Sensory and Motor Development

Question 1

Problems with working with infants

Answer 1

They can’t talk, and understand little to no language
They’re often not capable of producing complex or organised behaviour
They often can’t move around
They get grumpy quickly

Question 2

How to get around problems with working with infants

Answer 2

Use methods which are non-linguistic
Help from parents
Take advantage whatever behaviours or dispositions infants possess

Question 3

What can infants do?

Answer 3

Look - look away when bored or look when interested
Suck - bored will suck slower, excited will suck more
Grasp - can they integrate touch information
Crawl and eventually walk - move towards things they like/away from things they don’t

Question 4

Sucking

Answer 4

Measure baseline sucking rate
Measure rate as different stimulus’ shown
If no difference we assume they have not noticed the difference

Question 5

Looking

Answer 5

Visual Paired Comparison Task (VPC)
Shown a picture until they habituate (get bored and look away)
Shown two pictures at once (old and new)
Measure how much they look at the new picture

Question 6

Problems with working with newborns

Answer 6

Birth can be a difficult process

Common for newborns to experience issues which need medical attention

Question 7

How do you check if a newborn is ok enough to take part in a study?

Answer 7

Apgar scale (0 - 10) 
Score of 8 or above is good 
Appearance - blue or pink
Pulse - absent to >100 bpm
Grimace - no response to grimaces and cries 
Activity - none to all limbs flex
Respiration - absent to robust crying

Question 8

Vision in newborns

Answer 8

Fuzzy, can see light, shapes and movement
Not yet capable of fixation
Range of vision about 30cm

Question 9

Vision in babies 1-2 months

Answer 9

Can fixate

Can distinguish high-contrast colours (black/white)

Question 10

Vision in babies of 4 months

Answer 10

Depth perception and improved colour vision

Can follow objects with eyes without turning head

Question 11

Vision in babies of 8 months

Answer 11

Visual range increases - can recognise people from across the room

Question 12

Vision in babies of 1 year

Answer 12

Vision similar to adult levels

Question 13

Fantz’s 1961

Answer 13

Showed a series of stimuli to young infants and observed their looking behaviour
Shown face like stimulus, jumbled face like stimulus or just outline
Looked more at the face like stimulus than others

Question 14

Within ____ of birth, newborns are able to recognise specific faces (their mother)

Answer 14

1 day

Question 15

Bushnell et al (1989)

Answer 15

Newborn infants’ ability to recognise their mother’s face persists even when olfactory cues are removed (used just visual system)

Question 16

Walton (1992)

Answer 16

Newborns can recognise their mother even when inadvertent visual cues are controlled for

Question 17

Perceptual narrowing - vision

Answer 17

Infants’ visual perception becomes increasingly tailored to regular features of the child’s environment
General abilities are more finely tuned following experience

Question 18

The Other Race Effect

Answer 18

Infants are initially able to discriminate between the faces they see
Gradually become extremely good at distinguishing between the kinds of faces they see around them
Also, they gradually lose the ability to discriminate between faces they don’t see often

Question 19

Heron-Delaney et al (2011)

Answer 19

6 month olds look at picture book of faces
70 minutes of exposure over 3 months either involving Chinese or Caucasian faces
9 month olds shown Chinese faces retained the ability to recognise Chinese faces
Those shown Caucasian faces lost this ability

Question 20

Pascalis et al (2005)

Answer 20

Book-training studies aren’t unique to humans

Infants can recognise individuals from other species with book-training

Question 21

Can you hear things in the womb?

Answer 21

Yes
Heart rate can be measured as direct response to auditory stimuli from 26 weeks gestation (Kisilevsky et al, 1992))
Recognise their mother’s voice (Kisilevsky, et al 2003)

Question 22

DeCaspar & Spence (1986)

Answer 22

Asked pregnant women to read 3 minute story every day for final 6 weeks of pregnancy
Just after birth, they played newborns the familiar story and an unfamiliar one
Newborns preferred hearing the story read while they were in the womb (sucked more)
Even true when read by a stranger

Question 23

Trehub (1976)

Answer 23

Infants are initially able to distinguish between phonemes that don’t occur in their native language

Question 24

Eimas et al (1971)

Answer 24

Ability to distinguish phonemes narrows to sounds contained in their own language with age

Question 25

Perceptual narrowing - hearing

Answer 25

Infants gradually exchange their limitless potential for processing all types of information

Question 26

What is Motherese

Answer 26

Speech with higher and wider pitch range How you speak to a baby/pet Exaggeration of natural patterns of speech in the language Helps infants to extract smaller chunks of language Helps to learn language

