Exam 2 Ed Psych 320 – Flashcards

There were 4 stages between infancy and adolescence. Children actively construct knowledge as they manipulate and explore their world. Stage 1: Sensorimotor (Birth-2) Stage 2: Preoperational stage-(2-7); earlier sensorimotor discoveries can now be represented by symbols or language. Development of language, ability for make believe. (Examples: liquid, coins, graham crackers- cant do law of conservation) Stage 3: Concrete Operations (7-11)- logic is concreteness of objects, concreteness of hierarchies of classes and sub classes, lacks ability for abstract thought Stage 4: formal operation (11+) Abstract thinking and evaluate abstract problems

all aspects of cognition develop in an integrated fashion, changing in a similar way at the same time

Scheme: specific psychological structures-organized ways of making sense of experience (Timmy drops objects in a fairly rigid way, simply by letting go of the rattle or teething ring and watching with interest. By 18 months, his "dropping scheme" has become deliberate and creative. In tossing objects down the stairs. Soon instead of just acting on objects, he will show evidence of thinking before he acts)

Accommodation: we create new schemes or adjust old ones after noticing that our current ways of thinking do not capture the environment completely (When Timmy dropped objects in different ways, he modified his dropping scheme to take account of the varied properties of objects)

Assimilation: use current schemes to interpret the external world (Timmy dropped obejcts, eh was assimilating them to his "dropping scheme")

-When children are not changing, they are in a state of equilibrium -During times of rapid cognitive change, they are in state of disequilibrium (cognitive discomfort) -They shift from assimilation to accommodation and then move back and forth, allowing for more effective schemes to be produced

-Sensorimotor stage is the first stage occurring from (Birth-2) in which infans "think" through senses, invent solutions to sensorimotor problems; discovering object permanence -Reflexive schemes (birth-1 month): newborn reflexes (babies suck, grasp, and look in much the same way, no matter what experiences they encounter) -Primary circular reactions (1-4 months): simple motor habits centered around the infant's own body, limited anticipation of events (sucking their fists or thumbs, open their mouths differently for a nipple than a spoon) -Secondary circular reactions (4-8 months): actions aimed at repeating interesting effects in surrounding world; imitation of familiar behaviors ( baby knocked a toy hung in front of her producing a swinging motion, 3 days later repeats this effect forming a hitting scheme) -coordination of secondary circular reactions: intentional, or goal-oriented behavior; ability to find a hidden object in first location in which it is hidden (O.P); improved anticipation of events; imitation of behaviors slightly different from those the infant usually performs (means-end action sequences) -Tertiary circular reactions (12-18 months): exploration of properties of objects, by acting on them in novel ways; imitation so behaviors; ability to search in several locations for hidden object (grace figured out how to fit a shape through a hole in a container by turning and twisting it until it fell through and used a stick to get a toy that was out of reach) -Mental representation (18-2 years): internal depictions of objects and events, as indicated by sudden solutions to problems; ability to find an object that has been moved while out of sight (invisible displacement); deferred imitation; and make-believe play (Grace after bumping her new push toy against a wall, paused for a moment to "think" and then immediately turned the toy in a new direction)

-Circular reactions: provides a special means of adapting their first schemes. It involves stumbling onto a new experience caused by the baby's own motor activity. The reaction is "circular" because as the infant tries to repeat the event again and again, a sensorimotor response that originally occurred by chance strengthens into a new scheme

-object permanence: the understanding that objects continue to exist when they are out of sight. This relates to A-not-B error because the awareness of object permanence is not complete. If they reach several times for an object at the first hiding place (A), then moved to a second (B), they still search for it in the first hiding place (A).

