Lecture 2

Question 1

By day 2, infants can detect ______?

Answer 1

Differences in brightness

Question 2

By 4 months, infants can compare _____?

Answer 2

Brightness levels

Question 3

How to we study infants visual acuity?

Answer 3

• Preferential looking method
• Present 2 stimuli and see which one the baby prefers to look at
• Uses the habituation method

Question 4

What is face recognition like in 3 month olds?

Answer 4

• Prefer well-proportioned faces

- Prefer faces of their own race

Question 5

Perceptual Narrowing

Answer 5

Perceptual narrowing is a developmental process during which the brain uses environmental experiences to shape perceptual abilities. This process improves the perception of things that people experience often and causes them to experience a decline in the ability to perceive some things to which they are not often exposed. This phenomenon is a result of neuroplasticity, including Hebbian learning and synaptic pruning.

Question 6

Development of hearing

Answer 6

• Babies can hear in utero
• Preferences for familiar stories they heard in the womb
• Differentiates own language from different language
• Prefer mom’s voice to other voices from birth

Question 7

____ month olds interpret speech intonations

Answer 7

6 month olds

Question 8

As with colour, babies perceive sounds ______?

Answer 8

Categorically

Question 9

_____ can distinct from different tastes

Answer 9

Newborns

Question 10

Preference of smell in babies

Answer 10

Newborns = Smell of lactation (breastmilk over formula)

Sweet smells preference

(Breathing pattern changes when smelling novel smells)

Question 11

Intermodal perception in babies

Answer 11

Relates to integrating information from 2 or more senses - shapes our perception of the world in a different way then if you experience a stimulus with just one sense.

Question 12

Define the following reflexes:

1. Patellar
2. Rooting
3. Grasp
4. Stepping
5. Moro

Answer 12

1. Knee jerk
2. Turn the face toward the stimulus and make sucking (rooting) motions with the mouth when the cheek or lip is touched.
3. Grabbing onto anything in the hand
4. Baby will walk when lowered on surface
5. Arms move to the side when baby is unsupported

Question 13

Age when the following milestones are achieved:

1. Baby sitting on its own
2. Walks along furniture
3. Walks on its own

Answer 13

1. 5-8 months
2. 6-10 months
3. 11-15 months

Question 14

Twin stair training study (1920’s)

Answer 14

Shows that motor development depends on the brain’s motor program development (needs to wait for the latter to develop first).

Question 15

Effects of motor deprivation

Answer 15

Motor deprivation does not lead to motor impairment in most cases.

Question 16

Dynamic Systems Theory

Answer 16

Idea that complex behaviours emerge out of complex interactions between various systems e.g. walking not only depended on the brain’s motor development, but also social learning - seeing other people walk.

Question 17

Step reflex development

Answer 17

• Babies are born with a stepping reflex that disappears within weeks of birth
• One-month-old infants (who don’t have the reflex) will still display it when put into water - suggesting that the reflex disappears because baby’s legs get too heavy

Question 18

Perceptual-motor development

Answer 18

Perceptual motor coordination is the integration of perception, usually visual perception and motor processes in tasks such as hand-eye coordination, tracking. Such cordination is required for both gross and fine motor skills.

• Guiding voluntary action on the basis of perceived stimuli
• Cyclical: see something->react->perceive your action->adjust performance.

Question 19

Empiricist vs. Nativist view on motor development

Answer 19

• Empiricist = Initially move limbs randomly; trial and error leads to correct integration.
• Nativist = Initially move limbs with purpose; other developmental changes improve performance.

Question 20

Developmental milestones of reaching

Answer 20

• 5 months = Hand shape and orientation matches goals

- 10 months = Arm trajectory and speed match goal

Question 21

Visual flow fields

Answer 21

??

Question 22

Environmental consequences of walking study

Answer 22

• Infants were asked to either crawl or walk onto a surface (plywood covered in velvet vs. squishy water bed)
• Walkers, but not crawlers were hesitant to walk onto a non-rigid surface.

Question 23

Early imitation

Answer 23

• Imitation as early as 10 weeks

- More likely to imitate humans

Question 24

Milestones in early bonding

Answer 24

• Newborns = preferences for human faces and voices
• 3 months = Infants smile a bit more at people
• 6 months = Developed bonds to specific individual and smile more often at her/him
• 8 months = Showing separation distress

Question 25

Effects of Social deprivation in children

Answer 25

1. Reduced exploration, locomotion and motor action
2. Reacting with terror to strangers
3. Rocking back and forth and biting oneself
4. Development of vacant stares
5. Can even lead to death at times

Question 26

Bucharest Early Intervention Project

Answer 26

The Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP) was a randomized controlled trial of foster care as an intervention for children abandoned at or around the time of birth and placed in one of six institutions for young children in Bucharest, Romania (Zeanah, et al., 2003).

The BEIP began in 2000 with a comprehensive baseline assessment of 136 children and their caregiving environments. Following this assessment, half the children were randomly assigned to high-quality foster care (designed specifically for this study) and the other half to remain in institutional care. The average age at entry into foster care was 22 months (range=6-31 months). All children were seen for follow-up assessments at 30, 42 and 54 months, 8 years, and 12 years*, and the development of children in foster care was compared to the development of children randomized to remain in institutional care and to a group of never institutionalized children (community controls).

Findings through the assessment at 12 years of age suggest that early institutionalization leads to profound deficits in many domains examined to date, including cognitive (i.e., IQ) and socio-emotional behaviors (i.e., attachment), brain activity and structure, alterations in reward sensitivity and processing, and a greatly elevated incidence of psychiatric disorders and impairment.

Our foster care intervention was broadly effective in enhancing children’s development, and for specific domains, including brain activity (EEG), attachment, language, and cognition, there appear to be sensitive periods regulating their recovery. That is, the earlier a child was placed in foster care, the better their recovery. Although the sensitive periods for recovery vary by domain, our results suggest that placement before the age of 2 years is key.

Finally, there are a few areas, such as executive functioning (i.e., memory and cognitive monitoring), in which placement into foster care does not significantly impact development/performance.