Dev Psych Unit 2 - Joana Weaver Northeastern University

adaptive value of birth

makes babies heads not as disproportionately large and forces amniotic fluid out of lungs

Birth complications and medical interventions

• Anoxia: inadequate oxygen supply

• Breech position: may compress umbilical cord

• Fetal monitoring

• Labor and delivery medication

  • Analgesics (epidural)

  • Anesthetics

• C section

newborn sleep

• Newborns sleep 2x the amount young adults do 

• 50% of their sleep is in REM

  • Believed this time helps develop infant’s visual system

    • Since they sleep most of the time 

  • Believed to help them make sensorimotor maps with the REM jerking movements 

  • Their brains do not become disconnected from external stimulation the way older individuals do = they learn during sleep

states of arousal for babies

Quiet sleep, active sleep, drowsing, alert awake, active awake, crying

APGAR score

score to assess health of newborn infants after birth

• 7+ is good

• 4-6 baby needs assistance

• 1-3: serious danger, requires emergency medical attention 

  • Heart rate

  • Respiratory effort

  • Reflex irritability

  • Muscle tone

  • Color 

Kangaroo treatment leads to

Decrease mortality, increase growth, breastfeeding, attachment and maintain skin temp

• Experiencing touch is important for brain responses in NICU babies 

risk and resilience in newborn experience

• Developmental resilience refers to successful dev in face of multiple hazards 

• Resilient children are exposed to responsive care from a particular caregiver and possess personal characteristics such as intelligence and responsiveness to others

newborn reflexes and function

• Eye blinking

• Rooting

  • Turning head towards stimulation

• Sucking

• Moro

  • Helps infant cling to mother

• Palmar grasp

  • Infant grasps finger

• Tonic neck

  • In “fencing position” prepares infant for voluntary reaching

• Stepping 

• Babinski 

  • Toes fan out and curl as food twists in when sole of foot is stroked

Best prevention for SIDS

put their child on their back and put them in a sleep sack or swaddle

• Smoking is a very big known cause

• Tummy time is important for them to work their muscles and to raise their next and eventually roll over from front to back 

  • Prescribed by doctors  

Genes code for____

proteins

genomes

entire map of genetic code 

• most genes are present in all living things

epigenetics

study of changes in organisms caused by modifications of gene expression, not gene code

genotype

inherited genetic material

phenotype

 observable expression of genotype including both body characteristics and behavior and the environment which incorporates every aspect of individuals and their surroundings other than the genes themselves

androgen

hormones that contribute to the growth and reproduction in men and women

meiosis

process of cell division creating gametes - halves the number of cell chromosomes 

• Zygotes have 46 chromosomes

random assortment

allows for variability

crossing over

• when gametes divide allows for sections of chromosomes to swap DNA

  • This allows for some chromosomes that parents pass on to be different from their own

endophenotypes

are the unobservable intermediate aspects of phenotypes that influence our behavior. They mediate the pathways between genes and behavior

regulatory genes

Genes involved in the expression of one or more genes

• External factors can also change gene activity

alleles

different forms of genes - they influence the same trait or characteristic but have different contributions to developmental outcomes

____ chromosomes have more to do with genes than ___ do

x , y

polygenic inheritance

 many different genes contribute to any given phenotypic outcome

norm of reaction

amount of potential genetic and environmentally that allows people to reach their full potential

phenylketonuria

disorder related to a defective recessive gene on chromosome 12 

• When people get the gene from both parents they cannot metabolize an amino acid in many foods and in aspartame

  • If they eat this amino acid over time it can cause impaired brain development and intellectual disabilities

MAOA

activity moderates relationship between maltreatment and antisocial behavior 

• If you got less active gene of MAOA and if you did not get a more active allele then you would have less of a change of showing antisocial behavior 

  • Shows how some people are abused do not become antisocial but others do express antisocial behavior 