-Piaget's argument is because infants do not have a clear image of the object as persisting when hidden from view

Mental representations: internal depictions of information that the mind can manipulation (two kinds: images-mental pictures of objects, people, and spaces; concepts-categories in which similar objects or events are placed together)

The ability to remember and copy the behavior of models who are not present, making to possible to play make-believe

-researchers may habituate babies to a physical event (expose them to the event until their looking declines) to familiarize them with a situation in which their knowledge will be tested. Or they may simply show babies an expected event and an unexpected event. -Heightened attention to the unexpected event suggest that the infant is surprised by a deviation from physical reality and is aware of that aspect of the physical world. -is controversial, reveal perceptual preference for novelty, not knowledge of physical world

Baillargeon ran a study in which infants exposed to both an expected and an unexpected object-hiding event looked longer at the unexpected event (noticed in first few months of life)

-several researchers using similar procedures have failed to conform some of the tests findings and critics question what babies looking preferences tell us about what they actually understand -Also some believe that it indicates limited, non conscious awareness of physical events, not full understanding that Piaget's focus in requiring infants to act on their surroundings. -Others argue only reveals babies' perceptual preference for novelty, not knowledge of physical world.

Having built a habit of reaching toward A, continuing to look at A, having the hiding place at B appear similar to the one toward A, and maintaining a constant body posture-increases the chances that the baby will make the A-not-B search error. Older infants are still perfecting reaching and grasping. Babies have little attention left to focus on inhibiting their habitual reach toward A

Lab research reveals that deferred imitation is present at 6 weeks of age. Infants who watched an unfamiliar adult's expression imitated it when exposed to the same adult the next day. Gains in recall, expressed though this are accompanied by changes in brain-wave activity during memory tasks, suggesting improvement in memory stage in cerebral cortex. They use to enrich their range of schemes. Toddler's ability to represent others' intentions has roots in earlier sensorimotor activity.

-babies are born with a set of innate knowledge systems, or core domains of thought. Each of these prewired understandings permits a ready rasp of new, related information and therefore supports early, rapid development. -Argue infants could not makes sense of complex stimulation around them without having been genetically set up in the course of evolution to comprehend its crucial aspects - Assume than an inherited foundation of linguistic knowledge enables swift language acquisition in early childhood. Infants early orientation toward people initiates rapid development of psychological knowledge. -research suggests infants have a basic numerical knowledge. Babies can discriminate quantites up to 3 and use that knowledge to perform simple arithmetic (in the single toy behind the screen experiment) *physical knowledge, linguistic knowledge, psychological knowledge, numerical knowledge)

-Information processing theories are grounded in basic cognitive processes --perception --attention: During first year, pay attention to novel events. During toddlerhood become capable of intentional behavior and sustained attention improves. As plans and activities gradually become more interested in what others are attending to. --Memory: Memories increase dramatically infancy?toddlerhood. Move from highly context-dependent to increasingly context-free. Familiarity preference and novelty preference. Recognition-noticing when a stimulus is identical or similar to one previously experienced. Recall info is harder. Infantile amnesia: immature brain development, memory processing in infants is nonverbal, lack of focused self-image.

Social contexts (other people) contribute to cognitive development. Children live in rich social and cultural contexts that affect the way their cognitive world is structured. Through joint activies with more mature members of their society, children master activities and think in ways that have meaning in their culture.

Zone of proximal development: range of tasks that the child cannot yet handle alone but can do with the help of more skilled partners (scaffolding promotes learning at all ages, cultural variations affect mental strategies taught and learned)

The mental testing approach measures intellectual development in an effort to predict future performance. Scores are arrived at by computing an intelligence quotient (IQ), which compares an individual's performance with that of a standardization sample of same-age individuals whose performances form a normal distribution. Infant tests consisting largely of perceptual and motor responses predict later intelligence poorly. As a result, scores on infant tests are called developmental quotients (DQs). Speed of habiutation and recovery to visual stimuli is better predictor of future performance.

-LAD: an innate system that contains a universal grammar, or set of rules common to all languages. It enables children no matter which language they hear, to understand and speak in a rule-oriented fashion as soon as they pick up words

-The Broca's and Wernicke's areas, in the left hemisphere of the cerebral cortex. Broca's area, supports grammatical processing and language production. Wernicke's area is involved in comprehending word meaning. Neither area is solely or even mainly responsible for these functions.

