Exam 1 Flashcards
Nature
Developmental outcomes primarily influenced by innate genetic factors
Nurture
Developmental factors primarily influenced by environmental and experiential factors
Plato’s View on Child Development
Nativist; Children are born with innate knowledge including the ability to identify animals and distinguish between living and inanimate objects
Aristotle’s View on Child Development
Empiricist; Children are irrational and cognitively closer to animals than human adults; stressed the importance of parental guidance in instilling logic and socially cooperative behaviors
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Nativist; Children are innately good; development unfolds naturally and education should guide these processes
John Locke
Empiricist; children are blank slates (tabula rasa) and experience is necessary to develop the senses needed to interpret the world
Darwin’s Contributions
in “A Biological Sketch of An Infant” Darwin described the emotional experiences and developmental milestones of his children from the evolutionary perspective
Sensitive Periods
developmental windows when organisms are most susceptible to environmental influences and patterns of atypical development
Freud’s & Watson’s Contributions
Psychoanalytic and behaviorist interpretations
Equipotentiality
Watson; Anyone can learn anything with practice, punishment and reward
Behavioral Genetics
examines the degree of relatedness between genotypes and phenotypical attributes among populations with genetic similarities
Sociocultural Context of Development
Development influenced by the conditions of: formative environments, social, cultural, historical contexts and access to resources
Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Model
Graphic outlining the significance of micro and macro level developmental influences
Greenfield et al.
cross-cultural model; most infants in individualistic societies sleep alone and Mayan (interdependent culture) children sleep with their mothers until 2-3 and same room until 4
Naturalistic Observation
Observing phenomena in natural environments vs under controlled conditions
Cons: unpredictable conditions can produce high variability and the potential for confounds
Structured Observation
observing phenomena under identical controlled conditions
pros: low potential for confounds
cons: less realistic observations
Radesky et al.
What do children do while their parents are on their phones at McDonald’s?
Naturalistic model; problematic behaviors in the children scaled proportionately to parental disengagement
Cross-sectional design
experimental groups of varying populations are contrasted in relation to the same behaviors or characteristics
Longitudinal Design
A consistent group is studied over a substantial period to observe individual changes
Microgenetic Design
A consistent group is studied over a short period to observe the emergence of new abilities
Prenatal Development Phases
Zygotic, embryonic (3-8 weeks) and fetal (9 weeks-birth)
Neural Tube Formation
3 weeks post conception a cell mass differentiates into a long tube by folding in on itself, one end becomes the brain and the other develops into the spinal cord. Folic acid deficiency leads to poor differentiation resulting in spinal issues
Spina Bifida
Inability to walk or feel the legs resulting from abnormal neural tube differentiation
4 weeks post conception
emergence of: circulatory system, facial features and extremity buds
8 weeks post conception
All organs and extremities are present
9-38 weeks post conception
fetal period; Weight gain 1-7 or 8lbs, Continued maturation
11 weeks post conception
cortical division, functioning circulatory system, and the emergence of the spine, ribcage and taste buds
Placenta
Rich network of blood vessels where nutrients from the mothers bloodstream diffuse into the infants circulatory system
Unbiblical Cord
structure of blood vessels connecting the mother to the fetus
Amniotic sac
A protective membrane of clear liquid that buffers shocks
Age of Viability
22-28 weeks; age when infants core systems are likely developed enough support life postnatally
35-38 weeks post conception
35-38 weeks; weight gain, maturation of lung structures, and neurological development
Preterm Births
possible deficiencies:
- delayed feeding
- delated milestones
- heightened cerebral palsy risk
- underdeveloped lungs
- susceptibility to infection
- vision and hearing issues
- poor motor coordination
- low academic achievement (50% of those born at 28 weeks)
38 weeks or earlier possible deficiencies: - delayed feeding and developmental milestones - heightened risk for cerebral palsy - underdeveloped lungs - susceptibility to infection - atypical vision and hearing - poor motor coordination - low academic achievement (50% of those born at 28 weeks)
Fetal Developmental Milestones
ability to remember tastes and smells from digesting amniotic fluid
Visual development
develops during the 3rd trimester
Reid et al.
infant visual preference for “top heavy” face-like light patterns were detected using ultrasounds to discern orientation
Tactile development
6 weeks; sensory receptors are strong enough to allow for somatic experimentation
Auditory Development
25 weeks; auditory stimuli from their internal environment develops hearing, making it more advanced that vision at birth
Habituation
decrease interest in response to repetitive stimuli; dishabituation occurs when when new stimuli is introduced
DeCasper & Spence et al.
