PSYC A322F Life-span Developmental Psychology Lecture 4 - PDF

PSYC A322F Life-span Developmental Psychology LECTURE 4 - PHYSICAL, COGNITIVE AND SOCIOEMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN INFANCY Learning goals of today 1. Identify the key physical and cognitive development milestones during infancy 2. Identify potential factors that affecting the developmental outcomes 3....

PSYC A322F Life-span Developmental Psychology LECTURE 4 - PHYSICAL, COGNITIVE AND SOCIOEMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN INFANCY Learning goals of today 1. Identify the key physical and cognitive development milestones during infancy 2. Identify potential factors that affecting the developmental outcomes 3. What are the biological and environmental influence ? 4. Describe the emotional development during infancy 5. Describe personality development during infancy 6. Describe the development of social understanding during infancy Physical development in infancy Patterns of growth Cephalocaudal pattern - Head-to-tail/top-to-bottom development - Earliest development start from the top What is the most noticeable physical changes here ? Proportion of head to the rest of the body Proximodistal pattern - Center to extremities development Height and Weight - Continually growth in height and weight - Grow about 1 inch per month during the first year of life Brain development in infancy - The brain is still under development during infancy - Infant’s brain is vulnerable Shaken baby syndrome ◦ Serious brain injury resulted from forcefully shaking an infant ◦ Includes brain swelling and hemorrhaging ◦ Affects hundreds of babies in the U.S. each year ◦ Preventing Shaken Baby Syndrome – YouTube (0:45 – 0:54) ◦ Michael: The Story of a Shaken Baby Documentary - YouTube (1:10) Brain development in infancy Frontal lobes are involved in voluntary movement, thinking, personality, and intentionality or purpose. Occipital lobes function in vision. Temporal lobes have an active role in hearing, language processing, and memory. Parietal lobes play important roles in registering spatial location, attention, and motor control. Lateralization: specialization of function in one hemisphere of the cerebral cortex or the other; both, however, are needed for complex functions. Brain development in infancy During the first year of life ◦ Myelination ◦ Increased connectivity among neurons 🡪 creates new neural pathways ◦ Connections that are used become stronger ◦ Connections that are unused are replaced or disappear—“pruned” ◦ Heredity and environment influence matter in this process Brain development in infancy Early deprived environment associated with impairment in brain development E.g., Romanian orphanage. ◦ Growing up in a Romanian orphanage - BBC News - YouTube HOWEVER ! The negative effects from the early deprive environment are reversible in some individuals ◦ Flexibility and resilience nature of brain ◦ E.g., Michael Rehbein (brain’s left hemisphere was removed due to an uncontrollable seizures, right hemisphere take over the language functions) ◦ 'I only have half a brain' - BBC Stories – YouTube ◦ Neuroconstructivist view Sleep and development in infancy Why do we sleep? - Sleep is necessary for survival - Increase production and reduce breakdowns of proteins - Clearing out waste in neural tissues - Critical for brain plasticity - Rebuild brain and body parts - Increases synaptic connections between neurons Scientists Discovered How Sleep Cleans Toxins From Your Brain – YouTube (play during break) Deprivation of sleep can result in impairment in memory, attention, reasoning, and decision making Sleep in infancy - Approximately 18 hours a day for sleeping among newborns - Maternal depression, early intake of solid foods, screen time etc. may associate with sleep-related problems among infants (e.g., night-time waking) Sleep in infancy -REM (Rapid eye movement) – Dreaming -Half of an infant’s sleep is REM sleep, the most in the life span -REM sleep may provide added self-stimulation and might promote the brain’s development in infancy Sleeping arrangement - Subject to cultural influence - Shared bed sleeping or not ? (Hot debate) - Not common in the US - Shared sleeping may contribute to SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) ◦ Infants stop breathing and die without any apparent reason ◦ There are other potential factors lead to SIDS as well (e.g., maternal smoking, family history etc) Sleep and cognitive development Sleep may be positively linked to cognitive development ◦ Brain maturation and memory consolidation ◦ Better memory, language, and executive function ◦ A lower quality of sleep is linked with distractibility and behavioral problems Nutrition and development Nutrition and development - Malnutrition bring detrimental impact to