-Infants begin cooing at 2 months and babbling around 6 months. Around 10 to 11 months, their skill at establishing joint attention improves, and soon they use preverbal gestures. Adults can encourage language progress by responding to infants' coos and babbles, playing turn-taking games, establishing joint attention and labeling what babies see, and responding verbally to their preverbal gestures. Around 12 months, toddlers say their first word. Young children often make errors of underextensions (using words too narrowly) and overextension (applying a word to a wider collection of objects and events than is appropriate). Rate of word learning increases steadily, and once vocab reaches about 200-250 words, two-word utterances called telegraphic speech appear. At all ages, language comprehension develops ahead of production.

-Most toddlers use a referential style of language learning, in which early words consist largely of names for objects. A few use an expressive style, in which social formulas and pronouns are common and vocabulary grows more slowly

1) underestimates ability (infants do engage in environment before 4 months) 2) Object permanence (violation of expectation method) 3) A not B error (other factors may be involved) 4) Mental representation (deferred and inferred imitation, problem sovling) 5) Cognitive changes of infancy are gradual and continuous rather than abrupt, stages 6) Various aspects of infant cognition change unevenly because of challenges posed by different types of task and infants varying experiences

Height (end of 1st year 50% greater than at birth, 2nd=75%) and weight gains (5 months=15lbs; 1yr=22lbs; 2yr=30lbs) are greater during the first two years than at any other time after birth. Body fat develops quickly during the first nine months (helps maintain constant temp), whereas muscle development is slow and gradual. Body proportion: At birth, head takes up one-fourth of total body length, the legs only 1/3; then lower body catches up. By age 2, the head accounts for only 1/5 and legs for nearly ½ of total body length -Arms and legs continue to grow somewhat ahead of the hands and feet -long bones of body go through a gradual process in which they start out soft and pliable with cartilage then that hardens into bone.

-Fontanel: Soft spots on a baby's head which, during birth, enable the bony plates of the skull to flex, allowing the child's head to pass through the birth canal. They also ensure that you baby's brain has enough room to grow. Skull develops from the hardening of these soft spots.

-Cephalocaudal trend (head to tail): During the prenatal period, the head develops more rapidly than the lower part of the body -Proximodistal trend (near to far)-growth proceeds from the center of the body outward; extremities grow later than head, chest, and trunk

The brain is nearer to its adult size than any other physical structure

Neurons: store and transmit information-human brain has 100-200 billion neurons (made up of dendrite, cell body, axon-myelin sheath, nodes of ranvier, schwann cell, and axon terminal)

Synapses: tiny gaps where fibers from different neurons come close together but do not touch.

Neurotransmitters: chemicals released by neurons to send messages to one another; they cross the synapse

Synaptic pruning: neurons that are seldom stimulated soon lose their synapses in this process that returns neurons not needed at the moment to an uncommitted state so they can support future development (40% are pruned during childhood and adolescence)

Glial cells: responsible for myelination (go through proliferation-from end of pregnancy through the second year of life)

Myelination: the coating of neural fibers with an insulting fatty sheath that improves the efficiency of message transfer.

glial cells make up half the brain's volume, they multiply rapidly. Gains in neural fibers and myelination account for the overall increase in size of brain, from 30% of its adult weight at birth to 70% by age 2. (during 1st year brain doubles in size)

EEG, fMRI, PET, NIRS, ERPs

Electroencephalogram (EEG)-researchers examine brain-wave patterns for stability and organization-signs of mature functioning of the cortex.

