HDFS 105 1st Edition Lecture 7 Outline of Last Lecture I Infancy Language Development II Infancy Psycho social Development Outline of Current Lecture I Research with infants II Research with preschool aged children III Parent reports IV Conclusion Current Lecture I Research with infants A What is the world like to an infant B How do we find out what infants feel prefer think C Challenges of infant participants i Nonverbal ii Motor abilities limited especially in early infancy iii state changes alert drowsy asleep can occur rapidly they spend most of their time sleeping B Methods used to study infants i Baby biographies 1 Marks the first systematic study of infants 2 Darwin s A Biographical Sketch on an Infant sparked interests in studying about infants 3 Piaget s baby biographies of his 3 children cognitive theories 4 Strengths sparked interests about this topic of study generated hypotheses that could be tested in further studies 5 Limitations sample size is usually very small so what is learned may not be representative to the population most are done by the parents themselves and they are not completely objective and may have a strong theoretical perspective that may also be biased ii Systematic observations 1 Clear detailed plan for observing 2 Context is often the same across all participants 3 Trained observers code behavior of child using objective criteria These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute 4 Ex Infant temperament Kagan infant mother attachment Ainsworth ii Habituation Paradigm experiment 1 Infant attends to a novel stimulus 2 Habituation occurs after repeated presentations of stimulus 3 Following habituation the familiar stimulus is paired with a novel stimulus 4 Does infant look longer at new stimulus If so what does this tell us 5 Ex Face recognition 3 groups of participants 6 month olds 9 month olds adults All groups dis habituated to presentation of new versus familiar human face But only the 6 month olds dis habituated to new versus familiar monkey faces As you develop you lose the ability to differentiate broad categories 6 Ex Baillargeon solidity of objects conclusions believed box continued to exist when occluded by screen II Research with Preschool Aged children 2 5 years A Challenges of preschool aged participants i Limited memory or recall abilities ii Focus on one feature of a problem at a time iii Language abilities may be limited B Strategies for addressing these limitations i Establish familiarity and rapport ii Use toys props or manipulatives iii Reduce complexity of questions iv Ex Understanding false belief understanding gender constancy II Parent reports A Advantages parents have known the child since birth they have observed the child in a variety of contexts and situations economical and efficient B Disadvantages parents are not objective observers parents may have limited knowledge of the full range of behavior across children parents may be unable to report on certain aspects on infant s experience e g understand of objects C Remedies ask parents about specific behaviors that happened recently gather info From multiple reporters use multiple methods convergence II Conclusions A Innovative methods have captured infants and young children s experiences B New methods are continually being developed C Special ethical considerations for research with infants and children