  • Women are a lot less likely to have the gene - 1 in 4 chances 

rGE

gene environment correlation

Passive rGE

biological parents give offspring their genes and environments into which are (typically) born

• Parents like music and have instruments in the house and maybe the kids also happen to have good pitch = musically inclined kids

evocative rGE

child evokes particular response from his/her environment 

active rGE

niche picking children choose their own environment which then influences their phenotypic expression 

• You wont choose to live with a lot of people if you are quiet 

  • Your naturally shy nature means you wont out yourself into crowded situations

methylation

• silencing gene expression

  • Methyl molecules block transcription in the promoter region of the gene and turn it off  

  • The level of stress people experience changes the levels of genes that were methylated 

behavioral geneticists

try to differentiate genetic and environmental contributions by comparing population

1. Genetic factors are important

   1. genotypically similar people should be phenotypically similar 

2. Environment is important

   1. people reared together should be more similar than people reared apart 

quantitative genetics research design

Use stats to study “naturally occurring genetic and environmental variation” in pops via comparing phenotypes who have different genomic DNA

family study,twin study, chorionicity, adoption study, heritability

family study

studies whether phenotypic traits are correlated with the degree of genetic relatedness

1. Higher for more closely related individuals

2. Higher for individuals who share the same environment

twin study

design is specialized to see identical (MZ) twins and same sex fraternal (DZ) twins 

• Fraternal twins only share 50% of their genomic DNA 

• For twins who grow up together, the degree of similarity in environment is assumed to be equal (equal environment assumption)

chorionicity

measurements of prenatal environmental similarity 

• Used when talking about how there is a difference in degree of placental sharing 

  • Questioning of the equal environments assumption 

    • Some DZ twins are treated different

Some MZ twins have differences in ______

adoption study

looking into the children’s scores on a given measure and seeing if the correlation is higher with their biological parents and siblings or their adoptive parents and siblings

heritability

statistical estimate of how much the differences in people’s genes account for differences in their phenotypic traits

• Identical twins are more similar than same sex fraternal twins

misconceptions about heritability

heritability estimate applies ONLY to a particular population living in a particular environment 

• Also it is influenced by context in which trait is measured 

• Heritability estimates can change as a function of developmental factors 

• High heritability does not imply immutability

DNA variation renders behavioral variation

• Molecular behavioral geneticists examine specific DNA sequences to identify mechanisms that link genes and behavior

• DNA based methods now permit the analysis of genetic influences in large samples of unrelated individuals

sex linked inheritance

• Some conditions are only cared on X chromosomes and are more common in males 

  • Genetic females only inherit certain conditions if they inherit culprit recessive alleles on both their X chromosomes

chromosomal anomalies

Errors with germ cell division and the zygote has more or less chromosomes

gene anomalies

• Extra, missing, or abnormal genes

  • More deletions means more impairment

unidentified genetics basis

Many genes are suspected to cause things but for disorders like autism, there is not a certain genetic cause

Genome Wide association studies (GWAS)

are used to try link multiple DNA segments with particular traits 

Genome wide complex trait analysis (GCTA)

 tries to use genetic resemblance across large groups to tease apart aspects of genes and environment that are confounded within families 

• Also allow for determining whether the same genes are implicated in measures of a particular trait across development

competition theory

 when siblings are raised in same family it can make them more different intentionally 

• Competing with one another (principle of divergence, or specialization in different niches)

behavior genetic

 look at heritability traits that are also affected by environmental and genetic factors 

what causes siblings to be different

Compeitition theory

timing of birth and treatment by others 

Families are comparison machines - “look how nicely your brother eats his veggies, why are there so many left on your plate?”

