Big thing Flashcards
How is visual acuity assessed in infants
Assessed by using preferential-looking paradigm.
Infants presented with a succession of paddles with increasingly narrower stripes and narrower gaps between them until infant can no longer distinguish between stripped paddle and plain gray one.
At what distance can a baby at birth see?
Can see 8-10cm from face: distance between baby & mom’s face.
Does synaptic pruning differs across domains?
Yes. Synaptic pruning happens earlier in some functions than others. E.g. earlier in sensory pathways than language (and earlier in language than higher cognitive functions).
What’s an evidence of perceptual narrowing in face perception
Infants becoming face specialists. They demonstrate the other-race-effect
Is object segregation present from birth? Explain with an experiment. Give the ages.
No, learned by experience. Experiment with the cube with the whole rod vs broken rod.
4 month olds: Preferred to look at the broken rod.
Newborns: Looked the same amount of time at broken rod and single rod.
How is the monocular depth perception assessed?
Visual Cliff experiment. 6 months olds will not crawl over visual cliff but younger children will.
How can we use music to study auditory development? (2)
(1) Similarity to language
(2) Evolution
How is music similar to language? (3)
(1) Both require to apply a set of rules/principles to organize/make sense of the auditory world.
(2) Both engage multiple regions/processes in brain
(3) Correlated: we can learn about one by studying the other
How is music useful to the study of evolution? (3)
(1) Music is innate: responses to music are present in utero.
(2) Music is universal: music production exists in every society studied to date.
(3) Music is adaptive: it fulfills multiple functions in human society.
Anatomy: Outer and middle ear
When something in the world moves or vibrates, it creates a wave that travels into the auditory canal. Sound waves cause the eardrum to vibrate, triggering vibrations in three small bones (malleus, incus, stapes).
Anatomy: Central nervous system
Electrical signals travel along the auditory nerve, through the brainstem and into primary auditory cortex in the right and left temporal lobes.
Melody (3 characteristics)
(1) A sequence of pitches that has some logical sense.
(2) Made up of intervals; thus, at least 2 pitches are required.
(3) Has a contour (a pattern of intervals going up and down).
Why are pitch, melody, beat, rhythm and timbre important in auditory development?
Help infants learn how the sounds of their native language map onto meaning.
Why does the fetus only hear low-frequency sounds?
The earliest cells to develop are responsive to low frequencies, and the latest cells to develop respond preferentially to high frequencies. -> cells in cochlea develop in a TONOTOPIC fashion
What’s identification in music and why is it important?
Ability to perceive discrete speech sounds (phonemes). Important for the development of language.
Basic auditory abilities (3) (Already developed at birth)
Localization, Identification, Discrimination
Why does the process of perceptual narrowing of pitch occur? (2) i.e. the fact that the ranges of pitches infants can discriminate gets more narrow.
(1) Attachment. Being able to bond with caregivers is more likely to ensure survival; thus, the auditory system needs to be optimally sensitive to pitches emitted by caregivers.
(2) Language. Infants need to be able to adopt their native language(s); thus, a wider range of sensitivity ensures optimal language acquisition.
=> Parents also use pitch to draw attachment (IDS)
When the mother is silent, the most prominent sounds that can be heard are: (3)
(1) Bowel sounds (irregular, ‘popping’)
(2) Maternal heartbeat (regular, slow)
(3) Fetal heartbeat (regular, fast)
How does motor development evolve? (from … to … in the body)
from head to feet and from the midline of the body out.
movement from the head/trunk -> clapping -> marching
Overall, children’s rhythmic abilities develop more slowly and are more variable than adults. Why is that?
Rhythmic abilities = Multimodal. And some of these brain regions don’t mature fully until late adolescence. (!!!Cultural familiarity also plays a role)
We make a distinction between perceived & felt emotions. What is the difference?
Perceived emotion is inferred.
-> Linked to features of the musical stimulus (pitch, tempo…)
Felt emotion is evoked.
-> Linked to activation of the nervous system.
Characteristics of motor milestone (2)
(1) Happen in orderly sequence, rarely out of order.
(2) Huge individual variation in the ages these milestones are achieved.
Why do some babies skip crawling? (4)
(1) Upper body or core weakness
(2) Hypersensitive to the texture of the floor
(3) Tonic neck reflex still present
(4) Insufficient opportunity: baby not enough on the floor
Explain the role of encouragement in motor skills by citing 2 examples.
1) In some countries, some infants are actively discouraged from crawling because of safety or hygiene concerns so crawl later or never crawl. (e.g., urban China)
2) Motor exercises in sub-Saharan Africa. Infants are more advanced in motor skill development than kids in North America. Common practices to do motor exercises with the kid, lead to earlier achievement of milestones.
Mechanisms Behind Motor Development: exlain early theories
Motor development governed by cortical maturation.
Brain maturation → motor cortex more mature → motor abilities achieved.
Mechanisms Behind Motor Development (6): exlain current theories
Motor development governed by complex interplay between numerous factors:
(1) Neural dev
(2) Increases in physical strength
(3) Physical abilities (posture control, balance)
(4) Perceptual skills
(5) Change in body proportions & weight
(6) Motivation
Why does motor development matter? (3)
(1) Enables active learning and expands an infant’s world.