Event-related potentials (ERPs) detect the general location of brain-wave activity-technique often used to study preverbal infants responsiveness to various stimuli, the impact of experience on specialization of specific regions of the cortex, and atypical brain functioning in children at risk for learning and emotional problems

fMRI- magnetically detects changes in blood flow and oxygen metabolism throughout the brain, yielding a colorful, moving picture of parts of the brain used to perform a given activity (most remain motionless, so not suitable for infants and young children)

PET-uses injection of a radioactive substance to detect increased blood flow and oxygen metabolism in areas of the brain as the person processes particular stimuli, result is computerized and is also not appropriate for infants/young children (most remain motionless)

NIRS- infrared light is beamed at regions of the cerebral cortex to measure blood flow and oxygen metabolism while the child attends to a stimulus, baby can sit on parent's lap and move during testing, examines only the functioning of the cerebral cortex

Cortical organization: The cortex is divided into different lobes, each of which contains a variety of regions with specific functions (cerebral cortex accounts for 85% of the brain's weight and containing the greatest number of neurons and synapses) -two hemispheres, that differ in functions (each receives sensory information from the side of the body opposite to it and controls only that side.

Lateralization: specialization of the left and right hemispheres of the brain. Left hemisphere controls verbal abilities and positive emotion (best at processing info in a sequential, analytic way) and right hemisphere handles spatial abilities and negative emotion (best at processing info in a holistic, integrative manner).

Neuroplasticity: in a highly plastic cerebral cortex, many areas are not yet committed to one function; consequently, the cortex has a high capacity for learning. And if a part of the cortex is damaged, other parts can take over the tasks it would have handled.

Most newborns favor the right side of the body in their head position and reflexive reactions. Most show greater activation in the left hemisphere while listening to speech sounds or displaying a positive state of arousal. Right reacts more strongly to nonspeech sounds and stimuli that evoke negative reaction

Varied visual experiences must occur for the brain's visual centers to develop normally: Babies born with cataracts in both eyes -those who have corrective surgery within 4 to 6 months show rapid improvement in vision. The longer the surgery is postponed, the less complete the recovery of visual skills. Victims of deprived early environments (children in orphanages) Those adopted after 6 months showed serious intellectual deficits. The chronic stress of early deprived orphanage rearing disrupts the brain's ability to manage stress, with long-term consequences, and also disrupts the brain's typical response to pleasurable social experiences.

-Experience-expectant growth: refers to the young brain's rapidly developing organization, which depends on ordinary experiences (opportunities to explore the environment, interact with people and hear language and other sounds) expected by brain to grow normally. Occurs early and naturally

-Experience-dependent growth: occurs throughout our lives. It consists of additional growth and the refinement of established brain structures as a result of specific learning experiences that vary widely across individuals and cultures. (specific experience, varies widely across cultures and rushing early learning can overwhelm young brains)

-The US Dept. of Health and Human Services says you should breastfeed up to at least 6 months -WHO, poverty-regions: 2 years -Benefits of breastfeeding: provides the correct balance of fat and protein, ensures nutritional completeness, helps ensure healthy physical growth, protects against many diseases, protects against faulty jaw development and tooth decay, ensures digestibility, smooth's the transition to solid foods -Women who breastfeed in public don't do it solely because they feel it's their right. Being able to get out of the home is important for women and babies are not like clockwork and spilled bottles. Breasts also become tender and sore when mothers don't express and spending a long time outside the home can require a feed. For those against it, if a man sees breasts as a sexual thing it might make them feel uncomfortable to have a baby thrown into the mix and immediately want to protect that child and mother from their own awkward thoughts. For now, it is best that a woman covers up with a blanket or nursing shirt if breastfeeding in public.

Classical conditioning: a neutral stimulus is paired with a stimulus that leads to a reflexive response. Once the baby's nervous system makes the connection between the two stimuli, the neutral stimulus produces the behavior by itself. EXAMPLE: As Carolyn settled down in the rocking chair, to nurse Caitlin, she often stroked Caitlin's forehead. Soon Carolyn noticed that each time she did this, Caitlin made active sucking movements. Caitlin had been classically conditioned.

Operant Conditioning- infants act on the environment, and stimuli that follow their behavior change the probability that the behavior will occur again. A stimulus that increases the occurrence of a response is a reinforce, while the removing of a stimulus or presenting an unpleasant one to decrease the response is a punishment. -Food can serve as reinforcers (sweet liquid and sour fluid) EXAMPLE: A baby gazes into the adults eyes, the adult looks and smiles back and infant smiles again.

