Child Adolescents test 2

Alison Gopnik's work on children's reasoning/problem-solving (e.g. blicket detector studies) has led her to characterize scientists as little children. Explain in some detail what that means and how it is different from Piaget's view of cognitive development

-According to Piaget a child is in preoperational at 4 years old and cannot think logically but Gopnik thinks that children are logical in thinking and problem solving Piaget vs Gopnik: Children are scientists-Piaget -actively engaged within their environment. Sensorimotor stage. Start to try things out to figure the world around them out. Scientists are children-Gopnik -Scientists are like children due to trial and error. More hypothesis, less constrained thinking. An older person is less likely to test the unlikely. Children are more likely to test the unlikely because they don't have constrained brains from experience yet. The Infant brain is the best learning device on the planet Main point: infant brain made for learning and testing things out

What research evidence suggests that the infant mind is not a blank slate?

-Any learning and habituation requires memory, implies that infants already have memory Infants are equipped with: -perceptual biases that lead them to attend to (and learn from) some stimuli more than others -in sum, it's a pattern of biological preparedness that has to be met with appropriate environmental input (input is crucial, but there are things are things that are already innate) -They are prepared by their biology to make sense of their physical world

Define the visual cliff test. How does Karen Adolph interpret infants' reluctance to move across the visual cliff, and how is that different from older interpretations?

-Are with a checkerboard patter and then a glass other side where it looks like a drop off. They are tricked into believing that if they keep going, they will fall of the other edge. They seem reluctant to approach it. -The younger they are the more likely they are to crawl over the "drop off", as they get older they develop depth perception -Learning to perceive relationship between body and enviroment -let cry vs helping child parents just let kid figure shit out be upset vs as soon as the kid finds it difficult the parent helps them

Describe general developmental changes in a person's cognitive self-concept between 18 months and early adulthood.

-Awareness of your personality, skills, etc -Early signs of self awareness -Mirror self recognition by 18-24 months But recognition in pictures, videos only 3+ years Linguistic markers (I, me, mine) by 2 years -Childhood Preschoolers' self description focus on actions, physical attributes Surprising lack of self awareness in certain aspects -Adolescence Realization that there are multiple selves that change with social context (romantic partner vs. parent) -Early Adulthood What others think of you becomes less relevant

Describe Chomsky's concept of universal grammar and how it contrasts with the new usage-based view of language acquisition.

-Children are born with Language Activation Device (LAD) -Innate knowledge of certain principles that guide them in developing the grammar of their language -Innate and subconsciously -Unconscious constraints that let us decide whether a sentence is correctly formed ("That's how you say it" rather than "How that's you it say") -All sentences in languages have subjects; languages differ in whether the subject has to be explicitly stated -Usage-based linguistics (Recent research does not support idea of innate grammar module) -"Swiss Army knife" general-purpose tools rather than language-specific universal grammar/LAD -Categorization -Recognition relationships between things, analogies, generalizations -Understanding intentions of others

Provide a specific example to explain what it means to say Piaget's theory of cognitive development is a constructivist theory

-Children play an ACTIVE ROLE in understanding the world around them (construct their understanding or reality) -They try things out to understand them and piece together other kinds of info: =Ex: child wondering about the shape of the world: look outside and see that the earth is flat. Now, at some point they learn that it is a 3D thing, not 2D. It can be compared to a ball. This might not make sense to children because they could think that people could fall of the earth. End up thinking it is like a bowl -They gradually learn info about the world -They are not genetically filled with info

Define what Judy Deloache means by DUAL REPRESENTATION and explain how she used a "shrinking room" to demonstrate that is really is the duality of symbols that poses a problem for children younger than 3 years

-Duel representation: understand relation between symbol & referent -Tricked kids she had a machine to make tiny room bigger -Had a normal room and a stuffed animal, then had a miniature version of the room and of the stuffed animal. Showed kid where it was hidden in small room made them leave and lots of lights and noises and made the kids believe she made the room big and to go find the stuffed animal

define infant face perception and tie in the findings you describe with an evolutionary perspective on child development

-Faces include info about, identity, emotional state, gaze (attention, interest, intention), and attraction (in sexually mature individuals) -Our eye gaze has a lot of info, if you look at something an infant will look too -(from birth infants are drawn to faces) 12 hours of cumulative exposure, prefer that face over any other woman's (ex a child preferring their mother) -Visual scanning of faces change 1 month: visually scan contours/lines rich in contrast 2 month: looking at internal features (eyes, mouth) 3 months: infant clearly prefers faces, not just the individual elements. (can see this through their eye movements and scanning of the face *eye development) 4 months: differentiate of faces of the same sex as the primary caregiver better than faces of the other sex 9 months: other race effect: process faces of our own race better than those of other races -prefer eyes; and can distinguish between lemurs just as good as humans -Particular areas of the brain become involved in face perception: fusiform gyrus

Define the concept OBJECT PERMANENCE and explain why Piaget's estimate of the age at which children develop it is so different than what's suggested by more recent research (e.g. Baillargeon's rotating screen study)

-If you remove an object from in sight of the child to out of sight, they know that it has not disappeared and still in the room -Piaget said that object permanence isn't fully developed until about 18 mo old because that is when they can understand invisible displacements, in which an object is hidden in one container and then hidden under another container out of the sight of the observer. Baillargeon's experiment with the rotating screen and blocks show object permanence understanding in about 4 mo old infant

Explain what inhibition is and why it is an important aspect of cognitive development (Hint: it has to do with short-term memory capacity). -describe how inhibition can be measured (e.g. Stroop task) your task description needs to make clear what it is that children have to inhibit.

