Theories & Motor Development
Do general-purpose learning mechanisms (associative) correspond to core knowledge theories (nature) or blank slate (nurture) theories?
Blank slate (nurture) theories; which posit that infants have limited initial structure and learn through experience with general-purpose learning.
What are Piaget's 4 stages of cognitive development, and their age ranges?
Sensorimotor (0-2)
Preoperational (2-7)
Concrete Operational (7-11)
Formal Operational (12+)
What system allows humans and some other animals to estimate quantities (numerosity) without counting?
The approximate number system (ANS)
Is sticky mitten reach training improving exploration and sensitivity towards objects an example of nature or nurture?
Nurture, trained not innate
What would Piaget say about a 3-month-old infant's object permanence?
Piaget would say a 3-month-old infant has no object permanence yet
Tina is a child that can count from 1 to 5. When asked to give her mother two pretzels, Tina grabs a random amount. However, Tina can successfully give her mother one pretzel when asked to. Is Tina a one-knower or a two-knower, and what is this type of task called?
Tina is a one-knower; this is a Give-N task
With training, can an infant transfer locomotion-required skills (i.e. reaching) across all postures (standing, sitting, crawling)?
A child cannot transfer skills learned in a sitting posture (experienced) to a new posture (inexperienced)
This is shown in research regarding crawling over gaps (Adolph).
Darla is frequently engages in pretend play. However, when she talks to her peers, she often doesn't acknowledge what they say, jumping into talking about herself instead. Which of Piaget's stages does Darla fall under, and what concept do her struggles with perspective-taking display?
Preoperational; Egocentrism
Would the approximate number system (ANS) be an example of the influence of nature or nurture?
Nature; the ANS is innate and universal, allowing us to estimate general numerosity without counting.
After watching videos of other monkeys screaming in response to a snake, the observing monkeys exhibit a fear response to snakes as well. After watching a similar video but with flowers instead of snakes, how would the observing monkeys react?
Observing monkeys would likely not exhibit a fear response to the flowers, even if the on-screen monkey shows distress.
Specialized fear learning: primates, due to evolutionary history, seem biologically predisposed to more readily associate fear with "fear-relevant" stimuli, like snakes and other predators, than with "fear-irrelevant" or neutral stimuli, like flowers.
What two tasks have researchers historically used to test infants' object permanence?
Hint: Piaget vs. modern researchers
A-not-B task (Piaget), Violation of Expectation (VoE) paradigms (modern researchers)
Connor is 6 months old and can use his approximate number system (ANS) to visually differentiate between 8 and 16 pieces of candy, but not between 90 and 100 pieces. Why is this?
6-month-olds generally have an ANS acuity ratio of 1:2; a ratio of 9:10 is too small for Conor to detect a difference yet -- this is typically an adult ability!
Name one example of nature and one example of nurture discussed in the context of motor development.
Nature: twin study, Hopi cradleboarding
Nurture: Gahvora cradling, sticky mittens, "safe sleep"
Why might a 5-month-old infant fail an A-not-B task but exhibit knowledge of object permanence on a VoE paradigm?
Competence vs. performance OR
A-not-B requires better executive functioning, working memory, attention, over-riding propensity to reach to same place, etc.
The Munduruku language lacks words for numbers beyond five, using terms like "a handful." Would Mundruku speakers perform poorer, the same, or better on exact number & approximate number tasks compared to English speakers?
Exact number tasks: poorer compared to English speakers
Approximate number tasks: the same compared to English speakers