Habituation: a gradual reduction in the strength of a response due to repetitive stimulation. Once a baby loses interest, a new stimulus causes responsiveness to return to a high level, an increase called recovery. (This process allows a baby to remember the first stimulus and perceive the second one as a new and different from it.) Habituation and recovery promote learning by focusing our attention on those aspects of the environment we know least about. This has been used to study the fetus's sensitivity to external stimuli in 3rd trimester. Assesses infant's recent memory (familiarity preference)

Imitation-copying the behavior of another person. Is a powerful means of learning, which contributes to the parent-infant bond. Scientists have identified specialized cells called mirror neurons that underlie these capacities (they fire identically when a primate hears or sees an action and when it carries out that action on its own). However, whether newborn imitation is a voluntary capacity remains controversial. Newborns capacity to imitate extends to certain gestures, such as head an index-finger movements, and has been demonstrated in many ethnic groups and cultures.

We have specialized cells in motor areas of the cerebral cortex that underlie early imitative capacities. Mirror neurons fire identically when a primate hears or sees an action and when it carries out that action on its own. Humans have them that allow for imitation of others behavior and are believed to be the biological basis of a variety of interrelated, complex social abilities like imitation.

Gross-motor development: control over actions that help infants get around in the environment (crawling (7 months), standing (11 months), and walking (11 months, 3 weeks) walks up stairs (16 months); walks on tiptoes (25 months)

Fine-motor development: has to do with smaller movements, such as reaching and grasping (Holding head erect and steady when held (6 weeks); Lifts self by arms (2 months); Rolls from side to back (2 months); Grasps cube (3 months); Sits alone (7 months)

Prereaching: newborns make poorly coordinated swipes toward an object in front of them, but because of poor arm and hand control they rarely contact the object (newborn)

Ulnar grasp: a clumsy motion in which the young infant's fingers close agains the palm (3-4 months)

Pincer grasp: Infants use the thumb and index finger in a well-coordinated grasp. (9 months)

-Some cultures discourage rapid motor progress-babies who walk before they know enough to keep away from cooking fires and weaving looms are viewed as dangerous to themselves and disruptive to others (Zinacanteco Indians and Gusii of Kenya) -Kipsigis of Kenya and West Indians of Jamaica: teach early motor skills, babies hold their heads up, sit alone, and walk considerably earlier than most. -Western parents consider crawling and "tummy time" essential, but other cultures don't

Toilet training is best delayed until the months following the second birthday. Effective training techniques include: establishing regular toileting routines, using gentle encouragement, and praising children for their effort.

Hearing -Between 4-7 months, infants display a sense of musical phrasing (Mozart minuets with pauses than awkward breaks) -Between 6-8 months infants "screen out" sounds from non-native languages -Between 7-9 months, infants divide the speech stream into word-like units -10 months, infants can detect words that start with weak syllables

- Brain development helps infants reach adult levels of vision skills -2-4 months: focus on color vision -6 months: acuity, scanning, and tracking -6-7 months: depth perception, the ability to judge the distance of objects from one another and from ourselves -visual cliff, is used to study depth perception, who's that crawling and avoidance of drop-offs are linked, but not how they are related or when depth perception fist appears

Intermodal perception -World provides intermodal stimulation: simultaneous input from more than one modality, or sensory system -Intermodal perception: making sense of multisensory input as integrated wholes -Infants can detect amodal sensory properties even as newborns (information that is not specific to a single modality but that overlaps two or more sensory systems (hearing and vision-rhythm, duration, etc.) -Abilities develop rapidly in first year (allows babies to notice meaningful correlations between sensory inputs and make sense of surroundings -Facilitates perception of physical world and understanding of social world

-The visual cliff: consists of a Plexiglas-covered table with a platform at the center, a "shallow" side with a checkerboard several feet below the glass. Researchers found that crawling babies readily crossed the shallow side, but most avoided the deep side. They concluded that around the time infants crawl, most distinguish deep from shallow surfaces ands steer clear of drop-offs

