PSYC 205: Child Development Unit 1 EXAM 1 Practice

Information- Processing Theories The Development of Problem Solving Overlapping waves theory

information-processing approach that emphasizes the variability of children's thinking Strategies - Incorrect - Counting~ finger counting/ writing out; c - Repeated addition~ changing multiplication in to addition - Derived facts~ using easier - Retrieval ~ without thought; automatic

What is the average onset of puberty for boys and girls?

Girls -- 9 Boys -- 11 Onset of puberty is approximately 2 years earlier for girls than boys.

What are the 2 types of motor milestones in children? Explain and provide examples.

Gross Motor Skills~ motor skills that help infants move around the environment; ranges from 1-5 months - Sits with slight support - Sits alone momentarily (4-8 months) - Reaches for objects - Stands alone (11 months (~9-16)) - Walks alone (12 months) (~9-17 months)) Fine Motor Skills~ refer to small movements in the hands, wrists, fingers, feet, toes, lips and tongue - Pre-reaching (newborn)~ infants clumsy swiping toward the general vicinity of objects they see - Ulnar grasp (3-4 months)~ clumsy motion, fingers close against palm - Transferring objects from one hand to other (4-5 months) - Pincer grasp (9 months)~ coordination of the index finger and thumb to hold an item

How does guided participation, intersubjectivity, and social scaffolding aid change in sociocultural theory?

Guided participation~ a process in which more knowledgeable individuals organize activities in ways that allow less knowledgeable people to learn; active participate in the learning process Intersubjectivity~ joint attention; the mutual understanding that people share during communication Social Scaffolding~ zone of proximal development; a process in which more competent people provide a temporary framework that supports children's thinking at a higher level than children could manage on their own; Help with the most difficult part of the task; helping along the way and slowly allowing takeover; an in between things being not too hard or easy

What part of the body proportionally dominates an infants body?

HEAD

Formal Operations Stage Explained

(Ages 12 and Beyond) Adolescents and adults can think deeply not only about concrete events but also about abstractions and purely hypothetical situations - abstract and scientific reasoning - internal reflection

Pre-Operational Period Explained

(Ages 2 to7) Toddlers and preschoolers become able to represent their experiences in language and mental imagery; Children do not recognize that increased height of the liquid column in the second glass is compensated for by its being narrower - Development of *Symbolic representation*~ the use of one object to stand for another; A symbol is anything that stands for something else

Concrete Operations Stage Explained

(Ages 7 to 12) Children can reason logically about concrete objects and events; concrete operational reasoning can not think in purely abstract terms or generate systematic scientific experiments to test their beliefs - more logical, flexible, organized cognition - mastery of spatial operations - difficulties with abstract reasoning

Sensorimotor Period Explained

(Birth to Age 2 Years) Infants' intelligence is expressed through their sensory and motor abilities; infants live largely in the here and now: their intelligence is bound to their immediate perceptions and actions - *Reflexes* - Piaget believed infants lacked of *object permanence* (the knowledge that objects continue to exist even when they are out of view) until 8 month because they did not search for hidden objects. - *A-not-B error*~ the tendency to reach for a hidden object where it was last found rather than in the new location where it was last hidden - *Deferred imitation*~ the repetition of other people's behavior a substantial time after it originally occurred

Symbolic Reasoning Why do 2.5 children fail the Snoopy task?

(Dual Representation view) In order to understand the task they need to know that it represents the real room. Scale model task is harder because it requires dual representation.

What are the sources of continuity?

*Assimilation*~ the process by which people incorporate incoming information into concepts they already understand Ex. bald man is categorized as Clown *Accommodation*~ the process by which people adapt/improve their current understanding in response to new experiences *Equilibrium*~ the process by which people balance assimilation and accommodation to create stable understanding; 3 phases ----Disequilibrium

How does *experience*(do not transfer what they've learned to new modes of locomotion) and *social referencing*(looking to other people what we should do; how you should behave) influence children during the cliff experiment?

