developmental psychology

Question 1

at birth the brains neurons are not what?

Answer 1

not fully myelinated or connected

Question 2

where does infant development begin

Answer 2

in utero

Question 3

when is the gestation period

Answer 3

9 months

Question 4

how developed is a babies brain by 6 months

Answer 4

around 50% developed

Question 5

what is the forming of a synapse between neurones called

Answer 5

myelination and synaptogenesis

Question 6

what is the ability of the brain to form and maintain synapses called?

Answer 6

neural plasticity

Question 7

what are teratogens

Answer 7

substances that cause a typical development for a child if exposed to them in the utero

Question 8

what happens if a child is exposed to teratogens in pregnancy?

Answer 8

it has an adverse effect on development

Question 9

what did Perera et al 2002 find

Answer 9

air pollution leads to genetic mutations in newborns

Question 10

what did latini et al 2003 find

Answer 10

exposure to PVC elements can shorten pregnancy (early delivery)

Question 11

what did Sokol, Delaney-black and nordstorm 2003
study show

Answer 11

if baby is exposed to alcohol in womb they can experience physical,mental and behavioural impairments

Question 12

name cognitive behavioural impairents of FASD in infancy, pre-schoolers, childhood and adulthood

Answer 12

• longer reaction times
  -decreased attention and hyperactivity
  -learning problems, memory deficits
  -impaired problem solving and higher rates of substance dependence

Question 13

what is piaget’s theory of the ‘sensorimotor’ stage

Answer 13

-they do not grasp object permenance
- display perseverative reaching until 10-12 months old
-begin to understand object permenance at end of sensorimotor stage, use of mental imagery and objects can exist by themselves

Question 14

when is piagets ‘preoperational stage’ and what does it consist of

Answer 14

-ages 2-7 years
-still display egocentrism (inability to see thing from other pov)
-children cannot yet use ‘operations’

Question 15

what experiment did piaget use to display the pre operational stage

Answer 15

the 3 mountain task, a child and a doll are sitting across from one another and the child is asked what the doll sees when one of the mountains is covered
- when child can say what the doll can see from its perspective they pass this pre operational stage

Question 16

what experiment did piaget carry out to show how children view in a conservation way in the pre operational stage

Answer 16

glasses filled with same amount of water, smaller and larger glasses so it appears more or less water to child, the inability them to grasp idea that there is the same amount of water is shown in this stage

Question 17

when is the concrete operational stage and what does it consist of

Answer 17

-children able to perform operations, but needs to be visible to them
-use of hypothetical questions are found hard, find it easier to figure out using drawings to come to a conclusion

Question 18

when is the formal operational stage and what does it consist of

Answer 18

• beyond 12 years
  -perform operations and use hypothetical questions
  -can think of hypothetical situations and use them to solve problems
  -the way children SOLVE changes

Question 19

what is it meant by constructivism

Answer 19

that children actively construct their understanding of the word and do not blindly absorb info

Question 20

what is social constructivism

Answer 20

that children construct knowledge through interactions with other people, through communication and interactions

Question 21

what is ZPD

Answer 21

• zone of proximal development
  -the difference between what a child can do alone than with adult supervision

Question 22

what did Pratt, Kerig, Cowan et al 1988 study show

Answer 22

• a 3 year old worked w parents on a block builidng task
• controlled: amount of suggestions parents gave, and wheter parents gave more support after failure and less support after success
• in an example of social referencing

Question 23

what is social referencing

Answer 23

when a child uses the emotional responses of others to guide their actions

Question 24

what is motionese

Answer 24

a specific action style adopted by adults when interacting with infants- e.g motherese language

Question 25

what did johsnon et al. study do and what were the results

Answer 25

-showed newborns diff stimuli
-newborns followed the face stimuli more than scrambled/blank stimuli
- concluded newborns can discriminate different faces and emotions

Question 26

what did Baillargeon et al. find

Answer 26

• 4-5 month olds looked longer at impossible events than possible events
• concluded infants had expectations about what was going to happen
  -also said the expectations arise because children understood the contact principle at 4 months

Question 27

what did viola, turati and simion 2004 study

Answer 27

• newborns less than 4 days
  -they were sensitive to layout of faces

Question 28

what is the contact principle

Answer 28

inanimate objects in motion act upon each other only when in contact

Question 29

what did Leslie and Kneeble 1987 find

Answer 29

• 24 week olds appear to recognise the contact principle

Question 30

what did sobel and kirkham 2006 find

Answer 30

children under 2 years can understand casulity in simple ways using the contact principle

Question 31

what is theory of mind

Answer 31

understanding that other people have desires and beliefs

Question 32

what are executive functions

Answer 32

the mental processes we use to initiate, control and monitor voluntary actions

Question 33

what did Flavell, Everett and croft 1981 study find

Answer 33

-asked children to perform judgements of what other people could see
-3 year olds could jusge what others could see, but struggled how things looked to other until age 4

Question 34

what is social cognition

Answer 34

study of processes used to understand the social world

Question 35

who criticised the classic false belief tests for being too complicated

Answer 35

birch and bloom 2009

Question 36

what does the violation of expectation task show

Answer 36

-tend to look longer where experimneter points to where toy is
-implies children at ages 2 and a half can understand people can be mistaken

Question 37

what 3 things are executive functions made up of?

Answer 37

• inhibition
  -working memory
  -shifting

Question 38

what do executive functions allow you to do?

Answer 38

-are abilities that let you perform voluntary behaviour by allowing you to set a goal, resist distraction and monitor your progress

Question 39

what is it called if there is an emotional response involved in an executive function?

Answer 39

a hot executive function

Question 40

what did baron-cohen et al 1985 find about children with ASD

Answer 40

they struggle with typical false belief tasks

Question 41

what are mirror neuron’s

Answer 41

brain cells that are active when you watch an action being performed and when you perform the action yourself

Question 42

what did Vivanti et al. 2011 study in children with ASD

Answer 42

• used eye tracking to see how children with ASD 10 to 16 years use diff cues to understand what other people are doing

Question 43

in the 2011 study by vivanti et al. what issues did they find in eye tracking with children with ASD

Answer 43

-looking people in face
-imitating people when person was looking at them
-only using gazze direction to predict a persons intentions