Developmental Psychology Flashcards

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1
Q

Newborns

A

Newly born babies

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2
Q

Infancy

A

The period from birth to around about the second year of your life

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3
Q

Adolescence

A

The period of development that begins with the onset of sexual maturity (11-14) and lasts until the beginning of adulthood (18-21)

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4
Q

Developmental Psychology

A

The study of continuity and change across the life span

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5
Q

Nature vs. Nurture

A

The naive distinction about whether development is genetically determined or dependent on the environment.

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6
Q

What did the ‘human genome project’ find?

A

That there appear to be only a few genes at work despite the complexity of the human body. It seemed to support the epigenetic stance - our genes can be influenced by our environment.

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7
Q

Canalization

A

The idea of development as constrained epigenetics

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8
Q

Waddington’s developmental paths

A
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9
Q

Prenatal stage

A

The stage before birth - begins at conception

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10
Q

Zygote

A

a cell that is formed when an egg and a sperm combine

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11
Q

Each human egg cell contains ___ chromosomes.

A

Each human egg cell contains 23 chromosomes.

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12
Q

Germinal stage

A

The two-week period that begins at conception. During this time, the fertilized egg (now called a zygote, and consists of a single cell) makes it way down the fallopian tube, and begins to have cell reproduction. Eventually, the single celled zygote becomes a multi celled ball that attaches itself to the wall of the uterus around the end of the second week, which constitutes the beginning of the embryonic stage.

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13
Q

Embryonic stage

A

A period which lasts from the second week until about the eigth week. During this stage, the zygote continues to divide and its begin to differentiate, forming a blastocyst (ball of cells).

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14
Q

Blastocyst

A

Cluster ball of embryonic cells

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15
Q

Embryonic disk

A

Three-layered flattened structure that emerges from the blastocyst

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16
Q

Epigenetic Landscape

A

Waddington’s epigenetic landscape is a metaphor for how gene regulation modulates development. Among other metaphors, Waddington asks us to imagine a number of marbles rolling down a hill. The marbles will compete for the grooves on the slope, and come to rest at the lowest points. These points represent the eventual cell fates, that is, tissue types. Waddington coined the term chreode to represent this cellular developmental process.

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17
Q

Innate abilities do not develop: True or False?

A

False

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18
Q

Abilities present at birth are innate abilities: True or False?

A

False

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19
Q

If you know how to speak English, but produce an ungrammatical sentence, that is a failure of…

A

Performance

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20
Q

Endorem

A

Embryonic disk layer that goes on to form the internal organs

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21
Q

Mesoderm

A

Embryonic disk layer that goes on to form the skeletal muscles

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22
Q

Ectoderm

A

Embryonic disk layer that goes on to form the skin and the nervous system

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23
Q

What determines the sex of the baby?

A

Testosterone - Only embryos that have one X and one Y chromosome produce this hormone

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24
Q

Fetal Stage

A

The period that lasts from the ninth week until birth

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25
Q

How does the brain begin to form in a fetus?

A

The brain begins to form as a portion of the ectoderm transforms into the neural tube, from which the forebrain and midbrain emerge at one end, while the other becomes the spinal cord

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26
Q

Neural Tube

A

The cylindrical structure of the embryonic central nervous system

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27
Q

Cells within the neural tube begin dividing to produce neural cells around which week of life? (Cowan, 1979)

A

Around the third and fourth week of life

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28
Q

The process of forming neural cells is called?q

A

Neurogenesis

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29
Q

Neurogenesis continues until which week after conception? (Rakic, 1995)

A

Around 18 weeks after conception

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30
Q

Placenta

A

The placenta (also known as afterbirth) is an organ that connects the developing fetus to the uterine wall to allow nutrient uptake, provide thermo-regulation to the fetus, waste elimination, and gas exchange via the mother’s blood supply, fight against internal infection and produce hormones to support pregnancy. The placenta provides oxygen and nutrients to growing babies and removes waste products from the baby’s blood. The placenta attaches to the wall of the uterus, and the baby’s umbilical cord develops from the placenta.

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31
Q

What did Stein et al. 1975 find?

A

That food deprivation (e.g. WWII Nazis emposed food embargo on Dutch cities) during the first six months of pregnancy caused the children to have physical problems (as well as psychological problems - Neugebauer, 1999 and Susser 1999)

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32
Q

Teratogens

A

Agents that damage the process of development

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33
Q

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

A

A developmental disorder that stems from heavy alcohol use by the mother during pregnancy

34
Q

What did Carmichael Olson (1997) and Streissguth (1999) find?

A

That children with FAS frequently exhibit impaired cognitive development and have more problems with academic achievement compare to healthy children

35
Q

Children of mothers who smoke tobacco are at a risk of?

A
  1. Lower birth rate (Horta, 1997)
  2. Perceptual and attentional problems in childhood (Fried and Watkinson, 2000)
36
Q

What did Makin (1991) and Windham (1999) find?

A

That even second-hand smoke can have a negative imoact on children’s development and abilities

37
Q

Which structure is vulnerable to the effects of teratogens throughout the entire prenatal period?

A

CNS

38
Q

Querleu (1984)

A

Newborns who are just 2 hours old will suck a nipple more vigorously when they hear the sound of their mother’s voice compare to a voice of a female stranger

39
Q

DeCasper and Spence (1986)

A

Babies whose mothers have read the ‘cat in the hat’ repeatedly during pregnancy reacted differently to a passage from the story than to an unfamiliar passage, compare to the control group who reacted the same to both passages

40
Q

Prosody

A

The rhythm of speech

41
Q

Generative processes

A

Processes which lead to the formation of new structures

42
Q

Arborization

A

Process where the cell axon lengthens and grows increasing dendritic branches

43
Q

Synaptogenesis

A

The increase in the number of synaptic junctions where cells communicate through the activity of neurotransmitters

44
Q

Myelination

A

The formattion of a fatty sheath around the axons of a brain cell

45
Q

Synaptic pruning

A

The process whereby synaptic connections die off (as much as 40%/100,000 synapses per second - Kolb, 1995)

46
Q

What is the purpose of synaptic pruning?

