Computational Models are
computer programs that mimic
human behaviour, including the
errors that humans make.
Commectionist models are
inspired by the way neurons
work in the brain.
If neurons are not useful, they Learning happens by changing
are pruned. the strength of the connections.
Learning in a connectionist system occurs
by gradually internalising environmental
structure through adapting the strengths of
the connections between the units.
High level behaviour emerges
from the interaction of low level
processes.
Connectionism &
Everything is based on simple Unlike other theories, this view
Neuroconstrictivism
biological general mechanisms does not emphasise biologically
Very economical compared to and the system is self predetermined states (Piaget) or
other theories as it doesn’t organising, depending on the the social environment
require ant prerequisite to work. input. (Vygotsky).
Neuron development is
contrained by cellular
environment. Waddington’s Epigenetic The path that development can
e.g. exchange with otehr Encellment Landscape (1957) take is dependent on variations.
neurons.
There are several different
The brain is constrained by the theories of development.
interaction of different brain
From small adults to
areas. Neuroconstructivism makes a The way children are seen has fundamentally different from
e.g. exchange of information Enbrainment close link between brain changed a lot over the decades. adults.
States that development is development and cognitive Different Theories
between parts of the brain.
driven by different constraints. development. The debate on how to educate
Child development is children hsa gone on for
constrained by the child’s body centuries and entails radically
different views.
e.g. through the body, the child Embodiment
experiences the world. Children are born as a blank
slate.
The individual exists in a There are not innate ideas.
network of people Tabula rasa.
Ensocialment
e.g. the mother/child interacton What an inividual is and will be
is not predetermined.
In a fearful situation, monkeys
ran to the warm and soft mother, Human development proceeds
Empiricism John Locke (1632-1704) by association, repitition,
not the one providing food.
immitation, reward &
Shows nutrition and attachment Harlow’s Monkeys
punishment.
are two seperate needs.
Environment and scoiety are
Attempted to explain the predominant in shaping child
formation of the earliest development.
attachment bonds between
infants and mothers along The myth of the ‘bon sauvage’, Nature provides us with basic
See Konrad Lorenz’s Imprinting ethological imprinting. the noble savage. intentions.
Emotional attachment of the child to the mother Education should be kept at a
provides the child with a secure base they can minimum to allow the innate
use to recieve protection and to build up future predispositions of each child to The child’s curiosity should
emotional relationships. grow naturally. guide the to explore.
Stresses the emotional aspect Educators chould keep children
that Piaget & Vygotsky didn’t Jean-Jacques Rousseau safe and help them to make
take into account. Nativism (1712-1778) thier own discoveries. Provide for basic needs.
Infants are interested in Exploring and learning through
humans, bu repond to all people Age of Nature Birth - 2 years senses.
in the same way. Birth - 3 Months Introduction to Theories of
Increased exploration,
Development Age of Strengh 3 -12 years innitiation, concrete thinking.
Infant similing becomes
restricted to only 2/3 familiar
There are 4 stages in which Reason, rationality emerge,
people. 3 - 6 Months
nature guides each child: Age of Reason 12 -15 years need for instruction of knowlege.
Attachment becomes more
4 Stages in Attachment Adolescents are overwhelmed
intense (after separation).
Development by passions and are dependent
John Bowlby & Attachment on others.
Fear of strangers emerges
around 8 months. 6 months - 3 years
Age of Insight 15-20 years Educators should channel such
Start following the parent to passions into productive
explore, return to the parent. activities.
Develop an understanding of he Evidence form few cases of feral
parent’s needs. 3 years- end of childhood children contradict Rousseau’s
view.
e.g. Hospitalisation: Children Lead to changes in different
were previously separated from areas of education and Disturbed child, incapable of
their parents. childcare. speech, unable to maintain
Victor (1799) The Wild Child of attention, rocking backwards
Developed a simple behavioural The Wild Child
Aveyron and forwards.
test (Strange Situation) to
assess attachment. Rousseau never said
deprivation of all social bonds
Typical Development was a good thing.
Mother is in room, child Secure Incorporation of information into
communicates with mother and Assimilation an exisiting schema.
Mary Ainsworth Experience is represented in a
shows them objects.
series of schemas. Adaptation of existing schemas
Typical Development Accomodation to new information.
Child will not explore, will stay Anxious Preoccupied
Birth - 2 years
close to parent. 4 different attachment styles
found. Sensorimotor Stage Infants explore the world
Typical Development through senses and motion.
Explores a lot without refering Dismissive Avoidant
2 - 7 years
back to parent.