physical, cognitive, and social development (e.g., Attention deficits till middle age) - Breast versus bottle feeding? Concern with breast feed: Mother with HIV positive Examples of positive developmental outcome from breast feeding: ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ Reduced gastrointestinal infections Reduced respiratory tract infections Fewer ear, throat, and sinus infections Reduced infant hospitalizations for various infections Motor development Motor development Dynamic systems theory Motor development is ◦ Embodied - changes in the body ◦ Embedded within environmental circumstances ◦ Eculturated - influenced by social and cultural contexts ◦ Enabling - increasing independence in exploring and learning about the world https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mE4-yyDBUt0 Body reflexes in infancy - Built-in reactions to stimuli that govern the newborn’s movements - Automatic and without voluntary control - Mostly adaptative in nature (increase chances of survival ) Newborn Reflexes Assessment (Infant) Nursing Pediatric NCLEX Review – YouTube (from 1:28 to 3:21) Body reflexes in infancy Rooting reflex - when the infant’s cheek or the side of the mouth is touched - turns his or her head to find something to suck Sucking reflex - When an object is placed in infant’s mouth, the infant automatically suck that object - Facilitate bottle or breast feeding (e.g., before they have associated a nipple with food) - Self-soothing mechanism Body reflexes in infancy Moro reflex - When there is a sudden, intense noise or movement, the infant throws the head back, flings out arms and legs, and arches the back, then contracts these movements - may be a way of grabbing for support while falling Grasping reflex: - When something touches the infant’s palms, infant react in grasping tightly Are they really completely involuntary during infancy ? Gross motor skills - Large-muscle activities - Depend on the development of posture - Associate with sensory information in in the skin, joints, and muscles - e.g., rolling, sitting, crawling, standing and walking Gross motor skills Larger size at birth associate with earlier motor milestones accomplishment (varies by 2-4 months across infants ) Contextual factor can play an important role in enhancing this process E.g., Experience E.g., Caregiver participation Gross motor skills – during the second year By 13 to 18 months Infants can pull a toy and climb steps By 18 to 24 months: ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ Walk quickly and run short distances Balance while squatting Stand Walk backward Kick a ball Stand and throw a ball Jump Fine motor skills - More finely tuned movements, such as finger dexterity Types of grasps: ◦ Palmer grasp: grasping with the whole hand ◦ Pincer grip: grasping small objects with thumb and forefinger - Develop the skill of perceptual-motor coupling for grasping coordination Sensation and perception What is sensation and perception ? Sensation - The product of the interaction between information and the sensory receptors - e.g., eyes, ears, tongue, nostrils, and skin Perception - The interpretation of what is sensed Visual acuity and human faces - Nerves and muscles and lens of the eye are still under development during infancy - e.g., Cannot see things that are far away - Viewing faces which are possibly the most important visual stimuli - Within hours after birth, they prefer to look at faces and prefer to look at attractive faces ? What Your Baby Sees | WebMD – YouTube 1-month-old 2-month-old 3-month-old 1-year-old Visual acuity and human faces By 3 months of age, infants are able to ◦ Match voices to faces ◦ Distinguish faces ◦ E.g., male versus female, own ethnic group or not ? Experience plays an important role in face processing ◦ Perceptual narrowing ◦ More likely to distinguish between faces that infants have been exposed Testing visual perception among infants Visual preference method - measure the length of time they attend to different stimuli - to determine whether infants can distinguish one stimulus from another by Habituation - decreased responsiveness to a stimulus after repeated presentations of the stimulus. Dishabituation - recovery of a habituated response after a change in stimulation Visual perception Color vision ◦ Infants can discriminate between some colors by 8 weeks ◦ Color preferences shown by 4 months Perceptual constancy- allows infants to perceive world as stable ◦ Size constancy: recognition that an object remains the same even though the retinal image of the object changes as you move toward or away from the object ◦ Shape constancy: recognition that an object’s shape remains the same even though its orientation changes Visual perception Perception of occluded objects - Infants don’t perceive objects that are occluded by other