-Inhibition-keeping distracting thoughts out of consciousness -Anything that is irrelevant to the task they are trying to complete. Like if they are trying to focus on a task, they need to block out extranerous stimuli -For the stoop task, they have to suppress their instincts read the word instead of saying the color. We have to inhibit this when naturally we would want to read the word Inhibition can be measured by the Stroop task: Blue Red Green Orange Green Purple Yellow Red

Use example of your choice to explain in detail how you can use visual habituation to learn something about infants' perceptual or cognitive abilities

-Intelligence- an infant who habituates more quickly -If kids are shown pictures of dogs that are different and a child can know they are a group then if they see a cat they can separate it or not. -see if they dishabituate or not -See if they can differentiate between a stimulus that is physically present and one that is stored in their memories by showing them two faces. Have them habituate to one and then show them the second one and see if they dishabituuate. If they don't then they are cognititvely behind

Explain the general concept of lexical constraints, then name and explain - using specific examples! - two of the three lexical constraints we discussed in class.

-Lexical constraints enable inferences about word meaning Called "constraints" because they limit the range of possible connections between words and what they could stand for Mutual Exclusivity Constraint: When children learn that different words refer to different things. Ex: tongs vs cup Whole Object Constraint: when children hear a word they assume it refers to a whole object and not just part of it. Ex: Bunny (not just ears or feet or way or movement) Taxonomic Constraint: Children initially assume that words refer to things that are similar. Ex: everything four legged and furry is a rabbit

Use a specific ex to illustrate the concept of intermodal perception

-McGurk Effect-hear BA BA, mouth changes and you hear VA VA, but if you look away you hear BA BA. Sound didn't change, the way we perceived sound changed due to the shape of the mouth changing -Blind people don't always pronounce certain phonemes correctly -Infant able to distinguish between female and male voice

Critically evaluate the contributions of Piaget's theory to our understanding of how children's thinking develops as well as the theory's limitations/shortcomings

-Piaget's theory contributed to our understanding of how children's thinking develops by having a rich description of children's thinking at different ages. It provides an explanation, not just a description -It had important ideas involving thought/intelligence precedes language, child's active contructivism, and difference in how children think have served as basic foundation for educational levels -Some criticism are the timing children obtain certain skills (object permanence) are not correct, the concept stages of development aren't as concrete as piaget said they were, and the mechanisms of development doesn't account for environment or culture.

Define perceptual biases, provide two specific examples of perceptual biases in infancy, explain how they fit into an evolution perspective on child development

-Preceptual biases: preferences in visual stimuli. Infants are drawn to certain things over other things -they generally like complexity, motion, symmetry, and high contrast -Novelty: has to do with memory and learning (psychological criteria) -Evolutionary perspective: help to have a preference for faces and recognize caregivers. Steered towards social enviroment. Respond well to touch, Respond to social context in which we are raised.

Name each of the 4 stages in Piaget's theory of cognitive development, give their age ranges, and characterize both the accomplishments and limitations of the way children think at each of the stages

-Sensorimotor (birth to 2 years) infant understands world through 5 senses and action (movement, motor action) (uses senses and motor skills, cognition is practical (items known by use); object permanence by 8 mo; no enduring mental structures; goal directed behavior -Preoperational (2-7 years) there are certain modes of thinking that the child does not yet have. -Cognition is symbolic and intuitive; expression of the symbolic function through language, drawings, symbolic play; thought is not logical but intuitive, magical (animism); no concept of conservation -EX: children do not have logic yet -Lack operation of reversibility -EX: the video in class of child with water and playdoh -4 year old unable to caregorize -Concrete operational (7-11 years) they now have certain mental operations, but only if they have concrete things to think about, thought is symbolic =Logical mental operations possible with concrete materials; conservation, multiple classification, seriation possible -EX: they don't yet understand gravity and other unknowns (things they can't grasp and manipulate) -child can categorize and classify Formal Operational (11 years-adulthood) -Thinking is logical and abstract; hypothetical ideas explored (ethics, politics, social/moral issues) -Ability to grasp concepts like infinity, density, ethics, justice, deductive reasoning (from general to specific), inductive reasoning (from specific to general), thinking about thinking (metacognition)

Explain what SPEED OF PROCESSING refers to, describe in some detail HOW it changes with age (feel free to sketch a graph with clearly labeled axes), and explain WHY it changes

-Speed of processing: how quickly any cognitive operation can be executed, which affects how many operations can be performed in a short period of time -Executive function (frontal cortex) -Myelination is not complete in the frontal cortex until teen years, which is what is responsible for how fast you process shit -Same basic pattern of age related changes across very different tasks (largerly driven by brain maturation)

Define the term symbol and explain the role of symbols in children's cognitive development. Describe what research by Judy DeLoache and others has taught us about infants' and young children's difficulties in understanding symbols (e.g. pictures books, scale models of rooms)

