Motor and Infancy - Sensory and Cognitive development

Question 1

Cognition:

Answer 1

processes and outcomes of thought
ex: attention, perception, memory, higher-order thinking (learning, problem solving, concept development), language

Question 2

Piaget’s beliefs

Answer 2

• nature and nurture interact
• believed that children have an innate desire to explore their environment and make sense of the world around them; children are active participants

Question 3

schemas

Answer 3

make up how we think:
- mental schemas: concepts, images, etc
- motor schemas: picking up a toy, etc

Question 4

assimilation

Answer 4

fitting in information that matches with our current schema (part of adaptation)

Question 5

accommodation

Answer 5

adjusting and fitting new info into existing schemas (part of adaptation)

Question 6

organization

Answer 6

how we sort and organize new information into our existing schemes

Question 7

invariant sequence

Answer 7

move from stage 1 to 2 to 3, etc

Question 8

culturally universal

Answer 8

regardless of culture, stages still look the same for everyone

Question 9

general properties of thought

Answer 9

all children have these general properties of thought

Question 10

qualitative changes

Answer 10

stages are distinct and highlighted by specific skills and thinking

Question 11

equilibrium and disequilibrium

Answer 11

fitting things into our existing schemes and finding out information that does not match with our current schemes (shift between these two allows for major development)

Question 12

Piaget’s 4 stages of cognitive development

Answer 12

1. Sensorimotor (0-2 years): motor and sensory development; mental representation (18-24 months) represents completion of this stage
2. Preoperational Stage (2-7 years): able to think but logic lacking, egocentric
3. Concrete operational Stage (7-11 years): better logic, less egocentric
4. Formal Operational Stage (12 and up): abstract reasoning

Question 13

Sensorimotor Period (0-2 years)

Answer 13

• sensory and motor scheme development
• operations: mental actions that combine, separate, and transform schemes
• completion of this stage: mental representation/symbolic thought demonstrated (demonstrated through object permanence—objects still exist even when we cannot directly see them)
  6 substages
  1. Reflexive schemes (0-1 month): innate reflexes allow infant to gain control and gather information about the world around them
  ex: crying allows them to get attention; sucking allows them to get nutrition they need
  2. Primary circular reactions (1-4 months): ability to coordinate early reflexes
  ex: uncontrollably swinging arms when excited→ intentionally bringing arms to face; centered around infant’s body; response generates repetition
  3. Secondary circular reactions (4-8 months): interaction between baby and their environment (centered around environment; concerned with outcome; schemes are not learned (accidental);
  ex: baby accidentally kicks the crib and it makes a sound, they do it again and again; no attempt to search for hidden objects (lack of object permanence)
  4. Coordination of secondary circular reactions (8-12 months): generalizes schemes to situations; intentionality; understand that actions have effects; begin to solve problems by putting actions together; will look for hidden objects only where they were once successful;
  ex: toy under blanket A, they will look for it and once successful, even if toy is moved under blanket B, baby will still look for toy under blanket A (A not B error)
  5. Tertiary circular reactions (12-18 months): experimentally and deliberately vary actions to discover outcomes; follows displacement of object;
  ex: A not B error is fixed—if toy moved under another blanket, they will look for it there
  6. Mental Representation (18-24 months): object permanence develops (children know that objects will continue to exist even if they don’t see them);
  ex: as children goes to daycare, they understand that their caregiver still exists even if they don’t see them directly

Question 14

Vygotskian Theory

Answer 14

1. Cognition arises from social interaction with more skilled members of society (scaffolding and zone of proximal development)
2. Any developing higher cognitive skills appear on two psychological planes
3. Development is a process of internalization and decontextualization
4. Language is a mediator of development

Question 15

Zone of proximal development

Answer 15

area encompassing tasks children can ONLY do with the assistance of others

Question 16

Intrapsychological Learning

Answer 16

being able to understand information even outside of context (ex: child sees parent talking on phone, they can recreate that same action even without the context of their parent doing it)

Question 17

Interpsychological Learning

Answer 17

learning happens outside of children through social interactions with others in their environment first

Question 18

Internalization

Answer 18

internalize rules, expectations, norms, concepts (formation of symbols/mental representation)

Question 19

Decontextualization

Answer 19

being able to understand information even outside of context (ex: child sees parent talking on phone, they can recreate that same action even without the context of their parent doing it)

Question 20

Piaget and Vygotsky

Answer 20

Both constructivists: one learns through interactions with the environment
-focused on “higher order” cognitive abilities (focused on process of cognitive development rather than product)
- language aids in development of higher cognitive abilities (cognition and language developed separately; cognition used as a tool for learning; language used as a communication method; then, cognition and language are merged together to form mental representation at age 2)
- Vygotsky has more emphasis on role of culture and context than Piaget
- Piaget believed in universal stages of development (regardless of culture)
- Vygotsky placed more emphasis on social interactions/others in development

Question 21

Information Processing

Answer 21

encompasses many theories; focuses on the specific skills that make up cognition

Question 22

Basic Store Model:

Answer 22

1. Sensory Register (stimuli our sense come in direct contact with in our environment): prepares info from environment to be encoded; decision of what to pay attention to
2. Short-term memory: stores information for up to 30 seconds; if intentional strategies used to keep information in short-term memory, we can keep it here longer
   - usually we can hold 7 +/- 2 items
3. Long-term memory: unlimited capacity; can be stored when info is transferred from short term to long term; info can be retrieved (brought back into short term memory)
4. Central Executive: “boss” of whole system (influences short term, long term, and sensory register by controlling attention, storage and retrieval)

Question 23

Processes that lead to increased efficiency

Answer 23

• Encoding and Representation
• Memory Strategies
• Executive Functioning
• Automatization and Generalization
  -these happens because our brains are changing and developing
• it happens starting from birth, but the greatest gains occur in middle childhood (6-9 years old)

Question 24

Attention

Answer 24

information processing begins with stimulus info entering the senses. you only process what you focus your attention on

Question 25

habituation

Answer 25

gradual decrease in attention to stimulus after repeated representations

Question 26

dishabituation

Answer 26

revival of attention when new stimulus is presented after repeated reps of prev stimulus

Question 27

speed of habituation

Answer 27

predicts memory ability on other tasks in infancy and performance on other intelligence test; faster habituation = higher performance on intelligence tests

Question 28

joint attention

Answer 28

direct attention to what everyone around them are attending to, engaging in joint attention

Question 29

short-term memory

Answer 29

capacity to retain info briefly: improvement in object permanence reflects short term mem dev in infants

Question 30

long term memory

Answer 30

knowledge that is accumulated and retained over time

Question 31

recognition vs recall mem

Answer 31

recognized: after a hint recall: react before prompted

Question 32

Language development

Answer 32

cooing

Question 33

cooing

Answer 33

2 months: simple sounds babies make during interactions or just trying out sounds

Question 34

babbling (4-6 months)

Answer 34

constant-vowel combos: bababa or dododo

Question 35

gestures (8-10 months)

Answer 35

lift their arms to indicate wanting to be picked up or point at object

Question 36

discrimination of simple sounds

Answer 36

becomes specialized towards the end of the first year

Question 36

language comprehension exceeds language production

Answer 36

at all ages the words we understand exceeds the words we can speak. Infants understand around 50 words on their first bday despite only knowing 2

Question 37

Infant Direct (ID) Speech

Answer 37

adults speak in a special way to infants: pitches become higher and intonation more exaggerated. Babies like it more. Common in Western cultures and Japan. Infants in traditional cultures spend time with many adults and kids vs in ID speech common cultures infant spend time with 1 parent/sibling