1. Infancy Chapter 4-6 Psyc311 Dr. Jen Wright

2. There are a lot of physical changes that happen during the first years of life, The most important (and dramatic) of which is brain development.

3. One of the last organs to fully develop…

4. brain development Largest brain/body mass of any animal. Encephalization Quotient (EQ) = 7.4 Dolphin = 5.3 Chimp = 2.5 Elephant = 1.9 Whale = 1.8 Most development happens outside (instead of inside) the womb Monkey newborn 70% adult size Human newborn 25% adult size Most growth occurs in first 3 yrs 3 yr old 80% adult size

6. brain development Neurogenesis – proliferation of neurons through cell division At peak, 250,000 cells “born” every minute Synaptognesis – formation of connections Each neuron forms thousands of connections Axons elongate towards specific targets Dendritic “tree” increases in size and complexity 6 mos have 2 x more synaptic connections

7. Synaptic pruning – elimination of excess synapses Streamlines neural processing Without synaptic pruning, children wouldn't be able to walk, talk, or even see properly. Myelination – insulating sheath Happens at different rates into adolescence Certain areas are myelinated first

10. importance of experience Plasticity – brain’s ability to change w/ experience Experience-expectant plasticity (experiences present throughout evolution) Economizes on material encoded in genes Development will occur within a normal range of environments Level of vulnerability in timing Sensitive periods

11. importance of experience Experience-dependent plasticity (experiences of individual) Brain sculpted by idiosyncratic experiences Brain responsive to richness of stimuli Important in development of expertise More brain resources dedicated to processing E.g. musicians’ cortical representation of hands

12. Gene/Environment Interaction Two levels of environmental influence: Environment Genes: Genotype Genes: Phenotype

13. Effect of deprivation

15. Sleep and brain development Infants sleep about 17 hours or more a day Regular and ample sleep correlates with normal brain maturation, learning, emotional regulation, and psychological adjustment in school and within the family.

16. states of arousal Arousal exists along a continuum from deep sleep to intense activity.

18. REM sleep – critical for neural development in brain, esp. for activity-dependent development E.g. visual system Facilitates learning/memory Sleep deprivation linked with later problems E.g. ADHD Babies most at risk of disruption Premature infants in IC units Snoring

19. What is attachment? Attachment refers to the close, emotional bond between an infant and his/her primary caregiver.

20. Early views of attachment Psychoanalytic Theory (Freud) Driven by oral needs during the first year Emphasized early experiences on later outcomes Behaviorist Perspective Driven by the need for food Learns to associate contact with mother with food Mother’s closeness continually reinforced

21. Ethology Rooted in Darwin’s Evolutionary Theory Focused on the adaptive value of behavior Bond necessary for survival Lorenz (1952) - Imprinting

22. Primary criticism of these early perspectives Love (i.e., attachment) seen as secondary to instinctive or survival needs Harlow believed that the need for love and affection was necessary for survival

23. Harlow’s Monkeys (1958) Early work with monkeys Cloth & wire mother Only one equipped with feeding apparatus Monkeys randomly assigned Observed for 5 months Both groups preferred cloth mother

24. Contact Time with Wire and Cloth Surrogate Mothers 24 0 6 12 18 21-251-5 6-10 11-15 16-20 Age (in days).................... Infant monkey fed on wire mother Infant monkey fed on cloth mother Hours per day spent with wire mother Hours per day spent with cloth mother Mean hours per day

25. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsA 5Sec6dAI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsA 5Sec6dAI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caM 4-f6ZZBE&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caM 4-f6ZZBE&feature=related

26. John Bowlby Observations of children in institutionalized care Infant has built-in behaviors to keep parent close Gives way to true affectionate bond Serves 2 purposes Secure base Internal working model

27. Does attachment vary by individual? Ainsworth (1979) Developed Strange Situation Work revealed 4 types of attachment behavior Securely Attached Insecure Avoidant Insecure Resistant Insecure Disorganized http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTsewNr HUHU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTsewNr HUHU

30. mirror neurons Found in the frontal and parietal lobes Fire when you engage in an activity (reaching out one’s hand) observe someone else engaging in the same activity. Fire more strongly when action has some purpose or content reaching out one’s hand for a cup. MN’s play a clear role in learning/imitation. May also play a role in “mind-reading” grasping intentions, goals, desires.

