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Developmental Psychology Developmental Psychology

Developmental Psychology - PowerPoint Presentation

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Developmental Psychology - PPT Presentation

Lecture 6 Dr Geoff Goodman 101816 Language words and symbols Introduction Relationship with language begins in utero Nine months understanding of some word meanings 1220 months vocabulary grows ID: 629482

memories language 000 memory language memories memory 000 children age words infants autobiographical events emotional speech exposure minds months

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Slide1

Developmental Psychology

Lecture 6

Dr.

Geoff

Goodman

10/18/16Slide2

Language, words, and symbols

Introduction

Relationship with language begins in utero

Nine months – understanding of some word meanings 12-20 months – vocabulary grows24 months – use of 20-50 words24-36 months – rudiments of grammar are learned After five years – complex capacities for stories Words capture thoughts and emotions only incompletely Are we prisoners of language?Thinking and language are distinct entities Meanings are socially constructed through dialogic interactionSymbolizing thoughts, feelings, and things using words increases our capacity for self-reflection, cognitive flexibility, and control over thoughts Language use requires the ability to read minds, to make sense of others’ intentions Slide3

Parentese

and infant-directed speech

Infant-directed speech (“

motherese”) – nearly universal phenomenon Higher pitch Longer, hyper-articulated vowels Shorter pauses More repetitions Infants express an interest in rhythm, prosody, and tempo of speech before understanding word meanings Motherese communicates intentions and expectations better than traditional adult-directed speechInfants respond to the melody of motherese Frown when speech expresses prohibition Smile when speech expresses approval Six-month-old infants show a greater physiological response to mothers’ singing than to their speech

Singing to infants improves their mood, sleeping, eating, and learning – central to how infant emotional life is regulated Slide4

Culture and language

In some non-western cultures, infants learn language not through

motherese

but through observations of adult and older child conversations Language provides the basic tools for ways of becoming culturally embodied Two-day-old infants have a preference for their native tongue Slide5

Intersubjectivity

and language learning

Humans construct the world through culturally specific linguistic understandings

Reading the intentions of others is necessary to use language effectively Infants use their rudimentary understanding of adults’ intentions to understand word meanings, using social referencing and joint attentionWatching lines of visionWatching emotional expressions Watching nonverbal gestures Vocabulary develops when there is a beginning awareness of separate minds Proto-declarative pointing – desire to share an appreciation of an object with someone Proto-imperative pointing – instrumental (seen in children with autism) Joint attention at 14 months predicts language development at two years

12-month-old

infants try various tactics to help their parents understand them

Repeating themselvesExaggerating gesticulations Substituting different gestures Slide6

Language and brains

Language occurs primarily in the left hemisphere

Broca’s

area – produces words Wernicke’s area – contains understanding of words There is an anatomical and functional difference between thoughts and language Grammatical sentence – procedural memory, not declarative memoryLinguistic ability depends on a critical period during the first few years of life These parts of the brain atrophy with disuse (use it or lose it) Social interaction as well as exposure to language is important for linguistic development Children with autism have deficiencies in mirror neuron functioning Children with autism have language impairments because they lack understanding of others’ mental states Slide7

Language and emotional processing

Using words to describe internal states such as emotions is an aspect of affect regulation

Labeling angry or frightening emotions reduces blood flow to the amygdala (fear center), helping affect regulation

Reflective functioning also helps to manage overwhelming emotions Writing about one’s own experiences (aids in intellectualizing?) Talking about one’s own experiencesMind-minded words Aids in formation of infant secure attachment Aids in theory of mind developmentImpulsivity (seen in adhd, odd, and cd) Low verbal skillsParents with difficulties developing complex narratives about their own emotional livesEmotional intelligence or emotional literacy – essential goal of psychodynamic therapySlide8

Language ability and social advantage

by age 4, children of professionals – exposure to 50,000,000 words

Children of working class – exposure to 30,000,000 words

Children of welfare recipients – exposure to 12,000,000 wordsBy age 3, children of professionals – 800,000 encouragements and 80,000 discouragementsChildren of welfare recipients – only 60,000 encouragements and 120,000 discouragementsProfessional child’s average iq at age 3: 117Working-class child’s average iq at age 3: 79Findings continued in follow-up studies to age 10What really counts is not word exposure but parent responsiveness to child’s gestures and other forms of communicationSlide9