objects in front of them as complete in their first month ◦ They perceive only what is visible - Starting from 2 months of age, infants develop the ability to perceive that occluded objects are whole Visual perception Depth perception - “Visual cliff” experiments by Eleanor Gibson and Richard Walk - e.g., infants pause and being cautious at the edge of the visual cliff - indicate the perception of depth An Experiment by Joseph Campos: The Visual Cliff – YouTube (start from 0:42) Hearing - Fetus can hear sounds in the mother’s womb during the last two months of pregnancy - Development of hearing during infancy involve the detection of ◦ Loudness ◦ Pitch ◦ Localization Touch, Smell and Taste - Newborns can response to touch and feel pain - Newborns can differentiate odor - Sensitivity to taste is present even before birth - Prefer salty tastes at 4 months of age Intermodal perception - Ability to relate and integrate information from two or more sensory modalities, such as vision and hearing - “Are the voices from this face?” - Starting from 6 months of age, infants show an increased ability to make connection between senses Cognitive development in infancy Piaget’s (1954)Theory of Infant Development Piaget’s (1954) Theory of Infant Development Schemes: mental representation Assimilation: occurs when using existing schemes to deal with new information or experiences Accommodation: occurs when children adjust schemes to fit new information and experiences Organization: the grouping of isolated behaviors and thoughts into a higher-order system Equilibration: a mechanism by which children shift from one stage of thought to the next Piaget’s Schema: Accommodation and Assimilation of New Information YouTube Sensorimotor stage in infancy -Birth to about 2 years old -construct an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences. Sensorimotor substages: ◦ Simple reflexes ◦ First habits and primary circular reactions ◦ Secondary circular reactions ◦ Coordination of secondary circular reactions ◦ Tertiary circular reactions, novelty, and curiosity ◦ Internalization of schemes (Piaget, 1954) Sensorimotor stage in infancy Simple reflexes (Birth to 1 month) - Sensation and action are coordinated through reflexive behaviors, such as rooting and sucking. First habits and primarily circular reactions (1 -4 months) - Coordination of sensation, with the main focus still on the infant’s body, but with two types of schemes ◦ Habits (reflex) ◦ Primary circular reactions: schemes based on the attempt to reproduce events that initially occurred by chance (Piaget, 1954) Sensorimotor stage in infancy Secondary circular reactions (4 – 8 months) - Infants become more object oriented, moving beyond preoccupation with the self - Secondary circular reactions: actions are repeated because of their consequences - Imitates some simple actions and physical gestures Coordination of secondary circular reactions (8 – 12 months) - Coordinate vision and touch, hand and eye - Actions become more outwardly directed - Readily combines and recombines previously learned schemes in a coordinated way ◦ Presence of intentionality ◦ E.g., knocking over one block to reach and play with another (Piaget, 1954) Sensorimotor stage in infancy Tertiary circular reactions, novelty, and curiosity (12 – 18 months) - Tertiary circular reactions are schemes in which an infant purposely explores new possibilities with objects - Continually doing new things to them and exploring the results Internalization of schemes (18 – 24 months) -The infant develops the ability to use primitive symbols -An internalized sensory image or word that represents an event - e.g., symbolic play (Piaget, 1954) Object permanence - An understanding that objects and events continue to exist - Even when they cannot directly be seen, heard, or touched Piaget - Object permanence failure (Sensorimotor Stage) – YouTube (Piaget, 1954) A-not-B error - When infants make the mistake of selecting the familiar hiding place (A) rather than the new hiding place (B) ◦ An important feature of the progression into substage - coordination of secondary circular reactions HOWEVER ! ◦ Researchers have found that the A-not-B error does not show up consistently (MacNeil et al., 2018) ◦ Attention at 5 months was related to A-not-B performance at 10 months from a longitudinal study (Blankenship et al., 2019) Piaget - The A Not B Error (Sensorimotor Stage) – YouTube (Piaget, 1954) Other cognitive development LEARNING Factor required for learningJoint attention Two or more individuals focus on the same object or event Joint attention requires ◦ An ability to track another’s behavior ◦ Directing another’s attention ◦ Reciprocal interaction -By the end of the first year, joint attention is frequently observed -Joint attention considerably increases infants’ ability to learn from other people Factor required for learningMemory - Retention of information over time Implicit memory: memory without conscious recollection - Memories of skills and routine procedures that are performed automatically Explicit memory: conscious remembering of facts and experiences - Maturation of the hippocampus and the cerebral cortex (esp. in the frontal lobes) Infantile or childhood amnesia - inability to remember much if anything from our first three years of life Age Group Length of memory retained 6-month-olds 24 hours 9-month-olds 1 month 10- to 11-month-olds 3 months 13- to 14-month-olds 4 to 6 months 20-month-olds 12 months Factor required for learning -Language -A form of communication -Spoken, written, or signed -Based on a system of symbols -Pass down information -Subject to cultural difference Infinite generativity - the ability to produce an endless number of meaningful sentences using a finite set of words and rules. Language development in infancy - Before learning words, infants make fine distinctions among the sounds of language - In the first six months, infants recognize when sounds change, regardless of language - In the second half of the first year, they begin to segment speech streams into words Language development in infancy Babbling and other vocalizations: ◦ Crying can signal distress; different types of cries signal different things. ◦ Cooing, emerging at 2 to 4 months, is gurgling sounds that usually express pleasure. ◦ Babbling, such as “ba, ba, ba, ba,” allows for social interaction. Gestures, such as showing and pointing, emerge at about 7 to 15 months of age ◦ Infants’ gestures promote further language development. Language development in infancy First words - Infants understand their first words earlier than they speak them - Receptive vocabulary considerably exceeds spoken vocabulary A vocabulary spurt begins at approximately 18 months. Overextension: the tendency to apply a word to inappropriate objects, such as “dog” for any animal with four legs Underextension: the tendency to apply a word too narrowly Language development in infancy Two-word utterances To convey meaning, the child relies on gesture, tone, and context ◦ Identification: “See doggie.” ◦ Repetition: “More milk.” ◦ Possession: “My candy.” ◦ Agent-action: “Mama walk.” ◦ Question: “Where ball?” Telegraphic speech: the use of short and precise words without grammatical markers Typical Age Birth Language Milestones Crying 2 to 4 months Cooing begins 5 months Understands first word 6 months Babbling begins 6 to 12 months Change from universal linguist to language-specific listener 8 to 12 months Uses gestures, such as showing and pointing; comprehension of words appears 13 months First word spoken 18 months Vocabulary spurt starts 18 to 24 months Uses two-word utterances; rapid expansion of understanding of words Language development in infancy Biological influences Broca’s area: the region in the brain’s left frontal lobe that is involved in speech production Wernicke’s area: the region in the brain’s left hemisphere that is involved in language comprehension Damage to either of these areas produces types of aphasia— loss or impairment of language processing ◦ Damage to Broca’s area results in difficulty producing words correctly. ◦ Damage to Wernicke’s area results in poor comprehension and fluent but incomprehensible speech Broca's Aphasia (Non-Fluent Aphasia) - YouTube Fluent Aphasia (Wernicke's Aphasia) - YouTube Language development in infancy Environmental influences - Social cues play an important role in infant language learning - Involvement of caregivers and teachers is significant. Vocabulary development is linked to: ◦ The family’s socioeconomic status. ◦ The type of talk that parents direct to their children (e.g., child-directed speech: higher pitch and slower speed than normal, with simple words and sentences, improve language outcome) Language development in infancy Other factors to enhance the child’s acquisition of language: ◦ Recasting: rephrasing something the child has said, in the form of a fully grammatical sentence ◦ Expanding: restating something with additional information ◦ Labeling: naming objects that the child is interested in ◦ Shared reading (discuss and question) Skinner’s (1938) operant conditioning - Consequences of a behavior produce changes in the probability of the behavior’s occurrence - Punishment versus Reward - e.g., If an infant’s behavior is followed by a rewarding stimulus, the behavior is likely to recur - e.g., body movement, smile, cry Imitation - Meltzoff (1989) sees infants’ imitative abilities as biologically based but not hardwired - Imitation involves flexibility and adaptability - During the first 3 days of life, infants gradually display more complete imitation of adults’ facial expressions