Home Page Flashcards DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCH EXAM 2 Flashcards

DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCH EXAM 2 Flashcards

Elizabeth Mcdonald

19 October 2021

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Chapter 5: Cognitive Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood

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Lectures: Sept 24 and 29 Readings: Manis Chapter 5

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Piaget's theory

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(birth to 24 months) ****1st to say it encompassed both brain development and experience 1. Greater leap from birth to 2 cognitively than perhaps the rest of life 2. Piaget's assumptions: a. Development is driven by both biological maturation & experience b. Child actively constructs knowledge of the world like a "little scientist"***** certain things are innate: reflexes,

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Schemas

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organized ways of acting or thinking about events, objects and people

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assimilation

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**internal cognitive structure that provides you with procedure for how to behave in specific circumstances *** interpreting experience by means of existing schemas

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accommodation

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modifying existing schemas to fit experiences, look up something if unsure of answer

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Cognitive equilibrium

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- balancing assimilation & accommodation to better fit the world, child is always trying to reach this the degree to which the infant can act successfully or unsuccessfully on his or her environment

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organization (chapter)

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linking schemas together to form more complex structures in the mind

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explain how parts of piaget's theory work together****

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Spoon grasping schema 1 → Assimilate new spoon to schema 1 → fails → Adjusts grip to schema 2 (Accomodation) → Assimilates 3rd spoon to schemas 1 or 2 → Infant acquires generalized schema for grasping spoons (equilibrium) → infant combines schemas (organization)

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Sensorimotor substages

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simple reflexes primary circular reactions secondary circular reactions combining secondary circular reactions tertiary circular reactions mental representations

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simple reflexes

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*** reflexes present from the prenatal period are modified as a result of continued use. Video example: reflexes become smoother and more organized, but still reflexes video:Baby: looked towards noise, grasped rattle, **** reflexes present from the prenatal period are modified as a result of continued use.

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primary circular reactions

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*** primary circular reaction: infant repeats an interesting act centered on her/his own body. Infant will not search for an object if it disappears from view. Video examples: primary because centered on infants body*** Infant repeats an interesting act centered on her/his own body. Infant will not search for an object if it disappears from view. child repeat things over and over once they discover something why is she loosening grasp and grasping it? Simple because she can! So keep doing it

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secondary circular reactions

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actions repeated to cause some effect in external environment. Beginning of object permanence ***Video examples: at this point, have beginnings of object permanence particular object was a cube, doesn't quite succeed, but attempts to do that (accomadation) assimilation is trying her old way by grabbing it trying to pull it in with her mouth, take an object and bring to mouth to explore ***

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combining(coodination of secondary circular reactions

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*** child combines two or more secondary circular reactions to achieve goals. Begins to imitate novel behavior. Video examples (Lauren being tested at the table in Mom's lap): - Smoother secondary circular reactions: Goal Is to get ring in mouth, if not, doing intermediate steps to get there*** Also saw imitating novel behavior, lauren repeated action righ away - Coordination (or sequencing) of secondary circular reactions (goal-directed behavior): Object permanence emerges at 7-9 months, but limited by the A-not-B error. Piaget: the infant doesn't have a full symbolic representation of the object. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhHkJ3InQOE They don't have a full object permananece concept, don't really realize it exists

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tertiary circular reactions

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existing schemes are deliberately varied to observe the effects on objects or people, & multiple schemas can be used to obtain a goal. *** Video example (Lauren trying to get the pin at 13 month moved on to another pin when couldn't have the pin she bent over, tried to scrape it off, was screaming **** Object permanence: progress after 12 months: Video: Caroline & Big Bird, 13 months Searched for object under cup, was stunned the onject wasn't there, later on, hid big bird under bowl and took it, confused to where it was

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mental representations

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Sensorimotor schemes now evolve into a new type of scheme that represents objects and actions more abstractly. This is the beginning of symbolic thought (image or word stands for an object or event). Signs of symbolic thought: achieve mental representations, language as a symbolic system, ***make believe- play, deferred imitation***, interiorized problem solving

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Explain the concept of object permanence and Piaget's claims about development of this concept (going back through the stages. Describe how experiments using the violation of expectation method (the "possible" and "impossible" events shown in the video with Renee Baillargeon in class) reveal that infants understand that objects have solidity and permanence many months before Piaget claimed that they did.

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***Renee Baillargeon challenged Piaget-thought it made no sense that babies had no sense of objects, because tended to remember moms, etc Renee: child expects that block is still there and should stop the train We still cant explain why if they have object permanence, Object Permanence: a test of the infant's ability to find hidden objects. Piaget attracted the baby's attention to an object and hid it. Infants can find the object for the first time at substage 4, by combining two schemas, such as pushing aside a screen then grabbing the object, or pulling a cover off the object in order to retrieve it. Piaget would hide an object in location A and allow infant to retrieve it multiple times. Then he would hide the object in A then hide it in location B within full view of the infant, but infants still search ar A for object. The ability to search for hidden objects indicates infants are beginning to form mental representations. Renee Baillargeon said it didn't make sense that babies have no object permanence because they remember their mothers. Concludes that infants as young as 3.5 months have object permanence and understand that objects continue to exist when hidden (Train with blocked block example)

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Despite early understanding that objects continue to exist when hidden, as demonstrated by Baillargeon's studies, why do babies not search for hidden objects, and why do they make the A-not-B error? Explain how gradual development of working memory and long term memory for events, as well as improvements in executive functions, housed in the prefrontal cortex, such as planning and executing responses and inhibiting old responses, may underlie Piaget's stages of development of the object concept and other skills in infancy.

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***If infants understand the object is still there at 3 ½ months why to they make errors in object searching tasks at stage 3 (no search) and 4 (A-not-B error)? Cognitive neuroscientists have alternative explanations for Piaget's stages, as gradual growth of: working memory (ability to maintain object in memory while organizing search) executive functions (ability to plan, execute plan, and inhibit old responses)1 hypothesis: working memory is just getting better*** Several factors at work in the months when searching behavior improves. One factor is the growth of working memory and long-term memory for events. In addition, searching requires the ability to plan and execute responses, and to inhibit responses that previously worked. Planning, and holding information in memory and executing some but not all responses, enlist prefrontal areas of the brain that are undergoing rapid development at 8-12 months.

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Note also that there is a bi-directional relationship between cognitive and motor development: explain how crawling is influenced by improvements in memory and executive functions and how crawling helps infants solve the A-not-B problem.

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Object permanence studies illustrate an important principle of development, which is that motor and cognitive development are bi-directionally related. THe period between 8 and 14 months is a time when infants are increasingly mobile. Infants who have more crawling and walking experience are more likely to overcome the A-not-B error at an earlier age because they have more experience planning where to go and keeping track of spatial locations of objects

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Explain briefly Piaget's stages in the development of imitation (chapter 5, Table 5.1, substages 3-6). What do more recent studies show about infants ability to imitate novel actions and their ability to retain the ability to imitate over time (deferred imitation (Ch. 5)?

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Imitation developed with other sensorimotor abilities, with deferred imitation emerging only after 18 months. Ability to imitate novel behaviors after a delay emerges far earlier that Piaget claimed. Babies in an experimental group saw an investigator demonstrate novel actions with objects, such as lifting a flap with a hinge. A day later they imitated more of the target actions when allowed to handle demonstration objects than did a control group exposed to different action or not exposed to objects at all on the previous day. Infants at 14 months imitated up to 6 novel actions and retained ability to do so up to 4 months later. Infants also imitate puppets and people in videos, & improve between 6-19 months in ability to imitate actions in videos

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What are the basic theoretical assumptions of the core knowledge approach to infant cognitive capabilities? What types of knowledge systems do these theorists think are innate? (ch. 5)

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nt from Piaget, Piaget thought all knowledge was caused by infant acting on environment. Core knowledge- some basic knowledge that infants have, have some processing mechanisms (ex. language) they don't have to learn language from scratch, core knowledge theory don't know exactly what infants are born with but they're born with something Experiment with numbers, young children can understand numbers up to 3. Connects to theory theory, core knowledge the same as theory theory. Start with something, then change and build on those assumptions

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summary of ideas on piaget

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1. Piaget's sensorimotor stages: good description of normal everyday behavioral abilities 2. Infants begin to understand many of these concepts earlier than Piaget thought 3. But it takes them a while to apply the understanding in many real-world situations

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Describe evidence from experiments on infants concepts of numbers that implicate the existence of an object tracking system. Describe the numerical estimation system and what researchers have found about infant capabilities. (ch. 5)

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1 experiment: Wynn showed 5-month-old infants a mouse doll on a stage and a screen was raised to hide the mouse. Next a hand holding an identical doll was behind the screen and reappeared without he dolls. In the possible event the screen was lowered and 2 dolls were revealed. Impossible event- one doll was revealed. Infants look longer when only one doll. 2nd experiment: began with 2 dolls, screened them off, removed one, and then showed 1 or 2 dolls when the screen was lowered. Infants would stare longer at two doll displays. Babies can keep track of up to 3 objects on the stage but can't tell the difference between 2 and 4 objects or 3 and 5 objects. Numerical estimation system: as long as the number of items is in a 1:2 ratio, infants can distinguish approximate number both at a behavioral level and in terms of EEG response patterns of the brain (infants can distinguish between arrays for 8 vs. 16 dots but not 8 vs 12)

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Describe the earliest forms of memory observable in infants - implicit memory, as for example in habituation and operant conditioning (ch. 5)

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Implicit memory: the largely unconscious learning of a response or skill. Young infants can become habituated to one type of stimulus in a study of visual or auditory perception and show increased responding to a different stimulus. They remember the first stimulus and can distinguish it from the second. Example with operant conditioning: infant's foot is connected to a mobile with a ribbon. When the infant kicks, the mobile moves. Infants at 2-6 months learn to kick one foot to make the mobile move and they retain this response for up to 2 weeks

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What is explicit memory, and how does it develop from the latter part of the first year through the second year (i.e., to age 2)? What changes in the brain are thought to underlie changes in explicit memory? (ch. 5)

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Explicit memory: the conscious deliberate recall of events or experiences. Between 9 - 24 months, infants gradually improve their ability to imitate adult actions after a delay. Example: 12 month olds who were shown adult actions briefly, but did not get a chance to imitate them right away, were able to repeat some of those actions a month later. Two year old were able to repeat the same type of actions up to 3 months after the initial exposure , and memory improves if infants are given practice at imitating actions.. Gradual improvements in explicit memory over this time period correlates with changes that are known to occur in regions of the brain associated with memory ( medial temporal lobes, prefrontal cortex, subcortical structure, hippocampus) between 6 months and 2 years. Undergoes changes including myelination & pruning throughout childhood and adolescence.

