DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY - LECT 2 - PRE/POST NATAL Flashcards by angela chacko

List the pre-natal physical development?

Germinal stage = duration 2 weeks
Embryonic stage = duration 6 weeks
Foetal stage = duration 7 months

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Whats part of the foetal psychological development?

Perception and cognition

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Describe the germinal stage = duration 2 weeks?

• Sperm penetrates egg, creates a new cell: zygote
• Zygote contains 23 chromosome pairs, containing genes
• Pairs made randomly, half from each parent
• Zygote undergoes repeated cell division

• Forms a ball of cells: blastula. Becomes implanted in uterus wall
• Initially, all blastula cells are undifferentiated.
• Blastula cells become differentiated by end of this phase

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Describe the embryonic stage = duration 6 weeks?

• Cells rapidly differentiate and migrate; structure is
organised: now called an Embryo
• Construction of major organs
• Heart begins to beat
• Eyes, limbs are visible
• Grows to ~1 inch long by end of this stage

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Describe the embryonic stage = duration 6 week?

• Rapid growth brings risks from environmental hazards:

Disease: e.g. rubella. Blindness & brain damage.
Risk when contracted in month 1(47%), 2(22%) & 3(7%)

Drugs: e.g thalidomide. Severest malformations when
administered during this phase

Maternal distress: e.g. extreme anxiety & depression can
cause low birth weight

• Uterine environment contributes to the developmental path

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Describe the foetal stage - duration 7 months?

Organism is recognisably human
•Gains height (3-53 cm) & weight (20g -3kg)
• Organs grow, and are refined
• Considerable growth of the nervous system
• Head grows to be 30% of the total body
volume

• Spontaneous movement is felt by mother:
sign that brain is controlling actions

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Explain what happens at week 17 and 24 in the foetal stage?

• At week 17, activity drops : ”period of quiescence”
• At week 24, activity increases again

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

What happens after quiescence in the foetal stage?

• After quiescence, ultrasound shows much finer motor
control: e.g. thumb sucking.
•Believed that brain function is reorganised during
quiescence: Higher centres begin controlling behaviours
previously controlled by lower structures

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Explain the sequence in the pre-natal physical development?

Stages like changes

e.g. Division & differentiation: 1 cell exists before 2, then
differentiate to different types of cells
Zygote - embryo - different in form & interaction with
environment

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Explain the timings in pre- natal development?

Proceeds unevenly: growth rate varies at different times
Subsystems develop at different rates
Periods of regression: seem to reflect reorganisation (eg.
foetal activity decreases as higher regions of brain develop

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Explain the vestibular system - sense of self motion and orientation?

Vestibular system (inner ear) begins to function around 20
weeks gestational age (g.a.)
• Is fully functional at birth (Hepper, 1992).
• Enables foetus to sense which way is ‘up’ and change in
mother’s position, by measuring inertial forces on the head

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Explain vision in pre-natal development?

• Very difficult to study! Little is known.
• Eyelids remain closed until week 26, but…
Can sense light shone on mother’s abdomen.
Responds by moving & increase in heart rate (Hepper,
1992).
• We can infer foetal capabilities from premature infants:
E.g. pre-terms of 31 wks g.a. can track a moving target
(suggests that a foetus of same age can do likewise)

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Explain audition infoetal perceptual and cognitive development?

•Foetus responds to sound from about 20 wks g.a.:
Ultrasound reveals head and arm movements in response
to sound. (Hepper & Shahidullah,1994)
• Sound (i.e. motion) energy is detected via cutaneous sensors
(i.e. in the skin) before the auditory system is functional
• Auditory system proper is functional at 30 wks g.a

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Explain the sounds for audition in foetal perceptual and cognitive development?

Foetus can only detect loud external sounds: Mother’s body
attenuates sounds transmitted through the body. Heartbeat
masks sounds.
• Mother’s speech is well conducted though the body, but
high frequencies are heavily filtered

Initially, foetal responses are found only to low-frequency
range (250–500Hz) of adult hearing (20–20000Hz), but this
range expands as the foetus matures

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Explain speech perception in per-natal development?