Preoperational Stage Language symbolic thinking,
Atypical Development egocentrism.
Fearful Avoidant Stages
Bizzare behaviours like that of 7 - 12 years
Victor. Jean Piaget (1896-1980) and
Concrete Operational Stage The ability to use logic and
Constructivism
Knowledge arises from social reasoning.
activity.
12 years +
Helps to learn from adults and
Formal Operational Stage Mental operations abstract
Language provides the means peers, and organises higher Langauge is crucial in learnign
to enhance interactions. psychological functions. processes. concepts.
The intergration of speech and Piaget underestimated children’s
Lev Vygotsky (1896- 1945) & abilities and his tasks
practical activity is a
Social Development (perfoemance and conservation
fundamental moment in
development. tasks) have been criticised.
The difference between what a The transition from one stage to
child cn do alone and what they another happens at different
can achive with some help. Criticisms times for different domains.
The Zone of Proximal
Help from an experienced adult Development Piaget’s theory almost totally
can push the boundaries and negelects the social world of Focuses on a physical
achieve more. infants and children. understanding of reality.
, Measured by cortisol levels Higher cortisol = more stress.
Uniformly recognised as having Higher levels of stress due to an
Stress
negative impacts. ice storm resulted in lower IQ of
Foetus hyperventilates and has Nicotine passes the placental Natural events Laplante et al. (2008) the child at age 5.
Maternal Mental Health
Behaviours continue after birth. apnea. barrier. Higher chance of prematurity
Carbon monoxide permanently Carbon monoxide displaces Smoking and low birth weight.
Depression
attaches to red blood cells. oxygen in the blood stream. Comorbiditity issues.
Mother quits at 16 weeks = Associated with lower birth Sensitivities in feet, hands and
normal birth weight. weight. 8 weeks: mouth.
Current advice is no alcohol Organised embryonic Kicking feet, bending arms,
during pregnancy. Heavy ‘binge’ drinking Affects 1 in 1000 live births. Motor & Sensory Development behaviours. forming fists, curling toes,
Distinctive facial structure. sucking thumb, open mouth,
8-12 weeks: expand and contract lungs.
Restricted growth.
Auditory sense is one of the
Intellectual impairments. most developed senses in the
Foetal Alchohol Syndrome womb.
Early intervention can show
improvement. Babies like listening to their
Respond to external stimuli at 5 mother’s voice (DeCasper &
Severity is related to compound months. Fifer, 1980)
effects of poor maternal nutrition
and liver function. After birth, babies remember
Auditory Development & stories read to them in the
Alcohol Any substance that may Language Research womb (DeCasper & Spence,
interfere with the development 1988)
Smoking of the foetus. Teratogens
Babies like listening to the
Issue of comorbidity. Maternal Mental Health language they heard in the
All physical characteristics are womb (Mehler et al. 1988)
well in place. Internal noises are more easily
Increase in fat tissue (includes heard (e.g. mother’s voice)
What Changes from 7 Months to
white mater) Term? If the baby sucks more
Only physical changes relate to: An auditory stimulus is
Increase in muscle size. compared to the baseline, it is a
introduced to the baby, and it is measure of the interest the bab
Reduced space in womb. Baseline high amplitude sucking observed how the sucking rate has in that sound.
Infant sucks on dummy (after rate is deteremined during a 1 changes when the stimulus is
Full body movements are more birth) minute silent period (no stimuli) presented. Criterion suck results in From this method, it is possible
likely. presentation of one speech to see babies prefer speeh
stimulus. compared to non-speech stimuli.
e.g. bringing the thumb to the
mouth. Can see complex behaviours High Amplitude Sucking Differences in the sucking rate in
Foetus at 5-6 Months Paradigm the post shift period in the
Still a lof of space in the womb experiemntal condition is
Best period to observe foetus because foetus is not big The sucking rate for the stimulus compared to the control and Can they tell the difference
behaviour. enough yet An infant habituates to a is observed. The stimulus is used to assess an infant’s between the stimuli?
Prespesification of the Habituation paradigm stimulus. then changed. sensitivity to stimulus differenes.
Do they have a preference?
proliferative zone then imposed
in the cortex. Mother’s read ‘The Cat in the
Hat’ twice a day for the last 1.5
Prior to postnatal experience.
months of pregnancy.
States that the final Protomap Changes in the rate of sucking
configuration of the cortex is
when the recording of story was
already there in a prenatal life
Evidence for Foetal Learning DeCasper & Spence (1986) turned on or off.
and is just brought to the cortex
It is genetically predetermined. by the development. Infants modified thier rates of
sucking in the direction that
Different areas result from input Two possible hypotheses. produced the familiar story.
through projections from the
thalamus. Optic nerve formd by 9 weeks.