*Certainty Conditions: : 4 inches/40 inches clearly safe vs not not safe* and parents show different emotions (joy, fear) 4 inch + joy= cross 40 inch + joy= don't cross Fear + 4 inch = cross Fear + 40 inch = don't cross *Uncertainty condition: 12 inch drop* Fear + 12 inch= don't cross Joy + 12 inch= cross

Limitations of Pre-operational Thinking A child's thinking rigid during this stage. They have no "operations" and they lack reversibility.

*Perception Bound*~ focus on appearance or reality; Cannot think of appearance and reality simultaneously *Egocentrism*~ inability to perceive the world though someone else's eyes; the tendency to perceive the world solely from one's own point of view *Transductive reasoning*~ linking events that are close in time; having a cause and effect relationship *Centration*~ lack of conservation/hierarchical classification; the tendency to focus on a single, perceptually striking feature of an object or event *Animistic Reasoning*~ describe inanimate objects as having human/life-like qualities; Their thoughts and ideas are projected on to animate objects

Smarties task results

- "What do you think is in the box?" "Smarties" "Why don't you open the box and see?" "Oh, it's pencils" "Let's close the box. What do you think your friend Jenny would say is in the box if she saw it?" "Pencils" - children have a lack of understanding that other people's actions are based on their own beliefs; even when those beliefs are different than the one's that they personally have - The child thinks that there are smarties in the box, but when he finds out there are pencils, he assumes that his friends will think there are pencils in the box because he knows there are pencils in the box despite the fact that they would probably follow the same events he did.

Name the Theories of Cognitive Development

- Piaget's Theory - Core Knowledge - Information Processing - Sociocultural - Dynamic-Systems Theories~ ~ a class of theories that focus on how change occurs over time in complex physical and biological systems; Highlight the variability of children's thinking, even from moment to moment

Why do they make these errors?

- Trouble with inhibiting knowledge - Children cannot articulate false belief

False Photograph Task

-A camera records the scene and then objects are moved (instead of a person observing the scene) -This task is similar to the false belief task in that it has almost the exact same structure and therefore mimics the cognitive demands placed on the child, but does not require the child to take the perspective of another person

What are the 3 classes of cues in adults?

1) Monocular kinetic cues (*emerges at birth*) 2) Binocular cues (*emerges at 4 months*) 3) Pictorial/Monocular static cues (*emerges at 7 months*)

3 General Characteristics of Growth and Motor Development

1) Proximal --> Distal Progression~ The process in proximodistal from center or midline to periphery direction. development proceeds from near to far - outward from central axis of the body toward the extremities 2) Cephalocaudal Progression~ The process of cephalocaudal direction from head down to tail. This means that improvement in structure and function come first in the head region, then in the trunk, and last in the leg region 3) Increased Differentiation--> general to specific

Define failure to thrive

A combination of genetic and environmental factors is apparently involved in failure to thrive~ a condition in which infants become malnourished and fail to grow or gain weight for no obvious medical reason. Treatment ranges from hospitalization to dietary supplements

Csibra Interpreting reasons behind actions

Age --> 9 mo olds and 12 mo olds Habituation~ a small ball going over a barrier tries to get to a bigger ball Test~ barrier removed 2 conditions--> Same path (unexpected); Straight path (expected) Results--> Both ages looked longer at the same path. Young infants interpret reasons behind actions

Gergely et al. (2002) Imitate head action more often if Hands Free >> Hands Occupied

Age--> 14 month old Aim: To investigate if younger children can learn/acquire behavior through observational learning, as young as 14-month old infants Method: Experiment used 14-month old infants 2 conditions: Hands-Free Condition: Where the infants observed an adult place her hands on a table Following this, she used a strange action to light up/illuminate a light box by bending over and pressing the box with her forehead Hands-Occupied Condition: Where the infants observed the adult perform the same action to illuminate the box However, the model was using her hands to hold a blanket around her shoulders Findings: Hands-Free Condition - After a week, infants were given an opportunity to play with the box. 69% used their head to illuminate the light. Hands-Occupied Condition - One week later, infants were given the box to play with, but only 21% illuminated the light using their head and the rest used their hands to press the light. Conclusion / Connection of study to question: Gergely"s findings have demonstrated that very young infants have the ability to observe a model"s behavior and infer his or her intentions and constraints on his or her behavior. The infants then use such information to decide precisely what parts of the model"s behavior are possible or desirable to imitate. Therefore demonstrated that very young children up to 12-months old are capable of observing thus imitating behavior, supporting SLT.