The foetus can Lear = recognition of the mothers voice

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

What did decasper and fifer find about speech perception?

Mothers read a story aloud, often,
during final stages of pregnancy.
• First day after birth: newborns sucked a dummy to hear
playback of story read by mother or stranger according to
rate of sucking.
• Chose mothers voice more frequently
• Humans can learn the mothers voice before birth

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

What did fifer and moon find about speech perception?

Newborns prefer the sound of their mothers voice filtered to
sound as it would have done in the uterus, rather than
mother’s natural voice.
•Further evidence that the foetus has learnt to discriminate
sounds

What did moon, panneton-cooper and fifer find ?

2 day old infants given the opportunity listen to a stranger talking in their mothers language or in a foreign language
Preffered in mothers language

What did decasper and Spencer find?

Mothers read a strong aloud twice a day for last 6 weeks of pregnancy
2 days after birth infants could choose to listen o a stranger read either same or different story
Chose same story

Explain the major environmental changes around 36 wks?

Exposes the infant to potential environmental hazards
- huge increase in range of available stimuli
Social change = interaction in the outside world is now possible

Whats new borns physical attributes in reflexes and brain?

Reflexes = sucking, tonic neck reflex

Brain = weighs 400g
- 100 billion neurons, fairly constant over lifespan
But connectivity is far less than an adult brain
- feedback resulting from activity in moving and feeling promote development of the nervous system

Explain the vision of newborn sensory and perceptual capacities?

Comapred to adults, vision is poorly developed at birth.

Acuit is 10-30 times worse then adults

What’s the limited field of view for new borns?

60h, 20v compared to 120h, 90v in adults

Whats the focal length fixed at for newborns?

21 cm

Do they have a binoculars depth perception?

What did Fantz find about vision for newborns?

Did a study with three different stimuli’s 1. Face 2. Scrambled 3. Equal-area control is how it was preffered according to newborns - with shows how newborns prefer faces and that its important

Explain a newborns auditory system?

Is relatively well developed at birth - studies show various chacterisitics of mothers speech is learnt in the uterus - they can distinguish mothers voice from other females and prefer female voices

Describe new borns smell - olfaction ?

Can differentiate smell of mothers milk from that other mothers - prefers mothers milk according to McFarlane - prefer chocolate to rotten eggs without prior experience according to Steiner Chocolate - contended expression Bad eggs - disgust

What did Steiner find about smell for newborns ?

Prefer mothers milk

What did Steiner find about newborns smell?

Prefer chocolate to rotten eggs without prior experience

Describe the taste gustation of newborns?

Can differentiate taste well - sweet vs sour = shows aversion to sour taste Touch, temperature and vestibular senses are well developed

Whats newborns social capacities?

Newborns has sufficient reflexes and perceptual and cognitive abilities to enable necessary social interactions Like - sucking - stops crying - orient towards other people = faces and human speech sounds more so than other stimuli - learn different social stimuli = voices

Explain newborns emotions?

Expressing and responding to emotion is important in social interactions 1. Newborns have the ability to express emotions as happy, sad, anger and disgust 2. Newborn abilit to respond to emtions = they can cry in response to prolonged crying of other babies

What did meltzoff and Moore find?

If you make a facial expression at babies they mimic it so sticking tongue out they will also likely do that to

What did oostenbroek find?

Tongue protrusion was more likely to be copied then being sad

Explain newborns temperament?

Newborns vary considerably in their behavioural dispositions

What did chess and Thomas find about temperament of newborns?

Easy = behaviour regularly, cheerful, readily adapts to change Difficult = behaviour irregular, responds negatively to change Slow to warm up = inactive, withdraws from new situations

What does evidence for difficult babies show?

Difficult babies are more at risk of later behavioural problems

What did Thomas and chess do?

Longitudinal study in New York where they compared 1. Children of American middle class families to children of Puerto Rican immigrant wc families Diffucult temperament correlates with behavioural maladjustment at 5 yrs in American middle class groups but not Puerto Rican working class groups

What did the study by chess and Thomas suggest?

Cultural differences in child -rearing is an important factor. American caregivers less likely to response to difficult babies in sensitive ways