Influenced by postnatal Retinal layering in period of 12-28 weeks.
experience. How do we Arrive to the Division
Protocortex Bright light shone on uterus = increased
States that areas are formed of the Cortex into Areas? heartrate from 28 weeks.
through the input that the cortex Development of Vision
recieves from the thalamus from Eyelids sealed shut from 28
external stimuli. weeks. Can see through eyelid.
Reflect the debate between Model of light in the uterus, shows that foetus
nativism and empricism. gets more light than perviously thought
(DelGuidice, 2011)
Developement of increasing
sophisicated connections Prenatal Development An ultrasound acts like a bat, emmiting Many elements are put together
amound neurons during the first ultrasound echoes, which are detected and to make a probe and create an
2 years of life. used to map out the boundary of an object. image.
90% of neural growth occurs Ultrasound Imaging Can see bones developing.
Post natal process. prior to 6 years of age.
Foetal feet Can process the image in a
During the fetal period we computer to find the outline of
mostly observe proliferation of Neurophysiological Changes in the foot. Called rendering.
neurons rather than Development Makes it possible to film what
connections.
3D image with movement babies are doing in the womb.
Some structure, not many 4D Imaging High frequency resonance
connections. Birth
means limited time for use.
Increased connections. 3 Months Compexity of neuronal Foetus show some degre of
Further increased connections. 6 Months connections with age. hand mouth coordination.
Myowa-Yamakoshi & Takeshita
Action Anticipation in the Foetus (2006) Mouth opens while the thumb is Although just an observation
More articulated, sophistacted
connections. 24 Months still approaching the mouth. Suggests organised behaviour. and so have limitations.
Pyramidal neurons are a kind of Experiements must be
neuron. conducted with manipulated
Limits on Obsertavional Causal inferences cannot be variables.
Dendrites recieve signals from
Research made. Correlation does not =
other neurons. Layers of Neocortex
casuation.
Dendritic arbour of the neuron is
very much articulated. 3 dots arranged like eyes and
a mouth would be on a face.
Throughout the rest of the Experiementer presented foetus
pregnancy, the neurons start to with visual stimuli while in the b How the foetus would see a.
organise themselves in the womb. Same as a, but upside down,
cortex.
c not as a face.
Neurons are produced towards
d How the foetus would see c.
the centre of the brain in the
ventricular zone before Do foetuses prefer to look at
Visual Stimuli to the Foetus Reid et al. (2017)
migrating towards the periphery cononical face like shapes
of the brain (the cortex). before birth also, compared to
Already know that newborns
Layer Development already prefer to look at Question is: the upside down face shape.
Neurons are located in the 5th The cortex is organised in layers
and 6th layer. (typically 6). canonically arranged faces Foetuses orient more towards
compared to upside down faces. the face like configuration
As these differentiate into
comapred to the non-face like
neurons, the neuroblasts
configuration.
This process repeats until all destined to become layer V (5)
layers of the cortex have cells migrate past and collect in The first cells migrate to the Compared to other mamals,
differentiated. the cortical plate. cortical plate from layer VI (6). newborns have poor motor
skills.
The majority of neurons are
produced in the first half of Head of newborns is very big Around 25% of the total body length, making it hard for
pregnancy, between embryonic Stages of Neuronal compared to the rest of the ababied to support their head.
day 42 and 125. Development body.
Rest of development is driven by controlling their head first.
All of the areas of the brain have different
cytocarchitechtonic arechtecture and therfore Flexing fingers to grab
they have different functions. something in the palm of their
Grasping reflex hand.
Motor cortex Newborn Motor Development
Held with their feet on a surface
Somatosensory Cortex Newborns exhibit a series of and they start to make the
Visual Cortex Adult Brain reflexes (organised behaviours) movement they would when
Stepping reflex walking.
Auditory Cortex
Falls back and they extend their
These areas are located in the Moro R reflex arms (predictive reflex).
same place for all humans.
Huge individual variability.
The life of an embryo is
measured in Embryonic Days Human hand and functionality is
(ED) unique Ability to manipulate objects.
Stages of Embryonic & Foetal
Neurons are generated at the Development The transition from power grip to
rate of 250,000 per minute. precision grip usually happens
Development of Hand Control between 6 and 12 months.
Power grip Uses whole hand
Precision grip Uses opposing thumb with index finger.
