Seeing, Thinking, Doing in infancy (CH 5) Flashcards
(103 cards)
1
Q
What are the 4 domains of development?
A
- Cognition
- Perception
- Action
- Learning
2
Q
What are the enduring themes?
A
- Active child
- Continuity/ discontinuity (relation of behavior to subsequent development)
- Mechanisms of change (Variability & selection)
- Socio-Cultural
- Nature & nurture
3
Q
What is Sensation?
A
-Processing of basic info from external world by sensory receptors in our sense organs (eyes, ears, skin, etc)
4
Q
What is Perception?
A
-Process of organizing & interpreting sensory info about objects, events, & spatial layout of the world
5
Q
What is true about the vision of Newborns?
A
- They begin to explore visually= scanning, gazing
- Vision improves rapidly in their first few months
- Attracted to moving stimuli but have trouble tracking bc their eye movements are jerky
6
Q
What are the 2 methods that are used to study sensory & perceptual development in infants?
A
- Preferential Looking Technique
- Habituation
7
Q
What is Preferential Looking Technique?
A
- 2 different stimuli are presented side by side= baby can look at one longer= demonstrates that it can differentiate & that it has a preference
- Other ways is w/ eye movement trackers
- Enables researchers & eye care pros to assess Visual Acuity
8
Q
What is Habituation?
A
- Another technique
- Involves presenting infant w/ stimulus until they don’t respond to it (Habituate)
- After they habituate, a novel stimuli is presented &; if they respond to it (Dishabituate) then it demonstrates that baby can discriminate between old & new stimuli
9
Q
What is Visual Acuity?
A
- How clearly an infant can see
- Develops so rapidly that an 8 month old is at about the same level as adults
10
Q
What is Contrast sensitivity?
A
-Ability to detect differences in light & dark areas in a visual pattern
11
Q
What is true about infants &; their Contrast Sensitivity?
A
-They have weak contrast sensitivity because they can detect a pattern ONLY when it is composed of highly contrasting elements
12
Q
Why do infants have poor Contrast Sensitivity?
A
- Immaturity of cone cells in infant’s retinas= light sensitive neurons are highly concentrated in Fovea but they’re cones are 4x further apart than adults so infants only catch 2% of light
- 1st month or so= don’t percieve differences between white & color (2 mos+ have similar color vision to adults)
13
Q
How do infants respond to color?
A
- At 2 mos or so, they have similar color vision to adults
- Their brain respond to a change of one color in one category to a new color in another category
- Brain doesn’t respond to new color in same category
14
Q
What is true about the visual scanning of a 4 month old?
A
-Able to track objects smoothly ONLY if they’re moving slowly
15
Q
Why is early-developing aspect of perceptual development important?
A
- Can be an important predictor of later cognitive development
- Preterm infants (perceptual & neural systems are immature) develop smooth visual tracking later vs full term infants
16
Q
Why is Visual Scanning so important for infants?
A
-It allows them to have active control over what they observe & learn
17
Q
Why do infants prefer faces?
A
- Prominent aspect of their environment
- 1 mo old will scan perimeter vs a 2 mo old scanning the details of middle of face
18
Q
What will infants begin to learn when they observe Talking Faces?
A
- Begin to draw connections between motor actions &; sound= basis of their native language
- When infants do start babbling they will fixate on the mouths of others more
- Bilingual infants will pay attention to the mouth earlier
19
Q
What is Perceptual Constancy?
A
-The perception of objects being constant in size, shape, color, etc in spite of the physical differences in the retinal image of the object
20
Q
What is Object Segregation?
A
-Perception of boundries between objects
21
Q
How do infants use object movement as a cue for object segregation?
A
-Treating independent motion of one object that may be sitting on top of the other as a cue that they are separate entities
22
Q
What is Common Movement?
A
- Cue that leads infants to perceive contrasting elements moving together as part of unitary object
- Works bc it draws their attention to relevant aspects of the scene
- Must be learned (2 mos= demonstrate the use of C.M)
23
Q
How does culture affect the visual pattern of infants?
A
- Culture can influence attention to visual world
- Must be learned (parents & how they pay attention to other things/ mom’s in east asian countries are more likely to label actions= heightens saliency)
- Influence scene perception (white babies are likely to focus on objects & asian babies pay attention to actions/ background contexts)
24
Q
What is Optical Expansion?
A
- When the visual image of an object increases in size as the object occludes (comes out) of background
- If an object expands symmetrically, then baby responds by blinking
25
What is true about defensive blinking?