Non-verbal false belief task (VoE)

Age--> 15 month olds 2 conditions--> True belief condition (Actor sees the object move); False belief condition (doesn't see it move;Actor is not present) Test events--> Old box event Reaches for object in old location box New-box event Reaches for object in new location Surprising the new box but are reaching for new location Results--> 15-month-old infants' ability to predict an actor's behavior on the basis of her true or false belief about a toy's hiding place. Results were positive, supporting the view that, from a young age, children appeal to mental states—goals, perceptions, and beliefs—to explain the behavior of others. True belief: look longer at old-box event False belief: look longer at new-box

Imitation of intention of person

Age--> 18 month olds 3 conditions--> RESULT Successful action--> yes, imitate Failed action--> yes, imitate Control--> no imitation Results--> 18-mo-olds inferred the actor's intended action

Symbolic Reasoning The Scale Model Task: Symbolic Task Experiment--> Hide little snoopy in small scale setting for children to find on a larger scale

Age--> 2.5 and 3 yr olds Results--> 2.5 yr old fail the task; 3 yr old succeed task

Minnie Mouse Study (VoE)

Age--> 3 and 3.5 month olds Test events--> high window event= possible event; low window= impossible event Results--> 3 mo.olds look longer at the impossible event. 3 mo. olds have object permanence 3.5 mo. olds look equally because they know the trick. Even young babies have lots of knowledge! Different methods lead to different conclusions.

Assessing Theory of Mind: The classic false belief task (change of location) Experiment--> Sally-Anne task

Age--> 3 and 4 year olds A false belief task Sally has a basket, Anne has a ball. Sally puts a red ball inside the basket. Then, Sally leaves the room Anne saw Sally put ball in the red box. AS SALLY LEAVES ROOM, Anne takes ball out of the basket and places it into box you ask a child after telling them this scenario: when Sally comes back, where is she going to look for the ball? Children WITHOUT THEORY OF MIND will think that Sally will look in box bc that's where ball is Children can't really be successful at this task until about 4. Children under 4 are unable to consider the situations of others Results--> 3 yr old: sally looks where Anne put in (in the box) 4 yr old: sally looks where left it (basket) Where do children look 3 yr old: look where she put it but says where it is

Assessing ToM Experiment--> False-photograph task

Age--> 3 and 4 year olds A task developed to investigate whether children who fail false-belief tasks actually misunderstand beliefs per se. The task does not involve beliefs, but young children still have trouble inhibiting a default (incorrect) response based on the objects that are in view when they are questioned Results--> Difference from last task; Not reasoning about anybody minds; inanimate object 3 yr old says BEAR

Assessing ToM Experiment--> Smarties Task

Age--> 3 and 4 yr olds Results--> Box says smarties, has pencils in it... most 3 years olds would think that someone else would think there were pencils in the box by looking at it after obtaining that knowledge themselves. Whereas 4 yr olds say smarties. 4 yr olds posses the theory of mind.

Egocentrism Cat-Dog Experiment

Age--> 3 and 4 yr olds Test Conditions--> 2-sided card, child sees dog, while experimenter sees cat Child learns that the cat is on one side while the dog is on the other Results--> Children performed perfectly on multiple trials

Perception Bound~(Flavell) Focus on Reality Experiment--> appearing to be a rock but really a sponge

Age--> 3 yr olds

Perception Bound~(Flavell) Focus on Appearance Experiment--> white egg shown and put it behind a blue filter

Age--> 3 yr olds Results--> What color does is the egg? BLUE was the response. They believe the egg is blue and appears to be blue, even if shown before the original white egg.

Modified Number Conservation Task (Markman)

Age--> 4 and 5 year olds Test Conditions--> Standard: Unit labels (soldiers) 2); Modified: Group labels (army) Results: modified condition did much better than standard condition. A small wording change made a difference.

