Psych250 Exam2

Age-Related Changes in the Length of Time Over Which Memory Occurs

6 months old- 24 hours 9 months old- 1 month 10-11 months old- 3 months 13-14 months old- 4-6 months 20 months old- 12 months

Fast Mapping

children's ability to make an initial connection between a word and its referent after only limited exposure to the word Exposure to words on multiple occasions over several days results in more successful word learning than the same number of exposures in a single day

General Intelligence Viewpoint

only one type of general intelligence (g) exists individuals who excel at one type of intellectual task are likely to excel at others Performance on general intelligence tests predict school and job performance

Flynn Effect

(see notes on computer for answer)

Short-term memory

Short-term memory has a limited capacity for retaining information (up to 15 to 30 seconds).

First habits and primary circular reactions substages

(1 to 4 months) coordination of sensation and two types of schemes: habits (reflex) and primary circular reactions (reproduction of an event that initially occurred by chance). Main focus is still on the infant's body ex- repeating a body sensation first experiences by chance (ex sucking thumb); then infants might accommodate actions by sucking their thumb differently from how they suck on a nipple

Tertiary circular reactions, novelty and curiosity substage

(12 to 18 months) Infants become intrigues by the many properties of objects and by the many things they can make happen to objects; they experiment with new behavior ex- a block can be made to fall, spin, hit another object, and slide across the ground

Internalization of schemes substage

(18 to 24 months) Infants develop the ability to use primitive symbols and form enduring mental representations. ex- an infant who has never thrown a temper tantrum before sees a playmate throw a tantrum; the infant retains a memory of the event, then throws one himself the next day

Secondary circular reactions substage

(4 to 8 months) Infants become more object-oriented, moving beyond self-preoccupation; repeat actions that bring interesting or pleasurable results. ex- an infant coos to make a person stay near; as the person starts to leave, the infant coos again

Coordination of secondary circular reactions substage

(8-12 months) Coordination of vision and touch- hand-eye coordination; coordination of schemes and intentionality ex- infant manipulates a stick in order to bring an attractive toy within reach

Simple Reflexes Substage

(birth to 1 month) coordination of sensation and action through reflexive behaviors ex- rooting, sucking and grasping reflexes; newborns such reflexively when their lips are touched

Prenatal Language

- Hearing begins at week 18 prenatally - Infants tested just after birth: Can differentiate their mother's voice from the voices of other women Can differentiate the language that their mother spoke while the baby was in utero

Brain Structures Involved in Explicit Memory (ignore)

-frontal lobe -hippocampus -cerebral cortex (tan colored area with wrinkles and folds)

Developmental Stages in Reading

0- birth to first grade- children master several prerequisites for reading. Many learn the left-to-right progression and order of rising, how to identify letters of the alphabet, and how to write their names. Some learn to read words that appear on signs. As a result of TX shows like Sesame Street and attending preschool and kindergarten programs, many young children today develop greater knowledge about reading earlier than in the past 1- first and second grades- many children learn to read at this time. In doing so, they acquire the ability to sound out words (this is, translate letters into sounds and blend sounds into words). They also complete their learning of letter names and sounds. 2- second and third grades- children become more fluent at retrieving individual words and other reading skills. However, at this stage reading is still not used much for learning. The demands of reading are so taxing for children at this stage that they have few resources left over to process the content. 3- fourth through eighth grade- in fourth through eighth grade, children become increasingly able to obtain new information from print. In other words, they read to learn. They still have difficulty understanding information presented from multiple perspectives within the same story. When children don't learn to read, a downward spiral unfolds that leads to serious difficulties in many academic subjects 4- highschool- many students become fully competent readers. They develop the ability to understand material told from many perspectives. This allows them to engage in sometimes more sophisticated discussions of literature, history, economics and politics.

More about Piaget and his 4 Stages

A different way of understanding the world makes one stage more advanced than another. Piaget believed that there are four stages of cognitive development Cognition is qualitatively different in one stage compared with another. Each of Piaget's stages is age-related and consists of distinct ways of thinking. Sensorimotor Preoperational Concrete operational Formal operational

What is language?

A form of communication—whether spoken, written, or signed— that is based on a system of symbols. Language consists of the words used by a community and the rules for varying and combining them. All human languages have some common characteristics

Adolescent Egocentrism

A heightened self-consciousness of adolescents, which is reflected in their belief that others are as interested in them as they are in themselves, and in their sense of personal uniqueness and invincibility. ----imaginary audience ----personal fable

Equilibration

A mechanism to explain how children shift from one stage of thought to the next. The shift occurs as children experience cognitive conflict or disequilibrium in trying to understand the world.

Stability and Change in Intelligence Through Adolescence

A recent longitudinal study examined the intelligence of 200 children from 12 months (using the Bayley scales) to 4 years (using the Stanford Binet test) of age The results indicated considerable stability from late infancy through the preschool years. Robert McCall and his associates studied 140 children between the ages of 2½ and 17. They found that the average range of IQ scores was more than 28 points. The scores of one out of three children changed by as much as 40 points! Intelligence test scores can fluctuate dramatically across the childhood years. Children's intelligence changes but has connections to early points in development.