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Describe the three aspects of attention and the physical and physiological measures used to identify these states of attention in infants (ch. 5)

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Visual-spatial orienting Alerting/arousal Executive attention

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Visual Spatial orienting

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an object appears in the periphery and we make eye movement toward it, engaging neural circuits in the visual and parietal cortex. Present in first 6 months, ex. when a baby turns toward a person approaching his crib

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Alerting/Arousal

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involved whenever we want to gain more information about a stimulus such as an infant trying to recognize the face of the person next to the crib. As infant alerts to a stimulus & begins to process it, heart rate initially speeds up and slows down during period of sustained attention to stimulus. As infant disengages with stimulus heart rate returns to normal. As they get older, infants are capable of longer period of sustained attention when they look at a new stimulus. Ex. encounter 12-18 month old baby who doesn't know you, they will stare at your face

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Executive attention

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young infants' attention seem to be captured by any stimulus that comes into their environment and appear distractible. After 9-10 months of age, infants' attention gradually comes under their own control. Ex. Infant who doesn't know you may look back and forth between you and another person to compare faces. Once she is satisfied you are different, she may look away entirely. When she looks back you may get a smile- indication that baby recognizes you

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Explain how changes in executive attention, sustained attention and memory in the second year, can help explain the increasingly goal-directed and flexible behavior observed in Piaget's stages 4, 5, and 6 (ch. 5).

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Stages 4,5,6 infants are becoming more flexible in their problem solving. The object searching capabilities become better. Information processing researchers would say you can explain those changes as changes in attention and memory. Those are gradually getting better because the brain is maturing. Executive attention: ability to switch from one thing to another on purpose. Older infants can pay attention on certain materials and not get distracted. Piaget may have been noticing the increased flexibility and ability to switch attention. They may get better on object searching task because of better memory skills.

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How early can infants form perceptual categories? When does the evidence clearly support the development of conceptual categories (i.e., categories that are based on the functions of a an object, rather than just the visible parts)? (ch. 5).

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3-4 month old infants shown a series of pictures of cats reacted to a test stimulus of a dog as novel and another cat as familiar. By 14 months, there is clear evidence that infants can use conceptual categories. Ex. after testing children to see whether they know the names of objects, researchers asked them to put objects into a pile based on category names (children can do this successfully). Few months late, children can use categorical knowledge as they play with toys.

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How is the rate at which infants habituate to a new stimulus related to later cognitive scores, and what is the most common interpretation of this longitudinal correlation? (ch. 5)

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Infants who habituate more quickly tend to have higher intelligence, reading, and math achievement scores at ages up to 18 years. No single explanation for this, but most common interpretation is that processes of memory and attention operate more efficiently in certain infants, and this enables them to learn more throughout their childhood, resulting in higher test scores.

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How stable are specific aspects of information processing from infancy to age 11 in the studies by Rose and colleagues?

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Researchers found that infants' scores at age 7 and 12 months correlated with later tests of the same abilities in the toddler years (24 & 36 months) and at 11 years of age. Each fo the four infant abilities (memory, processing speed, attention, representational competence) added something to the prediction of IQ at 11 years of age, indicating that there may be separate aspects of information processing skill from early age. MANIS: More efficient at storing things in memory. Because all your life you're faster at learning new things you develop a higher IQ. Rose looked at 4 types of cognition & gave a habituation test and followed up those babies when they were older and gave a test that is more appropriate for adolescents and if you were fast at habituation when you were a baby you did better on the test as an adolescent. Same with memory.

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Give brief definitions of the four main language skills (phonology, semantics, syntax and pragmatics).

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Phonology: understanding the sounds of adult speech and producing them accurately enough for adults to understand them Semantics: understanding parent's words, and producing words of her own that make sense in the context Syntax: understanding simple sentences spoken by adults and beginning to arrange words into short sentences of her own that resembled English grammar Pragmatics: beginning to comprehend and use conventional aspects of communication, such as making requests, asking questions, and responding appropriately to another's requests

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Define and give an example of a phoneme, and explain infants' abilities to perceive phonemes in the first 6 months. How do these capabilities become refined between 6 and 12 months of age based on the studies of Janet Werker and colleagues? What does the study by Kuhl et al. (2003) of exposure to Mandarin speakers indicate about the kinds of experiences needed for infants to create perceptual categories for foreign speech sounds?

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Manis: Initially the baby has the ability to perceive sound in all kinds of languages. Between 6-12 months they become better at perceiving sound in their own languages and worse at perceiving sounds in other languages. They start to specialize and prune out the connections for sound in other languages and strengthen the connections for own languages. Wendy: Phoneme: smallest meaningful units of sound in language. Examples: /b/ & /p/ like in bat and pat. Infants from any language community can make /b/ and /p/ distinction in the first 6 months. Werker and her colleagues have shown that the ability to perceive phonemes in one's own language improves dramatically by 9-12 months. They also have the ability to distinguish among the phonemes of a foreign language diminishes. 9 month old American infants who had heard only English were given a dozen 20-30 minute sessions in which they were exposed to speaker of Mandarin, who spoke in ways that engage the infants' attention to them and to objects and books in the environment. Infants quickly learned Mandarin phoneme distinctions that were not found in English.

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Explain what is involved in the skill of statistical learning, and what it contributes to the task of learning about language. How did the study of infants responses to Italian sentences discussed in class provide evidence for statistical learning (Lecture and ch. 5)

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-Infants hear what seems to be a random string of sounds but they have the ability to segment the sounds into words. Took actual Italian sentences. Statistical learning: infants listening to a string of speech (speaking rapidly in a foreign language) & are capable of segmenting out the words, based on probability that certain sounds occur together. Ex. "hap" & "py" and "ba" & "by" go together more than "py" & "ba". Infants (7-8 months) appear to induce that "happy", "baby", etc are all words although they don't know what the words mean. Italian sentences: read sentences to babies, recorded how long babies looked at speaker with sound, babies looked longer at the speakers who had high transitional probability words.

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What is the function of babbling in learning expressive language, and what transitions in babbling occur in the first 12 months?

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Babbling: by 4-6 months infants have achieved enough control to combine consonants with vowel. Infants in all cultures make very similar sounds such as "da-da-da" and "gu-gu-gu". Cooing and babbling involve random discovery and repetition characteristic of Piaget's primary and secondary circular reactions. By 10-12 months, infants string syllables together into fluent streams that have the same rhythm and intonational patterns as their native languages. Scientists speculate that babbling allows the child to improve the coordination of the speech articulators, valuable skills that will be needed to pronounce words.

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Identify three major features of infant directed speech and how they may help infants pay attention to language, identify the words, and understand adult speech. (lecleature and ch. 5)

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Manis:Repeated words: If you're talking to the child and you say "Lets play with the dog" "do you want to play with the dog" ... etc, repetition helps the child see how words fit together & grammar, they can put it in a question or statement, different forms of grammar. Also helps them learn vocabulary Wendy:General term for the way adults talk to infants is infant-directed speech. Analyses of adult speech to children reveal a number of features that may help infants learn language. Across many language , IDS has shorter sentences, more clearly articulated words, repeated words and phrases, higher pitch , more variable pitch and exaggerated stress, all of which may help infants notice and separate out words from the stream of speech. Infants pay more attention to this type of speech from an early age.

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What is joint attention and how does it help babies learn about language? (lecture and ch. 5)

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Joint attention: adults and infants pay attention to the same object or event. Joint attention is typically observed at 9 months of age, & reflects infants' understanding that other people have intentions and goals. Mothers who have frequent periods of joint attention with their infants, attract the infants' attention to objects, and say the names of objects, tend to have infants who produce meaningful gestures and acquire new vocabulary words at an earlier age.

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What strategies used by parents and what cognitive capabilities help infants figure out the meanings of words between 6 and 12 months of age? (lecture and ch. 5)

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A child of 6-8 months likely already knows that "doggie" is a sound-unit. In addition, the child likely has a perceptual category of "dog" by this age. When a parent uses the word "dog" in a joint attention situation, the infant can begin learning the meaning of the word "dog." Hearing the word"dog" in many contexts helps children determine that the word dog refers to the category, and not to a particular dog , or a particular breed of dog. Evidence of comprehension can be seen when asking infants "Where's Mommy?" or "where's Daddy?" 6 month old infants looked longer at the appropriate photo.

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What are some of the main categories of early words used by infants and how does it differ across language communities?

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Main categories: people, familiar animals, body parts & clothing, moving objects, food & drink, household items, actions or refusals to act, games & routines, adjectives and descriptives. Children in all language communities tend to produce far more nouns than any other word type, most likely because concrete nouns are more easily named than actions. In languages that make frequent use of verbs, such as Korean and Chinese, the number of nouns and verbs in infants' speech is more nearly equal

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Define overextension errors, give an example, and explain why an infant might make these errors. Do the same for underextension errors. It will help you remember the two if you think that the extension involves extension of the category of the word (e.g., category of dog contains too many members - overextension - category of dog contains too few members - underextension). (ch. 5)

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Overextensions: children seem to have extended the adult meaning of a word too far; ex. calling a dog "kitty" or an unfamiliar adult male "daddy". Children are more likely to overextend in production than comprehension; ex. child may call a cow "dog" but when pointing at pictures they get them correct. Child may be commenting on the similarity or using the label as a temporary substitute when the name of the object doesn't come to mind Underextensions: involve using a word in more limited contexts than those used for the adult meaning; ex. child may use "dog" to refer only to the family dog. May be due to retrieval problems or to the child simply not knowing the full range of category members to which a word extends

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What are holophrases, and how are they used by children? Give an example (lecture and ch. 5).

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Holophrases: utterances in which a single word is used to capture a variety of meanings. Between 12-18 months, children's single word statements can have multiple meanings that extend beyond just a single words, depending on the context. Ex. Lauren's conversation- the single word utterance "Hold" could have been an instruction to herself, or to her mother, but she could also have been telling the doll to hold on, which is how her mother interpreted the statement

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What types of words are present in telegraphic speech and what types of words or grammatical elements are missing? (lecture and ch. 5)

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Telegraphic speech: short sentences containing mostly high-content words (such as nouns, verbs and adjectives and omitting smaller words (such as the, to, with, etc) and grammatical inflections ( grammatical elements that modify the meaning of a noun (such as plurals) or verb (past tense, present progressive (bottles, hugged, running)) Ex. "Norrie rock" instead of "Norrie is rocking"

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How are semantic relationships used to describe children's utterances at the two word stage? (lecture, ch. 5)

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Children are limited to short combinations of words because they have not yet cracked the syntactic rule system of their language and are using the words in a particular order that expresses semantic relationship between words, such as agent + action (Momma help). Other two word stage relationships include action + object, agent + object, action + location, entity + location, possessor + possession, attribute + entity, demonstrative + entity, negation + X

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What is Chomsky's language acquisition device? (lecture and ch. 5)

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According to Chomsky, human beings are born with structures and mechanisms in the brain that are specifically designed for acquiring language. General term for this language learning capability was a language acquisition device.

