Week 1: Introduction

Week 1: Introduction

1. infant start crawling around 9 months, but newborns from 3 days muscles show ability/beginnings of movement for crawling

2. sensorimotor stage = not random. Limbs show patterning of moving together. 20 months = moving around, small amount of language. Small amount of knowledge of a situation but hopeless about problem solving it. (trying to fit into a toy car) - inability to realise futility

   • Conservation task - 6 years old = fail to conserve 8 year olds can. Dramatic cognitive changes between 6-8
   • PIAGETS METHODS

3. COGNITION = increasing knowledge, life experience, logical thinkning, motor skills, language development, capacity (some things get better- memory) important factors in development >>> intuitions - thinking about things in different ways

4. qualitative change = the kind of thinking/ approach. Quantitative change = capacity you bring to the task, faster/more vocab

5. cognitive ability: DOMAIN SPECIFIC >>> no relation between being good at different domains, Can freely vary between how good they are

   • DOMAIN GENERAL >>> working memory will help maths + language... Developmentally associated

6. Innate V Acquired = An interaction

7. how infants become adults? the adult brain and developmental brain:

   • Developmental brain: 3-4 fold increase in brain mass from infancy to adulthood. Increased number of connections; Increased annihilation/ efficiency, Net decrease in neurons
     • Most significant changes in the corticol structures, Visual cortex by 2-4 times, Frontal cortex 10-20 times, Develop at different times for different parts of the brain
       • Increase in memory span with age, no word length effect of phonological interference. Adults shown the pictures- we automatically recode into words = strategy.
         • children will remember the pictures, young children use visual strategy- adults use phonological strategy.
   • adult brain: number of neurons relatively static with age, gross form of brain, must use the adult model with caution when comparing with infants
     • adult capacity = 7+/-2. Word length effect = more syllables is worse. Phonological interference is worse (similar sounding words)