PSYC 206 Lifespan Development Bilge Yagmurlu

Chapter Overview Physical Growth Brain Development Motor Development Cognitive Development Conceptual Development The Growth of Attention and Memory

Physical Growth During the first year, babies: Triple in weight Grow about 10 inches Changes in body proportions

Body Proportions

Musculoskeletal System Bones ossify (harden) Increase in muscle mass, length and thickness Gender difference in physical growth

Brain Development Cerebral cortex development Increased myelination of neurons Development of prefrontal cortex Voluntary behavior 7-9 months of age Growth of language-related areas: frontal and temporal Increased synchrony among the brain areas

Brain and Behavior Neural development approaches adult status by the end of infancy As a result, More systematic problem solving Voluntary control of behavior Acquisition of language

Brain and Experience Effects of prolonged deprivation Example: Romanian orphans Effects of lack of experience till 24 months Periods of plasticity Experience-expectant and experience-dependent neural connections

Development of the Brain Experience-expectant process Species-universal experiences are required for fine-tuning neural connections. When expected experiences lack in sensitive periods, then the brain will fail to develop normally Experience-dependent process Have evolved to allow the organism to take advantage of new and changing information in the environment.

Motor Development Fine Motor Skills Gross Motor Skills

Fine Motor Skills Fine Motor Skills: Reaching and grasping Involve the development and coordination of small muscles Reaching and grasping Manual dexterity

Major Milestones

Reaching and Grasping

Fine Motor Skills By age 2, feed and dress themselves turn book pages cut paper string beads

Gross Motor Skills Gross Motor Skills: Involve the large muscles of the body and make locomotion possible

Progression of Locomotion

Gross Motor Skills Crawling By 8 to 10 months Wariness of heights Visual Cliff

Control of Elimination Maturation of sensory pathways From reflex to control Must learn to associate sensory signals with need to eliminate. When to “hold it”

Cognitive Development: The Great Debate When does conceptual understanding begin? Piaget’s explanation Other developmentalists’ explanation

Piaget’s Stage Theory Sensorimotor intelligence at birth: understanding the world through one’s own actions and perceptions Representational thinking begins around 18 months Acquisition of knowledge Motor actions Environment Senses

Alternative Explanation Representational thinking begins as early as birth The conceptual system develops separately from the sensorimotor system

Sensorimotor Substages

Sensorimotor Substages Substage 1 (0 - 1.5 months): Exercising reflex schemas. infants learn to control and coordinate inborn reflexes Substage 2 (1.5 - 4 months): Primary circular reactions. New forms of behaviors appears. accommodation first appears, with infants’ prolonging pleasant sensations arising from reflex actions

Sensorimotor Substages Substage 3: Secondary Circular Reactions 4 to 8 months Repeating actions that involve objects Children’s actions begin to center on objects and events outside their own bodies Infants will try to manipulate objects in order to repeat an accidental occurrence that they find interesting in the external environment e.g., drop an object to hear a sound, vocalize by cooing

Substage 3: Secondary Circular Reactions no explicit goals, but repetition of accidentally discovered interesting events at some level, the infant understands that his own actions can have external results Discoveries have accidental quality

Sensorimotor Substages Substage 4: Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions 8 to 12 months Displaying intentionality, engaging in goal-directed behavior Earliest form of problem solving behavior 26

Substage 4: Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions discover that behaviors can be means for achieving particular ends (Means-ends relationships) can intentionally apply old behavior patterns to new situations pull a string (means) to get the doll (end)

Sensorimotor Substages Substage 5: Tertiary Circular Reactions 12 to 18 months Deliberately varying actions to reach goals, thus experimenting e.g.: pull the pillow (i.e., create new means) to reach an object (a familiar goal) but cannot yet imagine the consequences of these actions all based on physical actions

Sensorimotor Substages Substage 6: Beginning of Symbolic Representation 18 to 24 months Basing their actions on representations Stage of Representation and Symbolizing: the child uses mental images that can represent actions that are not actually occurring and things not actually present the child uses images, words and actions to stand for objects Important for problem solving, symbolic play, deferred imitation, and the use of language 29

Problem Solving Infant in substage 5 carries out deliberate problem solving, but still relies principally on trial and error Infant in substage 6 pictures a series of events in her mind before acting (i.e., via inference)

Sensorimotor Development Cross cultural studies Piaget’s observations have been widely replicated around the world. Challenges -Theories and Methods

Conceptual Development Object Permanence The understanding that objects maintain their identities when they change location, and ordinarily continue to exist when out of sight. The existence of other objects is fundamentally independent of our psychological contact, that is, perception of and interaction with the object Out of sight does not mean out of existence

Piaget’s Theory Object Permanence Representational competence Active searching starts at 8 months

Object Permanence

Piaget’s Theory Object Permanence Representational competence is mature only at substage 6. A-not-B Error: when the child looks in place A, where the object had been previously found, even though the child just observed the object hidden at location B.