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Measures of brain activity (NIRS) show that the infant brain is already specialized for language - in what way? Which brain structures are key to language and how are they involved in children's use of language? (ch. 5)

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Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), has shown that in the first week after birth, infants show greater activity in the left temporal lobe for words pronounced normally vs. words spoken in revers. Specific brain areas are allocated for language- Broca's area and Wernicke's area. Broca's area is located in the left frontal lobe & contributes to the production of fluent, grammatically well-structured sentences. Wernicke's area is in the left temporal lobe; patients with damage to this region can speak fluently, but their sentences contain nonsense words, and they have trouble comprehending the meanings of words and sentences.

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What does the case of Genie suggest about the importance of experience in learning language? (lecture, ch. 5)

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Genie was locked in her room by her abusive mentally ill father from age 2-13. She was adopted for 4 years by a psychologist & underwent intensive interventions to teach her language and social skills. She learned vocabulary and nonverbal skills but her syntax never progressed beyond the level of the average two-year old child. The deprivation Genie experience made it difficult to determine whether her failure to master syntax was the result of lack of exposure to language, or a general result of extreme deprivation and abuse

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What basic capabilities of grammar seem to develop naturally in children if they are engaged in social interaction with adults, as shown by the studies of deaf children whose parents refused to teach them sign language? What limitations on their language progress were observed? (lecture, ch. 5)

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Children who heard corrective recasts showed both immediate and long-term improvements in their grammatical use. Researchers found that even after using American Sign Language for 20 years or more, some individuals did not use subtle features of sign language grammar. This was more likely to be the case if they had not started learning sign language until adolescence or adulthood than if they started in childhood.

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What differences between children's language emerge in low and high SES (socioeconomic status) homes and why are these thought to occur? (lecture, ch. 5)

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MAnis:Children in high SES homes talk more and use more vocabulary. They're getting thousands more sentences and words. By kindergarten there's a large gap. Wendy: Children in welfare homes hear less than ⅓ as much language as children in working class families and professional families. By 3 years, the average number of words comprehended and spoken by the children in the two types of home environments differed enormously. Intervention studies with low income children reveal that training their mothers to read to them in an interactive style raised the IQ of children 2-3 years old by an average of 6 points, presumably because of increases in their expressive as well as receptive language and world knowledge.

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Studies of children who don't learn sign language until later in life, and studies of second language learning provide some information about sensitive periods in language development. What can we conclude from these studies? (ch. 5)

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Manis: Found that children who started earlier than age 7 ended up with a better understanding of sign language. They tested the people as adults, still weren't as good as people who started at age 4. Attempting to claim that there's a sensitive period for sign language Wendy: Researchers found that even after using American Sign Language for 20 years or more, some individuals did not use subtle features of sign language grammar. This was more likely to be the case if they had not started learning sign language until adolescence or adulthood than if they started in childhood. Studies of second language learners have not revealed a sharp cut-off age. Data from people who had been in the US for at least 10 years shows a gradual decrease in self rated language competence as the age of immigration increased, from infancy through adulthood with no sharp drop-offs at any particular age. True for people of wide-ranging educational levels.

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How does Gottlieb's concept of the developmental manifold help us understand why virtually all children with a normal brain raised in a normal environment become fluent speakers of one or more languages? (ch. 5)

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Manis:Whether you're learning one or two languages the same principles apply.The deaf children who invent their own signs shows what the brain can do by itself. You're not going to learn fluent language. Kids get semantic relations with their own signs they invent but they don't get the more complex parts of language (ex. conjunctions). Wendy: Developmental manifold may help organize the information we have at present on biological and environmental contributions to language. Children in all cultures and language communities are born with the capacity to understand and produce language, and they will develop it in a fixed sentence as long as they are in an environment where they can communicate and interact socially with others, and in which they can develop normal cognitive abilities. Some of the techniques children use to learn language may be "built-in" to the human brain. Every culture provides tools that children use to develop mature language, in the form of a complex, fully functional adult language, and a supportive social and communicative environment. The development of language seems effortless and natural but that may be because we "inherit" not only genes for language learning and a brain suited to language, but also the social and cultural environment to support it.

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CHAPTER 6: Cognitive Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood

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...

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Dyadic coordination

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1st of the five phases in emotional development, when infants coordinate their emotional exchanges with another person, infants display three interpretable emotional states: contentment, interest, and distress. They are shown from differences in facial expression, body posture and activity, and vocalizations (crying).

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Primary intersubjectivity

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coordinated emotion sharing during reciprocal social interaction between two partners

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Social smile

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infants smile as a specific response to people, allows for parents to exchange expressions with their child

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Still Face procedure

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shows young infants expect people to respond to their emotional overtures. In the experimental technique called the still face procedure, the caregiver interacts in a normal manner, and then ceases to respond for a short period of time. Infants act distressed, and use facial expressions, vocalizations, and body movements to re-engage the parent. When these efforts don't succeed, the infant turns away, displays a sad expression and begins to cry.

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e. Four emotional response patterns at 4-6 months (social engagement, object engagement, passive withdrawal and active protest):

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social engagement: facial expression of joy, positive vocalizations and gazing at the mother) object engagement: gazing at and mouthing objects, general scanning of the physical environment, facial expression of interest) passive withdrawal: irritable vocalizations, sad facial expressions, and indicators of stress such as spitting up or hiccupping)

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Facial expressions of emotion

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Infants around 6 months display facial expressions readily interpretable by adults from a variety of cultures.

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Separation anxiety

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a general wariness and distress in the absence of their primary caregiver

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Stranger anxiety

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distress reactions to strangers

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Secondary intersubjetivity

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infants use information from a social partner to guide their actions toward objects and in turn, communicate back to the social partner about objects

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Joint attention

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the infant and caregiver simultaneously turn their attention toward a particular object. Joint attention is key to infants learning the names of objects, and hence a prime example of how development occurs in multiple domains simultaneously.

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Social referencing

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infants use the emotional displays of their caregivers to regulate their own behavior. Infants rely on the caregiver's emotional reactions to modulate their fear of novel objects, events and people, leading to greater exploration of their environment, which has benefits for cognitive and motor development.

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Self-recognition

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being aware of yourself. the mirror self-recognition, or "rouge test" a researcher dabs a rouge on a toddler's nose, and puts the child in front of a mirror. Nine- to 12-month old infants often notice the rouge spot in the mirror, but reach out to touch the reflection in the mirror as if it were another child. In contrast, by 18-24 months, most toddlers rub their nose, aware that is their own reflection in the mirror.

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m. Self-conscious emotions (temper tantrums, empathy, pride, shame, guilt, embarrassment)

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emotions involving a concept of how the current state relates to the status of the self in relation to a desired goal or outcome

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Emotional regulation

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Between 6 and 12 months, infants have only a few strategies for emotional regulation, such as sucking their thumb, or seeking bodily contact with their primary caregiver. During the second year, toddlers develop more strategies due to increasing cognitive skills, as well as pressures from adults to control their emotions. These 6 strategies include communicating an emotion to an adult (as when a toddler points at a frightening object, seeking some sort of reassurance by an adult), distracting themselves by looking away from a frightening object, holding a comfort-object (such as a blanket) when distressed, and using language (such as a loud "mama!" when scared).

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2. Define temperament, and describe give examples of negative emotionality, positive emotionality and effortful control (Oct 6 discussion of virtual children and ch. 6)

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Temperamant is early-appearing differences among infants in emotions, activity and attention that are partly biologically based. -Negative emotionality: behavioral inhibition, which is inhibition of behavior with novel people and ---Positive emotionality: high intensity pleasure, low intensity pleasure, and activity level -High intensity pleasure is pleasure, positive anticipation and excitement in social interaction. (laughter when tickled) -Low intensity pleasure is delight in sensual gratification and comfort. (delight trying ice cream) -Activity level is frequency, briskness and vigor of motor movement -Effortful control: attention/persistence and inhibitory control, which is the ability to inhibit a dominant response and/or activate a sub-dominant response, to plan and to detect errors (cry when toy taken)

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3. What are the brain bases of negative and positive emotionality and effortful control?

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Negative emotionality: stems from the brain circuits involving the detection of threat, including the amygdala, and parts of the temporal and prefrontal cortex. Positive emotionality: reward circuit in the brain, governing goal-directed behavior and tendency to approach positive stimuli Effortful control: based on different circuits within the prefrontal cortex that mature at different times

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4. How is temperament measured, and what are some problems in measurement?

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Parents are asked to rate children on a questionnaire regarding all the aspects of temperament. Then investigators use observational methods and standardized laboratory procedures to test whether parent ratings are accurate. There is only a moderate correlation between parent and investigator ratings. This may be because parents see their children in a variety of settings while experimenters don't but it shows that our understanding of temperament is still a work in progress.

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5. Explain how genes, nonshared environment and shared environment contribute to variations among children in temperament? Give an example of a gene-environment correlation involving temperament

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The gradual emergence of temperamental traits in the first 2-3 years allows time Estimates of heritability range from .2 to .6 across studies and across temperamental traits, and are found at all ages from infancy to adulthood. The same studies also reveal a very small shared environmental component, and a large nonshared environmental component to temperamental traits. A example of a gene-environment correlation for temperament is a child who is genetically prone to be cheerful, positive and enthusiastic will tend to elicit more positive behavior over time from people around him/her than a child low in positive emotionality. It is also likely that children with different temperaments interpret the same events differently. For example, an anxious child might worry more about losing one parent if the parents are arguing, compared with a non-anxious child.

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6. Explain bi-directional effects involving parent behavior and infant temperament

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Studies of parenting influences on temperament have revealed connections between maternal sensitivity and responsiveness at one age and decreases in negative emotionality at a later age. Bi-directional effects may occur. Adults who perceive an infant as having a more positive temperament may pay more attention to that infant, which in turn can influence the infant's future emotional responses.

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7. What is a possible biological difference between boys and girls in temperament and what is it source?

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A possible biological difference is in hormones of males and females. There is animal evidence that administering testosterone leads to higher activity levels. Of all of the temperamental traits only activity level shows the strongest gender differences in infancy, with males being more active on the average. However, parents also typically encourage high activity levels with boys and more quiet activities with girls, so the differences could be partly environmental.

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8. Define goodness of fit and explain the van den Boom intervention studies showing how goodness of fit may operate in social development

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Goodness of fit is the extent to which the environment accommodates for a given child's temperament and helps the child respond more adaptively to the environment. A Dutch researcher worked with economically distressed mothers whose infants were high in the temperamental trait of irritability,. She knew from past studies that many of these mothers would become discouraged about their parenting skills by the time the child reached 6 months of age, due to the child's persistent irritability. Accordingly, at 6 months of age, the researcher randomly assigned half of the infants and their mothers to an experimental intervention featuring three home visits designed to increase sensitivity and responsiveness. The other half did not receive the intervention. Observations showed that the intervention worked: not only did the intervention group of mothers become more sensitive and responsive to their infants, but 4 months after the intervention. One year later the mothers in the intervention group continued to behave more sensitively and positively toward their toddlers, and these toddlers showed more positive interactions with peers than toddlers in the control group (van den Boom, 1995). The intervention group of mothers had shown goodness of fit (responding sensitively to an irritable infant), whereas the control group had not, resulting in dramatic differences in development over the first two years.