, Infants younger than 8 months
So why do infants younger than might have object permenance
8 months not even search for and be able to represent that
hidden objects and 9-12 month objects can be hidden but do not
olds search in the wrong place? cease to exist.
It could be that searching for the
Tried the A non B task with object repeatedly at location A
purely observational trials and Butterworth (1974); Evans makes location A part of the
yet the error occurs. (1973); Landers (1971) object identity. Lack of Inhibition
Error occurs even when the
containers are transparent and
the infant can see the object Infants might have trouble
(Butterworth, 1977; Bremner & remembering where the object
Knowles, 1984) Unlikely explanation. is to keep track of it’s location. Lack of memory
Frontal cortex immaturity
The frontal cortex is involved in
executive functions (e.g.
planning)
Frontal cortex measures and is
involved in maintaining the Suggests an explanation based
representation of a hidden on brain development. Diamond (1988) Executive Function Acting on Objects
object and the inhibition of Requires infant to search for
incorrect response. object.
To pass the A non B task, the Infants between 9 and 12
frontal cortex has to accomplish months will search, usually in
Object Perception & Acting on The A non B task is a search
two different tasks at the same the wrong place.
Objects task.
time, but it’s immaturity does not
allow that. Piaget said this was due to a
lack of object permenance as
Repeatedly hiding the object in Infants below 8 months will not the object starts to only exist
location A highlights location A. search at all. when the infant searches for it.
When the object is hidden in The two locations are in In habituation paradigms, the infant is habituated to a stimulus until they reach
location B, this new visual cue competition with each other in a certain criteria: longer looking time to the novel compared to the habituated
competes with the memory of the child’s mind. stimulus indicates the capacity to differentiate the two.
location A, but it decays after the Similar to habituation paradigms
object is hidden and the memory but with a different assumption. In spontaneous preference paradigms, the infant is presented with two stimuli
of location A wins. at once: longer looking time at one stimulus indicates spontaneous
preference.
If the infants can immediately
Wellman, Cross, Bartsch & search without delay, they will,
Object Processing & The infant is presented with two Longer looking time to the impossible event indicates
Smith & Thelen (2003) Dynamic System Theory
Harris (1986) search location B. Permenance kinds of events, a possible and surprise and therefore the knowledge of the physical
Relies on surprise an impossible event. laws that govern that kind of event.
Smith, Thelen, Tizzer and McLin
(1999) studied infants sitting If searcing at location B is made 5.5 month old infants were first In the test phase, a block was placed in
during trial A and standing sufficiently different from familiarised on an event in which a solid the path of the draw bridge and the The block was placed in the path of the drawbridge but
during trial B and they were searching location A, the Baillargeon, Spelke & screen rotated back and forht 180 drawbridge rotated 180 degrees until it the drawbridge was still able to complete the full 180
correctly searching in B. memory will have less influence. Wasserman (1985) degrees like a drawbridge. made contact with the block. degree rotation, seeming to pass through the block.
Adults show characteristic Baillargeon later obtained this
neural activation patterns in finding with 3.5 and 4.5 month
Such neural activity is called temporal cortex when keeping olds.
synchronisation (or increase) of an image of a hidden object in Violation of Expectations Baillargeon (1986) found that 6
gamma based oscillations. their mind. Paradigm and 8 month olds looked longer
Gamma oscillations are a when an object apparently
Maintaining an object in mind moved through an occluded Obtained similar evidence with
Reflects different kinds of pattern of EEG activity (20-90
Percieving shape processing. Hz) VoE additional evidence block. Spelke et al. (1992) 2.5 month olds.
Binding object features together Baillargeon (1986) found that
EEG Study on Object Permanence 3.5 month olds used onjects
Investigated object permenance height to judge whether a part of
by showing 6 month olds either it would appear in the gap at the
pictures of a ball that became top of the screen.
gradually hidden by an occluder
sliding in front of it or pictures of Infants longer looks at the impossible event may
a ball gradually disintergrating. Kaufman et al. (2005) be due to a prferenece for a longer rotation (180 Rivera et al. ran a study in which Infants still prefered to look at
degrees) involving a greater perceptual change both the 120 and 180 degree the 180 movement, just as the
(Rivera, Wakeley & Langer, 1999) rotaion were possible events. original study found.
Argued that in the familiarisation phase the infants were not really habituated to the 180
Criticisms Bogartz, Shinskey and Schilling (2000) degree rotation and therfore still prefer to look at it during testing.
It is questionable what longer Yes, it means more attention,
Looking time studies are criticised. looking time means. but why?
