Psychology Exam II

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Piaget's View of Human Nature: -child plays an active role in own development at all stages
-not passive recepticals that are molded
-constructivism
-child as scienties
Constructivism: -active child
-knowledge isn't gained by watching
Child as Scientist: -approach world w/ questions (hypotheses) and act on it to find answers
-children are intrinsically motivated to learn (learning is own reward)
Piaget and Discontinuity: -stage theory
-qualitative changes in ways of thinking (completely different way)
-invariant sequences (everyone goes through stages in same order)
-domain general
Domain General: -apply same processes to every domain we encounter
Piaget's Theory: Four Stages: -sensorimotor: birth to 2
-preoperational: 2 to 7
-Concrete operational: 7 to 12
-Formal operational: 12 and up
Sensorimotor Stage: -only sensory and motor abilities (mental representation)
-lack of object permanence
Sensorimotor Stage: before 8 months: -increasingly interested in the world (not just self)
-lack of object permanence (out of sight out of mind)
Sensorimotor Stage: 8-12 months: -object permanence arrives (mental representation)
-representations are fragile
-still fail A and not B task
A and not B task: -go back to place A to find toy even if see put in place B
Sensorimotor stage: 12-18 months: -disappearance of AB search error
-active experimentation
Sensorimotor stage: 18-24 months: -qualitative different way of thinking b/c having mental representation brings new skills
-deferred imitation (imitate something next day)
-pretend play (symbolic representation, simple)
Mental Representations: -internal images of objects and events that persist over time
Preopertional Stage: 2-7 Years: -increase in symbolic activity
-major accomplishments: pretend play, language, representational drawing (drawings can be representations aka mom or flower), maps
-some language at 2 by 7 developed 98% of grammer
Limitations of Preoperational Stage: -egocentrism
-centration/absences of conservation
Egocentrism: -can't understand someone else's POV or what they see
-can't move mentally from their POV to some elses
-choose their own view (3 mountain problem with doll)
Centration/Lack of Conservation: -centration: focus on only one feature of an object or event
-conservation: focus on states instead of transistion, focus on one feature
-beaker experiment (amount has changed then no conservation)
-amounts that do not change
Concrete Operational Stage: 7-12: -logical reasoning about concrete features of the world
-pass conservation task
Limits of Concrete Operational Stage: -reasoning limited to concrete (observable) and specific situations
-lack of abstract reasoning
-trouble with propositional verisions of concrete tasks
Formal Operational Stage: 12 and up: -hypothetical reasoning and abstract thinkin
-can follow logic even if things isn't true
-new abilities:
-systematic approach to problem solving (deductive reasoning, thoroughly investigate all possibilities)
-pass pendulum task
-propositional thought
-not universal
Four Weaknesses of Piaget's Theory: -not so much consistency within a stage (ie some conservation tasks are passed before others..should pass all at same time)
-infants have more mental life than Piaget realized
-understates contribution of social world
-vague about proceses of change
Information Processing Theory: -view child as computer
-limited by: hardware(memory capcity, efficiency of basic operations) and software (strategies and knowledge)
-development is improvement in both due to maturation (in hardware) and experience (in software)
Information Processing and dissecting cognition: -making it transparent, breaking it down into component process, being explicit
-step by step what's happening for some development to take place
Information Processing: Central Developmental Issues: -domain general
-continous change: gradual maturation (biological) and learning from experience
-no stages
-emphasis on how change occurs (why response to Piaget who didn't address this)
Information Processing Theory and Memory example: -development of 3 capabilities leads to improvement of memory
-improvement in basic processes and processing speed
-improvement/learning of strategies
-acquisition of content knowledge
Basic Processes: -association events with each other
-recognizing objects as familiar
-generalizing from one instance to another
-encoding specific features of objects and events
-apply to all domains
-executing these more efficiently: speed of processing
How does speed of processing increase?: -biological maturation:
1.myelination (signal passes quicker and lose less info)
2.increased connectivity bwt different parts of the brain (esp. with frontal lobe)
-experience
1.strategies
2.content knowledge
Information Processing: Improvement/Learning Strategies: (for memory)
-rehearsal (improvement over middle childhood; 6-11)
-young children don't know rehearsal, learn it from experience (see others do it)
-selective attention: only encode/pay attention to what is relative
-new strategies can take time to work (utilization deficiency)