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9. Explain the differential susceptibility hypothesis and give a research example (see Fig. 6.3)

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Differential susceptibility hypothesis: the hypothesis that certain temperamental traits lead to greater responsiveness to both negative and positive environments Researchers have proposed that certain temperamental traits, such as temperamental difficulty, may predispose a child to be more susceptible to environmental influences. According to this view, temperamentally difficult children respond better than average to a positive environment, and worse than average to a negative environment. Children with a more average temperament do reasonably well in a wide range of environments.

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10. Explain Kagan's theory about the physiological (e.g., heart rate) and neurological (e.g., amygdala functioning) bases of behavioral inhibition (shyness) and describe changes with age in how shyness is expressed in behavior (Oct 6 lecture and ch. 6)

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Longitudinal studies from infancy to adolescence have revealed higher arousal levels in novel situations for inhibited, as compared to uninhibited children. Inhibited children show greater jumps in heart rate, cortisol levels and blood pressure when moving from familiar to novel laboratory situations. Inhibited children also showed higher EEG activity in the right frontal lobe (associated with negative emotional reactions) and uninhibited children showed higher activity in the left frontal lobe (associated with positive emotions). All of these findings indirectly implicated the amygdala, because of its linkage to emotional response and control systems in the nervous system. Investigators have collected fMRI data on a sample of adolescents who had been classified as inhibited or uninhibited at age 2. The inhibited individuals showed a greater blood-flow response in the amygdala to novel stimulus conditions.

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11. What function does the attachment behavioral system serve in the evolution of the human species, according to Bowlby? (Oct 1 and ch. 6)

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Bowlby proposed that infants evolved to have an attachment behavioral system which is to ensure proximity to the caregiver. This proximity in turn maximized the infant's chances of survival to reproductive age in the early environment of humans.

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12. Explain the baby's and the caregiver's contributions to the attachment behavioral system (Oct 1 and ch. 6)

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The attachment behavioral system involves signals from the infants, such as gazing at the mother, social smiles, snuggling, cooing, and crying. The caregiver's contribution to the attachment system includes emotional responses to the baby and behaviors such as feeding and comforting the infant.

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13. Describe the four phases of attachment according to Bowlby (Oct 1 and ch. 6):

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a. preattachment phase: (birth to 2 months). Infants exhibit many signals that promote close contact with adults (gazing, smiling, crying, etc.). They can recognize their mother's face, voice and smell, but they are not yet attached to her. They respond the same way to any adult who knows how to interact with infants. b. attachment in the making: (2 to 6 months). Infants begin to signal to and respond more to their primary caregiver than to an unfamiliar adult. However, they do not protest when separated from the caregiver. Others can soothe the infant when s/he is upset. c. clear-cut attachment (including the secure base concept): (6 to 24 months). infants form a special relationship to the caregiver who spends the most time with them, satisfying their needs, and interacting with them socially. Recall memory is stronger, and planning ability increases at the same time that infants become more mobile. Infants begin to exhibit separation anxiety, and seek to regain contact through a variety of means. Infants use the primary caregiver as a secure base -they explore around the caregiver and return for comfort when distressed. By 18 months, most infants have multiple attachments d. goal-corrected partnership: (24 months and up). With the development of secondary intersubjectivity, emotional regulation, and improvements in memory and language, children are capable of sophisticated two-way interactions. Mother and infant can work together to achieve the amount of proximity that the child desires, and children begin to consider the mother's needs and desires. For example, at this age, a child can respond to a request that s/he play while the mother completes a task. Bowlby believed that this type of attachment persisted into adulthood, and characterized any close relationship.

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14. Describe the general design and purpose of the Strange Situation (you do not have to list the 8 steps) based on chapter 6 and the video presented in class (Oct 1)

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The logic behind the Strange Situation is that the experimenter gradually increases the stress on the infant by repeated short separations from the caregiver. The goal is to determine whether the child uses the caregiver as a secure base, how upset the child becomes when the caregiver leaves the room, and how quickly the child calms down when the caregiver returns. It is the variation in infant/toddler behavior in this situation that determines the child's attachment classification.

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15. Describe the four patterns of behavior in the Strange Situation (Oct 1 video and ch. 6):

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a. secure attachment: infant uses the mother as a secure base, shows separation anxiety, and displays positive reactions upon reunion b. insecure-avoidant attachment: infant doesn't use the mother as a secure base, does not show separation anxiety and ignores or avoids her upon reunion c. insecure-ambivalent attachment: infant clings to the mother rather than using her as a secure base, shows strong separation anxiety, and is not soothed by her upon reunion d. insecure-disorganized attachment: the infant and mother do not appear to have a working attachment relationship and the infant becomes confused and upset

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16. Describe the two components of sensitive-responsive caregiving and how Ainsworth thought it facilitated the development of a secure attachment (Oct 1 and ch. 6)

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Sensitive-responsive caregiving: caregiving that is sensitive to the infant's signals, and responsive to the infant's needs and social overtures. includes being sensitive to the baby's signals (such as crying), and social overtures (such as smiling), interpreting these signals correctly, and responding quickly and effectively, without being overly intrusive into the baby's ongoing activities. Sensitive-responsive caregiving increases infants' confidence that their physical and psychological needs will be met, helps infants explore their environments with confidence, and helps them regulate emotions such as anxiety and fear.

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17. What does the evidence show about the correlational relationship of sensitivity-responsiveness to later attachment security? Describe evidence from experimental interventions of how sensitivity-responsiveness is linked to attachment security (Oct 1 and ch. 6)

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A small but consistent correlation between mother's sensitivity-responsiveness and attachment security has been found in meta-analyses of dozens of studies conducted since Ainsworth's original observational study (De Wolff & van IJzendoorn et al., 1997; van IJzendoorn et al., 2004). The modest correlation suggests that there are additional factors that influence security of attachment. -There is now considerable experimental evidence that sensitive-responsive caregiving can be trained, and that improvements in parental sensitivity lead to a higher rate of secure attachments. The van den Boom (1994, 1995) intervention study discussed in the "Temperament" section shows sensitive-responsive caregiving can be modified by an intervention, with positive effects on later infant behavior, including secure attachments.

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18. What patterns of maternal behavior were associated with insecure-avoidant and insecure-ambivalent attachment patterns? (Oct 1 and ch. 6)

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Mothers of insecure-avoidant infants tend to be intrusive into the baby's activities, or rejecting of the infant's social overtures. Mothers of insecure-ambivalent infants tend to be unaffectionate and inconsistent - sometimes they respond, and sometimes they ignore the baby's needs.

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19. In what ways are father-infant and mother-infant interactions generally similar? In what ways are they different? (Oct 1 and ch. 6)

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Similar: fathers and mothers both tend to child's needs such as diaper changing, Different: attachments with fathers formed slightly later, fathers more playful while mothers are more caring usually

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20. What factors are associated with the development of insecure-disorganized attachment?

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One hypothesis is that these infants might experience substandard caregiving. Studies have shown that infants who are neglected or abused have a high likelihood of developing a disorganized attachment. In addition, disorganized attachment is more common in low income than middle income families. Institutional rearing is also associated with a high rate of disorganized attachment, in part because caregivers have so few face-to-face social interactions with infants. This was shown to be the case with infants in Romania.

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21. What are some stress factors within the family microsystem (some of them linked to low SES) that are associated with insecure attachment?

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Stressors associated with poverty, such as food insecurity, living in a dangerous neighborhood, and parental use of alcohol and drugs have been found to reduce maternal sensitivity-responsivity and increase the chance that infants will have an insecure attachment at 12 months (Posada et al., 1999; Raikes & Thompson, 2005). Attachment relationships are not set in stone, however. Longitudinal studies have found that the mother-child attachment relationship changes over time in association with increases or decreases in the number of stressful events occurring in the family's environment.

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22. What is the association between spending time in childcare outside the home and security of mother-infant attachment? Under what conditions are mothers and infants most likely to be attached? Why might the daycare experience in infancy not lead to a higher rate of insecure attachment to mothers who work outside the home? (Oct 1 and ch. 6)

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60% of mothers now work outside of the home. Study conducted by the NICHD, families followed over time, had many different backgrounds. No difference in attachment was found for infants in non-maternal care vs. maternal care. Time spent in non-maternal care was only associated with insecure attachment when it was combined with less sensitive caregiving by mothers. The highest rate of insecure attachment occurred for infants who had both a mother and a primary childcare provider who were low in sensitivity and responsiveness.

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Which aspects of the attachment relationship seem to be found in all countries and cultures studied, and what factors in different cultures might lead to variations in security of attachment or the way in which the attachment behavioral system works (refer class video on Oct 1)?

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1. The most common pattern across cultures is secure attachment to the mother. 2. The core features (using mother as a base) are found in all cultures. 3. Particular features of infant behavior related to attachment may vary across cultures. In the Israeli kibbutz, infants are raised in communal kibbutzim, where the practice was for infants to sleep in a common room away from the parents. They had the lowest rate of secure attachment (56%), possibly because they had a variety of caregivers in this setting. Infants in traditional cultures, not North American/Western culture, do not necessarily show stranger/separation anxiety. Beng people of the Ivory Coast, infants trained to be friendly to new people, not much stranger anxiety.

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24. Define the concept of internal working model and how modern researchers think attachment is related to later relationships such as friendships and romantic relationships?

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Internal working model: a set of expectations about the caregiver's availability and reliability as a secure base. Researchers argue arguing that the expectations and habits of social interaction that infants form with their caregiver contribute to the formation of intimate relationships throughout life

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25. What variables in childhood are related to secure and insecure attachments based on the results of longitudinal studies?

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At age 4-5 years, children who were securely attached in infancy were rated by teachers as more socially competent, and more emotionally positive than children who were insecurely attached in infancy (either avoidant or ambivalent). At age 8 and 12 years, securely attached children were rated by observers as less aggressive and were more likely to develop close friendships with peers.

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26. How is attachment related to exploratory behavior, cognitive development and IQ, and why?

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Securely attached infants have also been found to exhibit more persistent exploratory and problem solving behavior as toddlers and to show less frustration when they encounter difficult-to-solve puzzles, compared to insecurely attached children. One explanation is that securely attached children have better emotional regulation and an internal working model of themselves as competent in novel problem solving situations. Securely attached infants have also been found to score higher than other subgroups in middle childhood on IQ tests. It is possible that connections between secure attachment in infancy and later cognitive, emotional and social development are due to the continuing high quality of parent-child relationships later in childhood, rather than an effect of social experiences occurring only in infancy (Lamb et al., 1985; Thompson, 2006). The NICHD project examined links between attachment in infancy and measures of parenting quality over time. They found that when parenting quality improved or declined, children's social and cognitive competence improved or declined at the same time, especially with insecure infants.