Egocentrism Modified 3 Mountain Task --> Ask children to describe what "Grover" sees

Age--> 4 yr olds Grover" drives around the farm Results: 4 year olds can report accurately what Grover saw *Egocentrism diminishes in young age if you modify language, context to make it more age appropriate*

Limitations of Development in children's understanding of Biological processes Picture storybook study

Age--> 5 and 8 yr old Pre-tested on natural-selection knowledge Post-test following book and 3 months later

Core Knowledge Perspective Numerical Knowledge Experiment--> Infants' arithemetic Infants were presented with a Mickey Mouse doll resting on a stage. After a few seconds, a screen rotated up occluding the doll and the hand of an experimenter emerged from the side of the stage, adding another doll behind the screen. Following the action, the screen was rotated down revealing either one or two dolls. A possible outcome was classified as one where the result was consistent with the transformations that occurred on the basis of arithmetic (e.g., one object plus another object leaves two objects). An impossible outcome was where the result was not so consistent (e.g., one object plus one object leaves one object).

Age--> 5 months Test conditions--> 1+1, 2-1 Results--> Babies can discriminate quantities up to three and use that knowledge to perform simple arithmetic. Results show that, in both conditions, infants looked significantly longer at impossible compared to possible outcomes

What are the results of the depth perception pictorial cue experiment by Yonas with windows? Experiment--> Investigators put a patch over one eye of ___ month and ___ month olds and presented them with a trapezoidal window with one side considerably longer than the other

Age--> 5- and 7 month olds Baseline condition--> Real window Test Condition--> Flat, trapezoidal window(Infants wear an eye patch to rule out binocular cues) Results--> 5-mo olds reach for EITHER side.7-mo-olds reach for LARGER side. 7 month olds can use pictorial cues.

Predict action in new context

Age--> 6 and 10 month olds Habituation events--> Circle: climber; Triangle: helper; Square: Hinderer Test Events--> Climber approaches the helper; Climber approaches the hinderer Results--> 10-month-olds: Look longer at approach hinderer; 6-month-olds: Look equally 10-month-olds attributed general dispositions to agents to predict action in new context

Social Knowledge Interpret action as goal-directed

Age--> 6 and 9 month olds Test event--> new-path event; new-toy path Results--> Infants were habituated to the event of a hand repeatedly reaching for a ball on one side of a display Both 6 and 9 months look at the new toy event longer.

Core Knowledge Perspective Numerical Knowledge Experiment--> Approximate numerosities

Age--> 6 month olds Habituation--> 8 or 16 dots Results-->Infants could discriminate between 8 and 16 Infants did not discriminate 8 v. 12

Egocentrism (Piaget) "3 mountains problem" Results

Age--> 6 yr olds Results--> Children in the preoperational stage cannot select a picture that shows the mountains from the doll's perspective form the other side of the table

How did researchers test this? Alternative Explanation for infants having object permanence. Rolling Cart Study (by Baillargeon, 1986) (VoE) Experiment--> ___ and ____ month-old infants sat in front of a screen; to the left of the screen was an inclined ramp. The infants watched the following event: the screen was raised and lowered, and a toy car rolled down the ramp, passed behind the screen, and exited the apparatus to the right. After the infants habituated to this event, they saw two test events.

Age--> 6.5 and 8 month olds Test events--> A box was placed behind the screen. In one event (possible event), the box stood in back of the car's tracks; in the other (impossible event), it stood on top of the tracks, blocking the car's path. Results--> Both 6.5 and 8 month olds looked longer at the impossible than at the possible event, indicating that they were surprised to see the car reappear from behind the screen when the box stood in its path. Infants have object permanence at 6.5 months, unlike Piaget's theory.