Wernicke's area

A region of the brain's left hemisphere involved in language comprehension.

Schemes

Actions or mental representations that organize knowledge. - Behavioral schemes (physical activities) characterize infancy - Mental schemes (cognitive activities) develop in childhood

Accommodation

Adjusting schemes to fit new information and experience

Hypothetical-deductive reasoning

Adolescent's develop hypotheses, or best guesses, and systematically deduce, or conclude, which is the best path to follow in solving the problem. Only about one in three young adolescents is a formal operational thinker. Many American adults never become formal operational thinkers, and neither do many adults in other cultures.

Adoption Studies

Adoption studies are also used in attempts to analyze the relative importance of heredity in intelligence In most adoption studies, researchers determine whether the behavior of adopted children is more like that of their biological parents or their adoptive parents. Two studies concluded that children's IQ is more strongly correlated with the IQ of their biologic parents, as opposed to their adoptive parents

Personal fable

An adolescent's sense of personal uniqueness and invincibility. Some researchers have questioned the view that invulnerability is a unitary concept and argued rather that it consists of two dimensions Danger invulnerability, which involves adolescents' sense of indestructibility and tendency to take on physical risks (driving recklessly at high speeds, for example) Psychological invulnerability, which captures an adolescent's felt invulnerability related to personal or psychological distress (getting one's feelings hurt, for example)

Broca's area

An area in the left frontal lobe of the brain involved in speech production and grammatical processing.

Wechsler Scales

Another set of tests widely used to assess students' intelligence. Developed by psychologist David Wechsler. The set of tests include: Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-3rd Edition (WPPSI-III) 2 years 6 months to 7 years 3 months of age. Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-4th Edition (WISC-IV) 6 to 16 years of age The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Third Edition (WAIS-III). The Wechsler scales not only provide an overall IQ score and scores on a number of subtests but also yield several composite indexes: The Verbal Comprehension Index The Working Memory Index The Processing Speed Index The subtest and composite scores allows the examiner to determine the areas in which the child is strong or weak. Examples- zoo locations and matrix reasonings (pics in pp) Sample Items- Verbal subscales- Similarities: a child must think logically and abstractly to answer a number of questions about how things might be similar ex- in what way are a lion and a tiger alike? Comprehension: this sub scale is designed to measure an individual's judgement and common sense ex- what is the advantage of keeping money in a bank? Nonverbal scales- Block design: a child must assemble a set of multicolored blocks to match designs that the examiner shows. Visual-motor coordination, perceptual organization and the ability to visualize are assessed ex- use the four blocks on the left to make the pattern on the right

Reading in Middle and Late Childhood

As children's processing of words and passages becomes more automatic, it is said that their reading becomes more fluent Metacognitive strategies, such as learning to monitor one's reading progress, getting the gist of what is being read, and summarizing also are important in becoming a good reader Reading, like other important skills, takes time and effort.

Child's Theory of Mind

Awareness of one's own mental processes and the mental processes of others From 18 months to 3 years of age, children begin to understand three mental states: Perceptions By 2 years of age Children recognize that another person will see what's in front of her own eyes instead of what's in front of the child's eyes By 3 years of age They realize that looking leads to knowing what's inside a container Emotions The child can distinguish between positive (happy) and negative (sad) emotions. Desires Two- to 3-year-olds understand the way that desires are related to actions and to simple emotions. Children also refer to desires earlier and more frequently than they refer to cognitive states such as thinking and knowing Children come to understand that the mind can represent objects and events accurately or inaccurately The realization that people can have false beliefs—beliefs that are not true—develops in a majority of children by the time they are 5 years old 5 to 7 years of age Children have a deepening appreciation of the mind itself rather than just an understanding of mental states Not until middle and late childhood do children see the mind as an active constructor of knowledge or a processing center and move from understanding that beliefs can be false to realizing that the same event can be open to multiple interpretations

Babbling and Other Vocalizations Order

Babies' sounds go through the following sequence during the first year: Crying Cooing Babbling

Two-word Utterances

Begin around 18 to 24 months To convey meaning with just two words, the child relies heavily on gesture, tone, and context. Identification- see doggie Location- book there Repetition- more milk Possession- my candy attribution- big car agent-action- mama walk question- where ball?

The cognitive process behind reading a printed word

Being aware of sound units in words Consists of recognizing phonemes Decoding words Converting printed words into sounds Accessing word meaning Consists of finding mental representation of a word's meaning

Changes in Syntax and Semantics

Between 18 months and 6 years of age, young children learn about one new word every waking hour By the time children enter first grade, it is estimated that children know about 14,000 words. Children who enter elementary school with a small vocabulary are at risk for developing reading problems.

The Intuitive Thought Substage (in pre-operation)

Between 4 and 7 years of age. Children begin to use primitive reasoning and want to know the answers to all sorts of questions. This substage is called intuitive, because young children seem so sure about their knowledge and understanding, yet are unaware of how they know what they know.

Language Milestones and Ages

Birth- crying 2 to 4 months- cooing begins 5 months- understands first words 6 months- babbling begins 7 to 11 months- change from universal linguist to language-specific listener 8-12 months- uses gestures, such as showing and pointing. Comprehension of words appears 13 months- first word spoke 18 months- vocabulary spurt starts 18 to 24 months- uses two-word utterances. Rapid expansion of understanding of words.

