Principles of Development Flashcards
Define ‘maturation’ and give an example.
Maturation refers to changes in behaviour due to physical changes in neural and muscular systems e.g. babies going from crawling to walking
what happens when maturation is delayed? Answer using a study example.
When maturation is delayed, behaviour is delayed. For example, when mice were restricted food and lactation during the last 2 weeks of pregnancy, the physical and neural structures of the baby mice had not yet matured
What is ‘discrimination’? Give an example of animal discrimination.
Discrimination is when the number of stimuli that elicit a response becomes more limited. For example baby blackbirds open their mouths when they hear any sound to signify their hunger. After a while they will only open their mouths when their parents are feeding them
Explain how discrimination can occur in humans.
Discrimination occurs through the acquisition of language. Eimas, et al. (1971) tested babies on their language discrimination. When an infant sucked on a dummy, the sound ‘la-la-la’ was played, the babies kept sucking to keep the sound playing. When they began to lose interest, the rate of sucking sowed. The sound was then switched to ‘ra-ra-ra’. The Japanese infants then sucked more heavily which indicated they discriminated between the two sounds.
What is ‘generalisation’? Give an example of animal generalisation.
Generalisation is when the number of stimuli that elicits a response is broadened. For example, Amezquita et al. (2013) put wax models of differently coloured and patterned frogs in environments that either usually contained or usually did not contain frogs. Red spotty frogs indicate aposematism which shows it is not worth attacking. In environments that usually did not contain frogs, all the types of frogs were attacked equally with no differentiation between them. In environments that usually did contain frogs, the yellow spotty frogs were attacked a lot less than brown coloured frogs. Showing that learning from the red spotty frogs had been generalised from one stimulus to another.
What is a sensitive period? Give a case study example.
Sensitive periods refer to when some early experiences must occur within a time frame to influence development. For example, Genie Wiley was released from imprisonment at 13. She was permanently incapable of full grammar and it took her 2 years to form complex sentences
What is the cause of sensitive periods?
Synaptic pruning
What is the function of sensitive periods?
you have high plasticity during childhood due to constantly learning new things, synaptic pruning saves metabolic costs by reducing neural tissue once behaviour is learnt.
What are the types of development according to Waddington’s epigenetic landscape?
Channelling, self-regulation, and equifinality
Describe each type of development.
Channelling - when the possibilities for development are limited over time.
Self-regulation - changes in behaviour due to changes in the environment.
Equifinaility - there are many different developmental routes that reach the same goal
What did Brainard and Doupe (2002) discover about song development in birds?
Juvenile birds who cannot sing are born with a crude neural template, they then hear the song of the adult males and develop an exact neural template.
Adult birds will hear themselves sing which provides auditory feedback and improves their song.
What are the five genetic principles of song development in birds?
predisposition (neural template)
importance of experience - juvenile hears song, adult auditory feedback
plasticity - most birds only produce sounds similar to thiers, some birds (like parrots) can produce a large variety of sounds
sensitive periods - song must be heard during first few months
equifinality- many patterns of experiencing song produces normal song