A

Synaptic pruning occurs exactly for the same reason any pruning should occur (like pruning a bush), it is to rid the brain of wasteful neural connections and make it easier to strengthen the important ones. The brain is a very efficient machine, and the process of pruning is evidence of this. Use it or Lose it!

47
Q

Burnett and Blakemore (2009)

A

Brain is still developing well into adolescence

48
Q

Why is a newborn human’s brain only 25% of its adult size?

A
  1. They would need a bigger head to house a bigger brain which would not pass through the mother’s birth canal
  2. Being born with a brain that develops within our environement rather than one that is already developed (which may or may not meet the requirements of the ever changing environment) is a huge survival advantage
  3. We are social animals that spend a large portion of our life learning from others. This requires a flexible brain and one that can be moulded by experience (Brain Plasticity)
49
Q

What are the two different types of brain plasticity? (Greenough and Black, 1992)

A
  1. Experience-expectant
  2. Experience-dependent
50
Q

Experience-expectant plasticity

A

Where much of the neural organization is largely pre-specified, waiting for input from the environment.

51
Q

Experience-dependent plasticity

A

Where much of the neural organization is not pre-specified and depends on input from the environment

52
Q

Genetic Epistemology

A

Genetic epistemology is a study of the origins (genesis) of knowledge

53
Q

The discipline developed by Jean Piaget was called…?

A

Genetic Epistemology

54
Q

How does Piaget’s Genetic Epistemology differ from the previous schools of thought?

A

He thought that there aren’t any innate ideas and that it’s not just the case that the environment is shaping the child, but rather that the child is actively trying to seek out the information and therefore shaping its own mind.

55
Q

According to Piaget, initially, children represent the world in terms of ______-_____ ___________?

A

Sensory-motor representations

56
Q

The development of the visual system depends on whether the infant receives appropriate visual stimulation within the first ___ ______ of its life. (Hubel, 1988)

A

6 Months

57
Q

Atkinson 2000 found that…?

A

If the child is deprived of critical visual stimulus during the sensitive period, their ability to develop normal visual functions is impaired.

58
Q

What did Donald Hebb demonstrate?

A

That rats raised in envieonments with plenty of stimulation had greater cortical connectivity compared to the rats who were raised in a low-stimulated environment.

59
Q

Elbert et al (1995) studied musicians. What did he find?

A

Musicians who train for years, have a greater connectivity/activation in areas that control finger movement compared to normal people.

60
Q

What are the two types of change?

A

Quantitative and Qualitative change

61
Q

Quantitative change

A

The amount/quantity of change

62
Q

Qualitative change

A

The type/quality of change

63
Q

Milestone

A

An important demarcating event on the path of development

64
Q

Stage theories

A

Theories that advocate development as a fundamental reorganisation of the underlying mechanisms.

65
Q

What is the problem with measuring developmental change?

A

That we cannot derive valid generalisations about the course of individual change from the course of change in a group average. (Greenwald, 2011)

e.g. there is a common belief that at some point in our lives there is a quick spurt of word knowledge. This is true of group average, but on the individual level, such change is always gradual not sudden. (Bloom, 2000)

66
Q

Longitudinal research

A

Experimental designs based on a representative sample of children who are then studied repeatedly over time

67
Q

Cross-sectional research

A

Experimental designs based on groups of children who represent a cross-section of the population

68
Q

Repeated measure

A

Several data points collected form the same individual

69
Q

Cohort bias

A

Anomalies that are predominant in one group that distort comparison between groups

70
Q

Clinical method of studying children (Piaget)

A

Manipulating the situation to see how the child’s behaviour changes in a reliable manner.

71
Q

Visual preference paradigm

A

Technique that uses differences in duration of looking to infer-pattern discrimination

72
Q

Fantz (1961)

A

He discovered that children have a preference of looking at some objects vs other

73
Q

Preference for novelty

A

After habituation, organisms prefer to attend to novel stimulation - therefore if after a period of exposure to a certain stimuli, a novel stimulus is presented and the infant devotes more attention to it, it means that the child can distinguish it from the previous stimuli.

74
Q

Woodward (1998)

A

Discovered that infants can infer goals and intentions when watching someone reach for an object (longer looking times when an adult appears to change goals).

75
Q

Violation of expectancy (VOE) paradigm

A

Where the anticipated outcome is deliberately contravened. According to Baillargeon (1994), VOE researchers believe the infant is not simply passively sitting back and watching the world go by, but is actively trying to work out what will happen next.

76
Q

Juscyzk (1985)

A

Researchers can use sucking behaviour to measure the response of a child to a novel stimuli - continues sucking = old event/cant distinguish, pause = novel event

77
Q

Noninvasive eye trackers

A

Works by recording reflected infrared light created by shining a harmless invisible beam into the infant’s eye that is reflected back.

78
Q

Geodesic sensor net

A

A network of sensitive electrodes that detect tiny changes in the electrical voltage at the scalp surface.

79
Q

What are the two technological advancements in studying infants?

A
  1. Non-invasive eye trackers
  2. EEG recordings adapted for young children
80
Q

Structured interview

A

A consistent set of questions about a topic under consideration

81
Q

Why was Piaget so interested in the structured interview method?

A

Because children’s answers (especially their errors) revealed a lot about how they view the world

82
Q

What evidence did Fritzley and Lee (2003) find against the structured interview method?

A

That children before the age of three have a bias to respond ‘yes’ to any question.