2 DEP3053
Exam Study Questions
Spring 2011
Exam 2: Wednesday, March 2, 2011-bring a #2 pencil
Exam Notes:
*All lecture material is important. Be sure to review text-related material that
corresponds to lectures & text material identified in class (and study guide) but not
covered in lecture.
The topics and questions listed below reflect all the topics/issues that you are responsible
for.
You should also study those sections of the book that overlap with the notes, but
emphasis will be given to the notes
An asterick* means that this material was not covered in class but you are responsible
for itFor these *text book sections focus on terms in bold and major concepts and
findings.
List of Topics Covered
Chapter 5 Infancy
Newborn characteristics
Relexes: primitive vs. survival
o Primitive disappear around 3-4 months of age and become voluntary (not used
often); include Moro (startle), Palmar, and stepping
o Survival carry on throughout life and include breathing, swallowing, and sucking
What are the different states of alertness and how do they change developmentally?
o 1) Sleep 16-18 hrs per day for first few days, then 14-15 hrs per day around 46 weeks
o 2) Crying Peak at 2 hrs per day around 3 months, 1 hr per day around 1 year;
use crying for discomfort at first, then intentional communication by 8 months
(know that someone will come help)shift eye gaze from goal to person who
can achieve goal
o 3) Active alertness - BOOK
o 4) Inactive alertness - BOOK
How does sleep (rem vs. non-rem) change?
o Newborns = 50% REM sleep, 6 months = 25-30% REM sleep; REM sleep occurs
because of autostimulation way of stimulating brain function and activity
What are the procedures for measuring sensation and perception?
How does habituation/dishabituation(recovery) and preferential looking operate?
o 1) Habituation-recovery: measures changes in attention by seeing what infants
can discriminate (habituation = attention decreases, recovery = attention
increases)
Increase look time for interesting object
High Aptitude Sucking: sucking rate increases for interest in an object
Heart rate: HR decreases for interesting object
How well do infants see and hear? Do they perceive faces and objects?
What determines their visual preferences?
*What is intermodal perception? (pp 182-184)
How do infants of different ages act on the visual cliff to indicate depth perception?
What role does crawling experience play in depth perception?
How do infants perceive objectsobject boundaries (Spelke)?
What is the common movement principle?
Where does this knowledge come from according to Spelke?
How do infants perceive speech?What are phoneme?s
What is categorical perception of speech?
Is this ability innate or learned? What is the evidence for innateness?
How are cross-linguistic studies relevant to this debate?
*Newborn imitation (pp. 190-191)
Chapter 6 Theories of Cognitive Development
Piaget
What are the major characteristics of each of Piagets -sensorimotor, stages?
pre-operational, concrete-operational, formal operational
What are sensorimotor schemes and how do they change?
How do infants develop an understanding of object permanence?
What is the criteria for passing OP?
What is the evidence that Piaget underestimated OP?
How did the Baillergeon study with the dolls moving through the gap demonstrate this?
What is the difference between the 3 and 3.5 month olds.
What is the A-not B error in the OP task?
What was Piagets vs. Diamonds explanation of the A-not B error?
What is the difference in how pre-operational and concrete operational children solve
the conservation problem? Can conservation be trained? Is it universal?
*see book for seriation and class inclusion tasks (p.272-273)?
What are the chacteristics of formal operational thought?
What are the limitations in adolescent thinking ?
What are the major criticisms of Piagets theory?
Core knowledge theory
What domains of knowledge are included within core knowledge?
Object knowledge (see Spelke from Ch. 5), common movement principle and principle
of continuity, interpretation of infant response
Theory of Mind
development of a theory of mind (e.g., mind exists, connected and different from physical
world)
development of intentions, desires, and beliefs
What is the difference between the copy theory of mind and the representational theory
of mind?
How do 3 and 5 years olds differ on the false belief tasks?
Modularity/Core knowledge theory-explanations of theory of mind; autism,
Why do autistic children support the core knowledge view of autism?
Vygotskian explanations of theory of mind
Vygotsky : sociocultural theories
Main points of Vygotskys perspective
Scaffolding, Intersubjectivity, and Guided Participation (Rogoff)
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
Difference between scaffolding and guided participation
Intersubjectivity and its role in ZPD & teaching
Role of language in cognitive development
External/Overt Private Speech what is private speech?
Chapter 8 Information-Processing
*Characteristics of IP modelscomponents of memory (long-term, working, short-term,
long terms) (see pages 300-303)
How and when does speed of IP change across childhoodyoung adulthood
How does brain change during childhood for IP?
How does inhibitory control change in preschool.
Memory Development
Role of knowledge in memory (Chi, chess studies)
How are young experts different than older novices?
-role of strategies (production vs. utilization deficiencies)
-role of capacity & metamemory
Autobiographical memory
-eyewitness testimony (issues of suggestibility)
Are children reliable witnesses? Are they more suggestible than adults?
*How do children strategies change for solving problems (see pp. 304-307)?
*What is Sieglers adaptive strategy choice model?
*The development of attention (pp311-314)
*Other cognitive skillsanalogical reasoning,mathematical skills (pp 328-335)