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Physical & Cognitive Dev. In Infancy

Psychology 313

Yolanda Vasquez-Salgado, Ph.D.

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Lecture Outline

Part 1

  • Physical Growth in Infancy
  • Brain Development & Early Life Adversity�

Part 2

  • Motor Development
  • Cognitive Development

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Physical Growth

  • Body size and proportion
    • Weight and length
    • Teeth
    • Head

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  • Musculoskeletal system
    • Bone ossification
    • Muscle length & thickness

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  • Brain

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Brain Development + Early Life Adversity

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Early-life adversity

  • (def) Profound and pervasive deprivation experienced during infancy, often resulting in severe developmental delays

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  • Ex: Orphanage experience; thus, not having a primary caregiver

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Association between Early Adversity and Later Socio-Emotional Outcomes

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Measurement

Childhood

Infancy

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Neurobiological Methods

  • MRI (brain structure)/fMRI (activity)

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fMRI

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fMRI

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Amygdala in Emotion Processing

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Early

Adversity

(Orphanage: lack of stable

caregiving)

Stress-induced changes in

neurobiology �(amygdala volume + atypically high activity)

Behavioral Development Outcomes

  • Emotion-regulation difficulties (e.g., anxiety)
  • Atypical social behavior (eye contact)

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Summary

  • Early exposure to a stressful environment resulted in long-lasting changes in brain structure, function & overall development
  • Devastating consequences
  • Children adopted earlier from orphanages had better outcomes than those adopted at older ages

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Sensitive period

  • Infant brain undergoes considerable development between 6 and 24 months of age
  • Thus, brain structures sensitive to experiences
  • Orphans lacked species-universal experiences (presence of a primary caregiver) required for strengthening and fine-tuning the experience-expectant neural structure and functions of the amygdala

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Making Connections…

  • What are your reactions to this work on early life adversity?
  • How do you see this having implications for the real world?

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Motor Development

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Gross vs. Fine

Motor Development

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Fine Motor Skills

  • Prereaching (newborn)
  • Ulnar Grasp (3-4 months)
  • Transferring object from hand to hand (4-5 months)
  • Pincer Grasp (1 year)
  • Coordination of hands further increases (2 years)

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Pincer Grasp

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Gross Motor Skills

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Depth Perception: The Visual Cliff

  • (def) ability to perceive�distance of objects �from one another�and from ourselves

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Depth Perception: The Visual Cliff �Further Evidence

Joseph Campos et al., 1992

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Influence of Culture on �Motor Development

  • Children may achieve developmental milestones at different paces, depending on the cultures in which they are raised.
    • E.g., walking
  • Due to differences in values and patterns of infant care

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Rogoff, 2003

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Cognitive Development

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Sensorimotor Stage (birth-2 years)

1. Exercising reflex schemas (0 – 1.5 months)

2. Primary circular reactions (1.5 – 4 months)

3. Secondary circular reactions (4-8 months)

4. Coordination of secondary circular reactions (8-12 months)

5. Tertiary circular reactions (12-18 months)

6. Beginning of symbolic representation (18-24 months)

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3. Secondary circular reactions (4-8 months)

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  • External world

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  • Repeat actions that produce interesting changes in the environment

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  • “Secondary”

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4. Coordination of secondary circular reactions (8-12 months)

  • Intentional behavior�
  • Intentionality: the ability to engage in behaviors directed towards achieving a goal�
  • Earliest form of problem solving whereby combine schemas to achieve a desired effect

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Skill of Substage 4: �Object Permanence

  • Idea that objects continue to exist even when no longer visible

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Object Permanence: A-not-B-Error

Explanations

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  • Memory

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  • Motor skills

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Read Page 183

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5. Tertiary circular reactions (12-18 months)

  • Deliberately vary actions to solve problems and explore the world
  • Experimentation to see what the consequences will be
  • Nature of objects and events
  • “Trial and error”

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6. Beginning of symbolic representation (18-24 months)

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  • Represent people, objects, events and experiences mentally

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Skills

  • Solve problem
  • Symbolic or pretend play
  • Deferred imitation
  • Language

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Questions?

  • Email me: yolanda.vasquez-salgado@csun.edu
  • Office Hours:
    • Thursday 5:00PM to 6:00PM (or by appointment)
    • Link to Office Hours located in Canvas

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