Utilization Deficiency: -when apply new strategy that's better in the long run may have problems in short run utilizing it
Information Processing: Acquisition of Content Knowledge: -do better remembering something if have knowledge of content
-chess example where can memorize snap shot of chess game better/easier if you have played the game before and have knowledge of the rules
What are two specific information processing theories we discussed: -connectionist theory
-dynamic system
Connectionist Theories: -connectionist/neural networks
-many units (nodes) representing tiny bits of information
-connect to other units
-connections change with experience
Dynamic Systems Theory: -emphasizes relationships among different aspect of behavior
-emergence of complex behaviors from many simple ones
-motor development example
Dynamic System Theory: Reaching: -building on existing skills
-reaching emerges from set of biases
-reaching builds on skills/biases that existed all along, not genetic unfolding
-reaching improves as other abilities improve
Set of Biases for Reaching: -natural attraction to visually complex stimuli
-bias to stimulate mouth (reaching is means to get things in mouth so emergence is as soon as possible)
-grasp when hand is touched (palmer grasp reflex)
-links between these systems (mouth repsonds to stimulation from eyes or hands)
Reaching and Improvement of other abilities: -3 to 4 months reaching still jerky
-improves as head and postural control improve, as well as practice
-hand to hand transfer tied to sitting
Motor Development and Cognitive Developmetn: -Piaget's egocentric representation: for infants space is coded relative to position when location is learned
-space is coded to infants position and not objective space
-with self-locomotion have change b/c need to know more detail about world
-travel broadens the mind
Visual Cliff Study: - 6 to 14 months won't cross
-younger infants notice drop off (heart rate effects) but show no fear
-crawlers show more fear than non-crawlers at the same age
-non-crawlers with walker manipulation learned fear quickly
-crawling experience (self-locomotion) predicts fear and hence whether will cross cliff or not (knowledge of world)
Core Knowledge Theory: -domain specific
-core domains
-knowledge in these domains is inate
-connection to evolution
-nativism
Domian specific: -seperate domains with own knowledge and processor
-different aspects of cognition have different fundamental cognition processes (ways of thinking)
What two characteristics distinguish core knowledge theory: 1.domain-specific
2.knowledge can be innate
What are the core domains?: -objects (physics)
-numbers
-language
-living things (biology,psychology)
-faces
-spatial navigation
How is the core knowledge theory connected with evolution?: -child is well-equipped product of evolution
-continuity with other animals
-specialized learning mechanisms are uncontroversial
-all behaviors we observe have been adapyed for some purpose
Nativism: -domain-specifity and innate knowledge
-this is what seperates core knowledge theory from others b/c other than this is similiar (view brain as processor)
Primitive Theory of Physics: -innate knowledge or learned very early
-the world has objects and they occupy space
-objects move from external forces only
-objects move continously through space
What proof is there for the Primitive Theory of Physics?: -early competence
-3 months-old are suprised when objects move through each other
-2 months-old are suprised when objects "jump" (don't follow continous path)
Why have innate knowledge?: -having innate knowledge organized into domains gives the child a system into which she can integrate knowledge
-starting point but still alot to learn b/c not all knowledge is innate
Describe the gravity experiment: -3 months-old (but no earlier) suprised to see box in mid air
-6.5 months-old suprised to see box barely supported by table and still not falling
-prior to 6.5 months have basic understanding of gravity but still don't know how much support is necessary to prevent object falling
Sociocultural Theories: -stress development taking place through interactions with other people
-view child as social being
-stress importance of culture
-other people help child learn
-social transmission of information (learn practices of community)
-children are products of culture
Vygotsky: -children are intent on participating in activities in their local setting
-participate in what's going on rather than solve problems
-children are dependent learner moving to independent learner vs Piaget who says children are independent learners
*task determines which one
What is the force of development according to the sociocultural theory?: -guided participation
1.intersubjectivity
2.social scaffolding
3.zone of proximal development
Intersubjectivity: -mutual understanding people share during communications
-engaged/participating during communication
-begins in infancy (eye contact)
-joint attention before end of first year
Joint Attention: -intentionally focusing on a common referent
-making a triangle, both focus on third object (common referent)
-extremely important for language development