Cat in the Hat Study; Pregnant women read aloud twice day for the last six weeks of pregnancy. Babies who heard the story before birth recognized the story; to get the recording to start they succeed pacifiers, changed sucking rate to get it to turn on and will reduce suckling rate if the story was in familiar
Fetal learning
Preference for mothers voice
Preference for native language (heard prenatal)
Preference for flavors remembered from amniotic fluid
Recognize smell of own amniotic fluid after birth, demonstrated by turning towards smell
Miscarriages
15% of known pregnancies end in miscarriage
Severe defects unsupportive of survival
25%-50% of women experience 1 miscarriage
Teratogens
Environmental agents that harm developing fetuses (broad range)
Sensitive periods of prenatal development
There are sensitive periods for the development of specific systems, the embryonic stage is the most sensitive (major issues for development of body structures); miscarriage and stillbirth rates are higher at 2nd and 3rd trimester
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
Hyperactivity, attention issues, organ development issues; symptoms can occur to a lesser extent without the diagnosis (poor development of facial features)
Zika Virus
Most vulnerable during first trimester when the effected systems are developing, brain damage still occurs if exposed in 2nd or 3rd. Vector born and sexually transmitted, most are asymptomatic; small heads, decreased brain tissue/damage, eye development, low muscle tone (rigid body) attacks neural progenerators (much of the gray matter)
Calcification scars disrupt neural communication, epilepsy
Sleeper effects
Effects of exposure occur later in development; stunted head growth and other developmental issues, can be years
Environmental pollutants
Can pass through respiratory and digestive systems impairing prenatal development; lead, preterm birth, low birthweight, cognitive delays (nervous system, brain, kidneys)
Pesticides
disrupt cognitive and bodily development and can contribute to the development of ADD
Teratogen Summary
The embryonic developmental phase is the most sensitive period; most body and brain developments are taking place
Teratogens are specific; they attack specific systems during specific developmental phases
Thalidomide
if taken during the sensitive period for limb development (4-6 weeks) severe limb deformity can occur
Dose-response related
the amount of teratogen exposure and the critical period in which the exposure occurs determines the extent of the effects
Maternal factors
incluse age, nutrition, stress levels, presence of disease in family medical history and the intake of calcium, folic acid chlorine during pregnancyr
Prenatal malnutrition
Child had greater risk of obesity + diabetes
Maternal trauma + mental health
The children of mothers with: anxiety+depression display behavioral issues at 4 years, major stress developed mental health disorders, schizophrenia and PTSD are predisposed to symptoms
Multiple Risk Model
factors like institutional and systemic racism along with chronic stress and discrimination in the medical field contribute to poor health and developmental outcomes for Black and Native mothers and their children
Epigenetics
the study of how environmental interactions influence gene expression
Single gene inheritance pattern
recessive genes are only expressed if both parents are carriers; otherwise, dominant traits are expressed
Polygenic inheritance
Traits involving many genes
Cystic Fibrosis
Recessive genetic disorder in which malfunctioning proteins produce a thick mucus that lines the lungs inhibiting nutrient absorption and causing respiratory issues
Reaction range
Genes can produce a range of different outcomes depending on environment
Genes are not deterministic, but environmental support is needed to optimize developmental potential
Active development
Infants invoke responses from others influencing their own development
Those who invoke aggression are less likely to develop prosocial skills
In niche picking children select activities and environments that complement genetic predispositions
Behavioral genetics
Core inquiries: How do genetics and environmental factors affect genetic variation?
How similar are people relative to their genetic similarities?
Are those with more genetic overlap more similar?
Adoption/adoptive twin studies
stronger genetic influences are inferred when adopted children resemble their biological parents over their adoptive parents; used to compare identical twins raised in different environments
Heritability coefficient
an estimate of how much people differ in the expression of a particular trait and how these differences contribute to genetic variation throughout populations
Synaptic pruning process
Occurs at different stages of neural development
Large increase is sensory synapses followed by first pruning (stabilizes at 1)
Large increase in spatial and linguistic synapses followed by second pruning (stabilizes at 10 months)
Over time highly sophisticated neurons strengthen their connections; pruning becomes longer, more gradual and spread out
Myelin Development
sheaths and glial cells develop from 4 months post conception into adolescence
Infant Brain Specialization
Brain activity is more widely distributed in infants and more localized in adults
Newborns show greater left hemispheric stimulation when processing language tasks
Functional impairments depend on the location and extent of the brain damage
Experience-expectant plasticity
Specific brain structures are primed to process specific stimuli that have been in our environments through out our evolutionary history
Less DNA coding is needed to set up these processes
We have neural flexibility, but certain stimuli need to be held in constance for these regions to mature
Experience-expectant plasticity
shared sensory experiences throughout human evolutionary history are expected by the brain requiring less DNA coding (growth); some structures are predisposed to process specific stimuli that have always been in our environments, brain expects it so less information is needed to set up these processes (we have neural flexibility, but some constance is expected and needed)
Experience-dependent plasticity
Tthe processes of neurogenesis and the reorganization of neurons throughout life in response to experience
Compensatory rewiring
If expected stimuli is not received the brain will compensate by rewiring, processing the input by different means based on what’s present in the environment
Experience-dependent plasticity
The processes of neurogenesis and the reorganizing of neurons occurs throughout life in relation to experience (language, complexity, musicians); more synapses
Sensation
the detection of stimuli by sensory receptors
Perception
the interpretation of, and the assignment of meaning to sensory information
Plasticity disadvantage
Atypical stimulation results in atypical development
Mauer et al.