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27. What are some negative and positive aspects of early sibling relationships (between toddlers and their older siblings) and how can parents reduce conflict?

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Older siblings tend to be jealous of the younger sibling, particularly when the sibling is an infant, because they get more attention. They will cling or behave badly for attention. Parents can use the older sibling for help taking care of the younger child, to promote positive interactions between siblings. Toddlers eventually form attachments to older siblings. Increases in conflict with siblings occur when toddler 12-24 months because the toddlers become more aware of wants and needs. Parents can deal with these at a developmental level. Example: giving a toddler another toy, explaining to older sibling about sharing.

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28. Describe the four types of play commonly seen among toddlers playing together.

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Solitary play: playing all by the themselves (sandbox) Parallel play: playing with another child but not communicating (both using sandbox, no interaction of speaking) Simple social play: engaging in simple communication and reciprocal social exchanges (smiles, talking) Cooperative pretend play: engaging in shared pretend play (two children acting as dogs together)

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29. Describe the evidence that toddlers can form and maintain friendships.

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Naturalistic observation studies of playgroups and daycare groups reveal that toddlers can form lasting friendships, and these friendships serve the same function as the friendships of older children. In one study, Howes observed a group of infants in daycare over a year. She defined friendship as responding to at least half of the friendly or playful overtures from another child consistently. On this basis, the majority of infants and toddlers had at least one friend and some of the toddlers had two or more friends. In a follow-up study spanning a 3-year period, Howes found that children tended to continue a friendship they had made a year earlier.

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30. What are the two main characteristics used in the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD)? (Oct 6 lecture and ch. 6)

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Autism spectrum disorder (ASD): a disorder involving 1. persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction and 2. restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests or activities

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31. What are thought to be the primary reasons for the large increase in the rate of ASD in the population?

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-Increased awareness among parents, teachers, and clinicians -Improved identification, i.e., broadening of diagnostic definition in DSM includes milder cases However, no single explanation can account for such a steep rise in ASD rates! Genetic & environmental causes must be studied more extensively...

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32. Is autism thought to be primarily based in biology or the social environment?

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ASD is genetically based (heritable) Also some Speculative environmental factors: Insecticides, Air pollution, Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs)

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33. How is brain development and functioning altered in ASD?

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There is a developing consensus that the genes for autism affect basic aspects of brain development and functioning, such as maintenance of appropriate activity at the synapse, and growth of neuronal dendrites. Studies are also beginning to converge around a hypothesis that many ASD children have thinner cortical areas within what is known as the "social brain" (brain areas that process emotions and social stimuli), such as the anterior cingulate cortex and the right anterior insula. with ASD have been found to have poorer connectivity in the white matter tracts within the social brain. Another theory is that a lack of synaptic pruning at some point in early development leads to excessive growth, followed by arresting of growth of certain areas of the brain. One study found up to 67% more neurons in areas of the prefrontal cortex in deceased individuals with ASD, compared to control brains.

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34. What are some common aspects of social and cognitive development that may be associated with ASD? (Oct 6 lecture and ch. 6)

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Some, but not all children who go on to have ASD diagnoses show atypical social behavior by 12 months or earlier, such as decreased social gaze, lack of eye contact, and lack of responsiveness to calling the child's name. Some children who developed normally through 12 months begin showing deviations between 12 and 18 months, such as decreased use of communicative gestures, failure to progress in language, reduced imitation, and unusual levels of repetitive behavior. However, none of these signs are seen in more than about 50% of ASD cases. The findings on predictors have led to a view that the symptoms of autism emerge gradually over the first two years, in different patterns across different skill domains, and across different cases.

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Chapter 8 - "Cognitive Development in Early Childhood"

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...

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What is the sequence of development of pretend play? (Oct 15 lecture)

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· 14 - 18 months: children's play is simple o Talk on a toy phone à using a toy object as a smaller version of a real object · 18-30 months: transform toys into other things o Toy animals "come to life" o A block house becomes a train station · 30+ months: Socio-dramatic play: children enjoy playing different roles in simple skits of their own devising

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Describe changes in conservation task performance between 4 and 8 years of age, and the two limitations in thinking in early childhood that are revealed by conservation tasks. (Oct 15 lecture and text)

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· Conversation of water: pouring same amount of liquid into different sized glasses o Ages 4-5: typically say taller glass has water o Ages 7-8: understand it's the same amount of liquid · Two limitations o Centration: tendency to focus on one salient aspect of dimension o Focus on appearances rather than reality Limitations: same as above. Concentration with pennies, they focus on the fact that its longer (centration). focusing on one dimension. Piaget says they are not able to reverse the state of problem. Stuck with current appearance, and looks like one glass has more.

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3. Describe Piaget's evidence and the evidence from children's conversations that they are egocentric. What evidence from the section on "Evaluating Piaget's Preoperational Stage" is there that younger children can take another person's visual perspective?

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Egocentrism: children adopt their own point of view, assume everyone knows what they know and sees what they see, and have difficulty taking another person's spatial perspective · Three-mountain problem: children observed three sides of a 3D model with 3 mountains and various landmarks, and then were seated at the table opposite from a doll. When asked to choose photographs depicting what they saw and what the doll saw, the children picked what they saw for both. o At age 7/8, most children selected the picture depicting the doll's point of view. · Simplifying Piaget's methods have found earlier competence in children o By using 2/3 items instead of 6+ for the number conservation test and drawing attention to the number of items in the rows, even 3-year-olds understood something about conservation, though not fully mastering it o Children could understand that a sponge that looked like a rock was a sponge after being given the opportunity to examine it o Egocentrism - using dioramas with familiar objects and having children point out what Grover saw resulted in the great majority responding accurately. Those same children guessed randomly or answered egocentrically on the three-mountain problem The mountain problem, They think other people see what they see- egocentrism. Children talking on the phone and say see my new present, but don't realize people on the phone can't see it. New experiment with rotated display. Grover was moving around and experimenter asks child to show how Grover sees it, and child could rotate it. Younger children could rotate it. Mountain problem was too complex. Piaget's tasks were too difficult, he wasn't wrong he just chose hard versions of tasks.

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Describe the errors in thinking that children make that Piaget called animism.

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· Animism: the tendency to attribute the qualities of human beings or other living things to inanimate things o Ex: the sun is shining brightly because it is happy

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Describe the evidence that young children understand the appearance-reality distinction, under ideal circumstances, by age 3-4 years.

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Know if something is really an object. Put a dog mask on the cat, first child agrees its a cat, once dog mask goes on child would say its now a dog. Children have inability to tell the difference between something that looks like a dog or whether it's actually a dog. Believe in things on tv or scared by halloween masks. Later simple task with sponge that looks like a rock. If you look t it you think its a rock but if you pick it up its squishy and soft. Ask children what it looks like - rock, what is it really- sponge. Can make distinction between appearance and reality in simple situations. In complex situation they may get fooled.

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What are the main assumptions of theory theory about cognitive development?

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· Theory theory: a theoretical approach that views children as continually forming and testing theories - children act like mini scientists · Children have primitive theories of how the world works in infancy that are continually modified based on experiences o Ideas in one domain aren't necessarily linked with ideas in other domains

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Explain what the theory of mind is, and how researchers test for this understanding. What evidence is there that one aspect of theory of mind, recognition that a person may have a false belief, improves between 3 and 5 years of age? What evidence is there that false beliefs are universal across cultures? (Oct 15 lecture, video and text)

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Theory of mind: the ability to understand that other people have different thoughts and beliefs than one's own - developed in early childhood o A set of ideas about what people are thinking, including what they see, remember, want, know, and believe o Once children have a theory of mind, they can trick, deceive, and lie to other people · Test: Sally put a doll in an opaque container with child watching - Sally leaves, doll is moved, ask child where Sally will look for doll o Children under three will point to the new location - confusing what they know and what another person might know o Children from 4-5 answer that Sally will look where she originally put her doll § Attribute false beliefs to another person · Candy box test: show children a candy box, tell the experimenter that it contains candy, surprised box holds erasers o 3-year-olds: when asked what someone else who hasn't seen inside the box would think is in there, answer with erasers. Claim they always thought the box contains erasers. o 4 to 5-year-olds say that another person would think candy is in there · Cross-cultural studies of theories of mind indicate that changes in accuracy on false belief tests with ages are similar across cultures, with the most rapid transition at age 4-5

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Explain how biological maturation and specific aspects of experience are thought to influence the development of a theory of mind.

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· Having an older sibling (confrontations over different points of view) · Parents who use a lot of mental state words (think, believe, know) in conversations · Participation in a lot of pretend play

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Describe advances and limitations in children's knowledge of living things that occur during early childhood.

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· 4-6 year olds are good at distinguishing animals and non-moving objects, and animals and moving artifacts · Sometimes make animistic errors with natural phenomena that appear to move on their own · Opposite error with plants - say that they are not alive (even though they know they have many features of living things... maybe because movement is slow and nonobvious) · Place a lot of importance on purposeful movement as a feature of living things

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What factors, including observation and asking questions, contribute to improvements in children's knowledge about living things?

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· Children create categories of living and non-living in infancy and can thus gradually come up with theories about what makes living and non-living things different o Observe biological processes (growth, injury, healing, etc.) in themselves and animals and plants · Questions provide them with much information about living things [Symbol] actively seek information relevant to a theory of biology

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Describe the three aspects of attention, sustained attention, selective attention and executive attention, and explain the evidence that they contribute to early school learning.

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· Control of attention: children's ability to switch their attention from color to shape in the color and shape sorting game, spend more time watching the screen for a 10-min puppet show video · Inhibition: in the number conservation task, the child must pay attention to the correct dimensions and inhibit the tendency to respond that the longer row has more items in it · Planning: in construction tasks, 4-year-olds don't know where to start, but 7-year-olds have learned simple rules, like starting with the corner piece on a puzzle o Parents often help out by asking children questions that require planning

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Explain why children's earliest autobiographical memories appear at about age 3-4 years; describe evidence that improvements in language and narrative skill contribute to improvements in children's autobiographical memories during early childhood? What evidence does the Hurricane Andrew study from the text provide? (Oct 15 lecture and text)

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2: young children store generalized versions of events that happen to them, or scripts · 3-4: children have dozen of scripts for common events, containing significant events, but not individual events that happened at a specific time o Help form memories for familiar events and anticipate what is happening next · 3-6: scripts become more detailed, include alternative actions, and conditional activities o May provide a foundation on which unique memories may be build, allowing more autobiographical memories o If something deviates from the normal menu of options in a script, may be more memorable o Narratives increasingly add emotions, thoughts, reactions, and opinions · Increases in language and narrative skill after age 2/3 has a significant contribution to autobiographical memory o Hurricane Andrew study: children who were 3/4 at the time of the hurricane had reports with several accurate statements, but twice as many accurate statements when interviewed 9/10 years later § Advanced in the ability to retrieve information about experiences and weave it into a narrative § Discussed events with family, adding to strength of recall?