-Symbol: something that represents something else -9 mo will try and touch and pick up picture in book -Some kids struggle to understand that the symbol stands in for something in first place -use a stick to stand in as a sword (15-18mo) -After 3 years of age they have soicodramatic play: different roles -Influenced by culture: play things that prepare them for adulthood -Stroytelling: evil is symbolized by characters -Language: everyone word is symbol for what it stands for if you don't have symbols -Drawing: prime way of expressing understanding of symbols

Autism Spectrum Disorder

-The frequency of autism spectrum diagnoses has been increasing for decades, but (researchers cannot agree on whether the trend is a result of heightened awareness, an expanding definition of the spectrum, an actual increase in incidence or some combination of those factors) Diagnosing the condition is not an exact science. Children "on the spectrum" vary widely in their abilities and symptoms, from mute and intellectually limited at one extreme to socially awkward at the other. -Children with such diagnoses often receive extensive state-financed support services-which some experts believe may have contributed to an increase in the numbers

Tomasello and Col. studied similarities and differences in the cognitive development of human infants and that of other great apes, most notably chimpanzees. Describe some of these similarities and key differences using EX

-Tool Use Chimpanzee vs. human children and treat box -chimps realized that they don't need to do any of the stick actions that the adults showed them to get the treat, but the children still used the stick and followed the steps that the chimp did -Children assume the adults act intentionally so they do what adult does even if is not necessary which shows cognitive development (the treat isn't just the whole object of the game) -Chimpanzee doesn't assume that the human adult is acting intentionally so they do not follow all the steps to get the reward, they just go directly for the reward Still face experiment -Giving the child attention and interacting socially and then stopping and staring at them without interacting or giving any facial expressions -Shared intentionality-children crave their parents attention and reacts negatively when a parent just ignores them

Using the example of face perception, explain how biologically-based perceptual predispositions and learning/experience work together in infancy

-We have a biological predisposition to be drawn to faces over other objects -after 12 hours of exposure, they prefer that face over any other woman's -prefer attractive faces which influences their behavior towards them -As the child ages (1 mo to 3 mo), they move their eyes around the face more. They focus on other areas more and notice more detail -We learn to look at eyes and more unique features more Early on it is more dependent on light and dark, but with age is more dependent on specific features Can artificially raise them in a place without faces, and eventually if you show them a face, they will still be drawn to it because we are predisposed to them. -by about 4 mo infants differentiate faces of the same sex as primary caregiver better than faces of the other sex -As they age they begin to be able to read emotion, associate facial expressions with certain people and communicate with their eyes

Semantic Development:

-Word identification (passive/receptive language) 5 months: can pick out their name from a conversation 6 months: associate frequent words (Mom) with referent -1st word produced between 10-15 months Sometimes not easily identifiable (babbling) First words predominantly names for common objects (dog, table, ball), events and routines (bye-bye) How humans learn. When we talk about human capabilities for learning, it's easy to understand how (A semantic development definition that I like refers to it as a "gradual process of acquiring the meanings associated with words"). -Common errors in word learning Overextension: using one word to describe many different things (dog for all four legged animals); very common Underextension: restricted use; less common

Example to define habituation, explain the sense an infant's ability to habituate is adaptive, and why rapid habituation (and greater preference for novelty) may constitute an early form of intelligence.

-response to stimulus decreases over time (get bored eventually) repeatedly -when shown the same thing repeatedly, infants interest (measured as looking time) decreases and they become less interested -Dishabituation: the child pays attention again because there is new information -habituation requires memory/learning once you learn you font need to pay attention again (constant stimulus) -Adaptive-we have very limited attention spans, so once we have learned that there is nothing new, you can move on to something new -rapid habituation signals an early form of intelligence because they were able to analyze and retain the memory of the stimulus much quicker than other, whose process of learning is slower. -Ex: a baby was shown a screen with pictures on it. At first appearance of the image, her eyes widen and she stares intently. With three more presentations of the image, her interest wanes.

Describe Piaget's consercation tasks (e.g. liquid or number) how children in the preoperational stage tend to perform on them, and what that tells us about pre-operational thinking.

-when having two cups with the same amount of water and transferring one cup to a different cup they believe the water amount is different (even through same amount still) -Tells us children lack observation of reversibility =also: problem of perceptual centration; but also social dynamics of task

What age does word splurt occur?

18 months (between 15-24)

Describe at least 3 of the major limitations of children's preoperational thinking, according to Piaget

1: problems distinguishing appearance and reality 2: animism: inanimate objects being alive 3: egocentrism: unable to see something from another person's perspective -displayed the lack of logical through conservation tasks

Describe general developmental changes in children's development of racial identity.

