Psych - Development Flashcards
How are identical twins more alike than fraternal twins?
Personality traits such as extraversion (sociability) and neuroticism (emotional instability
Behaviors/outcomes such as the rate of divorce is much higher
Abilities such as intelligence test scores (almost a .9 correlation between IQ test scores of identical twins)
Are adopted children more like their genetic relatives or their adoptive parents?
Adopted children seem to be more similar to their genetic relatives than their environmental/nurture relatives
Is it nature or nurture?
It’s a mix of both and interactive. What needs to be done is to try to figure out how the interplay of genes and environments plays out for each ability. How is this ability learned or how is this innate knowledge/ability built into the brain.
How are infants not tabula rasa (blank slate)?
People used to think that infants were blank slates, had to learn everything. Come into the world with lots of preferences and nascent (underdeveloped) abilities. These innate abilities guide and structure learning: allow children to learn.
What are some methods for studying infant’s knowledge?
Infants looking time studies:
- Give infants a choice of looking at two or more things.
- measure what they look at longer
- Assumption is that infants will look at things they find novel or interesting more than old, boring things
- Test for ability to perceive differences as well as for preferences
What are some visual preferences in newborns?
Infants spend more time looking at patterns than solids.
Infants spend the most time looking at a drawing of a human face.
Is this just preference for complexity?
Main ideas from Johnson study about Newborns and Human faces
Infants were shown a blank shape, a proper face, or scrambled facial features.
Proper face and scrambled face have the same complexity.
Infants looked more intensely at the proper face.
What are the discoveries from Mark Johnson’s Theory of Development Face Recognition Abilities
Two components, one innate, one that learns
Subcortical system has sketchy knowledge of what face should look like. Cortical system can learn about faces.
How they work together. Innate knowledge in subcortical system causes infants to focus on faces. Then, the cortical system is able to learn a lot about faces.
Subcortical system
Sketchy knowledge of what face should look like
Cortical system
Can learn about faces
Where is innate knowledge for infants about faces stored?
Subcortical system
How does the cortical system work for infants?
The cortical system is able to learn a lot about faces
Imprinting
Special kind of learning, automatic and rapid. Way of making sure that they stick to their mom after hatching.
What is an example of imprinting?
Chicks, ducklings, geese will imprint on their mother, form an attachment and follow mom around.
Johnson demonstrated that…
Chicks seem to have some innate knowledge of chicken faces. After chicks hatch, give them a choice of two moving objects.
General study of Johnson and imprinting with ducks
Chicks seem to have some innate knowledge of chicken faces. After chicks hatch, give them a choice of two moving objects. Varied properties of these objects to see what exactly what the chick prefers. For example, a red box vs. a stuffed chicken or just chicken parts (head and neck). Prefer bird head and neck in proper configuration. Actually prefer just chicken’s head and neck to the whole hen.
What did Lesioning studies show?
Where the innate knowledge is stored in the brain. Lesion this area and preference for chicken head/neck is gone. A different area of brain does the learning (and stores the knowledge of mother’s face). Lesion subcortical area after chick has a chance to imprint, chick can still recognize its mother.
So is it innate or is learned for chicks?
Its BOTH. some minimal, innate knowledge that focuses the attention of the infant (or chicken) and guides learning. Knowledge of shape of head/neck of hen. For human babies knowledge of oval shaped face with 2 eyes and a mouth. AND another system (cortex) that learns the specifics of important faces from exposure to those stimuli.
What is the Infant as Intuitive Physicist?
Infants look longer at objects that seem to violate physical laws than those that do not. Surprise indicates that their expectations were violated. They must know what is physically plausible for this to occur.
Can infants add and subtract?
Show the baby the same array many times. Show the array with an element missing (shown) or one added. Surprise indicates that her or his expectations were violated.
What can infants do?
- Motor reflexes (rooting, grasping)
- Perceptual preferences eg. faces
- Auditory: “Motherese” (higher pitch, exaggerated intonation)
- Basic emotions, facial expressions
- Ability to imitate facial gestures?
- Knowledge of physical world?
- Add/subract?
What is assimilation?
Filtering experience to fit thought
What is accommodation?
Changing thought to fit experience
What is assimilation in terms of Piaget’s theory?
The process whereby the environment is interpreted in terms of existing cognitive structures (schemas).