Deferred imitation - imitation occurs after a delay of hours or days - Piaget held this doesn’t occur until about 18 months of age - Meltzoff finds it occurs much earlier Concept Formation and Categorization Concepts - Cognitive groupings of similar objects, events, people, or ideas - Infants as young as 3 to 4 months of age can group together objects with similar appearances. ◦ Mandler (1992) argues this is best described as perceptual categorization, rather than conceptual - Further advances in the second year of life - Learning to put things into the correct categories is an important aspect of learning Emotional development in infancy Emotional development Primary emotions Appear in the first 6 months of human infant’s development Present in both human and animals E.g., Joy, anger, sadness, fear, disgust Self-conscious emotions Require self-awareness, especially consciousness and a sense of “me” First time present in the second half of the first year or within the second year E.g., Jealousy, empathy, embarrassment Debate on early expression of jealousy? (2873) Jealousy Bites | Brain Games – YouTube (From 0:26) - 6 months vs 9 months vs 15 months? - Hart and Carrington (2002) concluded that the 6-month-old infants who observed their mothers giving attention to a baby doll displayed negative emotions—such as anger and sadness—which may indicate the early expression of jealousy - However, other experts on emotional development argue that it is unlikely emotions such as jealousy appear in the first year Emotional expression Crying is the most important mechanism newborns have for communication ◦ Basic cry: a rhythmic pattern usually consisting of a cry, a briefer silence, a shorter whistle, then a rest before the next cry ◦ Anger cry: a variation of the basic cry, with more excess air forced through the vocal cords ◦ Pain cry: a sudden long, loud cry followed by breath holding 🡪 Excessive infant crying in 3-month old may associate with the risk of later behavioral, hyperactive and mood problems at 5-6 years old Emotional expression -Smiling is a key social signal and important to social interaction Reflexive smile: a smile that does not occur in response to external stimuli ◦ Usually appears in the first month, often during sleep Social smile: a smile in response to an external stimulus ◦ Occurs as early as 2 months of age, typically in response to a face 🡪 The infant’s social smile can have a powerful impact on caregivers Emotional expression Fear first appear at around 6-month of age, even appear earlier (i.e., 3-month of age) for neglect and abused infants The most frequent expression of fear is stranger anxiety: an infant’s fear towards strangers Separation protest: the distressed crying of an infant when the caregiver leaves Emotional regulation - Infants develop an ability to inhibit, or minimize, the intensity and duration of emotional reactions - Caregivers’ actions and contexts influence emotion regulation (2873) Still Face Experiment: Dr. Edward Tronick – YouTube (Still face experiment, Tronick, 1970) - Soothing a crying infant helps the infant develop an adaptive emotion regulation, a sense of trust and secure attachment to the caregiver. Temperament Temperament: individual differences in behavioral styles, emotions, and characteristic ways of responding. Researchers have described and classified the temperaments of individuals in several different ways. Temperament Chess and Thomas’ (1977) classification: ◦ Easy child: generally in a positive mood, quickly establishes regular routines in infancy, and adapts easily to new experiences ◦ Difficult child: reacts negatively and cries frequently, engages in irregular daily routines, and is slow to accept change ◦ Slow-to-warm-up child: has a low activity level, is somewhat negative, and displays a low intensity of mood 🡪 Related to later behavioral problems at around 3 years old Temperament Kagan’s (2002) behavioral inhibition: ◦ Inhibited child versus Sociable child ◦ Inhibited child - shy, subdued, timid ◦ Sociable child - extraverted, bold ◦ e.g., when facing an unfamiliar situation 🡪 Related to social phobia symptoms at 7 years of age Temperament Rothbart and Bates’ (2006) classification: ◦ Extraversion/surgency includes approach, pleasure, activity, smiling, and laughter ◦ Negative affectivity includes fear, frustration, sadness, and discomfort; these children are easily distressed ◦ Effortful control includes attentional focusing and shifting, inhibitory control, perceptual sensitivity, and low-intensity pleasure. 