3-4yrs old can differentiate groups based on color (e.g. brown vs pink) 5-6yrs old use socially constructed labels (black, white) and begin to associate positive attributes with white & negative attributes with black (racial preference). In different cultures this could differ. They pick up on cues from others (parents) 9yrs old black kids begin to display black preference 10yrs old and older can view themselves differently in different contexts, such as school vs home (tied to cognitive development); can have positive self-esteem in one, not the other Also begin to understand stereotypes associated with their race and prejudice Important of teaching (at home, school, in overall culture): history of racial groups, positive role models, achievements Adolescence is a key period for identity formation, in general; also able to ponder issues of social (in)justice, institutionalized racism, etc. Minority students: can be a time for claiming their racial identity, activism, but also potentially internalized racism Majority students: can be a time of active anti-racism; "color-blind"ness (passive conformity); or movement toward racism

Describe in some detail the social-interactionist perspective on language development, including Jerome Bruner's LASS, evidence that supports it as well as aspects of language development that are not easily explained by it.

According to the social interactionist perspective, language grows out of social interactions with others and is based on their social cognitive abilities. Prelinguistic communication that occurs with parents provides a solid foundation (nonverbal games). Bruner's language acquisition support system says that there are certain things like the use of a high pitched voice and simplified speech that are preferred by infants and help facilitate their speech. Support system: all the things that a child's social environment will do to help them learn language Parents talk with a higher voice because it gets into the child's frequency where they learn best. We speak more slowly and repeat words that they don't know yet. Put words at the end of a sentence so that they focus on it. -Preferred by infants and facilitates their differentiation of speech sounds -Emotional tone -Use a happy voice. -Use of simplified speech and other features -New words at end of sentence, lots of repetition (LASS: Language Acquisition Support System: parents support their children's language development through interacting and engaging with them (pointing, asking questions). Social situations are what shape their development. This is shown in extreme cases like Genie where she has no interaction with others. If children don't have interaction during their critical period of learning, then they are never going to fully develop their linguistic abilities!!)

Use specific examples to explain what Piaget's processes of assimilation and accommodation mean. Which of the two is more clearly responsible for changes in children's thinking, and why?

Assimilation: apply existing scheme to new situation, thus molding the experience -child seeing a zebra the first time and thinking it is a horse -If you listen to the TV coverage of the 9/11 attacks, most people thought that it was an accident because there was no reason to think otherwise. When the second plane hit, people thought that that probably wasn't an accident and doesn't fit, so assimilation fails and you have to change how you think about a certain event. -Using some knowledge to explain something else they already know Accommodation: the scheme is changed because assimilation fails -noticing (or being told) that a zebra is different in many ways from a horse, so new zebra scheme has to be created -creating some new idea in their head Equilibration: balance between the two (we try to assimilate first and then accommodate if it fails)

Define babbling and describe in some detail Laura Petitto et al.'s research on babbling in deaf children exposed to sign language and what it has taught us about the role of babbling in language development.

Babbling: strings of consonant-vowel combinations (bababababa, mamamama) Includes mostly sounds of the child's native language Hearing the sounds one is producing is crucial The vocalizations of deaf children start to differ from those of hearing kids at around 5 to 6 months Congenitally deaf children began babbling with hands at the same time as hearing children babble with sound if they are exposed to sign language Babbling is a fundamental part of language development regardless of which modality of expression is used Babbling is more about brain development than development of vocal tract No meaning behind it. Just playing with raw language Gestures vs. signs: Gestures are hand movements that have no meaning. Signs are similar to words and carries a particular meaning.

Name and describe the four different types of identity status according to Marcia (page 281-283 in book) (simply providing the 2x2 matrix is not sufficient)! Which of these status types generally characterizes the start of adolescence, which one is the ultimate end goal?

Building identity- basic model with 4 groups; two dimensions of identity: crisis (or exploration) and commitment. identity status approach, which pays special attention to occupational and ideological (for example, politics, religion) aspects of identity. Crisis: active search, exploration -seeing information about identity Commitment to particular identity combine to yes or no- you get 4 categories Diffusion: you haven't thought much about identity, and don't have an outcome chosen; Apathy; at risk for drug use; lack of intimate relationships with peers: Example: "I haven't given much thought to what I want to be when I grow up. I've got plenty of time to decide." (No crisis; no commitment) Foreclosure: you are who your parents say you are (have not thought much about identity, but have committed to one) Conformity to authority; rely on others to make important decisions for them: Example: "I'm going to law school and become a lawyer. (No crisis; commitment) Moratorium: putting things off; Highly anxious; unhappy; reject authority: Example: "My parents and all my family are Baptists, but I just don't know if I believe all the things they do." (crisis; no commitment) Achievement: desired goal Socially mature; high in achievement motivation; more involved in careers: Example: "I really like cooking, and I loved the summer job I had as a cook. (crisis overcome; w/ commitment)

Describe the key findings of Carol Dweck and colleagues' research on person- vs. process-praise(define both) and their respective long-term consequences in terms of a growth or fixed mindset.

Carol Dweck's work on praising children Process praise focuses on strategies and effort The result/performance on a task is the result of these controllable elements → growth mindset Focus on how much work put in Person praise focuses on person/self, traits, ability The result/performance on a task is the result of these uncontrollable, deep seated and stable factors → fixed mindset How will children under these two different forms of praise react to: Success at a particular task? Failure? Consequences for seeking out challenging learning opportunities? Mastery orientation versus helpless orientation Process Praise v. Person Praise Process praise: I know you spent a lot of time on this!! Develops a growth mindset. Learn the things they do well, and work well Person praise: innate abilities, but can be invalidated and later down the road kids could give up: fixed mindset If they learn they suck at a fixed ability, then they are more likely to give up in failure if they are given more person praise. You can achieve well in you just put in enough time/effort: kids who learn this early know that that is true and are okay with failure. Those with a fixed mindset who fail see it as a challenge and shy away from these tasks because that failure is going to reflect poorly on them.