-perceptual sensitivity becomes increasingly attuned with age -infants prefer to look at patterned rather than plain stimuli -contrast sensitivity: contrast refers to the difference in the amount of light between adjacent regions in a pattern. If babies are sensitive to the contrast in two or more patterns, they prefer the one with more contrast. -Infants tendency to search for structure in a patterned stimulus applies to face perception. Newborns prefer to look at photos and simplified drawings of faces with features arranged naturally rather than unnaturally -They look longer at both human and animal faces judged by adults as attractive- a preference that may be the origin of the widespread social bias favoring physically attractive people. -They respond to facelike strcutures, they cannot discriminate a complex facial pattern from other, equally complex patterns (quickly leran mom's face)~3 months can distinguish different features of faces -5 months, infants perceive emotional expressions as wholes

we make sense of these running streams of light, sound, tactile, odor, and fast information, perceiving them as integrated wholes

Information that is not specific to a single modality but that overlaps two or more sensory systems (rhythm, texture)

perception of an object's size as the same, despite changes in the size of its retinal image -researchers habituated infants to a small cube at varying distances from the eye, in an effort to desensitize them to changes in the cube's retinal image size and direct their attention to the objects actual size

Shape constancy- perception of an objects shape as stable, depite changes in the shape projected on the retina -both seem to be built-in capacities that assist babies in detecting a coherent world of objects.. -perception of object identity is mastered gradually over the first year.

Basic Trust versus mistrust: balance of care is sympathetic and loving, this is the psychological conflict of the first year. Caregivers need to be prompt and sensitive to children as they build trust and mistrust (quality)

-Autonomy versus shame and doubt: Can be resolved favorably when parents provide young children with suitable guidance and reasonable choices.

Basic trust and autonomy grow out of warm, sensitive parenting and reasonable expectations for impulse control starting in the second year. Adults who have difficulty establishing intimate ties, are overly dependent on others, or who continually doubt their own ability to meet new challenges may not have fully mastered the tasks of trust and autonomy during infancy.

During the first half-year, basic emotions gradually become clear, well-organized signals. The social smile appears between 6 and 10 weeks, laughter around 3-4 months. Happiness strengthens the parent—child bond and reflects as well as supports physical and cognitive mastery. -Anger and fear, especially in the form of stranger anxiety, increase in the second half of the first year as infants' cognitive and motor capacities improve. Newly mobile babies use the familiar caregiver as a secure base from which to explore.

Babies smile from birth -Newborns: smile when full, during REM sleep, and in response to gentle touches and sounds -End of 1st month: smile at dynamic, eye-catching sights like bright objects -6-10 weeks: social smile-parent's communication evokes a broad grin -Laughter: 3-4 months, reflects faster processing of info than smiling -Middle of first year: babies smile and laugh more often when interacting with familiar people 10-12 months: have several smiles, which vary with context

-The ability to understand others' emotional expressions expands over the first year. -4-5 months: can distinguish positive from negative emotion in voices, facials -Beginning at 8 to 10 months, infants engage in social referencing (seek emotional info from a trusted person in an uncertain situation). By the middle of the second year, infants become aware that others' emotional reactions may differ from their own.

At birth, infants sense that they are physically distinct from their surroundings, an implicit self-awareness that expands over the early months and serves as the foundation for explicit self-awareness. In the middle of the second year, self-recognition emerges as toddlers become consciously aware of the self's physical features. However, toddlers make scale errors, attempting to do things their body size makes impossible. -leads to toddlers' first efforts to appreciate others' perspectives, including early sings of empathy. -contributes to gains in self-control

-appears in the middle of the second year (18-24-month-olds become aware of self as separate, unique individual) -The rouge test is a self-recognition test that identifies a human child's ability to recognize a reflection in a mirror as his or her own. Using rouge makeup, an experimenter surreptitiously places a dot on the nose and/or face of the child. They react by either pointing to the rouge or wiping it off.

