word will apply to a whole unknown object, as opposed to its components/material/colour etc
When does whole object constraint appear?
18 months
What was the aim of Akhtar et al. (1996)
- finding whether children take into account other’s views when a new word is heard
What was the method in Akhtar et al. (1996)
- child/parent/experimenter play with 3 novel objects
- child/ E1 play with fourth novel object
- experimental: E2-“I see a gazzer!”
- control “look at that!”
- used production/ comprehension tests
What was the sample size in Akhtar et al. (1996)
48 2-year-olds
What were the results for the experimental group in Akhtar et al. (1996)?
comp : 10/24
prod : 7/24
What were the results for the control group in Akhtar et al. (1996)?
comp : 4/24
prod : 0/24
What was the aim in Samuelson & Smith (1998)?
Do children only map “gazzer” to the new object because the object catches their attention?
What was the method in Samuelson & Smith (1998)?
- Ex/Parent/Child moves from old context (w./ 3 toys) to new context with glittery blue tablecloth (only playing 4th toy)
- four toys placed in clear box in old context
- experimental: “I see a gazzer!”
- control: “look at that!”
What was the sample size in
Samuelson & Smith (1998)
48 18-24 month olds
What were the findings in Samuelson & Smith (1998)
comprehension : ex - 13/24
co - 5/24
production : ex - 1/24
co - 0/24
any learning : ex - 14/24
co - 5/24
- difference between this/ ahktar not significant
- significantly more infants chose object in exp condition for comprehension testWhat was the conclusion of
Samuelson & Smith (1998)
Children map a novel word to the object that is most novel in the context the word is heard
name the developmental stages from conception to birth and give dates
- Germinal: 0-2 weeks
- Embryonic: 3-8 weeks
Midbrain, forebrain and hindbrain develop - Foetal: 9 weeks – birth
- Fertilisation to birth = 40 weeks
what is the early brain called and how does it evolve?
- Early brain is called neural tube
- Evolves by thickening and constrictions
how is the cortex organised?
- Laminar organization of cortex
o Neurones organised across different layer
o Different layers = different roles
what is the role of microglia?
: attend to wellbeing of neurones
Protect from harmful substances, bring nutrients
describe the changes in neuroanatomy from 4 weeks to 6 months
- Prenatal neuroanatomy (4 weeks): Prosencephalon Mesencephalon Rhombencephalon Neural tube - Prenatal neuroanatomy (5 weeks): Prosencephalon → 2 structures (Secondary brain vesicles) Mesencephalon → 1 structure Rhombencephalon → 2 structures - Prenatal neuroanatomy (6 months) Prosencephalon → cerebrum and thalamus Mesencephalon → midbrain Rhombencephalon → cerebellum and medulla Neural tube → spinal cord
what are the stages in neural network creation?
1. Cell proliferation o Creation of neurons 2. Cell migration o Neuron cells colonising all brain layers 3. Cell differentiation o All cells within brain created 4. Programmed cell death 5. Synaptic rearrangement o Makes connections between neurones more reliable
describe the changes in proliferation from prenatal to postnatal
- Massive production of cells occurs 2-4 months into gestation
- Gives neural/radial glial cells prenatally
what are precursor cells?
undifferentiated cells
how are cortex layers created?
This creates cortical layers
The first cells to arrive will be in deepest layer (layer 6)
Brain assembled from the inside out
what are multipotent cells?
cells that have the capacity to self-renew by dividing and to develop into multiple specialised cell types
what is the purpose of apoptosis?
- Discards neurons that didn’t connect to any other neuron
what is the purpose of synaptic rearrangement?
- Synapses that don’t receive signals are eliminated
- Arrangement is activity-dependent
by which trimester is the visual system present by?
third
what happened when chicks were made to wear prism goggles?
- After putting prism goggles on chicks, their visual field became displaced right of normal vision
Auditory perception was also modified
what is plasticity and give some supporting studies
- Brain’s ability to modify or reorganise
- Daily training for 3 months (juggling) showed a change in brain structure
- Maguire (2000) more experienced taxi drivers had a larger hippocampus
what are some limitations of plasticity?
- If one eye is occluded, ODC (ocular dominance columns) not as much cortical space is captured. If occluded during the critical period the ODC will never change
how does visual input effect ocular dominance?
- Input into both eyes needed for ocular dominance
o After synapse rearrangement, the ODC will have normal distribution of brain resources
describe brain lesion studies in infancy
Children younger than 5 with left hemisphere lesions : language processing reorganised in the right hemisphere
when does grey/white matter undergo rapid transformation?
birth – 14 weeks
what is infants perception like at 6 months?