33. crying Crying – infant form of communication Response to distress Development of emotional self-regulation Mastery of environment – agency Biofeedback loop Soothing Swaddling – tight wrapping of baby in cloth Touch Sweet taste Soft, rhythmic sounds

34. When an infant’s needs are met, they are able to turn their focus to the world around them and explore. Their brains take in and adapt to stimulation from the external world. When they aren’t met, they become fixated on trying to get their needs met They stop exploring and shut out other stimulation from the external world.

35. crying disorders Colic (1 in 10 infants; birth – 12 weeks) Extended periods of intense crying Cause unknown Immature nervous system Hyper-sensitivity Digestive problems Prolonged crying (beyond 12 weeks) Exhibit developmental and behavioral disorders

36. Prolonged crying expose the brain to high levels of cortisol, adrenaline, and other damaging chemicals. Damage to hippocampus Reduced levels of vasopressin and serotonin Reduced levels of emotional regulation Impaired memory Increased levels of aggression/violence/bullying Increased levels of anxiety disorders

37. stress and brain development Exposure to excessive stress hormones is bad for brain development. Early symptoms of PTSD The brain can become incapable of producing normal stress responses. Hyper-vigilance (Ghosts in the Nursery) Emotional flatness Physical/emotional abuse and neglect can be equally damaging.

38. emotional self-regulation Strategies learned for adjusting emotional state to a comfortable (adaptive) level of intensity in order to accomplish goals Infants: withdrawal, distress, need soothing 4 mos: can shift focus of attention 1 year: approach/retreat from stimulus

39. Parent response to distress important Sympathetic: child more easily soothed, more interested more self-regulated Non-responsive (wait to intervene): child enters into rapid, intense distress harder to soothe doesn’t develop self-regulation

40. emotions of others “emotional contagion”: babies match the emotional expressions of caregiver Still face experiment 7-10 mos: infants perceive facial expressions as organized patterns, can match facial expression to emotion 8-10 mos: social referencing- relying on another person’s emotional reaction to appraise situation (e.g.- visual cliff)

41. social referencing Example of how adults help child regulate emotion Permits toddlers to compare their assessments of situations with others Helps young children move beyond simply reacting to emotional messages

42. basic emotions Emotions that can be directly inferred from facial expressions happiness, interest surprise, fear, anger sadness, disgust Universal in humans and our primate ancestors Long evolutionary history of adaptation Important communicative function Present in infancy

43. emotional expression Earliest emotions: global arousal states of attraction and withdrawal These basic states set the stage for further development Over time (6+ mos), these develop into well-organized, sustained signals (dynamic systems perspective)

45. emotions and cognition: bi-directional Emotional reactions Dynamic bidirectional interplay between emotion and cognition.  Lead to learning that is essential for survival  Influence how a situation is perceived, interpreted, and remembered. o Limbic system o amygdala/hippocampus link o Improve memory of event o Highlight issues of importance o Make things personally relevant

46. temperament Constitutionally based individual differences in Emotion Motor function Attentional reactivity Self-regulation Influences the way that children develop, display, and control emotions Foundation for later personality

47. Temperament styles Types Easy Difficult “Slow to warm up” Differences in punishment/reward Differences in sociability Bi-directional issues Gender Cultural differences Goodness of fit (with parents/environment)

50. Gene/environment interactions Passive genotype-environment correlation. Evocative genotype-environment correlation. Each child’s genes elicit other people’s responses, and these responses shape development. In other words, a child’s environment is partly the result of his or her genes. Active genotype-environment correlation. Children, adolescents, and especially adults choose environments that are compatible with their genes (called niche-picking), thus genetic influences in adulthood increase.