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Give an example of the type of memory known as a script, and describe the importance of scripts in children's everyday lives.

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· A child's understanding of major events and routines that occur in their lives, cognitive structures underlying sequences of behaviors or events

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Explain and give an example of Vygotsky's concept of the zone of proximal development (Oct 15 lecture and text).

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· Zone of proximal development: the gap between a child's ability to solve a problem independently and his or her ability to solve it with the help of more capable peers or adults · Ex: parent helping a child work on a puzzle, direct attention to particular parts and help organize the pieces o A sensitive response to the child's behavior

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Explain and give an example of the concept of guided participation, which is based on Vygotsky's theory. (text)

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· Guided participation: the process by which a child's ability to perform a task is enhanced by observing and participating in the activity with a more skilled partner · Ex: Mayan girls learn to weave with very little conversation and no explicit instruction - instead, watch mothers for hours and play at weaving by working with toy looms

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Explain how adult scaffolding is used to help children gain confidence and skill in a variety of domains, such as solving puzzles, recognizing patterns, and producing narratives of events that happened to them. (Oct 15 lecture and text)

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· Scaffolding: support for a child's performance provided by a more skilled partner o Support an emerging skill as needed - to help narrative skills, adults may remind younger children of the order of main events, while older children may only need a few hints or suggestions

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Scaffolding combines with overimitation to make young children excellent at observational learning. Describe the process of overimitation by children, and the evidence that it occurs across cultures

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· Overimitation occurs when children imitate the actions of more skilled partners even when they are irrelevant to the task at hand, or even inefficient · Evidence: Bushman people rarely provide explicit demonstrations or verbal instructions to children learning to use utensils, etc. Children still overimitated during an "artificial fruit" demonstration, doing both the irrelevant and relevant actions, suggesting that overimitation is a universal characteristic contributing to success of scaffolding and guided participation.

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How does Vygotsky's concept of private speech operate in development and what types of cognitive functions does it appear to help in young children?

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Private speech: the use of speech to guide actions and attention o Children talk out loud to themselves, use it to guide attention, plan actions, and inhibit inappropriate actions o Becomes inner speech after about age 7? Used to guide thinking of older children and adults · Aids executive functions like inhibiting responses that detract from task performance, controlling attention, and shifting from one way of thinking about a problem to a different way

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Describe the process of fast mapping and how it appears to work in actual conversations between children and adults.

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Fast mapping: children quickly acquire an approximate meaning of a word from a few exposures to the word used in context o Chromium experiment: children learned that the word chromium meant the color olive without knowing the meaning of either previously · When children hear a new word, they typically repeat it or acknowledge it in some way during the next verbal utterance to either get feedback on it or further examples of how it is used to build on the initial fast mapping. · May take years to achieve vocabulary depth - children exposed to a greater amount of adult speech acquire larger and more detailed knowledge of words

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How do studies of children's overregularization errors and the wug test inform us about the process by which they learn inflections?

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· Wug test: provide a novel word and see if the child applies the grammatical rule · Overregularization errors: errors in which a child applies a grammatical rule to a word that does not follow the rule o Apply the past-tense rule to irregular verbs and nouns (mans, foots, gooses) o Occur very rarely in adult speech, so represent generation of a rule by the child

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Explain how young children first begin to learn and generalize the meanings of verbs.

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Verbs have a more complex and abstract meaning than nouns · Children at first use a verb in a similar context to the way their parent used it, and as weeks go by, use it in more and more contexts with more nouns in subject and object position Think of a verb (promise), has a lot of different meanings, complex. The first time someone uses it, the child may only learn part of the meaning. Child may use it in a limited way→ later they may gradually generalize it and extend it to other/full meanings.

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How do adults and older siblings appear to help children learn basic aspects of pragmatics, such as turn-taking, staying on topic, and clarifying an unclear remark?

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· Pragmatics: the use of language to achieve communicative and social goals o Turn-taking, staying on topic, stating their message clearly, joking, picking up on non-verbal cues, repairing breaking down social interactions · Parents assist in the process by providing direct and indirect comments that keep children on track, signaling when a remark needs clarification · Older siblings help young children clarify their messages

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24. How well are children able to learn two languages simultaneously? What environmental conditions appear to promote sequential bilingualism in children younger than 9 years of age? (Oct 15 lecture and text)

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25. Describe two specific costs of bilingualism and two benefits. (October 15 lecture and text)

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26. Describe the print-related skills children tend to master by the time they enter kindergarten. How does oral language contribute to emergent literacy?

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Letter awareness and phonological awareness. Letter awareness- able to name letters, Phonological- they know sounds of words, (ex. cat has 3 different sounds) good to get them started on reading. Language skills seem to relate more to comprehension, larger vocabulary/ better grammar you can better understand stories- meanings and remember what happens in stories. · Phonological awareness: the ability to analyze the sound components of spoken words · Often, direct instruction is necessary to learn about phonemes, which are critical to learning to read in an alphabetical language · Letter awareness: scribbling [Symbol] marking left to right [Symbol] random letters [Symbol] spelling familiar words o By kindergarten, most children can break words into phonemes and letters are related to phonemes · Oral language skill exposes children to new vocabulary words and grammatical forms, and promotes memory and language comprehension skills that later help with reading and writing. Reading aloud is important!

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How does practice in counting contribute to advances in children's understanding of numbers in early childhood? How does counting practice help in learning the principles of addition and subtraction?

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1st part- what children have coming from infancy- ability to perceive numbers up to 3 & estimation. Counting allows you to go above 3. When I count I can arrive at number and discover what the number is- last word they said. Child discovers when I count, the last number is the important one. Probably discover first when counting 2 & 3, then generalize to larger numbers. Once they learn to count they enjoy doing it all the time. Two other principles- order and one to one correspondence. Order count in order, not skipping anything and goes up by one. Sometimes have trouble memorizing what the order is and may switch order around. · Counting helps children understand abstract number concepts and simple arithmetic o Teaches children the one-to-one principle, the stable order principle, and cardinality (the last number counted represents the quantity of the set) o Helps children make numerical comparisons · Infants have the concept of addition and subtraction of quantities under three o Preschoolers count on their fingers to add larger and larger quantities o By age 4, children can solve simple problems by counting on their fingers o Five-year olds can subtract on their fingers § Reversible thinking (subtraction cancels out addition)

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What specific aspects of child care programs have been found to be associated with higher cognitive scores?

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Warm and responsive caregivers, verbally stimulating age-appropriate activities [Symbol] children score higher in expressive/receptive language, memory and attention, and literacy/numeracy skills

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Describe the Carolina Abecedarian study and its results in early childhood, as well as over the long-term.

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Full-day, year-round educational program to low-income African-American children from 4 months to 5 years o Initial gains of 12 IQ points at age 5 o 5 IQ points by age 12 o Gains in reading and math achievement through age 21 o Lower rates of repeating a grade and placement in special education, and higher attendance at 4-year colleges ABCDarien. If you start early with low income kids who don't do well when they get to school. Provided stimulating daycare experience and helped mothers gain employment. Mostly single mothers. Experimental group had boost ins IQ, math, reading, that lasted through age 12. Gradually become more similar but still 5 point IQ difference. When followed children to 20-30 they found differences in employment/ finishing school. Intervention got kinds on higher track. Poverty and lack of opportunity really the problem.

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What are the short and long-term effects of Head Start as an intervention for 3 and 4 year old children? Why go initial IQ and school achievement gains fade in the early school years and what types of program might maintain higher scores in the Head Start intervention group?

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· Short-term effects: benefits in vocabulary, emergent literacy and numeracy, and fewer behavioral problems that fade by kindergarten · Long-term effects: small advantage in language skills · Early gains may fade in the early school years as the non-Head Start group advances due to exposure to formal schooling and need for follow-up interventions o Supplemental programs to grade 3 result in academic achievement score advantages, fewer special education placements, and higher high school graduation rates

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CHAPTER 9 - Social and Emotional Development in Early Childhood

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1. Describe the main features of children's self concepts as they develop in early childhood, including their self-descriptions, the positivity bias, and the concept of self-esteem.

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· Positivity bias: a bias by young children to view themselves in a positive light ("I'm always happy" "I can run fast"). · In a study, Children responded consistently in judging their own personality traits, such as timidity ("I don't climb things that are high") and agreeableness ("I share toys with kids I don't know"). Furthermore, parents' ratings of the children's personalities agreed fairly well with the children's self-ratings. Children appear to have an implicit understanding of their own personality before they can articulate it in their own self-descriptions. · Children with a history of secure attachments are viewed as developing an internal working model of the self as worthy of love that carries over into early childhood. Children with a positive internal working model are more likely to have an overall sense of self-worth, which is referred to as self-esteem

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Describe the main features of young children's everyday theory of human behavior.

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Researchers have found that young children begin to develop an informal theory of human social behavior at about the same age that they solve theory of mind tasks. For example, if 4- to 5-year-old children are told that a girl in a story is "unselfish" they can predict that she will share her lunch. They can also make a reverse prediction. If told about a girl who wants to play instead f comfort an injured friend, they can rate her accurately on a scale from "unselfish" to "very selfish." These findings show that children can connect concepts to behavior, and vice versa. · Interestingly though, Children ages 3 to 6 need only one or two examples of positive behavior to make a positive judgment about a character in a story (e.g., smart, kind), but require at least five examples of negative behavior to make a negative judgment about a character.

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Describe what children know about gender identity by age 2 to 2 1/2, children's views about culturally-defined gender roles, and typical gender differences in behavior and activity preferences at age 3-5 years.

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Between three and six years of age, children around the world think of gender in terms of culturally-defined roles that a boy or girl must play. For example, if you ask a 3-4-year-old in America what a female or male doll "likes" to do, they will insist the female likes cooking, sewing and dressing up, and the boy doll likes play-fighting and playing with trucks and trains. Gender differences in behavior are observed across cultures. Boys and girls show increasingly distinct toy, activity and clothing preferences between 3 and 5 years of age. If you visit a preschool you will quickly notice that boys are more physically active and engage in more playful aggression ("rough-and-tumble play"), and girls engage in more conversation and fine-motor activities.

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Describe the evidence that there are hormonal influences on toy, activity and playmate preferences. (Oct 20 lecture and text)

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· Hormones are responsible for the differentiation of male and female genitalia prenatally. Some girls who have congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), a genetic disorder that results in high prenatal levels of male sex hormones (androgens). Although treated as female by their parents, girls with CAH have a tendency toward masculine activity, toy, and playmate preferences. These preferences are stronger among girls with higher androgen exposure. In contrast, socialization pressure from parents to be more feminine seems to have little impact on these girls' toy and activity preferences. · Children exposed to typical levels of prenatal sex hormones is a bi-directional interaction in which small differences in prenatal brain organization lead boys and girls to behave somewhat differently and to seek out different experiences. For example, males' biological propensities toward a higher activity level and interest in rough-and-tumble play may lead them to have different kinds of social interactions.

