methodological Flashcards
(28 cards)
What is the sensorimotor stage of development according to Piaget’s developmental stages
Infant (0-2yrs) explores world thru direct sensory/motor contactObject permanence and separation anxiety develops in this stage Lays foundation for future stages (preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational)
What issues are particularly important when conducting developmental research?
Capture developmental change (appropriate age range)
- Choose appropriate design
- Ethics
- Children’s responses to adult researchers (shyness, rapport)
- Age-appropriate tasks/instructions
- Testing preverbal infants (rely on other measures)
- Difficulty of interpreting behaviour (valid inferences?)
- Confounding variables
- Biases (e.g., color preference, side preference)
- Counterbalancing
Why doesn’t absence of evidence mean evidence of absence?
A study may fail to show knowledge even when competence exists (performance ≠ competence)
What is the difference between competence and performance in developmental research?
Competence: Conceptual understanding required to solve a problem
- Performance: Cognitive skills required to access/express understanding (memory, attention, comprehension, inhibition)
- Kids may have knowledge they can’t express due to other limitations
What are the main research designs in developmental psychology?
Cross-sectional design
- Longitudinal design
- Microgenetic design
What is a cross-sectional design?
Single time point; compare behaviour of different age groups on the same task
What are the advantages of cross-sectional design?
Time and cost efficient
- Fast/easy to reveal similarities and differences between ages
What are the limitations of cross-sectional design?
Interindividual differences ≠ intraindividual developmental change
- Only “snapshots”—can’t see how changes emerge or what happens between ages
What is a longitudinal design?
Examines and compares abilities/behaviour of a particular group of children over several time points
- Can include experimental manipulation or natural observation
What can longitudinal design reveal?
Change over time within individuals
- Stability vs transience of behaviours
- Proportion of children following a developmental trajectory
- How early abilities relate to later outcomes (longitudinal predictors)
- Temporal primacy of constructs (which comes first)
What are disadvantages of longitudinal design?
Resource intensive
- Subject attrition/dropout
- Practice effects (learning/boredom from repeated tasks)
- Repeated testing may alter development
What is microgenetic design?
In-depth study of change as it’s happening; study children on verge of developmental change, test repeatedly in a short period
- Example: memorization strategies—rapid jump or gradual development?
What is a strength and limitation of microgenetic design?
Strength: captures nature of developmental change
- Limitation: intensive, small samples
Name a reference for microgenetic design.
Adolph & Robinson (2011); Flynn et al. (2006); Siegler (1999)
How can different methods lead to different theories of development?
Choice of method (e.g., cross-sectional vs microgenetic) can shape whether development looks “stage-like” or continuous
- ‘Any account of developmental change is constrained […] by the methodology adopted to uncover that change.’ (Harris, 2008, p.25)
What’s the difference between explicit and implicit knowledge in children?
Explicit: knowledge accessible to child; measured via verbal answers
- Implicit: unaware knowledge; measured via spontaneous behaviour (gesture, eye-gaze, facial expression)
Give an example of how gesture can reveal implicit knowledge.
At age 1: Fail both gesture and speech
- At age 2: Fail speech, show knowledge in gesture (gesture-speech mismatch = transitional knowledge)
- At age 3: Pass both
- Inconsistency indicates partial or developing knowledge
- Church & Goldin-Meadow (1986); Allibali & Goldin-Meadow (1993)
What are common non-verbal methods to measure infant knowledge?
Preferential looking
- Inter-modal preferential looking
- Habituation/Dishabituation
- Violation of Expectancy (VoE)
- Anticipatory looking
- Pupillometry
What does preferential looking measure?
If infants can distinguish between visual stimuli and have an attentional preference
What’s a limitation of preferential looking?
Negative results are ambiguous (equal looking could mean failure to discriminate, or equal interest/boredom)
What is inter-modal preferential looking?
Choice between two visual stimuli; only one matches a verbal cue
- Longer looking at matching display = comprehension of link
- Used to test ability to link across modalities (Golinkoff et al., 2013)
How does habituation/dishabituation work?
Present stimulus repeatedly until attention wanes (= habituation)
- Introduce novel stimulus: if attention increases, infant can discriminate
How does the Violation of Expectancy (VoE) method work?
Compare looking at impossible vs possible event; longer looking at impossible = surprise, expectation
What does anticipatory looking measure?
Prediction—measures first look after an event to see if infants anticipate what happens next