Social Scaffolding: -when teaching bring child just above level they are at so can reach next
-put self in right place for what child is ready for (just help for what is needed)
Zone of Proximal Development: -range of performance between what children can do unsupported and what they can do with optimal support
-support has to be challenging but not too challenging
-hit zone they're ready for (important for teaching)
What constitutes support for Piaget: -specific support fro his findings (ie lack of mental representation in sensorimotor periond) or ideas (constructivism)
What constitutes support for Information Processing: -success of explicit theories in explaining development (explicit about each step of solving or mechanism)
-ability to learn anything using only basic domain-general processes
What constitutes support for Core Knowledge Theory: -evidence of innate, domain-specific abilities
What constitutes support for Sociocultural Theories: -evidence of knowledge transmitted from person to person through interaction
Piaget and 6 issues: 1.Nature/Nurture
-environment and predisposition to explore world
2.Active Child
-knowledge thru action
3.Continuity
-stages (discontinous)
4.Mechanisms: n/a
5.Sociocultural Context
-stages are universal
6.Individual Differences: n/a
-said how are all the same
Information Processing and 6 issues: 1.Nature/Nurture
-environment and domain-general processes (blank slate)
2.Active Child: n/a
3.Continuity
-continous
4.Mechanism
-strong emphasis here
5.Sociocultural Context: n/a
6.Individual Differences
-explained by genes and experience
Core Knowledge and 6 issues: 1.Nature/Nurture
-genes (nature)
2.Active Child: n/a
3.Continuity
-continious
4.Mechanism: n/a
5.Sociocultural Context
-not so important
6.Individual Differences
-ind. diff. not important but rather what makes us the same
Sociocultural Theory and 6 issues: 1.Nature/Nurture
-environment
2.Active Child: n/a
3.Continuity
4.Mechanisms
-guided participation
5.Sociocultural Context
-this is everything
6.Individual Differences: n/a
How do infants learn? (4 basically domain-general ways): -habituation
-conditioning (operant/classical)
-observational learning/imitation
-perceptual learning
Habituation: -basic learning mechanism
-faciliates learning
-diminishing attention to what is old (habituation) allows infants to pay attention to what is new (dishabituation)
Conditioning: Classical: -Pavlov's dogs: associate bell with food and would salvate when presented with food so began to salvate when heard bell
Steps of Classical Conditioning: -unconditioned stimulus (breast milk)
-unconditioned repsonse (sucking)
-introduce neutral stimulus (stroking forhead)
-then unconditioned stimulus and repsonse
-eventually get conditioned stimulus (forhead stroking) to produce conditioned repsonse (sucking)
-association bwt neutral stimulus and conditioned stimulus
Operant/Instrumental Conditioning: -shapes behavior
-infants act on environment and have outcome
-the outcome changes the probability that behavior will occur again
-reinforcer:increases occurence
-punishment:decreases occurence
Mobile Experiment: -Rovee-Collier
-Operant/Instrumental conditioning
-learned consequences of action (lift certain leg and mobile will move)
-2 to 6 month olds
Observational Learning: -imitation
-more than imitation: reading others' intentions
Imitation: -imitate facial expressions
-as early as 2 days old
-shows infants have to have some inate knowledge of own face
-social benefit of helping with emotional bonding
Reading Others' Intentions: -children who saw the person vs the maching act like they were trying to pull the end of the dumbell off ripped the end off when they tried while the children who saw the machine imitated only the actual motion
Perceptual Learning: -noticing regularities
-notice things go together
-unconscious/implicit
-very powerful learning mechanism (ie in language)
Do babies know anything to begin wiht?: -orginally thought they were written on by environment
-blank slate (tabula rosa)
-world was bloomin,buzzing confusion
Baillergeon's Study: -landmark that changed blank slate view
-Piaget would agree in many ways with child as blank slate
-inspired by piaget (major claims of sensorimotor stage and lack of object permanence)
Set-up of Baillergeon's study: -babies were shown 2 events
-one was possible and the other was impossible (magical)
-if babies have mental representation of the box then would be suprised to see board go all the way down
-if didn't have mental representation then wouldn't be suprised in fact be habituated to board going all the way down
What did Piaget say about the A not B error: -Piaget said infants do not know that objects exist independent of their action
What can make a difference in the A not B error task?: 1.appearance of A and B makes difference
-if have different coverings, better performance
2.delay makes difference (perform worse)
3.number of times found at A makes difference
4.error even occurs if use transparent covers
What does looking time studies indicate about the AB task: -expect object to be at B
-look at B even as reach to A
