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The Competent Newborn (138)
• Babies are born with
reflexes that help them
survive
• Withdraw limb to
escape pain
• Turn head to get out
from under a cloth
• Rooting reflex
• Sucking reflex
• APGAR test
Competent Newborn (138)
• Babies are born preferring
sights and sounds that help
social responsiveness
• Ex. Newborns turn heads to
human voices and prefer the
mother’s voice
• Ex. Newborns gaze longer at
human-like faces (Johnson and
Morton 1991)
• Ex. They gaze at objects (and
have best vision) 8 to 10 inches
away (Maurer 1998)
• Ex. They prefer the smell of
mom’s bra (MacFarlane 1978)
Habituation (139)
• Using the concepts of habituation and novelty preference the dog
head/cat body study (Spencer Quinn 1997) shows:
– 1. Infants can see
– 2. Infants can remember
– 3. Infants focus on the face (they gaze longer at the new dog head/cat
body after looking at cat heads)
Do Babies Know?
• Prior to 1960s it was thought (ex. William
James) that babies experienced just
“blooming, buzzing confusion”.
• As neuroscience progressed, we learned that
babies know a lot and can tell us a lot if we
ask them to respond by gazing, sucking,
turning heads
Habituation (139)
• Def - decreased
responsiveness after
repeated stimulation
• Novelty Preference having habituated to
the old stimulus,
newborns preferred
gazing at new stimulus
Applied Psychology
• Using the concepts of “habituation” of
“novelty preference”, how should
parents buy toys for infants?
• http://www.cse.iitk.ac.in/users/se367/readings/quinn-doran-09_infantattention-in-categorizing-dogs-cats-gaze-at-heads.pdf (Article on
head/body study)
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10/29/2014
Infancy and Childhood (140)
• Brain and mind develop
together
• Association areas of the
cortex (linked to memory,
thinking, language) are the
last brain areas to develop.
• An infant’s biological
development underlies his
psychological
development
Brain Development (140)
Infancy and Childhood (140)
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Brain Development (140)
• At birth you have most
of your 23 billion
nerve cells, but, your
nervous system is
immature
• After birth neural
networks develop
which allow us to
walk, talk, remember
Maturation (140)
• A genetically designed
biological growth process
• Enables orderly changes
in behavior relatively
uninfluenced by
experience
• Maturation sets the basic
course of development,
experience adjusts it.
• Brain and mind develop
together
• Association areas of the
cortex (linked to memory,
thinking, language) are the
last brain areas to develop.
• An infant’s biological
development underlies his
psychological
development
• age 3 to 6 - frontal
lobe neural networks
are most active
• Age 6 to puberty neural networks
supporting language
and agility are most
active
Maturation & Infant Memory (141)
• Our lack of neural connections
accounts for our lack of
memory prior to our 3rd year
• We have little conscious
memory prior to 3 or 4
• (Newcombe 2000) 10 yr olds
will recognize only 1 in 5 of
their preschool friends’ pictures
but they will physiologically
respond (skin perspiration) to
their former preschool friends’
pictures
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Motor Development (141)
Maturation v. Training
• Our developing brain enables
physical coordination
• the sequence of motor
development is universal (roll
then sit; creep then walk) but
the timing is not
• Baby development reflects a
maturing nervous system NOT
imitation or training. (evidence
- blind babies)
• Genes play a major role identical twins tend to sit up
together!
Jean Piaget (143)
• Studying children’s IQ’s
(Mental
Age/Chronological Age x
100 = IQ) in the 1920’s
and noticed that children
of the same age tended to
give the same wrong
answers
• He concluded that
children know differently
not less than adults
• He theorized that children
develop cognitively in
stages
Cognitive Development (143)
• By 6 months of age
we can comprehend
– Permanence
– number
– simple physical
laws
Jean Piaget (143)
A 12 Minute Interview of
Piaget - Food for Thought
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