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Describe the ways in which parents may influence gender-typed behavior and preferences.

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In many American families, boys are encouraged to play with blocks, toy vehicles, and other toys that involve gross motor activity, and discouraged from choosing feminine activities. Daughters tend to be praised for dressing up, playing with dolls, and helping with housekeeping tasks, and discouraged from climbing, jumping, and taking objects apart.Fathers in the United States appear to reinforce gender-typed behavior more often than mothers. Parent-child social influences are likely bi-directional (Hines, 2004). For example, girls tend to be more advanced in language skills, and might therefore be more interested in literacy activities than boys.

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Describe gender segregation, why it occurs in the first place, and what impact peers appear to have on gender-typed behavior. (Oct 20 lecture and text)

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Gender segregation: a tendency for boys and girls to play in same-sex groups. Once the groups form, children reinforce each other and act as models for gender stereotypes (Leaper, 1994; McGuire et al., 2007). By the time they enter elementary school at age 5 to 6, children believe that gender segregation is the "correct" way to behave, and two distinct cultures exist on the playground. Not as prominent in Asian cultures, who value collectiveness more.

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Define and describe the gender schema in early childhood, and how it influences children's perception, memory and categorization of events, activities and people. (Oct 20 lecture and text)

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Gender schema: set of beliefs, observations, and expectations about male and female roles. The child classifies some objects and activities as "for boys" and some "for girls," (and hence "for me" or "for them"). Still other objects are classified as "neutral." If activities are only partly gender-typed (such as cooking), children tend o force them into all-or-none categories (cooking would usually be classified as feminine). Children's own behavior pretty much follows the schema. For example, preschool girls will sometimes insist that only they can use the toy cooking materials in the preschool. Gender schemas help children attend to and remember information that is relevant to their gender schemas, and ignore or forget information inconsistent with the schema. This explains why young children view all police officers as male and nurses as female, even though they have seen counterexamples.

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Describe the development of children's expression of the self-conscious emotions, and how these emotions differ in terms of their outward expression, as well as the amount of stress the child may feel. Describe how parental behavior may influence the self-conscious emotions.

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Self- conscious emotions: more complex emotions- such as embarrassment, pride, shame, and guilt that are crucial to human social interactions because they require a clear sense of self. Embarrassment: occurs as soon as children can recognize themselves in the mirror, and stems from an awareness of being the center of attention When children fail at a task or disappoint an adult, they are likely to feel one of two emotions, evaluative embarrassment or shame. Emotion of guilt is distinct from shame as it involves a child's realization that s/he has harmed or disappointed another person. Parents who criticize their children's personalities tend to have children who act ashamed when they break rules Parents who comment on the child's behavior tend to have children who act guilty and are more eager to make up for their mistake Adult emotions such as scorn, disgust, anger, and general disapproval may evoke a shame reaction in the child, whereas adult emotions such as disappointment, pain, and fear may evoke a guilty reaction.

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Describe the most important changes in children's understanding of emotions and how these parallel advances in the theory of mind and their ability to coordinate two dimensions, as in the conservation task. How do Chinese and Euro-American children differ in their emotional knowledge and what is a possible source of this difference?

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Manis: Children being to understand emotions, able to label emotions, and know differences between happy & sad. When they are able to understand other people's thoughts/beliefs they are also able to understand other people's emotions. Understand that two people can have different emotions. Generally speaking, less talk about emotion among traditionally Asian families as much as Euro-American families. A little delay not in theory of mind but in emotion. Less talking about emotions leads to delay in ability to label emotions. Children show some grasp of complex emotions, such as guilt, in realistic video displays where one actor is shown transgressing against another actor, either with or without showing remorse and apologizing. Expanding language skills and parents' efforts to label and explain emotions are also important factors. Mothers who looked at emotionally rich picture books with their children and provided elaborate explanations for emotions tended to have children who used more emotionally descriptive language. Maternal warmth during toddler years also linked to children's use of emotion terms at later ages. In individualistic cultures (Euro-American) children's emotions are viewed as something that needs to be expressed in order to promote individual well-being. Collectivistic cultures (East Asia) often view emotions as something that should be suppressed, or expressed mainly in the service of group harmony rather than individual well-being.

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10. What are the major strategies children use to regulate emotions in early childhood, and how are temperament and attachment security thought to affect emotional regulation?

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Between 2-5 years, children may close their eyes, cover their ears, turn away, or distract themselves to avoid contact with distressing situations. They may also use verbal techniques such as reassuring themselves or reinterpreting the situation so that it is not so upsetting. Researchers find that parents of highly emotional children are more helpful when they act warmly and sympathetically toward the child, and provide verbal advice about how to cope with the distressing emotions, rather than scolding or punishing their child for the negative emotion. Securely attached infants are able to tolerate a negative emotion for a few moments longer than insecurely attached children, giving them a chance to figure out what is bothering them and possibly resolve the situation, or take evasive action in order to calm down.

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11. How do the three components of emotional competence relate to children's success in social interaction with their peers?

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Three components of emotional competence: expressivity, understanding, and regulation. Preschoolers who expressed more positive and fewer negative emotions with peers, and who had higher emotional knowledge and better emotional regulation at age 3 to 4 were more successful with their peers both in US and China.

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12. Describe the three major temperamental traits of surgency (positive emotionality), negative emotionality, and effortful control. The example in the chapter shows how they might work together when a child deals with the challenge of riding a pony for the first time. How might they work together in a child who has just started in a new preschool?

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Preschool- Positive emotionality- approach new toys/ people Negative emotionality- caution/ fear/ shyness Effortful control- same idea for executive functioning- able to inhibit plan ahead. If you just started in new preschool. Strong positive emotionality would join in new games right away Negative emotionality may hang back and cling to teacher and not try new things yet Effortful control- waiting your turn, not acting impulsively, not grabbing toys from others. Some kids are characteristically more self-controlled than other kids. Ex. daughter wanted to ride a pony (positive emotionality), but her fear of heights and large animals held her back (negative emotionality). Let her watch other children riding on ponies and point out they're having fun. Finally, she calmed down and rode a pony Works with new situations that may be daunting in preschool

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Describe the three main personality types (resilient, over-controlled and undercontrolled, and explain which type fits your virtual child most closely and what evidence you have for that hypothesis. (Oct 20 lecture and text)

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Resilient (50%): self-confident, outgoing, and emotionally stable Overcontrolled (30%): shy and nervous but obedient Undercontrolled (20%): disobedient, impulsive, and emotional My virtual child is slightly overcontrolled because she is shy and anxious in new situations and clings onto the teacher or me. She is obedient, nonagressive, and friendly though.

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14. How do the three personality types differ in school performance and teacher ratings of externalizing and internalizing behavior?

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-Highest school achievement: resilient children, followed by overcontrolled and undercontrolled -Externalizing behavior problems (acting out, being aggressive, impulsive): undercontrolled and boys -Internalizing behavior problems (anxiety, passive resistance, somatic problems): overcontrolled and girls

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Describe how a mutually responsive orientation leads to the development of moral behavior in toddlers.

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Mutually responsive orientation: the child's emotions and attempts to be independent are met with warmth and firmness by the parent Like attachment, but adds parental control When rules are attached and explained patiently, children develop an understanding of what is acceptable and what is not Committed compliance: children raised this way who are eager to please and cooperative More morally mature behavior at 4/5 years If parents use power-assertive techniques to enforce rule compliance, children often show situational compliance and tend to break rules when the parent isn't present

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Describe how children appear to develop the distinction between moral and social-conventional rules.

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Moral rules: emphasize issues of harm, personal welfare, and individual rights - covering actions like hitting/stealing/cheating/lying Social conventional rules: rules of conduct in particular social contexts, like school/game rules and rules of politeness Personal choice Children understand the distinctions by age 3, viewing moral rules as unalterable and wrong across all contexts and situations, whereas social conventional rules are more flexible and dependent on the situation Adults have some authority to regulate moral/social conventional rules, but children are less accepting of adult authority in matters of personal choice View cheating at games as a social conventional rule or a matter of personal choice, not one of moral principle

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Explain which emotions figure prominently in the development of prosocial behavior and why some children engage in more frequent prosocial behavior than others, including temperament, parental influences and cultural influences.

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Pro-social behavior: voluntary actions to help another, an essential aspect of moral development Empathy: the ability to feel emotions expressed by another person Sympathy: a feeling of concern or sorrow for another person, leads directly to pro-social behavior By 18-24 months, children are capable of empathy and sympathy Variations in temperament may cause some children to be more pro-social than others, as well as children who are high in emotional regulation. There are strong associations between pro-social behavior and secure attachment, and when parents model pro-social behavior and coach their child in emotional regulations. In Japan/Korea, children focused on developing social skills and group harmony, not cognitive skills. In free play, they described their partner's actions, used statements of agreement and tag questions rather than focusing on their own actions and commenting on partners to direct them like European American children did.

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Describe the different kinds of aggression and the developmental changes in aggression that typically occur. How many children tend to have problems in aggression that continue into middle childhood?

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Types of aggression Physical: pushing, hitting, biting, grabbing... common at 18 months, peaks at 24-42 months, declines after that Boys are more physically aggressive Verbal: insults, threats, name-calling... more common as language skills grow Relational: aggression intended to harm another person through the social group Girls engage in this, not to anybody's surprise Rumors, social exclusion Seen at age 3, becomes more common with age Instrumental: aggression directed at achieving a goal Becomes proportionately lower between 4 and 8... maybe because children find nonaggressive ways to achieve goals Reactive: aggression directed at retaliating to aggression, or harming another person... angry response to a blocked goal, intended to inflict harm Becomes proportionately higher between 4 and 8... maybe because children better understand others' intentions Frequency of aggression decreases from 4 to 8, in part due to effortful control and emotional regulation 10-20% of children remain aggressive or increase aggression from early to middle childhood Predictor of problems in social adjustment and academic achievement

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Explain how variations in aggressive behavior are influenced by factors such as changes in social cognitive understanding, emotional regulation, and social experience, including the cycle of coercion in families.