Heritability estimates rarely exceed ____%

50

environmental effects

Shared environment: growing up in same family, genetic relatedness

Nonshared environments: nonshared experiences (inside or outside family)

• Birth order, parenting experience

Outside family factors: different peer groups, an inspiring teacher, being bullie

caveats in heritability

1. Does not tell us the difference between two different groups

2. Heritability applies only to population in particular environment

   1. In low SES we think environment is more influential

   2. In high SES we think genes are more influential 

Heritability estimates can be diff in diff environments 

____ cells form the ___ ___ around axons, which inc the speed and efficiency of information transmission

Glial cells , myelin sheath

cerebral cortex

big part of the brain that has folds and fissures and has 4 lobes

the 4 lobes of the cerebral cortex

1. occipital lobe: processing visual information

2. Temporal lobe: speech and language, as processing of emotion and auditory info

3. Parietal lobe: touch, spatial processing, and integrating info from different sensory modalities

4. frontal lobe: “executive” cognitive control - working memory, planning, decision making, inhibitory control

auditory cortex

hearing is quite acute at birth, the result of months of eavesdropping during the fetal period

visual cortex

vision is the least mature sense at birth because the fetus has nothing to see while in the womb

association areas

lie between major sensory and motor areas work to process and integrate areas

cerebral hemispheres

cortex is divided into these and sensory from one side goes into the other side and motor areas of cortex control movements on opposite side of the body

• Communicate via the corpus callosum which is connective nerve fibers between the hemispheres

• Cerebral lateralization: the two hemispheres are specialized for different modes of processing

neurogenesis

 creation of neurons via cell division

• Arborization: big inc in dendrite size and complexity that results in growth, branching, and formation of spines on the branches

• Myelination: formation of insulating myelin sheath around some axons that are the white matter 

• Synaptogenesis: process in which many neural connections are made from the formation of synapses 

  • Synaptic pruning: getting rid of neural connections that are excessive or not used 

spines

formation on dendrites of neurons that increase the capacity of dendrites to form connections with other neurons

Experience expectant plasticity

• general experiences almost all infants have by just being human

  • Less genes need to be dedicated to normal development because of this 

    • Means there is more vulnerability if they do not get the “expected” experience 

Experience dependent plasticity

•  involves specific experience that children have as a result of their particular environment 

  • Neural connections that are created and reorganized constantly

brain damage and timing

• Timing is crucial factor in ultimate impact in brain damage

• Worst time to suffer brain damage is very early during prenatal development 

• Brain can rewire if damaged early in life, when compared with damage later in life

Sensitive period: time when brain is especially sensitive to specific stimuli 

• Neural organization that occurs (or does not occur) during sensitive periods is typically irreversible

secular trends

changes in physical dev that have occurred over generations

environmental factor that can affect growth

stress, problems in home environment, abuse

Failure to thrive

a condition in which infants become malnourished and fail to grow or gain weight for no obvious medical reason 

infant feeding

• Breast milk is free from bacteria and builds child's immune system and has antibodies

• Moms have lower risk of breast cancer and type 2 diabetes

food neophobia

young children's unwillingness to eat unfamiliar foods

Nutritional behavior

development of eating crucial aspects of child development

Accommodation

process by which people improve their current understanding in response to new experiences

Assimilation

process of incorporating incoming information into concepts they already know

constructivist

• depicts children as constructing knowledge for themselves in response to their experiences 

  • Piaget believed that generating hypotheses, performing experiments, and drawing conclusions from their observations was very important 

    • Piaget believed children need to explore and that mental and physical activity allow them to develop and construct knowledge

equilibration

process by which people balance assimilation and accommodation to create stable understanding 

1. Equilibrium - people do not see any discrepancy between their observations and their understanding of the phenomenon 

2. Disequilibrium - people see the shortcomings of their understanding of a phenomenon but do not know a better alternative

Understanding - coming to a more advanced equilibrium with more understanding of a phenomenon

Piaget’s theory

cont: we are always learning as long as we are alive

discont: distint stages of cognitive dev that are characterized by their age

• equilibration

• accomodation

• assimilation

Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development

1. Sensorimotor stage: (birth-2)

2. Preoperational: (2-7)

3. Concrete operational (7-12)

4. formal operational (12+)

sensorimotor stage (birth-2)