51. Slides below this point were not covered in class!

52. Groups – language exercise swibbing a grop some drupes prebbed the norves pudu

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58. Word learning Fast mapping Whole object assumption Mutual exclusivity assumption Pragmatic cues Social context Attention Intentionality Linguistic context Syntactic bootstrapping

59. Language development What is language? Involves the use of symbols to Represent our thoughts, feelings, and knowledge Communicate with others Generativity: infinite combinations of finite lexicon Language comprehension Comprehension comes before production Due to vocal complexity (sign language example) Language production 1 st grader’s utterances as correct grammatically as the avg. college freshman

60. Language development Phonological development Learning the system of sounds (phonemes) 200 possible sounds (English has 45) Semantic development Learning the system for expressing meaning (morphemes) Syntactic development Learning the grammar (syntax – rules for combining words) Pragmatic development Learning cultural rules of how language is used Meta-linguistic knowledge Learning about language itself

61. What is required for language? A human brain Language is species-specific and species- universal Dominantly left-hemisphere activity Wernike’s area – speech comprehension Broca’s area – speech production Critical period – between age 5 – puberty Victor and Genie Bi-lingual evidence

62. production comprehension

63. both languages native language 2 nd language

64. What is required for language? A human environment Exposure to language speaking environment Infant-directed speech (IDS) -“Motherese” Used universally (across cultures/gender/age) Emotional (affectionate) tone Exaggerated tone and facial expressions Slow, clear, simple speech Present also in non-verbal communication (e.g. sign language)

65. Language style – strategies children develop to learn language Referential (analytic) - monosyllabic Expressive (holistic) - conversational Wait-and-see – late speakers (4-5yrs)

66. Current theoretical issues Nativist views (hardwired) Modularity hypothesis innate, self-contained language-specific structure in brain Universal grammar common to all languages (Chomsky’s LAD) Spontaneous developments of language E.g. congenitally deaf children

67. Interactionist views (environment) Language as a social skill – communicative function Sensitivity to environmental cues Statistical sensitivity to underlying regularities Connectionist views (language itself) Neural network account Gradual strengthening/weakening of connections Self-modification of network Trial and error learning

68. Theory differences Piaget stage theory Child as “blank slate” Focus on learning as a process within individuals Development is discontinuous (qualitative) Information processing Development is continuous (quantitative) Core-knowledge theory Child possesses innate knowledge Socio-cultural theory Focus on learning as a social process between individuals

69. Piaget’s theory Constructivist approach – children actively construct knowledge for themselves in response to their experiences. Child as scientist: Generate hypotheses Perform experiments Draw conclusions Children learn many things on their own without the help of instruction from adults. Children are intrinsically motivated to learn. Discontinuous (qualitative) change different ages think differently.

70. conservation of quantity (1)

71. conservation of quantity (2)

72. Information processing Computational approach – cognitive development as a passive maturation process that occurs over time. Child as a computational system Children undergo continuous (quantitative) cognitive change Development through increasingly sophisticated hardware and software Faster and more efficient processing, larger memory bank, better learning “algorithms” More content knowledge (learned facts) to draw upon

73. Core-knowledge theories Child as well-adapted product of evolution Emphasis on sophistication of children’s thinking in areas that have had evolutionary importance. Eg. environment navigation, face recognition, language Naïve physics, psychology, biology Some advanced capacities already present (innate) Move from “general” to “domain specific” specialized learning mechanisms

74. Naïve physics Infants have a surprisingly sophisticated understanding of how the physical world works.

76. understanding intentions They also have a pretty sophisticated understanding of how the psychological world works e.g., they understand that there are goals and intentions and that only certain creatures can have them.

77. primitive morality ?