🡪 Effortful control related to later academic success, ADHD symptoms Temperament Biological foundations and experience: ◦ The contemporary view is that temperament is a biologically-based but evolving aspect of behavior Gender, culture, and temperament ◦ E.g., Parents may react differently to an infant’s temperament depending on gender. ◦ E.g., Behavioral inhibition is more valued in China than in North America. Temperament Goodness of fit: the match between a child’s temperament and the environmental demands with which the child must cope. Differential susceptibility model and biological sensitivity to context model ◦ Certain characteristics make children more vulnerable to setbacks in adverse contexts ◦ These same characteristics also make them more susceptible to optimal growth in very supportive conditions Personality development in infancy Personality development Development of trust - Erikson’s (1968) first stage : Trust vs. Mistrust (Birth – around 18 months of age) - Develop a sense of trust towards caregivers 🡪 see the world as reliable and predictable (virtue of hope) - Arises again at each successive stage of development Development of independence (second year of life) - Erikson’s (1968) second stage: Autonomy versus shame and doubt - Sense of control (virtue of will) : from themselves to the world - e.g., personal preference , toilet training Personality development Development of self-recognition (at about 18 months of age) - self-understanding - sense of ‘me’ - self-recognition in mirror - e.g., Lacan’s mirror stage (2873) Jacques Lacan - The Mirror Stage - YouTube (Amsterdam, 1968; Lewis & Brooks-Gunn, 1979) Social understanding and attachment Social orientation Face-to-face play starts at 2 to 3 months of age ◦ Different responses to people and objects ◦ Between 18 and 24 months: increasing peer interaction, children markedly increase imitative and reciprocal play Enhanced locomotion skills allow infants to independently initiate social interchanges, increasing independence Social orientation Intention, goal-directed behavior, and meaningful interactions with others begin to occur toward the end of the first year ◦ Joint attention and gaze-following help the infant understand that other people have intentions By 11 months old, babies understand others and make appropriate social responses. ◦ Social referencing: “reading” emotional cues in others to help determine how to act in a particular situation (2873) An Experiment by Joseph Campos: The Visual Cliff - YouTube (2873) Toddlers regulate their behavior to avoid making adults angry - YouTube Attachment Attachment: a close emotional bond between two people. Freud: infants become attached to the person who provides oral satisfaction. Harlow: contact comfort is preferred over food. Erikson: trust arises from physical comfort and sensitive care. (2873) Harlow's Studies on Dependency in Monkeys - YouTube Harlow (1958) Attachment and its development John Bowlby’s (1969, 1989) four phases of attachment (internal working model of attachment) Phase 1: From birth to 2 months: infants direct their attachment to human figures. Phase 2: From 2 to 7 months: attachment becomes focused on one figure (primary caregiver). Phase 3: From 7 to 27 months: specific attachments develop. With increased locomotion, babies actively seek contact with regular caregivers. Phase 4: From 24 months on: children become aware of others’ feelings and goals and account for them in their own actions. Individual differences in attachment Mary Ainsworth’s (1979) Strange Situation: an observational measure of infant attachment - The infant to moves through a series of introductions, separations, and reunions with the caregiver and an adult stranger in prescribed order (2873) The Strange Situation - Mary Ainsworth - YouTube Individual differences in attachment Securely attached babies: use the caregiver as a secure base from which to explore the environment Insecure avoidant babies: show insecurity by avoiding the caregiver Insecure resistant babies: cling to the caregiver, then resist the caregiver by fighting against the closeness Insecure disorganized babies: appear disoriented, showing strong patterns of avoidance and resistance 🡪 secure attachment : associated with positive emotional health, social competence with peers and better resilience 🡪 Double insecure : may lead to more externalizing problems Caregiving style and attachment - Caregivers of avoidant babies tend to be unavailable and rejecting - Caregivers of resistant babies tend to be inconsistent and tend not to be very affectionate. - Caregivers of disorganized babies often neglect or physically abuse them - Caregivers of secure babies often available to respond infants’ needs Contextual influence Reciprocal socialization is bidirectional Children socialize parents, just as parents socialize children As infants become more capable, parental management often triggers more corrective feedback and discipline References Santrock, J. W. (2021). Life-span development (18th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education. (Chapter 4-6)