Explain what the Wug Test is and what the findings from this assessment tell us about the roles of social learning/imitation and biological preparedness in language development.

Child shown Toma and is made to try and say it and what they say when you add another (WUG vs. WUG(S)) Testing for a general rule!! Child learned how to add plurals from past experience They can take a brand new word and put it in the past tense even if they have not heard that specific word itself in the past tense. (know -ed is past tense, so they apply it to the end) They struggle with irregular verbs because they don't apply to the normal rules of grammar (ex. bringed-brought) Researchers string together to convey new ideas or thoughts, then they take a brand new word and stick it into the sentence (wug); then they ask the children to repeat that, and they are able to say (wugged). They are able to see the difference between when things happened; the past tense.

Which social-cognitive skills build the foundation for children's Theory of Mind (ToM), and how is children's ToM generally measured? (page 285 in book)

Children's developing concepts of how the mind works; mind reading and understanding that others have individual mindsets that msy differe from ours measures the child's understanding that someone may hold a belief about an event or object that does not match what the child knows to be true in reality. Self-awareness- distinguishing from others Viewing oneself and others as international agents Perspective taking ability- children have an idea of perspective Example: child would show you a picture they are drawing; they will face it towards you False Belief test: TED talk When they know what happens in a story, but someone else doesn't, they don't understand that others might not have the knowledge they do. 9 month will gaze or point finger, hold up objects for adult to look at 18 month are more likely to imitate adult behavior adult attempted than same behavior if it was accident Ex: implicit level of the treat box (example was from the experiments of cognitive ability in chimps)

Piaget and egocentrism:

Children's thoughts and communications are typically egocentric (about themselves). Egocentrism refers to the child's inability to see a situation from another person's point of view. According to Piaget, the egocentric child assumes that other people see, hear, and feel exactly the same as the child does.

Describe in detail the results of Micki Chi's study on short-term memory span and memory for chess game positions in chess experts and novices. Clearly explain what was so surprising about the results that this study is now considered to be one of the classics in developmental psychology!

Digit span give string of numbers and have to repeat back to you, until you can't remember Chess experts are children and chess novices are adults Age and relevant knowledge are both important when doing studies Micki Chi disentangled knowledge and age in this study This result is so surprising because the children did better than the results but it was due to more knowledge] Age usually stands in for something else (knowledge)

Explain what an evolutionary psychologist would have to say about the importance of developing a theory of mind, and describe how the findings about ToM development in people with autistic spectrum disorder fit into that perspective.

Essential for understand others and dealing effectively with others Realization that, like us, others have beliefs, desires, emotions, thoughts Understanding how others think has its origins in how we think Executive functioning influences false-belief: holds two contradictory pieces of information in their mind When having siblings the younger kids tend to master task earlier because they have older siblings who they learned from & the older siblings would often manipulate behavior to younger sibs Most 3 year olds cannot solve false belief tasks, but 4 year olds can 18 month olds will give a hungry adult the food they know the adult likes even when it is different from their own preference. (p. 288-292 in book) Baron-Cohen: mind-blindness Autistic people perform worse on social than non-social tasks (often reverse finding in down syndrome children) Inability to read minds makes others unpredictable, scary

Define the concept of self-esteem and describe general developmental changes in self-esteem.

Evaluate aspect (self worth) Based on discrepancy between ideal and perceived self as well as on social support from others Preschool 2 categories: physical & cognitive and social Tend to be overly optimistic - don't give a **** 3rd grade up 5 categories: scholastic, social, behavioral conduct, athletics, physical appearance More realistic assessments Generally high and stable into early adolescence Some decrease with transition into high school, then increase Factors influencing self-esteem Parenting (positive affect, interest in infants activities, support for mastery attempts), experiences in school, with friends

Discuss in some detail what research suggests about the folk "wisdom" that fostering high self-esteem in children will lead to their academic and interpersonal success (this is drawing on Baumeister et al.'s 2003 literature review).

Folk wisdom suggests that children need high self-esteem in order to become happy/successful people Baumeister research Self esteem is inherently subjective; when its supposed "outcome" is also self-reported the two may correlate simply due to shared response bias Positive correlation between s-e and self-rated physical attractiveness, popularity, friendship quality, IQ, etc, little to no correlation with objectively measured outcomes Direction of causality There is a positive correlation between s-e and academic performance, but high s-e may be consequence, not cause »Boosting C, D, F students' s-e can actually lead to worse subsequent academic performance (Forsyth & Kerr, 1999) Highlights need for longitudinal studies! (time/order) Third variables S-e-academic link partially due to family background, ability School bullies & their cronies are often high in defensive (rather than genuine) s-e Kids with genuine high s-e often defend victims against bullies The one bright spot: self-esteem and happiness

Christakis et al. (2009) studied the effects of audible TV on the linguistic environment of infants. Describe the main findings and explain why they might be reason for concern regarding infant language development.

