EXAM REVIEW Flashcards
Development is
the study of how individuals change and remain the same between conception and birth
Learning is
- relatively permanent changes in our thoughts, behaviours and feelings as a result of our experiences
- new information
Maturation is
- the biologically-timed unfolding of changes within an individual according to that individuals genetic plan
The interactionist perspective
the view that holds that maturation and learning interact during development
Maturation & Learning
- biological maturation restricts the timeline of learning from the environment
- learning from the environment
- you can’t learn to walk before you grow legs
Studying Development
- most human development occurs during the early stages of life
- changes early in life are more dramatic than those late in life
Habituation Procedure
- can test for an infant’s ability to detect novel stimuli
- habituation: a decrease in the responsiveness to a stimulus following its repeated representation
- dishabituation: an increase in the responsiveness to a stimulus that is somehow different from the habituated stimulus
Event Related Potentials
- changes in brain activity in specific areas indicate responses to certain stimuli
- wear a head cap
High Amplitude Sucking Method
- The rate of sucking on a pacifier indicates the level of preference
- infants hear a sound stimulus every time they suck hard on a pacifier
Preference Method
- The level of attention towards one stimulus relative to another stimulus indicates a preference
- Shown at the same time
Competence-performance Distinction
- An individual may fail a task not because they lack cognitive abilities, but because they are unable to demonstrate those abilities
- a baby can’t say like like something, because they can’t talk yet
Developmental Research Method
- Developmental studies look at how certain abilities change over a lifetime
- Longitudinal or Cross-sectional
The Longitudinal Design
- the same person is tested repeatedly over their life at different ages
- Allows for accurate and direct comparisons over time
- NOT optimal for long studies
- Expensive and time consuming
- Some participants die and the study ends up not being reflective of the whole population
Cross-sectional Design
- individuals from different age groups are studied at the same point in time
- Faster comparisons between age groups
- Assesses developmental change
- Less time-consuming and cheaper
- IGNORES individuals and generational effects
zyogte
single cell that contains 46 chromosomes
Monozygotic twins
- same sperm and ovum, genetically identical
Dizygotic twins
- different sperm and ovum, share 50% of genes
Sex chromosome
- males determine sex of child
- first 22 pairs autosomes
- gender is determined on 23 chromosome
genotype
- inherited genes
phenotype
- expression of individuals genotype (observable characteristics)
Simple-dominant-recessive inheritance
- regular inheritance
- homozygous or heterozygous
Polygenetic Inheritance
- expression of a trait is determined by multiple genes
- no single gene can account of most complex behaviours
Codominance
- expression of a trait is equally determined by two alleles
Sex-linked Inheritance
- expression of a trait is determined by genes on the X chromosome
- sex-linked recessive disorders are less common in females because they have 2 X chromosomes
Interactionalist Perspective
- Nuturists = external factors alone influence development
- Naturists = genes predetermine the path of development
- Our genes and environment interact to influence development
Canalization Principle
- All individuals are restricted to a similar phenotype despite variations in the environment
- Genotype restricts the phenotype to a small number of possible development outcomes
- ex. height will fall in range regardless of environment
Range of Reaction Principle
- genotype establishes a range of possible responses to different kinds of life experiences
- dictates that our genotype restricts us to a range of possible phenotypes whose expression is dependent on environmental conditions
- depending on how you grow up, you could be taller or shorter
Passive Correlations
- the environment that parents choose to raise their children in was influenced by their parents own genes
Evocative Correlations
- the traits we inherit affect how others react or behave towards us
Active Correlatins
- our genotype influences the kinds of environments we seek
- gene-environment interactions change their influence across a life span
Critical Periods
- a window of opportunity within an individuals development in which particular environmental stimulation is necessary to see a permanent change in specific abilities
- Ex. visual deprivation outside of the critical period doesn’t affect development
- Enriched environments early in life promote proper brain development
Implications of critical periods
- likely to affect parental decisions
- affect decisions to adopt
- affects public policy on child intervention
Excess synapses
- pruned away throughout development
Experience Dependent Brain Growth
- Our brains develop according to our own personal experiences
Experience-Expectant Brain Growth
- brains have evolved to expect a certain amount of environmental input, with this input our brains develop normally
Adaptations
- biological traits that help an individual survive and reproduce in its habitat
- make an organism better suited for its environment
“Higher” Mental Processes
- selective attention
- memory encoding
- memory retrieval
Adaptive Mental Process
- evolves through natural selection
Evolution by Natural Selection
- adaptations emerge in development as a result of the activation of relevant genes in interaction with relevant aspects of the enviroment
Natural selection