- Infants at 1 mo blink defensively at expanding image that may hit them
- Brain maturation & postnatal visual experience is crucial for this development
26
What is Binocular Disparity?
- Since our eyes are spaced apart, the signal of the retinal image that is sent to our brains ARE NOT IDENTICAL
- The CLOSER the object, the GREATER disparity between signals
- The FURTHER the object the LESS disparity between signals
27
What is Stereopsis?
- The process where Visual Cortex combines the different neural signals from the retinal image from Binocular Disparity &; combining them to form depth perception
- Results of Experience-Expectant Plasticity
28
When is Stereopsis developed?
- Emerges at 4 mos
| - Completes within a few weeks after that
29
What is Binocular Vision?
-Both eyes working together to compute depth cues &; other aspects of the visual scene
30
How is Stereopsis a form of Experience-Expectant Plasticity?
- Binocular vision is natural function of brain
- If infant is deprived of that normal visual input, then they will not develop binocular vision which will cause them to struggle with depth cues
31
What is Strabismus?
- Crossed eyes
- Disorder where 2 eyes don't line up in same direction
- If not corrected before 3yrs old then they're gonna struggle with binocular vision
32
At what age do kids become sensitive to Monocular Depth Cues?
6-7 mos
| they use relative size as a cue to depth
33
What is Monocular Depth Cues?
- AKA Pictorial Depth Cues (Interposition=nearer objects occulude the ones further away & Convergence of Lines & Relative size)
- Denote depth when only one eye is open &; can be used to potray depth in pictures
34
What's true about Auditory Perception in Infants?
- Theres hella improvements from outer &; middle ear to the inner ear over the course of their infancy
- At 1 yr is when the auditory pathways in brain mature significantly
35
What is Sound Localization/ (orienting response)?
- Perception of spatial localization of a sound source
- Infants will turn their heads in the direction that sound is coming from
- BUT newborns ARE TERRIBLE at determining the spatial location of sound vs older infants
36
Why are newborns so bad at determining the spatial location of a sound?
- Their heads are smol= differences in timing & loudness of info arriving at each ear is smaller
- Development of Auditory Map requires multimodal experiences which plays a role in integrating info that they hear w/ what they see &; touch
37
Since infants are so bad at determining the spatial location of sound, then what are they GOOD at?
- Detecting patterns in sound
| - Can detect subtle differences in human speech
38
What are the 3 Cues that infants use for depth perception?
- Binocular Vision
- Stereopsis
- Monocular (Pictoral) vision
39
What is the EARLY preference for face perception?
- "Top Heavy patterns"
- Contrast &; shadow capture their attention
- Areas of contrast stimulate neurons= forming neural connections
40
What is the LATER preference for face perception?
- Influenced by meaning &; experience
- Preference for female faces over male @ 3 mos
- "Other race" effect is evident by 9 mos
41
What role does Perceptual Narrowing play in Facial Perception?
- Occurs later when infants go through specific experiences w/ faces in their enviornment
- More atuned to faces of their "own kind/race"
42
Why do infants prefer intant-directed singing vs singing that is directed to adults?
- Higher pitch= more positive effect
| - Mothers smile more
43
What does it mean that infants prefer constant sounds over dissonant?
- Show's as early as 2 day olds
- Preference is also evident in species
- Preference is UNRELATED to mucical experience
44
What makes infant so GOOD at music perception?
- They're able to detect changes of notes within key AND out side of key vs just adults detecting different notes outside of key
- They're sensitive to aspects of musical rhythm
45
What causes infants to be so GOOD at music perception?
-They're more likely to lack implicit knowledge of western music= that Perceptual Narrowing hasn't run its course yet
46
What role does Perceptual Narrowing play in musical perception in infants?
- W/ experience, they become more attuned to patterns in biological &; social stimuli in their enviornment
- So they "lose" their ability to detect changes in pitch unless their parents have musical abilities
47
What is Perceptual Narrowing?
-Developmental changes that leads younger learner to "lose" ability to make distinctions that they used to make at an earlier point in their development
48
What flavor shows in early preference?
-Sweet!
49
What role does Smell play?
- Helps w/ identifying mother
| - 2 day old infants where more attracted to mother's scent infused pad vs another womans
50
What is the purpose of infant touching things?
-To learn more about their enviornment
51
Why is Oral Exploration important?
- Infants learn more about their bodies as well as about texture, taste, & other properties of objects
- This mode of exploration dominants the first few months of life
52
How does the increased control of arm movement contribute to tactile development?