(2) Increases opportunities for learning
(3) Facilitates the development of skills in other domains (especially vision & social behavior).
[Physical world] Piaget’s main propositions (2)
(1) Children’s thinking is qualitatively different from adults’ thinking.
(2) Cognition grows and develops through a series of stages.
[Physical world] Properties of Piaget’s Stage theory (4)
(1) Children at different stages think in qualitatively different ways.
(2) Thinking at each stage influences thinking across diverse topics.
(3) Brief transitional period at the end of each stage.
(4) The stages are universal (not culture dependent) and the order is always the same.
What shows us that object permanence is fragile at 8 months?
A-not-B-error
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. Until 12mo.
What are the 3 things Piaget affirms about children’s learning?
(1) Children actively shape their knowledge of the world.
(2) Children learn on their own
(3) Children are intrinsically motivated to learn
[Physical world] Strengths of Piaget’s Theory (4)
(1) Intuitively plausible depiction of children’s nature as active learners and how learning progresses.
(2) Provides a good overview of children’s thinking at different ages.
(3) Spans the lifespan
(4) Examines many cognitive operations and concepts
[Physical world] Weaknesses of Piaget’s Theory (5)
(1) Piaget didn’t use scientific method to develop theory.
(2) Theory depicts children’s thinking as more consistent than it is.
(3) Children are more cognitively competent than Piaget recognized.
(4) Theory is vague about the mechanisms of cognitive growth.
(5) Theory underestimates the contribution of the social world to cognitive development.
Why is categorization important?
Helps makes sense of the world by simplifying it.
Allows children to make inferences and predictions about objects of the same category -> Extend knowledge to new stimuli. (e.g., if an animal breathes, a giraffe breathes).
[Physical world] Criticism of Nativist View (2)
(1) Overestimate infants’ innate, cognitive understanding.
(2) Findings of nativist studies can instead be explained by Perceptual features of stimuli (e.g. gravity exp) & Learning from the environment
How do children learn from the environment? (2)
Children actively learn from the environment on their own.
(1) Trial and error
(2) Statistical learning
According to the “learning from the environment” theory, Statistical learning is ______ and _________.
innate, domain general
Factors Influencing Home Environment (2)
(1) Socioeconomic status (SES): Low SES associated with lower quality home environment.
(2) Culture: Determines the specific contents of what a child learns BUT process through which children learn is universal.
What’s in a mind?
Desires, Knowledge, Intentions.
Why is it important to understand Intentions?
Enables Joint attention & Imitation. Step towards understanding the minds of others.
Imitation is critical for _______.
Observational learning.
One of the most fundamental ways that children learn most things.
-> Not passively imitating, but actively interpreting actions to figure out what to imitate. (e.g. bull bull doll study)
Theory of mind module
Innate brain mechanism devoted to understanding other people that matures over the first 5 years of life. (Nativist view)
What are the evidences for the theory of mind module? (3)
(1) Newborns have an inherent interest in faces.
(2) Culturally universal developmental trajectory of theory of mind.
(3) Temporoparietal junction and autism spectrum disorder.
Aside from the nativist theory, what are the other 2 explanations of the development of theory of mind?
(1) Improvement in Executive functioning (required in false belief tasks)
(2) Contribution of Social Interactions (mental state talk + siblings)
How do children learn? (Timeline) (4)
(1) Trial and error: From birth
(2) Statistical learning: From birth
(3) Observation and imitation: 9-12 months old
(4) Being taught by others: 3 year olds are more likely to learn from adults they see as reliable and expert in a domain.
Using high amplitude sucking paradigms, research has shown that newborns prefer … (3)
(1) Speech sounds vs artificial sounds
(2) Mother’s voice over another woman’s voice
(3) Native language vs. other language
How do infants tell the difference between languages? (2)
(1) Different prosody
(2) Different speech sounds.
Easier time distinguishing between native language vs different language.
Harder time between languages that sound the same
Often what distinguishes similar speech sounds is _______________________________
voice onset time (VOT)
Voice onset time (VOT) def
Length of time between when air passes through the lips and when the vocal cords start to vibrate.
Exists on a continuum. But as adults, we see this more in categories.
Children’s Assumptions in Word Learning (7)
(1) Mutual Exclusivity Assumption
(2) Whole-Object Assumption
(3) Pragmatic Cues
(4) Adult’s Intentionality
(5) Grammatical Form
(6) Shape Bias
(7) Cross-Situational Word Learning
Categorical perception is useful because focuses listeners on sounds that are________________ while ignoring meaningless differences.
linguistically meaningful
E.g. difference between a 10ms VOT /b/ vs. 20ms VOT /b/ is meaningless in English
Explain the Preferential Listening Procedure
Speaker on either side of infant’s head. When looks at speaker, a recording of speech plays (diff speech from each speaker).
How long an infant spends looking in a particular direction/ listening to a particular sound indicates how much they like it.
How to “Find” Words in Speech? (2)
Pick-up on patterns of native language via statistical learning.
(1) Stress Patterning
(2) Distribution of Speech Sounds (sounds that appear together = more likely to be words)
Limitations of First Words (2)
Overextension & Underextension
How do Children Learn Words? (2)
Children’s assumptions about language & Social context (caregivers, peers)