- differential survival and reproduction of organisms as a result of the heritable differences between them
1. Individual differences - variation among individuals for any characteristic
2. Differential reproduction - individuals chances of surviving and reproducing
3. Heritable - traits that give rise to differential reproduction have a genetic basis
Stabilizing selection
- selection against any sort of departure for the species-typical adaptive design
Darwins Finches
- drought caused small beak finches to die and birds with bigger beaks to survive
- when drought ended, beak size returned to normal
- reproductive success = fitness
Darwinian Fitness
- average reproductive success of a genotype relative to alternative genotypes
Evolution
- change in gene frequencies over generations
- imagine a predator disappeared and a new predator is introduced that finds it easier to detect the blue fishes instead of red fishes, the gene pool would shift towards the red phenotype
Sexual Selection
- Competition for mates, natural selection acts on mate-findings and reproductive behaviours
- acts on a trait that influence an organisms ability to obtain a mate
Two Subtypes of Sexual Selection
Inter-sexual: female choice of males, (males and females interaction)
Intra-sexual: interaction between members of the same sex (males and males)
- you can either beat up your rivals or get chosen by the opposite sex to get more access to reproducing
Sexually selected traits
- traits that differ between sexes, especially if it only exists during breeding season
Species-Typical Behaviour
- Sanderlings, semipalmated and dunlin sandpipers all look similar
- However, sanderlings forage for food by racing out to the shore and eating insects between waves
- This is a species specific behaviour because only sanderlings act like this
Species-Typical-Behaviour
- Physical form
- Habitat preference
- Group size
- Social system
Behavioural Genetics
- changing the animals typical behaviour over generations
- using animals with short generation times, like fruit fly
Natural Selection favours the
selfish gene… because evolution acts at the gene level and genes that contribute to an individuals fitness will get replicated more often
Group selection
- Adaptations are not for the good of the group or species, they are good for the gene
- Exception: Foraging for food in groups is better because predators lose the “surprise attack”
- Foragers need to keep their head raised to watch for predators, but they can’t eat and watch at the same time
- Therefore, this selection favours the good of the group because it favours the good of the individual
Altruism
- actor incurs a cost to provide a benefit to the recipient
- foraging in group is not altruism because individual benefits
Problem of Altruism
- a group of altruists will thrive because individuals in that group regularly help each other
- the good of the group cannot explain the evolution of altruism because it dies in the bodies of their bearers (lemmings example)
Spite
- and -
Selfish
Actor +, recipient -
Cooperation
+ and +
Altruism
- Actor, + Recipient
Eusocial Hymenoptera
- most individuals spend their lives serving the colony without reproducing (ants, bees)
Direct Fitness
- fitness from personal reproduction
Indirect fitness
- fitness from the reproduction of close relatives
Direct fitness + Indirect fitness =
Inclusive fitness
Hamilton’s Rule: rB > C
predicts when altruistic behaviours are favoured, when rB is greater than C
r = coefficient of relatedness
B = reproductive benefit to the recipients
C = reproductive cost to the actor
Relatedness
- parents = 50% or 0.5
- siblings = 50% or 0.5
- aunt, uncle, grandparent, nephew, niece = 0.25
- first cousins = 0.125
Why don’t eusocial Hymenoptera produce?
- colonies are made up of very closely related individuals, so it’s good to help your colony
- relatedness explains aggression between colonies, aggression is low between nests of closely related colonies
Relatedness explains agression in humans
- 25% of homicides committed by ‘relatives’
- 6% committed by genetic relatives
- rates of child abuse are higher amount stepchildren than biological children
Kin recognition
- Kin are people who live close to you
Alarm calls
- altruistic warning of approaching predators
- females give more alarm calls than males when they live near kin
- males leave kin early and almost never give alarm calls
Phenotype matching
- evaluation of relatedness between individuals based on an assessment of phenotypic similarity
- individuals trust people who look like kin
Reciprocity
- explains why we help those who don’t look like us
Direct Reciprocity
- refers to situations in which individuals help each other and both benefit
Indirect reciprocity
- occurs when individuals help others who have helped others
- by helping others, you give yourself a good reputation and you’ll get more help from neighbours
- people are less likely to break rules when observed by others
Rene Descartes (Dualist Framework)
- the mind was seen as a separate entity, outside of our body, but still controlled our actions and thoughts
- physical brain was thought to serve as a connection between mind and body
(modern framework considers the brain to be hardware that is driven by the software of the mind)
neuron
- the fundamental building block of the nervous system
receptive zone
- receives signals
- dendrites -> cell body
- the dendrites reach out and connect to other neuron’s
Transmission zone
- passes signals to other cells
- axon -> terminal end
- axons convey signals coming from the dendrites
- terminal ends reach out and make connections with the receptive zone of other neurons
Glial cells
- important in supporting cast that provide structural support, nourishment, and insulation needed by the neuron
- glial cells and neurons work together