Question 27

Touch in foetuses of 8 weeks

Answer 27

Respond to the area around the lips being touched

Question 28

Touch in foetuses of 10 weeks

Answer 28

Reflexive grasp response when palm is touched

Question 29

Touch in foetuses of 12 weeks

Answer 29

Toes curl when soles of feet touched

Question 30

Touch in 6 month old

Answer 30

Automatic grasp reflex

Question 31

Do newborns know what something looks like just by feeling it? (Sann & Streri, 2007)

Answer 31

Newborn infants given small objects to hold, either cylinder or prism, until habituation Then shown larger version of the objects Infants looked longer at the novel object, even though they have never seen either object before Suggests that they know what something looks like from touch

Question 32

Do newborns know what something feels like from looking at it? (Sann & Streri, 2007)

Answer 32

Shown either cylinder or prism Given small objects to hold Didn't hold the novel object for any longer than they held the familiar object Suggests that they cannot match vision to touch

Question 33

Is cross-modal matching bi-directional?

Answer 33

No Infants can identify an object they've previously held by visual means Infants cannot identify an object they've previously seen by touch

Question 34

Motor skills 1-3 months

Answer 34

``` Stepping reflex Lifts head Sits with support Grasps objects if placed in hand Sucks Smiles Control of eyes ```

Question 35

Motor skills 2-4 months

Answer 35

Lifts head and uses arms for support | Grasps cube when placed near hand

Question 36

Motor skills 5-8 months

Answer 36

Sits without support Reaches for and grasps objects Uses one hand

Question 37

Motor skills 5-10 months

Answer 37

Stand with support Pulls self to stand Points at interesting objects Grasps with thumb and finger

Question 38

Motor skills 5-11 months

Answer 38

Crawls Grasps spoon Learns to direct food to mouth

Question 39

Motor skills 10-14 months

Answer 39

``` Stands alone Walks alone Puts objects in containers Builds towers First meaningful words ```

Question 40

Motor skills 13-18 months

Answer 40

``` Walks backwards and sideways Runs Climbs Walks up stairs Holds crayon with fingers Scribbles ```

Question 41

Motor skills 18-30 months

Answer 41

``` Runs easily Jumps Skips Rides and steers tricycle Walks on tiptoes Picks up small objects Vocal and articulation increases rapidly ```

Question 42

Herbert et al (2007) crawling

Answer 42

Acquiring the ability to move unaided brings concurrent improvements in memory 9 month olds who could crawl and those who couldn't Given a memory task, shown how to play with a novel toy Toy had novel action associated with it, push button and something happens Crawlers were able to remember the demonstration and apply it to a novel context (different toy which did the same thing)

Question 43

From crawling to walking

Answer 43

Cameras attached to infant to track view that infants get when crawling and walking Shows that walking gives us a different view of the world This is why infants give up being skilled crawlers for being poor walkers

Question 44

Perception

Answer 44

How we see, hear or directly experience the world

Question 45

Cognition

Answer 45

How we form, use and act upon internal thoughts, states or pictures Mental representations

Question 46

Violation of Expectation task

Answer 46

Children are shown an event repeatedly until they habituate They are shown one of two variations of the event, expected event or something different If they look longer at one than the other we can say they are surprised by it

Question 47

Wynn (1992)

Answer 47

4 and 5 month olds were shown an event where objects moved behind a screen, and the screen was then removed Event was either possible or impossible Looked longer at the impossible event

Question 48

Object permanence

Answer 48

The ability to understand that even if an object can no longer be seen, it still continues to exist

Question 49

Prior to 9 months, infants _____ to an object after it was hidden

Answer 49

Made no response This was true even if the object was very desirable and they wanted to find it

Question 50

By 9 months infants _______ that are out of view

Answer 50

Search for objects

Question 51

Baillargeon (1986)

Answer 51

Infants watched a truck roll down a ramp behind a screen, with nothing behind it, until habituation Testing phase 1, object behind the screen behind the track, the truck would roll past it Testing phase 2, object behind screen was on the track, the truck still rolls past it 6 and 8 month old infants looked longer in condition where the track was blocked (impossible event) Object permanence was shown as the object was out of sight

Question 52

Baillargeon & DeVos (1991)

Answer 52

Replicated Baillargeon (1986) with 4 month olds

Question 53

What do we do when findings appear to contradict each other?

Answer 53

Look at reliability of data Give a best guess How do the studies differ?

Question 54

Explaining difference in Piaget and Baillargeon

Answer 54

Children have knowledge of the world from early infancy BUT they only become gradually able to act on the knowledge Cognitive development in the first year of life involves building links between knowledge and actions