PSY286 WK 3 and 4

Question 1

Pituitary gland

Answer 1

Regulates other endocrine glands and produces growth hormone, controlled by the hypothalamus.

Question 2

How does the Endocrine system support development?

Answer 2

Endocrine system release growth hormones from the pituitary glands that fuels childhood growth.

Question 3

Endocrine system? Name the 5 glands:

Answer 3

Question 4

Cephalocaudal:

Answer 4

From Head to Tail In the foetal stage of development the brain develops the fastest and accounts for a much larger percentage of the whole. During the first year the trunk grows the quickest, and then during the second year the legs are the quickest to grow.

Question 5

Proximodistal.

Answer 5

From the Centre to the Limbs During the foetal period, the organs develop before the arms and hands, during the first year the trunk grows the quickest and the arms grow a little later on.

Question 6

Orthogenetic.

Answer 6

From global and undifferentiated cells into increasing differentiation. From cells that have no difference into the different parts of the body and nervous system with full integration. Can be seen in how toddlers use their whole bodies to do something and children will just use their hands.

Question 7

Rhythmic stereotype movements

Answer 7

Rhythmic stereotype movements are the movements that babies make when they rock back and forth or shake their hands in the air. Although it may not seem like it, these movements likely have a purpose in learning about cause and effect. As motor and language develop together, it can be seen that babies often make these movements in tandem (in same period, not exactly the same time) with language development skills.

Question 8

Myelin in regards to development.

Answer 8

Myelin development happens in different parts of the brain at different times ie. Myelination is normally complete in the visual cortex by age 1, but it is early childhood before the same process is complete in the Cerebellum. The frontal lobes are one of the last areas to become Myelinated which are the parts of the brain responsible for thinking, planning, and decision making. This difference in time for Myelination in different parts of the brain affects how development progresses as the myelination speeds up information processing.

Question 9

Lateralisation

Answer 9

is the asymmetry of the brain and the specialisation of function between the left and right hemispheres. Begins from before birth, babies can be seen to favour one side in how they grasp and which way they like to turn.

Question 10

Secular trend:

Answer 10

A trend in industrialised societies towards earlier maturation and greater body size.

Question 11

What changes to the grey matter happen in adolescence?

Answer 11

Grey matter that peaked in childhood is now reduced through synaptic pruning with up to 40% reduction in synapses, most of this pruning happens through the frontal lobe and hippocampus. Pruning of the synapses is part of a fine tuning process that happens at this age.

Question 12

Risky behaviours in teens can be caused by?

Answer 12

Synaptic pruning has removed up to 40% of the synapses in the frontal lobes of the brain, myelination hasn’t been fully completed in the frontal lobe in adolescence. The reduction of synapses and the unfinished myelination in the frontal cortex where most reasoning, planning and coordinating is done can likely lead to poor quality decision making.
Along with the structural problems, teens also use more effortful reasoning to determine whether something is dangerous or not, where and adult will draw on mental images and the visceral response to those images, teenagers need to rely more on reasoning to make the same decision.

Question 13

Neurogenesis

Answer 13

the brain continues to make new neurons until the day we die.

Question 14

Zone of Proximal Development

Answer 14

the space between what a learner can do without assistance and what a learner can do with adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers.

Question 15

Cohort effect.

Answer 15

A group of people born at the same time. Imagine testing 65 year olds for tech knowledge and then labelling less than intelligent when they can’t use it.

Question 16

Relativistic thinking

Answer 16

there are multiple ways of viewing and solving a problem depending on the context and the subjective perspective of the knower.

Question 17

dialectical thinking

Answer 17

An advanced form of thought that involves detecting paradoxes and inconsistencies among ideas and trying to reconcile them

Question 18

Object Permanence

Answer 18

Piaget sensory motor: Understanding objects continue to exist when they are no longer visible develops during this period

Question 19

Egocenterism

Answer 19

Preoperational. Only able to see things from the perspective of themselves, unable to put themselves in someone elses shoes as a point of physical perspective.

Question 20

Transductive reasoning

Answer 20

Connection of events that are not connected. eg. barking dog and train, so when dog parks train must come.

Question 21

Reversibility

Answer 21

Being able to understand the idea of whether something will fit into another glass.

Question 22

Seriation.

Answer 22

The abilty to put things in numerical order eg. People in age order, youngest to oldest.

Question 23

Constructivism

Answer 23

The position that humans actively create their own understandings of the world from their experiences, as opposed to being born with innate ideas or being programmed by the environment. Piaget theory.

Question 24

Neuroconstructivism

Answer 24

Post Piaget. New knowledge is constructed though changes in the neural structure of the brain in response to experiences.

Question 25

Cognitive development theory

Answer 25

The position that humans actively create their own understandings of the world from their experiences, as opposed to being born with innate ideas or being programmed by the environment.