-Social referencing: infants actively seeking emotional information from a trusted person in an uncertain situation. Caregivers emotional expression influences whether infants will be wary of strangers, play with something unfamiliar or cross the deep side of the visual cliff.

-Emotional regulation: refers to the strategies we use to adjust our emotional state to a comfortable level of intensity so we can accomplish our goals. Infants have only a limited capacity to regulate emotional states so when feelings get intense, they are overwhelmed and cry so caregivers need to distract/redirect their attention, tolerance for stimulation increases over time.

Temperament: early-appearing, stable individual differences in reactivity and self-regulation. Reactivity refers to quickness and intensity of emotional arousal, attention, and motor activity. Self-regulation refers to strategies that modify that reactivity.

-Easy child (40%): quickly establishes regular routines in infancy, is generally cheerful, and adopts easily to new experiences. -Difficult child (10%): is irregular in daily routines, is slow to accept new experiences, and tends to react negatively and intensely -Slow-to-warm-up child (15%): is inactive, shows mild, low-key reactions to environmental stimuli, is negative in mood, and adjusts slowly to new experiences. -35% of children didn't fit into any of these categories

-Temperament is assessed through parental reports, behavior ratings by others familiar with the child, and laboratory observations. Most neurobiological research has focused on distinguishing inhibited, or shy, children from uninhibited, or sociable, children. -Biologically based reactivity (evident in heart rate, hormone levels, and measures of brain activity) differentiates children with inhibited and uninhibited temperaments -identical twins are more similar than DZ across a wide range of temperamental traits and personality measures. Environment is important, for poor regulation of emotion results in inattention and weak impulse control

-Heart rate (few weeks of life, the heart rates of shy children are consistenly higher than those of sociable children) -Cortisol (saliva concentrations of the stress hormone tend to be higher in shy than sociable children) -Pupil dilation, blood pressure, and skin surface temperature: compared with sociable children, shy children show greater pupil dilation, rise in blood pressure and cooling of the fingertips when faced with novelty

-Goodness-of-fit- explains how temperament and environment can together produce favorable outcomes. Goodness of fit involves creating child-rearing environments that recognize each child's temperament while simultaneously encouraging more adaptive functioning. -Good parental mental health, marital happiness, and favorable economic conditions is important

separation anxiety: becoming upset when their trusted caregiver leaves (stage 3, part of the attachment phase 6-8 months to 18-2 years)

-Internal working model: set of expectations about the availability of attachment figures, their likelihood of providing support during times of stress, and the self's interaction with those figures. The internal working model becomes a vital part of personality, serving as a guide for all future close relationships.

-Attachment: humans are endowed with a set of built-in behaviors that keep the parent nearby to protect the infant from danger and provide support for exploring and mastering the environment. It develops over time forming a true affection bond that supports new cognitive and emotional capacities as well as by a history of warm, sensitive care. Best understand in an evolutionary context in which survival of species is of utmost importance. Develops in 4 stages: Pre-attachment phase, attachment in the making phase, clear-cut attachment phase, and formation of reciprocal relationship.

-A widely used laboratory technique for assessing the quality of attachment between 1 and 2 years of age. Securely attached infants and toddlers should use the parent as a secure base from which to explore in an unfamiliar playroom. In addition, when parent leaves, an unfamiliar adult should be less comforting than the parent. The Strange Situation takes the baby through 8 episodes in which brief separations from and reunions with the parent occur.

-Secure attachment: Infants use the parent as a secure base. When separated, they may or may not cry, but if they do, it is because the parent is absent and they prefer her to the stranger. When parent returns, they express clear pleasure (60%)

Infants seem unresponsive to the parent when she is present. When she leaves, they usually are not distressed, and they react to the stranger in much the same way as to the parent. During reunion, they avoid or are slow to greet the parent, often fail to cling (15%)

-Insecure-resistant attachment: before separation, these infants seek closeness to the parent and often fail to explore. When the parent leaves, they are usually distressed, and on her return they combine clinginess with angry, resistive behavior or with an anxious focus on the parent. Many continue to cry after being picked up and cannot be comforted easily (10%)