Having a tv on is associated with decreases in parental word counts, child vocalizations, and conversational turns for 2- and 48- month olds. The more time a baby spends in front of a TV, the less they interact with conversations with the parents. Displace human interaction Young kids didn't learn any more from dvd then normal vocalization AAP recommends 0 screen time for kids under 2

Define core knowledge theories of cognitive development and provide a specific ex for each of the three core knowledge domains

Humans are born with basic knowledge in areas in which it is important for our species to quickly acquire the knowledge (1) knowledge of inanimate objects+ -Object constancy: an object shape is the same from all angles presented shortly after birth -Object cohesion and continuity: where does one object end and the next begin. [Gravity- infants will experiment and see and item fall and as one object. Surprise if they don't see an object fall and/or bigger objects and smalller (one year old)] Permanence: objects continue to exist even if we can't see it Piaget vs Baillargeon (article we read about the rotating screen) -Piaget (able at 8 mo old) Baillargeon (able at 4.5 mo old) -Baillargeon: infants were shown an impossible and a possible event (3.5-4.5 mo olds stared longer at the impossible event suggesting that they understood that the box continued to exist and the screen could not rotate through the area occupied by the box -Piaget didn't use an accurate measure (2) Knowledge of people and their actions -Facial perception and recognition and response to physical touch -Theory of mind -facial expression imitation at 2 days old (not solid evidence) -Maybe an ontogenetic adaptation that facilitates interactions with others (3) Knowledge of numbers -Ex. Numerosity: quickly determining the number of items in a set without counting - 6 month old differentiate different sets of quantities under 3 or 4 -5 month olds look longer at impossible (1+1=1) than possible events (1+1=2)

Define the term infantile amnesia. Describe in some detail Simcock and Hayne's (2002) study on the link between children's language abilities and their memory for a "magic shrinking machine" game. What do those findings suggest about one possible cause of infantile amnesia?

Infantile amnesia: ~first 3 years: An absence of memory from early childhood Relatively weak memory during this period. It exists because our body can't store this much information, it's not all that relevant bc we build on top of it and filter out what we don't need to know Language development was looked at by giving children a list of words that describe a certain scenario - Simcock & Hayne's Kids only used words to describe the event only if they knew the vocab: only describe an event if they know how (ie. said dog if it was a cat bc they didn't know what a cat was) They didnt put language to memory (early memory is non verbal; which is why we remember what happened, not the language) A lot of memories will be non-linguistic, so trying to access non-linguistic as an older linguistic person is difficult : reasoning for why we have infantile amnesia

Define the term intermodal perception and provide at least two different specific examples of the importance of intermodal perception for infant development

Intermodal perception: the ability to associate and interconnect info provided by different senses about a certain experience important for infant development: -Visual tactile integration infants younger than 1 mo old were given one of two different pacifiers to suck on & then shown after them both after, infants looked longer at pacifier they had sucked on than one they had not being able to integrate earlier tactile experience to subsequent visual experience -Audiovisual integration seems well established by the middle of the first year of life and becomes more refined w/ experience (infants capable at 9 months to associate female faces & voices, can not for male voices)

Describe what you know about bilingualism of children in the U.S. - make sure to touch on home and school environments, as well as the costs and benefits of bilingualism to children's cognitive development.

It is beneficial to their cognitive development because it is creating more connections in the brain. At home, it is most beneficial if one parent talks in one language and the other parent talks in the other so they don't confuse languages. Costs: Temporary mistakes when applying rules from one language to the other Smaller vocabulary in early years (catch up, though) Benefits: Ability to distinguish more phonemes Greater sensitivity to cultural values Higher levels of metalinguistic awareness Which is linked to better reading and writing skills, attentional, control, cognitive flexibility

Describe in some detail the nativist position on language development, including Noam Chomsky's idea of LAD, evidence that supports it, as well as aspects of language development that are not easily explained by it.

Language as a domain-specific skill Cognitive processes for language learning are different from those learning other knowledge Argument for strong biological basis Language is species specific (uniquely human) Species-uniform (all languages have grammars) Difficult to delay even when input is minimal Develops in regular sequence Has specific anatomical structures associated with it (Sensitive period) Sensitive period argument Social isolation (Genie) Age at first exposure to first language (e.g., hearing- impaired) predicts proficiency better than # years of use -Same is true for proficiency in 2nd etc. language] -Specialized brain structures Broca's & Wernicke's areas Early damage to L hemisphere better than late -Universal grammar argument Noam Chomsky: children are born with Language Acquisition Device (LAD) Innate knowledge of certain principles that guide them in developing the grammar of their language Unconscious constraints that let us decide whether a sentence is correctly formed »That's how you say it rather than How that's you it say All sentences in all languages have subjects; languages differ in whether the subject has to be explicitly stated Usage-based linguistics: Recent research does not support idea of innate grammar module "Swiss Army knife" general-purpose tools rather than language-specific universal grammar/LAD Categorization Recognition relationships between things, analogies, generalizations Understanding intentions of others

Describe in some detail two different tasks that researchers have used to assess the self-concept of children, and around what age children usually "pass" these tasks.