Understanding Phonology and Morphology

By the time, children are 3 years of age, they can produce all the vowel sounds and most of the consonant sounds Learning to produce complex consonant clusters such as str- and -mpt.

Advances in Pragmatics

Changes in pragmatics also characterize young children's language development Young children begin to engage in extended discourse As children get older, they become increasingly able to talk about things that are not here and not now. A preschool child can tell you what she wants for lunch tomorrow, something that would not have been possible at the two-word stage of language development.

How do children construct knowledge according to Piaget?

Children construct knowledge by transforming, organizing, and reorganizing previous knowledge.

Reconstructive Memory and Children as Eyewitnesses

Children have schemas for all sorts of information. Schemas affect how children encode, store, and retrieve memories. The following conclusions about children as eyewitnesses indicate that a number of factors can influence the accuracy of a young child's memory There are age differences in children's susceptibility to suggestion There are individual differences in susceptibility Interviewing techniques can produce substantial distortions in children's reports about highly salient events

Six key principles in vocabulary development

Children learn the words they hear most often. Children learn words for things and events that interest them. Children learn words best in responsive and interactive contexts rather than in passive contexts. Children learn words best in contexts that are meaningful. Children learn words best when they access clear information about word meaning. Children learn words best when grammar and vocabulary are considered.

How is children's info characterized by self-modification?

Children learn to use what they have learned in previous circumstances to adapt their responses to new situations. Metacognition Cognition about cognition, or "knowing about knowing." Siegler (2006) argues that children play an active role in their cognitive development.

Reading and Vocabulary development

Children who begin elementary school with a small vocabulary are at risk when it comes to learning to read Vocabulary development plays an important role in reading comprehension

Vygotsky believed that children's cognitive development depends on...

Children's cognitive development depends on the tools provided by society, and their minds are shaped by the cultural context in which they live

Childhood Memory

Children's memory improves considerably after infancy Children can remember a great deal of information if they are given appropriate cues and prompts. One reason children remember less than adults is that they are far less expert in most areas. Other sources of improvement in children's memory include changes in memory span and their use of strategies.

Capacity and Speed of Processing Information

Developmental changes in information processing are likely influenced by increases in both capacity and speed of processing These two characteristics are often referred to as cognitive resources, which are proposed to have an important influence on memory and problem solving Both biology and experience contribute to growth in cognitive resources Most information-processing psychologists argue that an increase in capacity also improves processing of information How quickly children process information often influences what they can do with that information Children's speed in processing information is linked with their competence in thinking There is abundant evidence that the speed with which tasks are completed improves dramatically across the childhood years

Metacognition

Cognition about cognition, or "knowing about knowing." Helps children to perform many cognitive tasks more effectively Is cognition about cognition, or "knowing about knowing." Includes knowledge about when and where to use particular strategies for learning or for solving problems. Metacognition in Childhood (By 5 or 6 years of age) Children usually know that familiar items are easier to learn than unfamiliar ones. Young children's metamemory is limited. Preschool children have an inflated opinion of their memory abilities. Preschool children have little appreciation for the importance of cues to memory. Metacognition in Childhood (By 7 or 8 years of age) Children's understanding of their memory abilities and their skill in evaluating their performance on memory tasks is relatively poor at the beginning of the elementary school years but improves considerably by 11 to 12 years of age Metacognition in Adolescence Adolescents have an increased capacity to monitor and manage cognitive resources to effectively meet the demands of a learning task. An important aspect of cognitive functioning and learning is determining how much attention will be allocated to an available resource. Some experts argue that individual variation in metacognition becomes much more pronounced in adolescence than in childhood

Aphasia

Damage to these areas can lead to aphasia Broca's Aphasia is marked by halted and fragmented speech, but good understanding Wernicke's Aphasia is marked by fluent (although not coherent) production and compromised understanding

Gestures

Deliberate gestures start at 8-12 mos Pointing is considered by language experts as an important index of the social aspects of language Pointing first occurs without checking on adult gaze Infants then point while looking back and forth between an object and the adult

Cultural Bias in Testing

Early intelligence tests were culturally biased, favoring people from urban rather than rural environments, middle-socioeconomic status rather than low-socioeconomic status, and White rather than African American Members of minority groups who do not speak English or who speak nonstandard English are at a disadvantage in trying to understand questions framed in standard English "What should you do if you find a 3-year-old child in the street?"

Vygotsky's Theory of Cognitive Development emphasized....

Emphasized that children actively construct their knowledge and understanding through social interaction

Interactionist View of Language

Emphasizes both biology and experience seen in the variations in the acquisition of language. Virtually every child benefits enormously from opportunities to talk and be talked with. Children whose parents and teachers provide them with a rich verbal environment show many positive outcomes Parents and teachers who pay attention to what children are trying to say, expand children's utterances, read to them, and label things in the environment, are providing valuable, if unintentional, benefits

Phonics Approach

Emphasizes that reading instruction should focus on phonics and basic rules for translating written symbols into sounds. Early reading instruction should involve simplified materials.

What 3 Mechanisms work together to create changes in children's cognitive skills?