Why do infants not pass the AB task according to A. Diamond?: -don't have inhibition (development of inhibition takes several years)
-were successful before at A so can't help doing successful task again even though know at B
-hard to inhibit action
Did Piaget get things wrong?: -right with task and outcome but tasks he used were very demanding
-underestimation of infants' abilities b/c tasks were so hard
What else do infants know?: -nativism/core knowledge
-innate knowledge, domain specific
Empiricism: -blank slate view
-most information processing theories
Informal/Intuitive "theories": -theory is a framework to help organize and gain knowledge
-each domian has theory
Theory-theory: -theory that children have theories
-have intuitive theories to help organize world
-view in an efficient way and interpert
How do children develop theories?: 1.divide objects into a few basic relevant categories
2.distill many phenomena into a few principles (diverse set of behaviors can be explained by one thing)
3.explain events in terms of unobservable causes
Numbers: -infants can discriminate objects and events by small numerosity
-habituate to different arrangements of same number
-number three is breaking point
-innate knowledge (core knowledge theory)
Addition: -by 5 months olds
-only up to three (same innate constraint)
How do children get past this limit of three?: -non-human primates don't get past limit
-language: each numerosity has a name
-Piraha tribe of Brazil can't discriminate past 3 well (no number names)
Counting: -one to one correspondence between name and numerosity
-stable order #'s occur in
-cardinality
-order irrelevance
-abstraction
-most children get past this by age 5
-faster in china because more drilling and language
Space Relative to oneself: -piaget's egocentric representation: for infants, space is coded relative to position when location is first learned
-connection to self-locomotion
Space Relative to external environment: -dead reckoning
-cutural differences
Dead Reckoning: -get back to starting point most efficiently (sense of where started from)
-many animals are good, people not as good but have ability
-core knowledge theorists emphasize similarities to animal navigation
What is a symbol: -anything that someone intends to stand for something other than itself
-represent something else
-AND someone has to intend for it to stand for something
-may or may not be arbitrary
Problem of Dual Representation: -a symbol is both an object and a representation of another object
-difficult for children
Big room, little room task: -scale model task: scale model of big room
-find in big room when shown where is in little room
-3 yr olds pass but not 2.5 yr olds
What does big room little room task show?: -implicates dual representation as problem
-can't understand object is representation as well as object itself
Describe the shrinking room version: -big room and little room are same room
-little room isn't map or representation but same room
-2.5 yr olds pass
Pretend Play: -play is pursued for own sake
-pretend play is symbolic activity
-act as if they were in different situation
-use symbols, take on roles
-begins around 18 months (object substitution and dual representation) but can't take full advantage until 3 yrs old
Complex Pretend Play: -around 2
-as knowledge of situations get more complex, play gets more complex
-coordinate play with others, sociodramatic play (2-3), role of scaffolding
Views on play: -Piaget:play is reflection of what children know
-Sociocultural view:learn from play
Scaffolding and Play: -play is more complex when adults take part
-advance pretend play
-most complex play with adults
Drawing: -symbolic activity
-process versus process (up to age 2-3 exploration of what crayon can do not representational)
-representational art begins around 3-4
What is the most common subject drawn? What are strategies for improving drawing?: -human figure with tadpole representation
-emphasize head and have something hanging off
-improve by relying on formulaic representations (tricks like stick figure) and by coordinating elements
Linguistic Symbols: Words: -acoustic not visual symbol
-early compared to other symbols
-comphrehension by 8-10 months
-production by 8-14 months
How do children learn what refers to what?: -associations (classical conditioning--assoc word nap with being layed down)
-ostention (pointing--direct attention to object and say name)
Why does pointing work?: -singles out object
-draws attention (inter-subjectivity-draw in another object)
-joint attention (essential to est referent)
Associations: searching experiment: -12-14 months
-looking for something, pull it out of a bag and say ah-ha
-association ah-ha object with what you were looking for
-infer intention from emotion, not purely mechanical but being able to read someone else's intention
Associations: disembodied voice experiment: -place with novel toy and everytime touch it loud speaker says name
-younger children won't assoc name with object
-if person there directs attention to object then learn object's name
-person must teach child word for referent (12-14 need joint attention)
Gavagai Problem: -How do we single out referent?