Information Processing Theories Multiplication

Age--> 7 and 8 yr old Results--> With age and experience, the strategies that produce more successful performance become more prevalent

Predict action from gaze and emotional expression

Age--> 8 and 12 month olds Habituation--> An actor is smiling and gazing at one kitten→ curtains close→ they are holding that kitten Text events--> Consistent text event; Inconsistent an actor is holding the opposite kitten they did not look at Results--> 8 mo Looked equally and 12 mo old: able to use gaze and emotional expression; looks longer when they pick up the opposite

Perspectives on biological knowledge

Age--> 9 and 10 month olds 3 conditions--> Animal present in a room (dwarf rabbit); Toy present (wooden turtle); Person present (a stranger) Results: Looking → Tend to look about equally at the person and the animal longer than the toy Smiling → infants were more likely to smile at the person Touch → more likely to touch a toy or animal, less likely the stranger

Teleological Action

Age--> Preschoolers and fifth graders The evidence from these two studies suggests that preschoolers, unlike fifth graders and adults, predict teleological action for plants and animals on the basis of these entities' inferred psychological capacities..

What are the results of the depth perception experiment with beginning and experienced crawlers using a "Visual cliff"? Experiment--> Designed an apparatus called the visual cliff which is a board laid across glass with a patterned material directly beneath the glass and several feet below it on the other.

Age--> beginning crawlers (7 months) and experienced crawlers (9 months) Results--> Beginning crawlers were more likely to cross the deep side; whereas experienced were more hesitant

Limitations of Development in children's understanding of Living vs. Non-living things

By 3 to 4 years of age children can distinguish living things Understanding plants as living things is difficult By the preschool years, understand that plants grow, heal, and die However they don't believe plants are alive

How does changes in strength and endurance during puberty change in boys rather than girls?

By the end of puberty, boys can exert more force than girls of the same size.

What 3 stages does Piaget's Theory move through? (Sources of Discontinuity)

Discontinuous~ each stage is qualitatively different; Piaget believed that children of different ages think in qualitatively different ways Invariant~ fixed order; everyone progresses through the stages in the same order without skipping any of them Parallel~ same order; Development is proceeding at a certain rate

When does extremities catch up in infants and what else changes?

During growth spurt extremities catch up and facial proportions change (ex. jaw becomes more prominent).

Information- Processing Theories

Emphasize precise characterizations of the mechanisms that give rise to children's thinking and that produce cognitive growth 2 notable characteristics (1) precise specification of the processes involved in children's thinking (2) emphasis on thinking as a process that occurs overtime Information-processing theorists see cognitive development as occurring continuous, in small increments that happen at different ages on different task - The Child as a Limited-Capacity-Processing System - The Child as an (active) Problem Solver

When does the most rapid period of postnatal growth occur?

From birth to 2 years old

What is an alternative explanation for infants not having object permanence until 8 months in the Sensorimotor Stage?

Infant has object permanence, but does not know how to search. Researchers should try a non-search test of object permanence. Violation-of-Expectation Method - You show an infant a possible event and an impossible event. If infants have object permanence then they will look longer at Impossible than Possible event

Core Knowledge Perspective Physical Experiment--> Involving boxes and a platform (VoE)

Infants developing understanding of support relations/events Results--> At 3 months, infants are surprised if a box that is released in midair remains suspended rather than failing. However, as long as there is contact at all between the box and platform, they do not react --> At 5 months, infants are surprised and appreciate the relevance of the type of contact on the side of the platform. --> At 6.5 months, infants recognize the importance of the amount of contact and look longer when the box stays put with only a small portion of its bottom surface on the platform --> At 12.5 months, infants recognize the shape of the box and are surprised if a asymmetrical object remains stable

How are infants vision impaired? What are their limitations? Explain and provide examples.

Infants have difficulty "getting" image of object onto fovea due to lack of convergence(inabilty to focus on an object; one eye may be focused on one thing and vice versa for other eye) and focusing response being slow or imprecise (image is focused in front of the fovea instead of on it). Infants also have difficulty "reading" image on foveas due to their foveas being twice as wide as an adults and immature cones. They are a different size and shape, more spread out, and receive less than 10% of the light. The adult fovea, a tiny spot that contains 50,000 cones and the cells are *densely* packed in the center, has daylight vision, and can make out fine details and color. Infants also have poor acuity(how clearly we detect contrast) and color vision. Infants acuity starts as 30x wider than adults and becomes 4x wider at 8 months and eventually adult level at age 6. For color vision, at birth infants can make some discriminations but by 3-5 months color vision is basically adult-like.

What are the theories of motor development? Explain and provide example.

