Definitions:
Fetus:胎儿 At the end of the embryonic period, the developing human
Teratogens: 畸形•At any time during early development, the embryo/fetus is highly sensitive to teratogens
Thalidomide: 镇静剂–Sold in the late 50’s and early 60’s as a cure for morning sickness
–More than 10000 children in 46 countries were born with severe birth defects
•Typically related to limb buds, or sites of limb growth
•Truncated limbs, extra appendages common
–Connected to birth defects and removed for sale in 1961
Synaptic pruning: Process whereby unused synapses are lost (pruned).
Critical period: –Developmental stage during which new skills or knowledge must be learned
preferential looking technique:Infants tend to look longer at stimuli that:–Interest them–Are new
Temperament: –An infant’s typical mood, activity level, and emotional reactivity
Strange stiuation: Aim was to produce a method for assessing quality of attachment by placing an infant into situations of mild stress in order for the infant to seek comfort. The comfort seeking and exploration are indicators for the quality of attachment.
Schema:different ways of thinking模式
Assimilation:new experience is placed into existing schema同化
Accommodation:schema is changed to incoperate the new experience that doesnot fit easily into existing schema
Object permanence: The understanding that objects continue to exist when out of sight
Preoperational stage:stage 2, 2-7 years old, develop model of how the world works, imaginate in play, base reasoning on appearance, thinking symbolically, do not understand how actions can be reversed.
Skill: law of conservation, not developed
Concrete operational stage: stage 3, 7-12 years old, begin understanding how events and behavior impact one another, learn that action can be reversed, understand law of conservation
Skill:can’t think hypothetically or reason abstractly.
Formal operational stage: stage 4, 12-adulthood, learn to use logical steps to solve problems, begin understanding hypothesis testing
Skill: develop abstract thinking.
Step reflex: infants held so that their feet touch a surface will kick as though attempting to walk
Gender: a set of expected behaviors for males and for females
Concepts
How does the brain develop in the womb?
•Brain areas develop in the same order as evolutionary development
•Brainstem and hindbrain structures first
•Then midbrain structures(hippocampus and amygdala)
•Finally, the cortex develop
How is myelination related to brain development?
–Myelination has occurred during pre-natal development
•Spinal cord is myelinated in first trimester
•Brain begins myelination in second trimester
–Different regions at different times
–Reflects development
•Myelination continues after birth
–At birth, areas devoted to hearing and balance already myelinated
–Pre-frontal cortext does not become fully myelinated until mid-20’s
What sense is most poorly developed at birth, and when does it reach adult levels?
•Vision–Pooly developed at birth until about 12 months to reach adult level
What are the three most common types of attachment?
–Secure-child can play alone and is friendly to stranger, distressed when caregiver leaves, quickly soothed when caregiver returns
–Avoident-child not upset when caregiver leaves, does not react to caregiver’s return
–Anxious ambivalent-clings to caregiver when stranger is present, becomes very upset when caregiver leaves, may hit caregiver when she/he returns
Describe the Harlow monkey experiments
–Attachment in primates
–Infant rhesus monkey were placed in a cage with two “mothers”
•Wire mother-included a bottle, made of wire
•Cloth mother-no food, soft cloth covering
–Infant monkeys spents the vast majority of their time with the cloth mother
•Only left to feed from wire mother
•Ran to cloth mother when scared
–Showed attachment is about comfort and safety, not just food.
What is Theory of Mind, and when do children begin to