Encoding The process by which information gets into memory. Automaticity The ability to process information with little or no effort. Strategy construction The creation of new procedures for processing information.

Basic processes required for memory

Encoding- getting info into memory Storage- retaining info over time Retrieval- taking info out of storage

Information-Processing Approach to Development

Focuses on how children think. Analyzes how children manipulate information, monitor it, and create strategies for handling it A computer metaphor can illustrate how the information-processing approach can be applied to development: A computer's information processing is limited by its hardware and software. The hardware limitations include the amount of data the computer can process—its capacity—and speed. The software limits the kind of data that can be used as input, and the ways that data can be manipulated Children's information processing may be limited by capacity and speed as well as by their ability to manipulate information. In the information-processing approach, children's cognitive development results from their ability to overcome processing limitations by increasingly executing: Basic operations, Expanding information-processing capacity, And acquiring new knowledge and strategies.

Binet Test

In 1904, the French Ministry of Education asked psychologist, Alfred Binet, to devise a method of identifying children who were unable to learn in school. Binet and his student, Theophile Simon, developed an intelligence test to meet this request. Today, this test is called the Stanford Binet test Binet developed the concept of mental age (MA), an individual's level of mental development relative to others. The term intelligence quotient (IQ) refers to a person's mental age divided by chronological age (CA), multiplied by 100. IQ = MA/CA X 100. MA > CA; IQ > 100 MA < CA; IQ < 100 MA = CA; IQ = 100 Scores on a Stanford-Binet test approximate a normal distribution. A normal distribution is symmetrical, with a majority of the scores falling in the middle of the possible range of scores and few scores appearing toward the extremes of the range. The 4th edition of the Stanford-Binet was published in 1985. One important addition to this version was the analysis of the individual's responses in terms of four functions: Verbal reasoning Quantitative reasoning Abstract visual reasoning Short-term memory. A general composite score is still obtained to reflect overall intelligence. The Stanford-Binet continues to be one of the most widely used tests to assess students' intelligence

Assimilation

Incorporating new information into existing schemes.

Skills gained in school for language

Increasingly using language to talk about things that are not physically present, Learning what a word is, and Learning how to recognize and talk about sounds Children's vocabulary increases from an average of about 14,000 words at 6 years of age to an average of about 40,000 words by 11 years of age

Metamemory

Individuals' knowledge about memory. Includes general knowledge about memory and knowledge about one's own memory.

First Memories

Infant can remember perceptual-motor information - some argue That it is only implicit memory (i.e., memories of skills and routine procedures that are performed automatically without conscious recollection).

Facilitating Language

Infants and Toddlers Be an active conversational partner. Talk slowly Use parent-look and parent-gesture; name what you are looking at. Be simple, concrete, and repetitive. Play games. Expand and elaborate language abilities and horizons with infants and toddlers. Adjust to your child's idiosyncrasies instead of working against them. Resist making normative comparisons

Recognizing Language Sounds

Infants can make fine distinctions among the sounds of the language (theirs and others) Over the 1st 6 months, infants begin to specialize in sounds from their own language To learn words, infants must fish out individual words from the nonstop stream of sound that makes up ordinary speech

How do we measure intelligence?

Intelligence cannot be directly measured. We can evaluate intelligence only indirectly by studying and comparing the intelligent acts that people perform. -tests and experiments and measures such as writing a novel

Sternberg's Triarchic Theory

Intelligence comes in three forms: Analytical Involves the ability to analyze, judge, evaluate, compare, and contrast. Creative Consists of the ability to create, design, invent, originate, and imagine. Practical Focuses on the ability to use, apply, implement, and put into practice.

Use and Misuse of Intelligence Tests

Intelligence tests have real-world applications as predictors of school and job success Many factors contribute to success in school and work. These include: Motivation to succeed Physical and Mental Health Social Skills The single number provided by many IQ tests can easily lead to false expectations and sweeping generalizations. They can also become self-fulfilling prophecies.

Cultural-fair Tests

Intelligence tests that aim to avoid cultural bias. Two types of culture-fair tests have been developed: The first includes questions that are familiar to people from all socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds. The second type contains no verbal questions.

Private Speech

Is an important tool of thought during the early childhood years V argued that language and thought initially develop independently of each other and then merge. Children must use language to communicate with others before they can focus inward on their own thoughts. Children must communicate externally and use language for a long period of time before they can make the transition from external to internal speech. This transition period occurs between 3 and 7 years of age and involves talking to oneself. After a while, the self-talk becomes second nature to children, and they can act without verbalizing. When this occurs, children have internalized their egocentric speech in the form of inner speech, which becomes their thoughts. Vygotsky reasoned that children who use a lot of private speech are more socially competent than those who don't. For Vygotsky, when young children talk to themselves, they are using language to govern their behavior and guide themselves. Researchers have found support for Vygotsky's view that private speech plays a positive role in children's development

What is attention?

Is the focusing of mental resources. It improves cognitive processing for many tasks. At any one time, children, like adults, can pay attention to only a limited amount of information.

Egocentrism

Is the inability to distinguish between one's own perspective and someone else's perspective. Piaget and Inhelder studied children's egocentrism by devising the three mountains task.