Because infant brains lack specialization more sensory input is processed synesthetically *synesthesia: when sensations processed by a particular domain are perceived in others; common in left-handed women and linked to unpruned synapses
Functional connections between sensory cortical areas influence perception
Activation of motor cortex in response to auditory stimuli
Perception
The interpretation of sensations; adding meaning to them
Mauer et al.
Because infant brains aren’t as specialized, they process more information synthetically; activation of visual + auditory cortex in response to auditory stimuli, somatic sensory cortex stimulation in response to white noise (functional connections between sensory cortical areas influencing perception)
Depth/distance perception
Depth perception cues provide information about our relative spatial positions
Infants as early as 6 months of age use 1) relative size: closer objects appear closer 2) texture gradient: closer objects appear more detailed 3) distant objects are covered by nearer ones
Visual acuity
Sharpness of vision; input needed for areas of the brain that process visual stimuli to develop. Infants show preference for high contrast; vision nearly fully developed at 8 months, complete at 5-6 years
Depth/distance perception
Cues for depth perception let’s us know our physical position in space relative to other objects; early as 6 months followed by rapid development (stereopsis = binocular vision)
Relative size = closer objects appear larger
Texture gradient = closer objects are more detailed
Distant objects are occluded (covered) by nearer ones
Post-institutionalized Eastern European Orphans
orphaned toddlers were deprived of the motor input necessary for typical development
Poor standing, balancing and walking in straight lines at 5 even after 3-4 years with therapy
Visual cliff task
Infant with more experience did not cross the artificial drop off; able to detect depth/distance, but more experience crawler interacted with the environment more cautiously (experience changes interpretation of depth)
Motor milestones
Photo
Dynamic systems approach
biological and environmental factors interact to propel motor development
Maturation/genetic blueprint
Maturation drives motor skills; indicated by recorded developmental sequences, genetic disorders contribute to motor deficits and training will not improve function
Dynamic systems approach
Nature and nurture interact to propel motor development
overregularzation
applying exceptions to grammatical rules to irregular, past tense and plural forms of words; teach - teached - taught
Scale errors
Errors when interpreting the size and scale of objects in their environment
overregularzation
applying grammatical rules that are exceptions to the general rules; walk - walked (regular) teach - taught (irregular verbs) and plural forms
- kids are not simply repeating what they hear, they are learning grammatical structures (finding patterns in input (cognitive) and applying rules
syntatic bootstrapping
using the context of the grammatical structure of sentences to make inferences about the meanings of words
Language Deprivation Case Study: “Genie”
Are children who were deprived of linguistic stimuli during the critical period of language acquisition able to learn?
neural mechanisms of innate grammatical knowledge degrade over time
Retained ability to learn words, but unable to grasp the full grammatical complexities of language
Inadequate input during the critical period results in atypical language development
Newport et al.
What occurs when deaf children aren’t exposed to systematic language in infancy?
By 8-10 years the ability to pick up on and learn grammatical rules declines
There is a disproportionate relationship between age and the ability to assimilate new grammatical information
This does not impact the ability to expand vocabulary
Modularity Hypothesis
Chomsky & Pinker; the brain has a self-contained learning module that operates independently of other cognitive systems This module contains innate and universal linguistic rules that adapt to any linguistic input
Interactionist Perspective on Language Acquisition
Language is a social skill and all grammatical rules were created for the purpose of social communication (Tomasello),
The structured environments that adults cultivate for children set them up for language acquisition
Connectionist Perspective on Language Acquisition
What social components highlight important associations?
Learning mechanisms; children draw associations between different components of language when learning to form correct syntax, information about grammatical rules are learned by simple exposure to language
Sign Language Morphology
Sign Language Morphology How are signs altered to augment meaning? The order of signs Hand shapes Orientation Location Movement