Mirror self: put a sticker on a kid's face without them knowing. If they go to get the sticker off their face when they look in the mirror, if not, then they don't recognize yet (18-24 months). Pushing cart and mat: there is a mat attached to the bottom of the shopping cart that is rolled out so the child stands on it. When he/she is told to push the cart to mom, it won't move because the mat is attached to the cart and they're on it. If they understand their sense of self, then they will notice they are on the mat and get off, then push the cart. If they do not understand, then they will get frustrated not realizing that they are causing the problem for why it won't move. Both of these are around 18 months for when they pass them.

Name and describe two different reminiscing styles mothers use when talking with their child about past experiences. What do you know about the link between maternal reminiscing style and child memory development?

Mother one reconstructed the memory for the child. Asking loaded questions. The child just said uhuhh a lot wasn't very on task, was much more conversational, repetitive mom Mother 2: acknowledges that the child can't really remember much, the mom is trying to get the child to say something very specific. Elaborative mom In both cases, the children didn't participate much or say much Children with more elaborative conversations will have better memories in the future

First define narcissism, then describe the age-related as well as cohort differences that researchers (e.g., Twenge and colleagues) have found in narcissism, and explain what factor(s) might be responsible for these differences.

Narcissists have little interest in warm, emotionally close relationships with others Take more for themselves and leave less for others Aggressively lash out when rejected or insulted: defensive self-esteem Little empathy for others It is a problem because they don't care for others. They act in ways that benefit themselves without thinking about the consequences of others. Twenge: narcissism epidemic This is the greatest generation!!! (20yr olds)-social media The older you get, the less narcissistic you are.

Explain what Arnett and other researchers mean when they talk about emerging adulthood. What are some of the reasons that your generation experiences this new and transitional developmental stage?

People clearly are not a child anymore, but they are in the process of becoming adults. Where education is important, increasingly there is a push for higher education so that people can go into more specialized careers. This is more in Western and advantage social groups. This does not hold cross culturally. It does not affect everyone to the same extent. We leave school with LOTS of debt, which is different from people in other countries. This can result in how often people are in the emerging adulthood period.

Name and briefly describe each of the four components of human language.

Phonology-system of sounds that make up words Phoneme-smallest sound unit (lake vs. rake ← one phoneme changes) Roughly 200 phonemes in all the world's languages English uses 45 phonemes Semantics - words have meaning Grammar - rules that describe the structure of language Morphology - rules of word formation Morpheme - smallest unit of meaning "Dogs" has 2 units of meanings (Dog) and (s) Syntax - sentence structure "The horse was kicked by the cow." Pragmatics - rules for social language use Modifying how you speak depending on who you're talking to "Put the dishes on the table" instead of "open the kitchen cupboard door, remove a dish and take it into the dining room"

Use specific examples (e.g., memory scripts) to explain what it means to say that memory is reconstructive.What are advantages and disadvantages of our reconstructive memory system?

Pulling memory from different sources and piecing it together Can be influenced by what you know now and your current beliefs That memory might not be at all what happened Filtered memory when it happened and reconstructed during your current mind Script are semantic memory

Explain why race is best thought of as a social/cultural construct, rather than a biological one.

Race is a social construct: Races are not genetically homogenous and lack clear-cut genetic boundaries If you look at others of their underline biology- concept of race does not exist Geography/culture are kind of the origin of race. Where ancestors came from Ex: skin color groups- concentration of darker skin color is by the equator (dark skin color has adaptation; our skin was exposed and UV radiation this can lead to skin problems- needed to be darker to adapt & live. Light skin tone: only happened when people started moving )around the world, and didn't need as much UV radiation protection No biological reality to it

What are some of the challenges of interviewing young child eyewitnesses? Describe some specific techniques suggested as part of the NICHD Investigative Interview

Relies on memory and language skills, but also skills of the interviewer Specific questions lead to increase in correct and incorrect responses Open ended recall is often sparse in young children Open ended questions are often better to get more accurate information Open ended questions reduce the possibility of children just agreeing with the adult Interviewer:Tell me everything you can remember Child (age 5 or 6):They took his money. Interviewer : Is there anything else that you can remember? Everything is important, even details. Child:They took off on their bikes. That was mean. NICHD Interview: -Pre-substantive phase: make them comfortable with you Build a rapport Perform truth and lie ceremony Establish ground rules of the interview (unique source of information; don't know; correct interviewer) Practice episodic recall and elaboration (provision of personally experienced, detailed and specific information) Substantive Phase: to find out about critical incident(s) "Tell me why you came to talk to me today" General Principles: Maximize use of open-ended prompts Used focused prompts as late in the interview as necessary Use child-provided information as cues to promote further free recall retrieval Time-segmentation Pairing: immediately follow focused question with open ended ones Suggestibility: Young children are more suggestible than older children and adults Long list of associated factors-stress during event, theory of mind abilities, source monitoring, knowledge, social factors during interview

Describe in some detail either rovee-collier's conjugate reinforcement (a.k.a. leg kick) paradigm or Patricia Bauer's elicited imitation task used to assess infant memory development