Summary

Language allows us to store vital information in group consciousness

Plant species

Hunting skillsSeasonal changesCultural and religious conventions Language development arrives as infants realize that minds can be joined and can share in attending to something, whether an object or fear or a pleasurable momentSlide10

Memories: learning who we are and what to expect

The brain as predictor of the future

Memory is the way past events affect future events

Humans bring expectations into the present in the form of relationship templates (e.g., attachment patterns) How do we change our expectations? We attribute characteristics to others based on our own state of mind – projection Neutral face associated with Nazis – cruel featuresNeutral face associated with science equation – studious features Slide11

The brain as predictor of the future cont.

Predictions change experiences

Procedural memory is where these expectations are stored

How do we change procedural memories? Functions like classical conditioning by way of associationsBullied child expects dangerBullied child begins to interpret neutral cues as signs of a threatMental correlates can be labeled “she is just out to get me” “if I trust her, I’ll be let down again” Can free association or mindfulness aid in self-awareness of these expectations? Slide12

Memories of events and facts

Infants develop representations of interactions that have been generalized (

rigs

) – abstract averaging of past events, which aids in predictionStill-face paradigm – rigs are violatedFactual memory is only short-term in infancyInfantile amnesia – inability to have memories of events earlier than age 3 or 4caused by neurological immaturityMemories are lost faster than they are gainedwith development in the frontal cortex after age 4, memories are formed faster than they are forgotten Slide13

Memories of events and facts cont.

influence of stress on memory

Too much stress can cause forgettingToo little stress can prevent memory encodingEmotionally charged memories without too much stress have the greatest chance of being storedPreverbal memories can be retrieved through nonverbal meansDrawing, playWhy is play therapy so effective at treating young children?Hippocampus – area involved in memory formation and retention Smaller in traumatized war veterans Smaller in depressed individualsFlashbulb memory – memory of unusual and emotionally charged moments (for me – john lennon, john Bonham, kurt

cobain) Slide14

Autobiographical memory

Early form of autobiographical memory – first putting events into language (age 2)

Later forms of autobiographical memory – contiguous with development of theory of mind at age 4

Child perceives self as existing over timeCan relate stories about themselves that suggest a more cohesive idea of self Ongoing existence in their own as well as others’ minds Episodic memory – nonconscious experience and memories that form an ongoing sense of who we are in time and in relation to othersParents of securely attached children have more elaborated and sophisticated narrative styles Securely attached children grow up to have the same elaborated and sophisticated narrative styles We exist insofar as we are in other people’s minds and part of other people’s stories Autobiographical memory is influenced by the context in which it is retrieved Egocentric cultures – self-recognition in mirror and autobiographical memories develop earlierSociocentric cultures – self-recognition in mirror and autobiographical memories develop laterSlide15

Trauma, memories, and forgetting

Memories are vulnerable to suggestion

Individuals who watched a video of a car accident were randomly assigned to two groups

1) one car “smashed” into the other one2) one car “hit” the other one“smashed” group estimated a higher rate of speed of the two cars than the “hit” groupPriming is a form of suggestion that can influence the content of a memory Trauma can cause forgetting or remembering, depending on other factors Traumatic memories can be cued by linked informationCueing can be accompanied by powerful emotional ReactionsForgetting can also be active avoidance and relabeling (often seen in therapy)Slide16

Trauma, memories, and forgetting cont.

Flashbacks

– embedded in amygdala and have content but not like conventional autobiographical memories Not mediated by hippocampus Therefore, they are not contextualized (i.e., no time nor place signature associated with the memory) These memories “rarely become part of a narrative with verbal processing” (music, 2011, p. 119) traumatic memories Evidence of narrowed focus – remembering fewer peripheral detailsImpairment in ability to recall autobiographical details Attachment insecurity and impact of trauma  difficulty reconstructing and processing memories (moderational model) Slide17

Summary

Meaning of present experience is determined by past experience

Past

experience affects selections and storage of present experienceHow do we break out of this vicious cycle? Witnessing self – self-reflective capacity that develops if our own emotional selves have been witnessed by another reflective mind