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Gene-environment correlation: children genetically predisposed to be aggressive may alter their environment by evoking frustration, punishment, or rejection from parents/peers Children at risk of becoming aggressive have language and executive functioning difficulties in infancy and early childhood Difficulty communicating, inhibiting impulses, or planning ahead Harsh/rejecting parents who use excessive physical punishment tend to have more aggressive children Cycle of coercion: family members frequently resolved conflict by calling each other names or acting aggressively Breaking the cycle decreased child's aggressive behavior

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20. Make a table showing the main characteristics of the four major parenting styles, and the most common child behaviors associated with each parenting style. (Oct 22 lecture and text)

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· Authoritative parenting o High for both o Affectionate and sensitive o Set standards and enforce rules, explain them o Positive discipline methods · Authoritarian parenting o High control, low warmth o Strict rules, don't discuss o External and internal behavior problems · Permissive parenting o High warmth, low control o Externalizing behavior problems · Uninvolved parenting o Low for both o Focus on own needs versus the child o Worst psychological adjustment

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What evidence is there that parenting actually causes changes in child behavior, beyond a contribution of parenting genes? Is there any experimental or intervention evidence for parenting effects? (Oct 22 lecture and text)

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Manipulate an experiment. Tried to increase authoritative parenting. Asses people and measure. When they got people to change to more authoritative, they noticed children scored higher on where they should score higher. Twin/ adoption studies- yes there is an influence of environment, not all genetic, also influence by parents. Children themselves influence parents responses. There is also a large impact that cultures have on children, which is contributes to which type of parenting style a parent uses

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What evidence is there for ethnic and cultural differences in parenting style and how might Baumrind's subcategories of authoritative parenting help account for some of these differences? (Oct 22 lecture and text)

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· Cultural Differences o Authoritative parental style § Classic authoritative ú High warmth, high control § Directive ú Moderate warmth, high control ú Chinese, and some European families § Democratic ú High warmth, moderate control o African Americans § Use physical punishment and are strict but are highly affectionate § "no-nonsense" parenting o As long as child and parent agree with cultural norms and are happy its good o Poverty can affect parenting

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23. What are the two opposing points of view on the effects of spanking? Balancing all of the evidence, under what conditions does spanking appear to exert negative effects as compared to neutral or even positive effects? (Oct 22 lecture and text)

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Studies have found: physical punishment in early childhood is associated with negative outcomes, such as higher aggression and antisocial behavior, reduced quality of parent-child relationships, and elevated child mental health problems (depression, anxiety, and substance abuse) Mild spanking can be an effective measure Spanking depending on culture can have less negative effects (Asian / African where it is the norm) Overall: There is no evidence that spanking is more effective than alternative techniques, and there is some risk that it might escalate to abuse or that the child might be harmed

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What is the influence of child care on aggression and how might stress play a role? What is the influence of child care on overall social competence?

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· The more time in noparental care, the more externalizing problems o Exception is low income kids o A full day could be stressful, cortisol levels § Need to be sensitive to individual needs ú Smaller groups · Can promote social competence o Mature types of social interaction o These types of kids have lower levels of externalizing behaviors

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Describe rough-and-tumble and sociodramatic play and identify some of the contributions they may make to cognitive, social or emotional development.

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Rough and tumble Play o Playful fighting involving positive emotions o Regulate aggression o Common across all cultures · Sociodramatic play o Cooperative play in which children plan and assign roles to each other o Contributed to the development of executive functioning (Vygotsky) § Pay attention more and control behavior § More advanced theory of mind

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Chapter 7:Early Childhood Physical Development

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What differences in body growth occur on average between boys and girls in early childhood?

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o Girl matures faster with motor skills and bones then boy Girls have more body fat, but are shorter Growth hormones, nutrition influence height

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What is the growth pattern of gray matter and white matter across age (ignoring sex differences) (see Fig. 7.1)?

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· Growth of dendrites and myelination o Gray matter (neuron cell bodies, dendrites, and synapses) grows rapidly in most areas of the brain o White matter (myelinated axons) show a rapid increase

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3. Why do the brains of 4-year-olds consume more energy, in the form of glucose (based on PET scans), than adults.

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· The cerebral cortex of the average 4 year old consumes more glucose, which means it uses more energy o May be due to overproduction of synapses followed by pruning

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4. Describe the three main aspects of executive functions and explain what part of the brain handles executive functions and how that brain area develops in early childhood.

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· Executive Functions o Deliberate, conscious control of thoughts, actions and emotion in order to achieve goals or solve problems o Working memory § Retaining and operation on information in short term memory o Inhibition of responses or thoughts o Shifting between mental states, rules or tasks § Seen by using Near Infrared Spectroscopy with changing rules on card games

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5. Describe how children's performance on the Dimensional Card Sorting Task changes at age 3-4 years, and how these changes correlate with changes in brain activity. A video demonstration of this task will be given in class Oct 8.

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6. In the Family Life Study conducted in rural Appalachia and North Carolina, what did the researchers conclude about environmental factors that were correlated with differences among children in executive functioning?

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o Environmental § Socioeconomic status and culture § Strongest predictor of executive functioning was cumulative risk ú A child's total score on a set of environmental risk factors, such as income, marital status, environmental stress, etc ú Mediated by parental quality

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In what ways are differences in executive functioning thought to contribute to variations in academic skills in kindergarten?

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o School § Executive functions and fine motor skills predict how children do in school

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8. What are fundamental movement skills? Give an example.

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o Fundamental movement skills § Running, hopping, etc, that form the foundation for other movements or combinations of movements needed to play games and sports

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How does dynamic systems theory explain gross motor skill development? Use an example to illustrate. Additional examples from Oct 8 lecture

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Motor development depends on a variety of factors working together, according to the Dynamic Systems Theory

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Identify the four stages of drawing from Kellogg's analyses of 1 million drawings.

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§ Drawing ú Scribble stage · 18 months-2 years · 20 basic scribbles ú Placement stage · 2-3 · Scribbles in distinct locations ú Shape Stage · Six basic shapes ú Design Stage · 3-4 ú Pictorial Stage · 4-5

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11. How is practice in a variety of fine-motor skills thought to contribute to the development of writing skills?

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12. How does the comparison of the drawings of U.S. children and the Jimi people, who had no pictorial culture, illustrate both universal and culturally specific aspects of drawing human figures?

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13. Explain Annett's (2002) theory of the right shift gene, and how this might account for the fact that 90% of people write with the right hand, if left to their own preferences. How strong is the evidence for this theory, so far?

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There is a gene that predetermines right handedness. There is not a lot of supporting evidence. Twin studies show that genes have a small influence

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14. Describe the steps in the developmental systems theory of handedness proposed by Michel and colleagues (2014, 2013a, 2013b), with an emphasis on how earlier experiences with the left or right hand, and influences of mothers' handedness, join together to shape later development.

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ú Bi-directional influences of brain development, behavior, and experience ú Handedness begins prenatally, opposite arm that is pressed up against mother's spine · Newborns have a preferred head and arm orientation ú Toddlers self-generate experiences that facilitate the development of motor control systems in the brain ú Mother's display biasness toward a hand

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15. Explain how bedtime routines might help reduce difficulties in going to sleep, and what other types of skills the routines might promote.

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§ Develop independence and self regulation

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16. Explain how children's "natural" food preferences affect their eating habits and place some children, in some environments, at risk for over- or under-nutrition.

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o Prefer foods high in sugar, salt, protein, and fat o Develop a preference for the food they eat most often § Tofu example (different types) o Associating nutritionally sound foods with pleasant environmental consequences

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17. What two findings from research address the age-old problem of encouraging children to eat new (and presumably healthy) foods?

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associating nutritionally sound foods with pleasant environmental offering children the same food repeated consequences.

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18. What environmental factors and family practices tend to be associated with food insecurity, a problem found in about one out of 5 children in the United States?

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o Food insecurity § A condition where a child or family does not have a regular supply of nutritious food ú Higher rates of Black and Hispanic families ú Poorer health and school achievement ú Risk for obesity from fast food

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19. What public health problem might result from the tendency of today's parents not to vaccinate young children? (approximately 1 out 4 have not received the full schedule of vaccinations recommended by health authorities between the ages of 19 and 35 months - see caption on p. 34)

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PNEUMONIA

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20. Several maturational, cognitive and socioemotional factors are related to young children's propensity for accidental injuries and death. Explain what these are.

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o Bronfenbrenner's bioecological framework § Gender is important variable with social environment ú Boys are more likely to be injured · Differences in physical maturation or temperament, parental attitudes § Cognitive capacities ú Attention and inhibitions are still developing ú Have less knowledge of what is and isn't safe · Parents must remind their kids § Sociodemographic factors ú Highest among Indian, African American · Higher rate of poverty · Americans are more independent and risk taking versus Asians, family based

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21. Environmental lead is one of the biggest risk factors for brain development, particularly in low-income communities. Although education programs for parents and children may provide strategies for reducing exposure, where should city officials focus most of their lead clean-up efforts?

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22. What are the basic forms of maltreatment? Explain which aspect is most common, and how they tend to co-occur.

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o Child Neglect § 71% § Gross failure to provide for a child's basic physical, educational or emotional needs, such as inadequate § supervision, failure to provide proper nutrition, § failure to enroll in school, failure to provide affection o Physical Abuse § 16% § Inflicting severe bodily harm on a child by non-accidental means, such as hitting, beating, kicking, § biting, burning, or shaking o Emotional Abuse § 7% § Acts or failures to act that undermine a child's basic emotional and psychological needs, such as verbal abuse, threatening, terrorizing, isolating, rejecting, and damaging § self esteem or the ability to engage in social interaction o Sexual Abuse § 9% § Sexual touching, committing or attempting to commit intercourse or other sexual acts with a child, exposing a child to indecent acts, or involving a child in pornography or prostitution. o Other § 11% § Medical neglect, abandonment, threats of harm or prenatal drug abuse

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23. What are the main risk factors for physical abuse or neglect of children and how do they often combine to lead to an actual act of physical abuse?

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o Risk Factors § Living in conditions of poverty § Single Parenthood § A Lack of social support from a relative or other adult § Social isolation § A history of being abused or living in conflictual family situations § A history of mental illness or substance abuse § Children's behavior can induce

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24. How does maltreatment interfere with the optimal brain development?

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o Physical Health and Brain Development § Influence of stress hormones ú Increase in cortisol ú Hyperacitvity

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25. How does maltreatment interfere with the development of cognitive skills and school performance?

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o Emotion Regulation and Perception § Atypical response to emotional distress § Inaccurately perceiving emotions in others ú Can detect angrier faces faster o Social Relationships § Aggressive or withdraw from social situations

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26. Maltreatment interferes with the development of emotion regulation and perception. Explain how this occurs, utilizing the concept of developmental cascade. Explain how the studies by Pollak help document the impact of abuse on emotion perception.

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o Developmental Cascade § A developmental pattern in which small environmental effects of child behaviors become magnified across time or age, leading to larger environmental effects or larger changes in child behavior.

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Explain, using the intervention studies by Cicchetti et al (2006 and 2011) how efforts to prevent maltreatment might reverse the developmental cascade and put children on a path to healthy emotional and social development.

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· Prevention o Minimizing family stress that often precedes maltreatment o Improving mother-child attachment relationships § Attachment building and psychoeducational interventions o Cortisol levels still high

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