- EEGs used to look at face perception
P1 = first observation after stimuli presented
At 0-2 weeks brain is slower to percept faces
P1 latency for faces decreases with age
what does the auditory system allow for at 30 weeks
allows child to discriminate their mothers voice at birth and recognize songs
what did language research with preterm and full-term babies show
Pre-term 9 month old babies and full term 6 month old babies (same brain age) could distinguish Italian from Spanish (native language)
o Preterm 6 month olds and full term 3 month olds show same pattern for not distinguishing Italian from Spanish
• Preterm babies do not show advantage of having more time out of the womb hearing their native language
how are EEGs done? describe any positives/limitations
- Recording of electrical activity by electrodes from scalp using a cap
- High temporal resolution : activity measured to the millisecond
- Low spatial resolution : not necessarily sourced from brain tissue under electrode
- Poor at detecting activity under cerebral cortex (white matter)
- Summation : when adjacent neurones fire in sync, their postsynaptic potentials add up
what are ERPs?
- Change in potential is dependent on a stimulus
Describe the most common ERP
: N400
Negative polarity/charge
Present at 200-600ms after stimulus
Trigger event : congruency of a word and its context (less compatible a word, larger response) e.g coffee and sugar is more congruent than coffee and socks
What is functional representation?
the cognitive process a neurological response reflects
o N400 reflects semantic word processing / knowledge
Describe how cross-modal priming studies work. Describe “graded in the context of N400 activity
- Ppts see a picture, followed by an audible congruous / incongruous word
- Incongruous picture-word pairings elicit a stronger N400 response
- N400 activity graded : incongruous pairings that share similar features elicit a reduced N400
At what age can cross-modal priming studies be used with infants?
6 months
Describe the N400 activity findings of Friedrich & Friederici (2004,2005), Friedrich & Friederici (2010), Parise & Csibra (2012)
- Friedrich & Friederici (2004,2005) : infants in high comprehension group displayed similar N400 activity to adult group (although 100ms later than adults, and higher frontal brain region involvement
- Friedrich & Friederici (2010) : only 12 month old infants in high production group (more than 4 words) displayed significant N400 effect
- Parise & Csibra (2012) : N400 effect only discovered in mother condition (word produced by infants caregiver)
describe studies into ERPs in language disorders : Friedrich & Friederici (2006), Torkildsen et al (2007)
Friedrich & Friederici (2006) : infants at risk of developmental language disorder did not display N400 effect
Displayed enhanced N200-500 ERP (basic word knowledge
- Torkildsen et al (2007) : no N400 effect discovered in 20month olds at familial risk of dyslexia in cross modal design
Describe studies investigating the N400 effect and word learning
- Hirotani et al (2009) : N400 effect only found for words taught by joint attention, N200-500 present in joint attention/ non-joint attention condition
when and how well can newborns see?
- Newborns see well enough to perceive faces
o Right after birth they will track face like stimuli - Infants vision test : reflexive following (optokinetic nystagmus)
Visual paired comparison (prefer a patterned stimulus)
state the changes in visual acuity from newborn to 8 months
- Newborns : 20/660
o See something at 20ft that an adult with good vision could see at 660ft - 2 month olds : 20/300
- 8 month olds : adult like
describe the case study of Virgil
- Dense cataracts since childhood
- When cataracts were removed and vision returned to normal, he did not know what he was seeing
- Saw parts of objects as unrelated fragments
what are cataracts and how are they corrected in infants?
- Cataracts : prevent lens from focusing visual info onto fovea
o Fovea : region most sensitive to visual info - Infants with cataracts in on eye must have good eye patched so the connections in good eye will be prioritised
Bad eye will have obscured vision, so development that’s begun there will lead to poorer vision even after removal - Corrected cataracts result in small deficits in face perception (using configural info, e.g spacing between features
what did Spelke say 3-month-olds pay more attention to? describe the study
- 3 month olds pay more attention to an “impossible” stimuli, where the object moves with the background (Spelke, 1982)
o Also look longer to impossible event in which grasping part of object results in only part of the object moving - Partially occluded objects : after habituation, 4 month old infants looked longer at broken rod when it is moving in habituation display (combined rod/box)
o Newborns look longer at complete rods (didn’t unify box and rod)
what are the factors supporting perception of object unity?
- Common motion : both rods moving together in the same direction
- Width of occluder : more likely to perceive rod as continuous if occluder is narrow vs wide
- Shared orientation : look as if it could form parallel lines
describe a study looking at visual preference and perception
o Infants prefer to look at novel stimuli, especially when familiarised with one
o 3-4 month olds : When exposed to many different cats, then given a different photo of a cat alongside a dog, infants will look longer at dog
• Switch of this also done, found same results
o Can do the same variation but looking at spatial relation, e.g dot above a line or below a line
what is object permanence?
: knowledge that objects still exist, even if we cannot sense them (e.g seen, felt)
at what ages will children start to reach for hidden objects?
- 4-8 months : will retrieve an object if partially visible
- 8-12 months : will reach for hidden objects
Still makes errors : A not B error - searches in wrong location for hidden object
12-18 months : stop making this error, but struggle with invisible placements