- at 4 mos they're more able to manually explore
- They'll rub, finger, probe, & bang objects together which will lead to actions becoming specific to the properties of objects
53
What is Intermodal Perception?
- Combining info from 2 or more sensory systems (seeing &; touching, hearing &; seeing etc)
- Facilitated by sensory experience
54
What kind of Intermodal Perceptions do infants show?
- Oral & visual experience
| - Auditory- visual
55
What would be an example of Oral &; Visual intermodal perception?
-Looking at a picture the pacifier that they just sucked for longer
56
What would be an example of Auditory-Visual intermodal perception?
-Infant responding more to a video where the sound track that is being played independantly fits bc they detect common structure in in auditory & visual info
57
What happens at around 4 mos in terms of Auditory-Visual intermodal perception?
- They can draw more abstract connections between sight & sound= looking longer where the modalities are congruent
- EX; matching whistle sound pitch to ball rising & falling
58
What is Synesthesia & why would infants be more likely to experience it?
- Stimulus in one modality leads to a percept in another
| - Infants are more likely to experience it bc the neural connections between brain areas aren't pruned yet
59
What is the McGurk effect?
- Audio-Visual blending illusion
- Man mouths ga but audio says ba so we hear da becasue the D sound comes from a position in between the B & G sounds
- 4.5 mo olds experience hearing Da too
60
How is Perceptual Narrowing evident in Intermodal Perception?
-Younger infants can detect correspondances between speech sounds &; facial movements from unnative language/ speech sounds while older infants can't
61
What are reflexes?
-Innate/ fixed patterns that occur in response to particular stimulation
62
What are the 6 types of neonate reflexes?
- Grasping
- Rooting (turning their head in the direction of touch)
- Sucking
- Swallowing
- Tonic neck (when arm that is on the same side as turned head is extended & the rest are flexed= maybe help keep their hand in view?)
- Stepping reflex (disappears as baby gains weight)
- REFLEXES ARE NOT AUTOMATIC
63
What is an indication of neurlogical problems interms of neonate relfexes?
- If they continue past the time that they are expected to disappear
- Reflexes that are unusually weak or unsually vigorous
64
How can culture influence Motor development?
- Some cultures encourage while others discourage locomotion
- The cultures that encourage locomotion located in safer areas
- Sub-Saharan Africa practice Motor exercises to strengthen babies muscles
- Babies walk better naked (without modern toiltery invention)
65
What do theorists emphasize about early motor development?
- Results from a confluence of different factors
- Factors include developing of neural mechs, strength, posture control, balance, perceptual skils, changes in body proportions &; overall motivation
66
What is the relationship between increased mobilty & development in other areas?
- Infants gain pleasure from pushing the envelope of their motor skills
- The wider the variety of movements that they're able to do= the more they get to learn about the world &; interact w/ environment
- Results in advantage in Perceptual & Cognitive Development bc they're better able to seek out new opportunities for stimulation
67
Why does Reaching take so long to develop?
- Bc it involves a complext interaction between multiple independent components
- Including muscle development, postural control, development of various perceptual & motor skills etc
68
What are Pre-Reaching Movements?
-Clumsy swiping of movements by young infants toward objects they see
69
What is so great about fully developing Reaching abilites?
- Infant will now be able to reach out &; grasp objects w/o aids
- Increased exploration
70
At what age do infants begin to sucessfully reach for stuff?
3-4 mos
| -Intially jerky &; poorly controlled &; often fail to grab
71
At what age do infants sit independently &; what occurs?
- 7 mos
- Reaching becomes stable, smooth, &; straight
- They enlarge their sphere of action bc they have the ability to LEAN forward= helps w/ visual perception & have a sense to how long their arms are
72
What is the relationship between Sitting &; Visual Perception?
- Infants w/ better sitting &; manual skills= better at perceiving complete 3-D objects from a limited view
- Infatns can reach for things making noise in the dark
73
How does Reaching show signs of anticipation?
- When reaching towards a larger object they'll open their fingers widely &; adjust hand for orientation of object
- Anticipate tradjectory of a ball/ object being thrown &; reaching for it
- At 10 mos, approach to an object depends on what they plan to do with it (reaching faster for an object that they plan to throw)
- BUT anticipation skills remain limited for a while
74
How does Reaching have a Social Component?
-Infants are more likely to reach for objects further away if any adult was there to help them
75
When do infants begin to show signs of Self-Locomotion?
- Around 8 mos
| - Starts off as crawling or idiosyncratic ways of self-propulsion
76
What is it like begin walking independently?