Object Permanence

Is the understanding that objects and events continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, heard, or touched. Acquiring the sense of object permanence is one of the infant's most important accomplishments. Infants develop object permanence in a series of six substages of sensorimotor development.

Behaviorist View on Language

Language is a complex learned skill, much like playing the piano or dancing. The behavioral view of language learning has several problems: It does not explain how people create novel sentences Children learn the syntax of their native language even if they are not reinforced for doing so.

Child-Directed Speech

Language spoken in a higher pitch than normal with simple words and sentences Adults' strategies to enhance the child's acquisition of language Recasting: Rephrasing something the child has said. Expanding: Restating, in a linguistically sophisticated form, what a child has said. Labeling: Identifying the names of objects.

Chomsky's Language Acquisition Device

Linguist Noam Chomsky (1957) proposed that humans are biologically prewired to learn language at a certain time and in a certain way. Chomsky said that children are born into the world with a language acquisition device (LAD). A biological endowment that enables the child to detect certain features and rules of language, including phonology, syntax, and semantics. LAD is a theoretical construct, not a physical part of the brain

Long-term memory

Long-term memory is a relatively permanent and unlimited type of memory.

Constructing memory

Memory is not like a tape recorder or a camera or even like computer memory; we don't store and retrieve bits of data in computer-like fashion. Children and adults construct and reconstruct their memories

What is memory?

Memory is the retention of information over time.

Infantile Amnesia

Most adults can remember little if anything from the first 3 years of their life This is called infantile or childhood amnesia. Elementary schoolchildren also do not remember much of their early child years Most of young infants' conscious memories appear to be rather fragile and short-lived, although their implicit memory of perceptual-motor actions can be substantial By the end of the second year, long-term memory is more substantial and reliable

Environmental Influences on Intelligence

Most experts today agree that the environment also plays an important role in intelligence Adoption from a low-income into a high-income home is associated with a 12 to 18 point increase in IQ One argument for the importance of environment in intelligence involves the increasing scores on IQ tests around the world. Researchers increasingly are interested in manipulating the early environment of children who are at risk for impoverished intelligence Focus is on prevention, rather than remediation The Abecedarian Project (UNC) A review of the research on early interventions concluded the following: High-quality center-based interventions are associated with increases in children's intelligence and school achievement. Early interventions are most successful with poor children and children whose parents have little education.

Types of conservation---- fix

Number- two identical rows of objects are shown to the child, who agrees they have the same number- one row is lengthened and the child is asked whether one row now has more objects- answer is yes, the longer row Matter- two identical balls of clay are shown to the child. The child agrees that they are equal- the experimenter moves one stick to the right, then asks the child if they are equal in length- answer is no, the longer one has more Length- two sticks are aligned in front of the child. The child agrees that they are the same length- the experimenter move one stick to the right, then asks the child if there are equal in length- answer is no, the one on the top is longer

Does neurological speed play a role in intelligence?

One recent study found that speed of neurological functioning was faster for intellectually gifted children than children with average intelligence Other evidence has been inconsistent, and thus the answer to this question is not definitively known.

Attention in Infancy

Orienting/Investigative Progress Infants also engage in sustained or focused attention

Content Knowledge and Expertise

Our ability to remember new information about a subject does depend considerably on what we already know about it Experts: Have acquired extensive knowledge about a particular content area. This knowledge influences what they notice and how they organize, represent, and interpret information. This in turn affects their ability to remember, reason, and solve problems. When individuals have expertise about a particular subject, their memory also tends to be good regarding material related to that subject There are developmental changes in expertise. Older children usually have more expertise about a subject than younger children do, which can contribute to their better memory for the subject.

Over and under extension

Overextension is the tendency to apply a word to objects that are inappropriate for the word's meaning. Underextension is the tendency to apply a word too narrowly; it occurs when children fail to use a word to name a relevant event or object.

Schema theory

People mold memories to fit information that already exists in their minds The process is guided by schemas Schemas are mental frameworks that organize concepts and information. Schemas influence the way we encode, make inferences about, and retrieve information. We reconstruct the past rather than take an exact photograph of it, and the mind can distort an event as it encodes and stores impressions of it.

Outcomes of Bilingualism

Perform better on tests of control of attention, concept formation, analytical reasoning, inhibition, cognitive flexibility, cognitive complexity, and cognitive monitoring Are more conscious of the structure of spoken and written language and better at noticing errors of grammar and meaning, skills that benefit their reading ability Have a smaller vocabulary in each language than monolingual children

Rule Systems for Language and Explanations

Phonology- units of sound- ex. cat has 3 phonemes Morphology- units of meaning- ex. girl is one morpheme and girls is 2 morphemes Syntax- the way words are combined into acceptable phrases and sentences- ex. the girl kissed the boy...the boy kissed the girl Semantic- the meaning of words and sentences- ex. knowing the definitions of words Pragmatics- system of using appropriate conversation and knowing how to use language in context- ex. knowing not to interrupt others when they're talking

How is attention allocated in different ways?