Maturational Account~ Direct result of brain development; The pace that the individual develops through the sequences is influenced by internal factors, such as physical and mental development and genetics. Dynamic Motor Systems Theories~ Not just brain development; it's also other things like physical development; Dynamic systems theory (DST) outlines three constraints (i.e. individual, task, and environment) that influence the emergence of behavior. These constraints interact with one another to self-organize and create a spontaneous behavior. ex. Legs have gotten heavier and maybe that's why they no longer engage in the stepping reflex

Core Knowledge What is the difference between nativism and constructivism?

Nativism~ the theory that infants have innate knowledge of evolutionary important domains Constructivism~ the theory that infants build increasingly advanced understanding by combining rudimentary innate knowledge with subsequent experiences

Biological Knowledge Acquisition

Nativists - Early understanding may have been crucial for survival - Children are fascinated by living things - Children organize information about living things in similar ways Empiricists - Observation - Information from parents, teachers, culture

Define reflexes and describe the three kinds of reflexes that are necessary for newborn survival and give an example of each.

Newborns start off with some tightly organized patterns of action known as neonatal reflexes~ innate, automatic, fixed patterns of action, stereotyped response to response to particular stimulation. Reflexes serve as a window into the developing nervous system and can be used as a screening tool. The presence of strong reflexes at birth is a sign that the newborn's central nervous system is in good shape. Those that are necessary for newborn survival are ones that maintain oxygen supply (breathing, hiccuping, or sneezing), maintain constant body temperature (crying, shivering), and those that manage feedings (sucking and rooting reflexes).

Belief-desire theory of mind

Our behavior depends both on our - Beliefs - Desires or goals (what we want to achieve

How did Piaget view cognitive development?

Piaget believed that kids were active learners, weren't just passively soaking up information, actively trying to construct an understanding of their world, little scientists, interact with world to learn 1) *"Child as scientist"* 2) Children *learn many important lessons on their own independently*, rather than depending on instruction from others 3) Children are *intrinsically motivated* to learn and do not need rewards from other people to do as - His approach is labeled *constructivist* because it depicts children as constructing knowledge for themselves in response to their experiences

What are some errors in Piaget's major claims?

Piaget described development as discontinuous, but is more continuous and gradual. Within the same stage there is variability among children. Piaget described development as parallel across areas, but children do not pass a series of conservation tasks all at once. Piaget set the stage for modern child psychology but, stage views do not do a very good job of predicting how children will respond and does not account for the variability in performance. Children are generally more competent than Piaget believed, but their performance depends on task construction and their own experience with tasks. Infants and young children are more cognitively competent than Piaget recognized. Piaget's theory understates the contribution of the social world to cognitive development.

When are growth rates the same in boys and girls?

Prior to puberty

What is the pubertal growth spurt *range of onset, peak growth rate, and grow end* in boys and girls?

Range of onset Girls -- 8-13 Boys -- 9.5- 13.5 Peak growth Girls -- 11-14/15 Boys -- 13-17.5 Growth ends Girls -- 19 Boys -- 21

Eye Anatomy slide in Perceptual Development Define Retina, Macula, and Fovea

Retina~ a thin layer of cells located at the back of the eyeball Macula~ a spot near the center of the retina Fovea~ a tiny spot located near the center of the macula

Name a few newborn reflexes discussed in the motor development slides.

Sucking~ When an infant's lips and mouth area are touched, the mouth opens and suckling or sucking movements begin Swallowing~ As liquid moves into the mouth, the tongue immediately moves it to the back of the mouth for swallowing Rooting~ Turn the face toward the stimulus and make sucking (rooting) motions with the mouth when the cheek or lip is touched. The rooting reflex helps to ensure successful breastfeeding Blinking~ Blinking the eyes when they are touched or when a sudden bright light appears; blink as defense Withdrawal~ A very soft prickling the foot-sole of a baby is followed by fast withdrawal of the foot and extension of the toes Grasping~ Stroking the palm of a baby's hand causes the baby to close his or her fingers in a grasp Stepping~ When a baby is held upright or when the baby's feet are touching the ground. It is prevalent from birth but gradually disappears in the first few months Tonic neck~ Known as the "fencing reflex" because of the characteristic position of the infant's arms and head, which resembles that of a classically trained fencer Babinski~ After the sole of the foot has been firmly stroked. The big toe then moves upward or toward the top surface of the foot Moro~ an involuntary response to the excessive sensual stimulus. When the Moro reflex is triggered, a baby feels startled, which can interrupt their sleep and also cause them to exhibit a physical reaction

T/F: There is variability in age of onset and pattern of development in children's motor development.