- Feet are wide apart= increases their base of support
- Flex @ hip & knee= lowering center of gravity
- Keep hands in air=Facilitate balance
- Have both feet on the ground 60% of the time
77
How does walking change when they gain experience?
- Steps are longer, straighter, consistent
| - Profiency in walking/ motor tasks is predicted by the number of days since they first began to engage in that behavior
78
What is the relationship between Locomotion & Perception?
- Babies won't cross to the deep side of visual cliff
- Infants have to learn from experience how to integrate perceptual info w/ each new motor skill= gotta learn what they can & can't do w/ respect to each new motor skill (what they learn in crawling doesn't transfer to walking)
79
What are Scale Errors?
- Child treating minature objects like "life size" ones by sitting on tiny chairs, slides, etc
- Occurs bc they fail to integrate visual info represented in 2 different areas of the brain in the service of action
80
What are the 8 types of learning?
- Habituation
- Perceptual learning
- Statistical learning
- Classical conditioning
- Instrumental conditioning
- Observational learning/ imitation
- Rational learning
- Active learning
81
What is Habituation?
- Simplest form of learning= being able to recognize something that has experienced before
- The rate at which an infant habituates reflects general efficiency of their processing= babies who habituate faster tend to have higher IQs
82
What is Perceptual Learning?
- Paying close attention to objects they perceive
- The key process is Differentiation
- An important part is the infant's discovery of Affordances
- Underlies process of perceptual narrowing
83
What is differentiation?
- Extracting relationships that remain constant from ever-changing environment
- This ability involved in the development of intermodal perception
84
What is Affordances?
-Possibilities for action offered or afforded by objects and situations (small objects afford the possibility of picking up
85
How do infants discover Affordances out?
-By figuring out the relations between their bodies and abilities and the things around them
(learning solid/ stable flat surfaces are best for walking)
86
What is Statistical learning?
- Involves picking up info from environment, specifically detecting statistically predictable patterns
- Since newborns track statistical regularities, statistical learning mechs are available at birth or before
- Vital component in language learning (infants prefer certain patterns over others)
87
What is Classical Conditioning?
- A form of learning that consists of pairing a neutral stimulus with one that already elicits a natural response
- Displayed by newborn infants
88
What is an Unconditioned Stimulus?
-Stimulus that reliably elicits reflexive, unlearned response (unconditioned response)
89
What is a Conditioned Stimulus?
- The neutral stimulus that is repeatedly paired just before unconditioned stimulus
- Eventually the reflexive response becomes a learned behavior (conditioned response)
90
What is Instrumental Conditioning?
- AKA Operant Conditioning
| - Learning the realtionship between one's own behavior & the consequences it results in
91
What is Observational Learning/ imitation?
- Imitating the behavior of others
- Used to acquire both instrumental skills (object related knowledge) & social conventions (rituals & other behaviors specific to social group)
- Based on the anaylsis of person's intentions
92
When is Observational Learning more robust?
-By second half of first year= imitation of facial gestures, novel/strange actions that are perfomed on other objects
93
What area is responsible for imitation?
-Mirror Neuron system
94
What is Rational Learning?
-Ability to use prior experiences to predict what will occur in the future
95
What is Active learning?
-Learning by acting on the world & testing hypothesis on how things work
96
What is the Nativist side on Cognition?
- Infants are born posess innate knowledge of the physical world=2 objects cannot occupy the same space
- Infants posess rudimentary understanding in the domans of biology & psychlogy
97
What is the Constructivist side on Cognition?
- Theres specialized learning mechanisms that enable infants to acquire knowledge effectively & rapidly
- Infant's mental representations of the world are gradually aquired & strengthened through General learning mech
98
What is Violation of Expectancy and what does it demonstrate?
- Procedure used to study infant cognition that violates something that the infant know to be true
- Infants as young as 3.5 months looked longer at impossible event
99
What research methods are used to represent that infants can represent objects continued existance?
- Reaching in the dark
| - Visual attention
100
When does an infant's Knowledge about the Physical world start?
- As young as 1 year infants know that objects don't float in middair, that an inadequately supported object will fall, non-round object will stay put on a stable surface
- 5 month olds understand key differences between liquids & solids
101
What's an important aspect of Social Knowledge and when does it develop?
- Understanding that the behavior of others has purpose & is goal directed
- Emerges at around 6 mos, also shows preference for characters that are shown in a more positive light
102
How do infants understand the intentions of others?
-Figuring out what kinds of objects have intentions
103
What cues to babies use when observing other humans?
-Eye-gaze & infant directed speech= used if they should follow the actor's gaze