Rovee-Collier's conjugate reinforcement-the leg kick method; Associate two previously unrelated things with one another Basic Procedure: -Baseline: (dependent variable is leg kicks) during the first 3 min the leg is NOT connected to the mobile count how many times the kids leg moves -Next the infant learns something: like things that move. Their kicking b=behavior has a positive consequence; the mobile moving. The movement of the mobile is reinforcing and they enjoy the motions/what they see -Delay period: disconnect everything, no more re-exposure to this again for a few days -Test: do not connect the leg to the mobile (count the number of leg kicks) to see if there is memory -If the number of kicks is more than the baseline; this shows that the infants learned/remembered (Using a different mobile decreases infant's behavior) Elicited imitation: -Kid plays with the toys by themselves and explores them. Then watches adults do it. Then kids takes the toys back and copies what they do -The Longer the delay the more the infant forgets -The older the child is, the more they will remember no matter how long the delay is

Describe major changes in cognitive development from an info processing theoretical perspective. Use the multi-store model of cognition/memory as a guideline-touch on short-term/working memory, long-term memory, and executive function.

Short term memory is limited (how much you can hold and how long can hold it are limted) -Short term memory-storage (just keep info active in memory) -Working memory-storage is less than short term memory and cognitive function: working memory manipulates the info that you are about to add to your short term memory -Long term memory (potentially limitless) Executive function -process that controls and regulates other cognitive functions-central for making plans attention (aspect of executive function) -Attention span= amount of time a person can focus on a task without becoming distracted -attention span gets longer as you get older -attention in infants is that they are drawn to objects that are new to them (learning how not to respond) -Inhibition-keeping distracting thoughts out of consciousness -Resistance to interference- not letting one activity interfere with another -Increases through childhood and into adolesence -Individual differences correlate with IQ, false belief task performance, emotion-regulation Shortterm: keeping (remebering numbers) Working: manipulating (adding numbers)

Discuss both the similarities and differences between human language and the communication system of (various) nonhuman animals.

Sounds of spoken language and signs of sign language are symbolic - they stand for something other than themselves It is grammatical - follows a system of rules that allows for infinite generativity Recently called into question: bangle finches use all kinds of sounds to communicate. They are very aggressive. When they hear sounds from other birds they get territorial. Interpret certain orders of sounds that made them react whereas others did not. The particular language one develops varies by culture

Explain what syntactic bootstrapping is by using a specific example, and explain what children's use of syntactic bootstrapping suggests about the interplay between nature and nurture in language development.

Syntax: sentence structure Can children use the structure of an entire sentence to figure out what an unknown word is There were certain actions that only the duck did and only the bunny did The duck and the bunny are crazzing (both are doing something) The duck is the crazzing the bunny (the duck is doing something) They had to indicate what crazzing meant based on the entire sentence Give me some dax vs. give me the dax (some vs. the)

Drawing on Susan Goldin-Meadow's chapter, explain what the study of children's gestures tells us about language development. Make sure to address the resilient properties of gestures "invented" by deaf children growing up without sign language; and the two different types of gesture-word combinations of hearing children: which one predicts telegraphic speech, and why is there a correlation?

Telegraphic speech: more milk, eat cookie, read me Categories: kids who don't see signs, but are deaf will create hand signs that fall into categories (nouns, verbs, etc.) Resilient properties Different kinds of hand movements and how they relate to cognitive and speech development Supplemental word combination: "Mine" the word does not refer to the clock to which they are pointing at, but tells us something about it. Complementary (redundant) word combination: pointing at clock and saying "clock." tells us what it is. Parents pick up on the fact that more sophisticated so go more elaborative

Describe in some detail how DeLoache and colleagues (2010) studied infant vocabulary learning from baby DVDs and what they concluded about the effectiveness of such DVDs.

They studied if educational DVDs lead to children learning more words. The study had 72 infants between 12 and 18 months and they separated them into groups, video with no interaction, video with interaction, parent teaching, and a control group. The children in the video groups were highly exposed to a 39 minute educational video that featured 25 words. The parent teaching group tried to teach these words without the video. The children were tested before the trial started to test knowledge of the words and then after. The children that watched the video did not know more words due to high exposure to the video and they actually learned less than the children in the parent teaching groups.

Describe the dual task procedure Rob Guttentag used and what it taught us about the mental effort required to use a memory strategy.

Two things at once occuring, making harder to focus on one task Ex. counting Elischberger & tapping finger Guttentag's dual task procedure showed that use of same memory strategy takes up more capacity in younger than in older children Less capacity is left to devote to actual memorization The amount of effort the things they are doing are ...WTF

Using either Ballargeon's (1987) object permanence study or Xu and Garcia's (2008) study on intuitive statistics, explain how the violation-of-expectation method is used to understand the cognitive abilities of preverbal infants

Violation-of-expectation method: -If infants sees an event that deviates from what they expect- that violates their expectation-they should look longer at that event than at an expected event -even without habituation, they should stare longer an expected than expected events -Expectation on thinking what big box -Baillargeon: rotating screen test for object permanence -Infants were shown an impossible and a possible event -3.5-4.5 month olds stared longer at the impossible event suggesting that they understood that the box continued to exist and the screen could not rotate through the area occupied by the box Xu and Garcia -Infants were shown a sample of colored balls out of a box. They stare longer at the impossible event than the possible event