Selective attention Focusing on a specific relevant aspect of experience while ignoring those that are irrelevant Divided attention Concentrating on more than one activity at the same time. Sustained attention (vigilance) The state of readiness to detect and respond to small changes occurring at random times in the environment. Executive attention Involves action planning, allocating attention to goals, error detection and compensation, monitoring progress on tasks, and dealing with novel or difficult circumstances.

Contributions of Piagetian Theory

Piaget is considered a giant in the field of developmental psychology. Psychologists owe him for a long list of masterful concepts of enduring power and fascination: assimilation, accommodation, object permanence, egocentrism, conservation, and others His careful observations of children demonstrated inventive ways to discover how they act on and adapt to their world. Children need to make their experiences fit their schemes and simultaneously adapt their schemes to experience. Cognitive change is likely to occur if the context is structured to allow gradual movement to the next higher level. Concepts do not emerge suddenly, full-blown, but instead develop through a series of partial accomplishments that lead to increasingly comprehensive understanding

Piaget sought to discover...

Piaget sought to discover how children, at different points in their development, think about the world and how systematic changes in their thinking occur.

Piaget stressed...

Piaget stressed that children actively construct their own cognitive worlds.

Piaget and Education

Piaget was not an educator. He provided a sound conceptual framework for viewing learning and education. Some ideas in Piaget's theory that can be applied to teaching children -Take a constructivist approach. -Facilitate rather than direct learning. -Consider the child's knowledge and level of thinking. -Promote the student's intellectual health. -Turn the classroom into a setting of exploration and discovery.

Piaget and Language

Piaget's concept of object permanence has been the focus of some research that connects cognitive and language development. Piaget emphasized that children come to learn about the world first and then learn to label what they know. Infants may need a concept of object permanence before they start to use words for disappearance, such as "all gone"

Understanding Language Rules

Plurals and Possessives e.g. dogs and dog's Overgeneralization Demonstrates an understanding of grammar rules e.g. "foots" or "goed"

Sensitive Periods

Sensitive periods likely vary across different language systems For adolescents and adults, new vocabulary is easier to learn than new sounds or new grammar Adults tend to learn a second language faster than children, but their final level of second language attainment is not as high as children's.

Criticisms of Piagetian Theory

Questions are raised about estimates of children's competence at different developmental levels, stages, the training of children to reason at higher levels, and culture and education. Some cognitive abilities emerge earlier and some later than Piaget thought Recent theoretical revisions highlight more cognitive competencies of infants and young children and more cognitive shortcomings of adolescents and adults. Some concrete operational concepts do not appear in synchrony. Most contemporary developmentalists agree that children's cognitive development is not as stagelike as Piaget thought Some children who are at one cognitive stage (such as preoperational) can be trained to reason at a higher cognitive stage (such as concrete operational). Culture and education exert stronger influences on children's development than Piaget reasoned

Is having a big brain linked to higher intelligence?

Recent studies using MRI scans to assess total brain volume indicate a moderate correlation (about + .3 to + .4) between brain size and intelligence *Note: Albert Einstein's total brain size was average

First Words

Receptive vocabulary vs. Spoken vocabulary First spoken word between 10 to 15 months of age and at an average of about 13 months. Common 1st words: dada, kitty, car, ball, milk, eye, hat, clock, bye Same word can mean different things: e.g. "Cookie!" can mean "I want a cookie!", or "That is a cookie!"

Explicit Memory

Refers to conscious memory of facts and experiences--- Does not occur until the second half of the first year From about 6 to 12 months of age, the maturation of the hippocampus and the surrounding cerebral cortex, especially the frontal lobes, makes the emergence of explicit memory possible

Implicit Memory

Refers to memory without conscious recollection-- skills and routine procedures that are performed automatically such as riding a bicycle.

Memory Span

Short-term memory has a very limited capacity. Research with the memory-span task suggests that short-term memory increases during childhood Speed of processing increases. Rehearsal of information improves. Children are more effective in using strategies to remember in middle childhood than in early childhood

Comparison of Vygotsky vs Piaget

Sociocultural context- V-strong emphasis P-little emphasis Constructivism- V- social constructivist P-cognitive constructivist Stages- V- no general stages of development proposed P- strong emphasis on stages (sensorimotor, proportional, concrete operational, and formal operational) Key Processes- V- Zone of proximal development, language, dialogue, tools of the culture P- schema, assimilation, accommodation, operations, conservation, classification Role of Language- V- a major role; language plays a powerful role in shaping thoughts P- language has a minimal role; cognition primarily directs language View on Education- V- education plays a central role, helping children learn the tools of the culture P- education merely refines the child's cognitive skills that have already emerged Teaching Implications- V- teacher is a facilitator and guide, not a director; establish many opportunities for children to learn with the teacher and more-skilled peers P- also views teacher as a facilitator and guide, not a director; provide support for children to explore their world and discover knowledge

Criticisms of Vygotsky's Theory

Some critics point out that Vygotsky was not specific enough about age-related changes. Some argue that Vygotsky does not adequately describe how changes in socioemotional capabilities contribute to cognitive development. Vygotsky overemphasized the role of language in thinking.

Intelligence

Some experts describe intelligence as the ability to solve problems. Others describe it as the capacity to adapt and learn from experience. Still others argue that intelligence includes characteristics such as creativity and interpersonal skills. We will use as our definition of intelligence the ability to solve problems and to adapt and learn from experiences.