-Disorganized/disoriented attachment: This pattern reflects the greatest insecurity. At reunion, these infants show confused, contradictory behaviors (look away while the parent is holding them or approaching the parent with flat, depressed emotion. Most display a dazed facial expression, and few cry out unexpectedly after having calmed down, or display odd, frozen postures (15%)

-Early availability of a consistent caregiver: must establish a close tie to caregiver, quality of caregiving is important. Those how are deprived show elevated rates of attachment insecurity and are at high risk for emotional and social difficulties. Also have reduced ERP brain waves in response to facial expressions of emotion-trouble reading expressions -Quality of caregiving: sensitive caregiving-responding promptly, consistently, and appropriately to infants and holding them tenderly and carefully. Interactional synchrony separates the experiences of secure from insecure babies. Cultures vary in view of sensitivity toward infants. -The baby's characteristics: combination of preterm birth with SES risk or maternal psychological risk reduced maternal sensitivity , which predicted insecure attachment at 12 months -family context (parents' internal working models): parental stress can affect babies' sense of security directly by altering the emotional climate of the family or disrupting familiar daily routines. Internal working models are reconstructed memories affected by many factors, including relationship experiences over the life course, personality, and current life satisfaction. Attachment later in Development: preschoolers who had been securely attached as babies were rated by teachers as higher in self-esteem, social skills, and empathy than their insecurely attached counterparts who displayed more problems (and continued to benefit from more supportive social networks, formed more stable and gratifying romantic relationships, and attained higher levels of education-improved cognitive, emotional, and social competence) -Continuity of caregiving determines whether attachment security is linked to later development

Young infants are capable of recognition memory (noticing when a stimulus is identical or similar to one previously experienced). By the middle of the first year, they also engage in recall (more challenging because it involves remembering something not present, you must generate a mental image of a past experience). Both improve with age.

-With age, infants attend to more aspects of the environment and take information in more quickly. In the second year, attention to novelty declines and sustained attention improves. -Young infants are capable of recognition memory (noticing when a stimulus is identical or similar to one previously experienced). By the middle of the first year, they also engage in recall (more challenging because it involves remembering something not present, you must generate a mental image of a past experience). Both improve with age. -Infants group stimuli into an expanding array of categories. In the second year, toddlers begin to categorize flexibly, switching their basis of object sorting, and their grasp of the animate-inanimate distinction expands. Babies' exploration of objects expanding knowledge of the world, and advancing language skills foster categorization.

-it is not genetically determined. It is motivated by exploration and desire to master new tasks and varies into the nervous system, motor behaviors are softly assembled from multiple components, allowing for different paths to the same motor skill.

-control of the head and upper chest combine into sitting with support. Kicking, rocking on all fours, and reaching combine to become crawling. Then crawling, standing, and stepping are united into walking.

-Chomsky's nativist theory regards children as naturally endowed with a language acquisition device (LAD). Consistent with this perspective, a grammatically complex language system is unique to humans -Although language-related structures exist in the left hemisphere of the cerebral cortex, their roles are more complex than previously assumed. But the broad association of language functions with left-hemispheric regions is consistent with Chomsky's notion of a brain prepared to process language. Evidence for a sensitive period for language development also supports this view. -Recent theories suggest that language development results from interactions between inner capacities and environmental influences. Some interactions apply the info-processing perspective to language development. Others emphasize the importance of children's social skills and language experiences.

-The process of identifying the boundaries between words, syllables, or phonemes in spoken natural languages.

-Categorical perception means that a change in some variable along a continuum is perceived, not as gradual but as instances of discrete categories.

-Infants can categorize-group similar objects and events into a single representation. Reduce the enormous amount of new info infants encounter every day -first few months-babies categorize stimuli on basis of shape, size, and physical properties -6 months: can categorize on basis of two correlated features-shape and color -older infants can make categorical distinctions when the perceptual contrast between two categories is minimal -verbal labels expand -Variations among languages lead to cultural differences -Korean toddlers: develop object-sorting skills later