Preperation Sheet for PSYC 240 Midterm Exam Tips for the Midterm: *Be able to identify main theories and their key aspects *Be able to have an insight about developmental patterns from infancy to adolescence *Be able to discuss main questions/issues in developmental psychology and how theories addresses those main questions/issues *Be able to provide some examples of measures that we have discussed *Be able to apply your theoretical knowledge to different applied situations *Please refresh yourself with the in-class activities that we did during the class Few Notes: Some questions will have subquestions. So please be careful while reading questions and address all the subquestions accordingly. Some questions will have options. In such cases, you will read that ‘Please choose Option 1 or choose Option 2. For such type of questions, you need to choose only one question and answer accordingly. You have 2 hours 15 minutes. So you will have plenty of time and no need to worry about it. Exercise Questions for the Midterm 1- Please think the empirical article that you have chosed to summarize for your written assignment 1. Please go back the article and identify the the type of method of data collection, the type of research design, the time span of research, idenfy independent and dependent variables and identify potential ethical issues (if there is any). 2- Please name and define the paradigm that researcher uses to demonstrate infants’ novelty preference and familiarity preference. Please give one example to a research question that we can examine by using this paradigm. 3- Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory consists of five interacting environmental systems, ranging from direct interactions with social agents to cultural influences. Please describe those systems (child at the center, microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem) and provide some examples for the factors at each level can be related to children cognitive development. *Please make sure that you make the correct distinction between microsystem and mesosystem. You can test yourself with the following examples (two of them can be considered in microsystem and one can be considered in mesosystem) If we are examining how parents’ mental state talks and children’s ToM related to each other-------------→ If we are examining how teachers’ encouragement about understanding others’ mental states during the class can be related to children’s ToM--------------→ If we are examining how teachers’ advice to parents about spending more time reading at home can be related to parents’ attitudes about the importance of reading books and in turn can lead to a change in children’s ToM-----------→ 4- After Daniel brings home a report card with all As, his parents (who want to make sure this behavior continues in the future) give him a new car (something that he really wanted). It appears that Daniel's parents are attempting to use some mechanisms to keep his grades up. Which concepts in developmental psychology that we have discussed in class would best explain his parents behavior? Please also describe the theory that addresses these concepts that you identified and how this theory explain the changes in development by considering these concepts. 5- Describe the process of equilibration using a specific example. Be sure to explain all of the necessary components of equilibration circle (the process of when a child experiences a cognitive conflict and tries to solve it by reaching a balance). 6- You wanted to replicate Piaget’s classical A not B error task. And imagine that you also foun 11 months olds Henry failed to pass A not B error task (when infants make the mistake of selecting the familiar hiding place (A) rather than the new hiding place (B) of an object). Then you also read some most recent studies that found some different results in terms of timing of infants’ performance on A not B error tasks. You also wanted to replicate those studies. Please provide some examples of changes that you can make in your methodology and how and why those changes can be related to infants’ performance. 7- Children in the pre-operational stage make systematic errors in conservation tasks (hint: children focus only one characteristic of the object to the exclusion of all others). Give at least two examples of those errors and explain the reason behind those errors. 8- Please discuss how and why fast mapping my increase their vocabulary so quickly that allows children to determine the object of a word and then remember this for future encounters with the word. 9- Can wants his peach cobbler to come out perfect for the class picnic. He watched his mother make it several times but had never done it on his own. As he goes through the recipe, Can says things like, "Okay, now I cream the butter and sugar. Don't forget the vanilla" What is Can demonstrating? What is these higlighted places referring? How did Piaget and Vygotsky approach the funciton of these talks for child development? In your own view, what is the function of these talks for the child?