TRUE

What is necessary for TOM?

The child must be able to think about - Others' belief as different from ours... including false beliefs - Other goals as independent of ours

Define secular trend and examples

The influence of environmental factors is particularly evident in secular trends~ marked changes in physical development that have occurred over generations, such as body size or pubertal timing ex. Changes in menstruation are earlier in the new generations; humans are becoming taller

What senses make up the newborn sensory systems and how developed are they on a scale of good--fair--poor?

Touch; Taste; Smell; Hearing --> Fairly well developed at birth, but not adult-like Vision: Poor at birth, but improves in few months

Symbolic Reasoning How did they test the difficulty of dual representation view? The Shrinking Room

Use the shrinking machine idea and tell children it makes things small and therefore using children imagination to contribute to the setting of the room. They think it is the same room, removing the idea of dual representation RESULTS--> 2.5 yr olds succeed in finding the toy

Define Theory of Mind

an organized understanding of how mental processes such as intentions, desires, beliefs, perceptions, and emotions influence behavior; ability to understand that other have beliefs and desires that are different from our own

Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory

approaches that emphasize that other people and the surrounding culture contribute greatly to children's development; Emphasize the ways in which children's interactions with other people and with the products of their culture guide cognitive development - Children as Teachers and Learners - Children as Products of Their Culture

Core Knowledge Theory Explained

approaches that view children as having *innate* knowledge in domains of special evolutionary importance and domain-specific learning mechanisms for acquiring additional information in those domains; active learners; suggest that we come in to the world with special knowledge systems; innate knowledge; Core knowledge theorists view children as entering the world equipped not only with general learning ability, but also specialized learning mechanism, or mental structures, that allow them to quickly and effortlessly acquire information of evolutionary importance Domain specific~ allow children to distinguish between living and nonliving things; to anticipate that inanimate objects will remain stationary - Physical~ understanding of objects and how they relate to one another - Numerical~ subtracting/adding small quantities - Linguistic - Psychological - Biological

Define Pubertal Growth Spurt

changes in weight and height

Define binocular cues

depth cues, such as retinal disparity and convergence, that depend on the use of two eyes *Binocular disparity*~ the retinal image of an object at any instant is never quite the same in both eyes. Consequently, the eyes never send quite the same signal to the brain; The closer the object, the greater the disparity; farther away the less disparity *Stereopsis* ~ the visual cortex computes the degree of disparity between the eyes' differing neural signals and produces the perception of depth. This form of depth perception emerges quite suddenly at around *4 months* of age and is generally complete within a few weeks

Define pictorial cues

monocular depth cues found in paintings, drawings, and photographs that impart information about space, depth, and distance; (*emerges at 7 months*) Monocular used to portray depth in pictures' *Interposition*~ Objects that are closer are going to block out in of the views that are farther away *Relative size*

Define monocular kinetic cues Type of kinetic cue: looming

objects closer move faster than those far away; direction and speed of apparent motions; *emerges at birth* Motion parallax~ things that are moving more quickly, we detect closer to us Looming~ the expansion of an object as it moves closer to your face; infants blink; can distinguish by one month of age

Define depth perception

the ability to perceive the relative distance of objects in one's visual field

Define intermodal perception

the combining of information from two or more sensory systems; how we know different sensations go together;

What is the conservation concept?

the idea that merely changing the appearance of objects does not necessarily change the objects' other key properties

Define Piaget's Theory and the 4 Stages

the theory of Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget, which posits that cognitive development involves a sequence of 4 stages-- the sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational, and formal operational stages-- that are constructed through the processes of assimilation, accommodation, and equilibration