Biological Influences on Language

Some language scholars view the remarkable similarities in how children acquire language all over the world, despite the vast variation in language input they receive, as strong evidence that language has a biological basis. Many experts believe that humans acquired language about 100,000 years ago. Language gave humans an enormous edge over other animals and increased the chances of human survival There is evidence that particular regions of the brain are predisposed to be used for language

Fuzzy Trace Theory

States that when individuals encode information, they create two types of memory representations: A verbatim memory trace, which consists of precise details; A fuzzy trace, or gist, which is the central idea of the information.

Whole-Language Approach????

Stresses that reading instruction should parallel children's natural language learning. Reading materials should be whole and meaningful.

Attention in Adolescence

Sustained and executive attention are very important aspects of adolescent cognitive development One trend involving divided attention is adolescents' multi-tasking: role of electronics Controlling attention is a key aspect of learning and thinking in adolescence and emerging adulthood Self-oriented thoughts, such as worrying, self-doubt, and intense emotions, may especially interfere with focusing attention on thinking tasks

Literacy

Teaching language skills, phonological and syntactic knowledge, letter identification, and conceptual knowledge about print and its conventions and functions Phonological awareness, letter name and sound knowledge, and naming speed in kindergarten were linked to reading success in the first and second grade Children's early home environment influenced their early language skills, which in turn predicted their readiness for school

Infinite Generativity

The ability to produce an endless number of meaningful sentences using a finite set of words and rules.

Formal Operational Stage

The adolescent reasons in more abstract, idealistic, and logical (hypothetical-deductive) ways. (11 Years of Age Through Adulthood) Individuals move beyond concrete experiences and think in systematic, abstract and more logical ways. -----Abstract, Idealistic, and Logical Thinking -----Hypothetical-deductive reasoning

Imaginary Audience

The aspect of adolescent egocentrism that involves feeling one is the center of everyone's attention and sensing that one is on stage.

Vocabulary Spurt

The average 18-month-old can speak about 50 words, but by the age of 2 years can speak about 200 words. Like the timing of a child's first word, the timing of the vocabulary spurt varies.

Conservation

The awareness that altering an object's or substance's appearance does not change its basic properties. Substances are not changed by transformations that merely alter their appearance. Children do not conserve all quantities or conserve on all tasks simultaneously Horizontal décalage - the concept that similar abilities do not appear at the same time in a stage of development

Animism

The belief that inanimate objects have lifelike qualities and are capable of action A young child might show animism by saying, "The sidewalk made me mad; it made me fall down." A young child who uses animism fails to distinguish the appropriate occasions for using human and nonhuman perspectives.

Centration

The centering of attention on one characteristic to the exclusion of all others.

Pre-operational Stage

The child begins to use mental representations to understand the world. Symbolic thinking, reflected in the use of words and images, is used in this mental representation, which goes beyond the connection of sensory information with physical action. However, there are some constraints on the child's thinking at this stage, such as egocentrism and centration. (2 to 7 Years of Age) The cognitive world of the preschool child is creative, free, and fanciful. The label preoperational emphasizes that the child does not yet perform operations, which are internalized actions that allow children to do mentally what before they could do only physically. In this stage, children begin to represent the world with words, images, and drawings. Symbolic thought goes beyond simple connections of sensory information and physical action. Stable concepts are formed, mental reasoning emerges, egocentrism is present, and magical beliefs are constructed. Preoperational thought can be divided into substages the symbolic function substage and the intuitive thought substage. The Symbolic Function Substage Occurring roughly between the ages of 2 and 4. In this substage, the young child gains the ability to mentally represent an object that is not present. This ability vastly expands the child's mental world ----Egocentrism ----Animism The Intuitive Thought Substage Centration Conservation

Concrete Operational Stage

The child can now reason logically about concrete events, understands the concept of conservation, organizes objects into hierarchical classes (classification), and places objects in ordered series (seriation). (7 to 11 Years of Age) Logical reasoning replaces intuitive reasoning. Children at this stage can perform concrete operations, which are reversible mental actions on real, concrete objects. ----conservation ----classification

Heritability

The concept of heritability attempts to tease apart the effects of heredity and environment in a population. Heritability is the fraction of the variance within a population that is attributed to genetics. The highest degree of heritability is 1.00 and correlations of .70 and above suggest a strong genetic influence. The American Psychological Association (APA) concluded that by late adolescence the heritability of intelligence is about .75 which reflects a strong genetic influence. The heritability index has several flaws It is only as good as the data that are entered into its analysis, and the interpretations made from it. The data are virtually all from traditional IQ tests which some experts believe are not always the best indicator of intelligence The heritability index assumes that we can treat genetic and environmental influences as factors that can be separated with each contributing a distinct amount of influence. strong genetic influence.

What two basic and separate issues characterize connections between language and cognition

The first is whether cognition is necessary for language. The second issue is whether language is necessary for (or important to) cognition. There is evidence of links between the cognitive and language worlds of children

Organization (Piaget)

The grouping of isolated behaviors and thoughts into a higher-order system. Continual refinement of this organization is an inherent part of development.