-for example how do we know we mean whole rabbit when say word and not just some part of it
Solutions to Gavagai Problem: -constraints on reference
-reading intentions
Constraints on Reference: -whole object assumption
-principle of contrast: an object gets only one name, further names must refer to parts, properties, etc
-these two things are present early
Reading Intentions: -joint attention
-infants learn new labels only when joint attention is maintained
-they do not learn wrong labels when joint attention is absent
-they learn words that match intentions
-sensitive to glues adults give like where they are looking
Levels of Language: -phonology: sound level (making speech sound)
-semantics: meaning level
-grammer (syntax): rules for combining words and smaller elements
-pragmatics: rules for engaging in communication
-interdependence
Development of Phonology: Comprehension: -learning the phonemes of one's own native language
-which sound belongs in your language
-phoneme:smallest meaningful unit of sound
R and L: -distinct in English
-part of same phoneme in Japenese (same sound)
Alveolar vs Retroflez D: -distincitve in Hindi (2 seperate phonemes)
-same in English
What, if even, sounds (phonemes) can babies discriminate?: -use nun-nutritive sucking
-repeat ta, ta, habituate, switch to da da, if sucking rate increases can discriminate
-newborns can detect ALL contrasts
What is tuning to native language sound mean?: -since know all contrasts, there's a process of trimming back phonemes
-between 6-12 months
-ability to discriminate all contrasts disappears
What does the fact that newborns know all contrasts mean?: -suggest innate, domain-specific specialization for language
-BUT many non-human animals can be trained easyly to do it too
-suggests that capitalize on pre-existing biases to build speech
Is tuning between 6-12 nature or nurture?: -probably experience (nurture) because dependent on native language
-not clear whether have sensitive period
Skinner and development of grammer: -language learning as operant conditioning
-imitation
-reinforcement (good job)
Chomsky and development of grammer: -reviewed skinner and said:
-imitation is not sufficient
Why is imitation not sufficient?: -input to children is noisy (people make speech errors, use incomplete sentences)
-chidlren produce novel sentences
-infinite number of sentences (could never imitate all)
Novel Sentences: -both children and adults produce sentences they've never hear before
-children espcially make sentences with words they haven't hear together and follow grammatical rules but make no sense
Infinite number of sentences: -like # system
-generativity: an infinite number of sentences is generated by a finite set of grammatical rules
Provide an explanation of infinite number of sentences: -if you interrupt a sentence at any given point there is an average of 10 different words that could come next
-SO there are 10^20 abstract 20 word sentences
What does Chomsky's findings mean for language development?: -imitation is not sufficient, instead must learn grammer
-problem of induction
What is the problem of induction?: -there's an infinite number of grammars compatible with a sample of sentences
-picking the right one requires innate knowledge
-nativism position (born with relatively specific language knowledge)
Chomsky's LAD: -language aquisition device
-domain-specific module that allows us to learn or know grammar/language
Segmenting Speech: -in spoken language wordes don't have spaces between them
-how do we find word breaks?