Classification

The interrelationships among sets and subsets Seriation: Ordering stimuli along a quantitative dimension (such as length). Transitivity: The ability to reason about and logically combine relationships.

Might intelligence be linked to specific regions of the brain?

The most prominent finding from brain imaging studies is that a distributed neural network involving the frontal and parietal lobes is related to higher intelligence As our ability to image the brain improves, we are likely to discover more specific information about the role of the brain in intelligence

The Fagan Test of Infant Intelligence

The test focuses on the infant's ability to process information, such as: Encoding the attributes of objects Detecting similarities and differences between objects Forming mental representations Retrieving representations

Telegraphic Speech

The use of short and precise words without grammatical markers such as articles, auxiliary verbs, and other connectives. "Mommy give ice cream" and "Mommy give Tommy ice cream" Toddlers move rather quickly from producing two-word utterances to creating three-, four-, and five-word combinations.

Scaffolding

This term means changing the level of support. Over the course of a teaching session in which a more skilled individual (teacher or more advanced peer of the child) adjusts the amount of guidance to fit the child's current performance. Dialogue An important tool of scaffolding Occurs when the child's rich but unsystematic, disorganized, and spontaneous concepts meet with the skilled helper's more systematic, logical, and rational concepts.

How do children make sense of the world according to Piaget?

To make sense out of their world, children cognitively organize and adapt their experiences.

Howard Gardner's 8 Frames of Mind

Verbal skills Mathematical skills Spatial skills Bodily-kinesthetic skills Musical skills Intrapersonal skills Interpersonal skills Naturalist skills

The Zone of Proximal Development

Vygotsky's term for the range of tasks that is too difficult for children to master Alone but that can be mastered with the guidance and assistance of adults or more-skilled children. The lower limit of the ZPD is the level of skill reached by the child working independently. The upper limit is the level of additional responsibility the child can accept with the assistance of an able instructor.

Vygotsky's Theory of Cognitive Development and Teaching Strategies

Vygotsky's theory has been embraced by many teachers and has been successfully applied to education Here are some ways Vygotsky's theory can be incorporated in classrooms: Teaching Strategies Assess the child's ZPD. Use the child's ZPD in teaching. Use more skilled peers as teachers. Monitor and encourage children's use of private speech. Place instruction in a meaningful context. Transform the classroom with Vygotskian ideas.

Evaluating Vygotsky's Theory

Vygotsky's view of the importance of sociocultural influences on children's development fits with the current belief that it is important to evaluate the contextual factors in learning Vygotsky's theory is a social constructivist approach - he emphasized collaboration, social interaction, and sociocultural activity. For Vygotsky, the end point of cognitive development can differ depending on which skills are considered to be the most important in a particular culture. For Piaget, children construct knowledge by transforming, organizing, and reorganizing previous knowledge. The implication of Piaget's theory for teaching is that children need support to explore their world and discover knowledge. The main implication of Vygotsky's theory for teaching is that students need many opportunities to learn with the teacher and more skilled peers.

Bayley Scales of Infant Development

Widely used scales to assess infant behavior and predict later development. The current version, Bayley-III has 5 scales: Cognitive Language Motor Socioemotional* Adaptive* *Administered as questionnaires

Working memory

Working memory is a kind of mental "workbench" where individuals manipulate and assemble information when they make decisions, solve problems, and comprehend written and spoken language Baddeley's model of working memory has two short-term stores, one for speech and one for visual and spatial information, plus a central executive that monitors and controls the system.

Attention in Childhood

Young children especially make advances in two aspects of attention: executive attention and sustained Control over attention shows important changes during early childhood Instead of being controlled by the most striking stimuli in their environment, older children can direct their attention to more important stimuli

Multiple Intelligence Viewpoint

emphasizes creativity and broader definition of intelligence Has motivated educators to develop programs that instruct students in different domains Criticisms: Multiple intelligences are arbitrary

Sensorimotor Stage

infants gain knowledge of the world from the physical actions they perform on it. Infants coordinate sensory experiences with these physical actions. An infant progresses from reflexive, instinctual action at birth to the beginning of symbolic thought toward the end of the stage. (Birth to 2 Years of Age) From birth to about 2 years of age. Infants construct an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences with physical, motoric actions. At the beginning of this stage, newborns have little more than reflexive patterns with which to work. At the end of the sensorimotor stage, 2-year-olds can produce complex sensorimotor patterns and use primitive symbols. Substages (1) Simple reflexes (2) First habits and primary circular reactions (3) Secondary circular reactions (4) Coordination of secondary circular reactions (5) Tertiary circular reactions, novelty, and curiosity (6) Internalization of schemes.

Adaptation (Piaget)

involves adjusting to new environmental demands. Children do this through the processes of Assimilation Incorporating new information into existing schemes. Accommodation Adjusting schemes to fit new information and experience

Abstract, Idealistic, and Logical Thinking

verbal problem-solving ability, increased tendency to think about thought itself and thought is full of idealism and possibilities. As adolescents are learning to think more abstractly and idealistically, they are also learning to think more logically.

Language and Thought according to Vygotsky

young children use language to plan, guide, and monitor their behavior. This use of language for self-regulation is called private speech.