-statistical learning
Statistical Learning: -notice certain things go together (perceptual learning)
Method and details of statistical learning experiment: -8 month olds familiarized with 2 minutes of continous speech
-4 different, 3 syllable nonsense "words"
-repreated 45 times each, in random order, for 2 minutes
Results of statistical learning experiment: -after familiarzation to speech stream, tested dishabituation to two types of stimuli
-type 1: "words" from the stream
-type 2: "new words" or "non-words"
-habituated to type 1 and dishabituated to type 2 (listened longer)
-can tell certain syllables go together
Theory of Mind: -understanding people
-intuitive/naive psychology
-invisible psychological constructs used in casual reasoning about people
What are the psychological constructs used?: -desire
-beliefs
-actions (intentional/goal-directed)
-used to explain what people do
Origin of Theory of Mind in Infancy: -birth to year (innate domain specific)
-newborns prefer faces
-newborns imitate facial expressions
Origin of TOM in infancy con't: -understanding intentions and emotions
-intentions at 6 months
-social referencing (use someone else's rxn to gauge own) by 8-10 months
-empathy
Faces: innate knowledge: -infants are drawn to faces
-preference for general facial configuration ("top heavy" like T)
-consistent brain area associated with facial processing
Intentionality: -dumbbel expt at 18 months
-container expt (word learning generally)
-reaching experiment at 6 months
-blob experiment at 12 months
Woodward's reaching experiment: -habituate to arm reaching to ball and then exposed to three options
1.arm reaches to bear (dishabituate)
2.switch position of two objects and arm reaches for bear (different object, but reach to same location): dishabituate (suprised)
3.arm reaches for ball but switch position: not surprised b/c hand had same goal whole time
-only need to see hand to attribute goal directed behavior (6 months)
Blob climbing hill experiment: -ball moves up incline
-triangle helps it, square hinders balls movement
-ask who does ball go to?
-12 months know ball would go to triangle b/c helped ball in achieving goal
-ascribe ball with human constructs (ascribe intentionality)
Theory of Mind: 1-2 year olds: -major component is self-awareness
-red dot test by 24 months
-recognize self and others in photographs by 24 months
-use words "I" and "me"
Pre-school age and Theory of Mind: -four specific components
-knowing that others have
1.emotions (social referencing and sympathy-2)
2.desires
3.perceptions
4.beliefs (espcially when they are DIFFERENT from one's own)
Goldfish/Broccoli Experiment: -desires
-experimenter asks child to give her one after demonstrating likes
-results in "different tast" conditions:
1.14-month olds give goldfish anyway
2.18-month olds give broccoli
Desires: -2 year olds accept that different desires may lead to different behaviors
-goldfish/broccoli expt
Perceptions: -joint attention (6-12 months)
-BUT 2 year olds are still poor when perceptions differ (hide and seek, hiding apple behind screen)
Piaget and Perception: -three mountain task
-BUT this is a hard task
-easier by choosing something children have had exposure to and are interested in AND by actually moving doll from kid's POV to new POV
Hiding the Apple experiment: -to hide apple from adult put out of their view
-usually on adults side of screen, clever child puts apple behind so neither can see it
-2.5 year olds fail, 3 year olds succeed
Understanding Others' Beliefs: -hard if different
-false belief tasks (know for fact belief is wrong but someone else believes it)
-candy/pencil taks
Candy/Pencil Task: -child knows pencils is in candy box
-ask what will scott think is in box?
-3 year olds say pencils (has same set of beliefs even though he wasn't in room)
-4 year olds say candy
Autism: -variety of intellectual/emotional difficulties
-solitary, repetitive behavior
-poor language development
-objects over people
Autism and Theory of Mind: -particularly poor at TOM tasks (false beliefs)
-Baron-Cohen described autism as "mindblindness"
-psychology "module" or core domain is absent (don't understand other people are psychological)
-lastest is autism as hyper-male syndrome
How does Theory of Mind develop?: -maturation (innate knowledge that unfolds)
-experience: having older sibs helps pass false task earlier
-development of information processing abilities

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