• Infants know the world through their senses and through their actions 

• Deferred imitation - repeating other’s behaviors later on

• reflexes - sucking, grasping

  • after first few months integrating reflexes helps

• they get object permanence after a few months

preoperational (2-7)

• Ability to internally represent the world through language and mental imagery. they also begin to see the world from other people's perspectives not just their own 

• Symbolic representation - use of one object to stand for another 

• Egocentrism - perceiving the world solely from one’s own view 

• Concentration - focusing on a single, perceptually striking feature of an object or event, disregarding other relevant features 

• Conservation concept - changing the appearance or arrangement of objects does not necessarily change other key properties such as the quantity 

Concrete operational (7-12)

Children become able to think logically, not just intuitively. They now can understand that events are often influenced by multiple factors, not just one

operations are concrete:

• applied to info children can perceive directly

• work poorly with abstract ideas

Formal operational (12+)

• Adolescents can think systematically and reason about what might be, as well as what is. this allows them to understand politics, ethics, and alternative political and ethical systems, as well as to engage in scientific reasoning 

• Piaget believed this stage was not universal and not everyone reaches this stage

weaknesses of Piaget’s theories

1. Vague about mechanisms that give rise to thinking and produce cognitive growth 

2. Infants and young children are more cognitively competent than he recognized

3. Understates the contribution of the social world to cognitive development

4. Stage model depicts children's thinking as being more consistent than it is

joint attention

process in which social partners focus on the same external object, which particularly involved with language development (a parent tells a child the name of an object when pointing at it)

intersubjectivity

mutual understanding that people share during comm

sociocultural theory - Lev Vygotsky

Approaches that emphasize that people and the surrounding culture contribute to dev

Continuous 

• intersubjectivity

• joint attention

• social scaffolding

• autobiographical memories

autobiographical memories

memories of experiences including thoughts and emotions. Parents use scaffolding to help children develop autobiographical memories 

social scaffolding

a process in which a more competent person provides a temporary framework that supports the child’s thinking at a higher level than children could manage on their own

three steps to thought processing

1. private speech (talking through problem solving out loud)

2. parents help children understand and problem solve

3. private speech becomes whispers or silent movments then eventually just internal thought

Piaget believed that classrooms should be focused around

the student

Vygotsky believed that classrooms should include

peer to peer interactions and tutors

zone of proximal development

idea that instruction should be within what the child can learn with aid from an adult, but cant learn on their own

cultural tool

 idea that not only people but many products of our ingenuity influence us 

• symbol systems, manufactured objects, skills, values, etc

Working memory

involves actively attending to, maintaining, and processing information

• Limited in capacity and length of time it can be maintained in an active state without updating (repeating them out loud)

  • Capacity and speed of WM inc during infancy, childhood, and adolescence

fostering executive function

• parental sensitivity and scaffolding

• cultural tools with adult guidance and planning

• poverty negatively affects executive function because of maladaptive parenting practices and chronic stress

Long term memory

knowledge people accumulate over their lifetime 

• increasingly more elaborate and better organized

• new info in area of expertise is more meaningful and easier to store and retrieve

• free working memory for reasoning and problem solving

overlapping wavelength

individual kids use a variety of approaches to solve problems 

• Accurately characterizes children problem solving abilities in many contexts 

• We learn new strategies that are more efficient and we choose different strategies depending on the situation and problem 

problem solving is more successful in children when they ______ first

plan

encoding

• is the representation in memory of specific feature of objects and events

  • Less familiar process that has to do with editing memories to keep the selective important parts. We do not encode most information and if it is not encoded we do not remember it 

memory rehearsal (early grade school)

repeating info many times to remember it 

selective attention

intentionally focusing on the most relevant information to the current goal

information processing theories

theories that focus on the structure of cognitive systems and the mental activities used to deploy attention and memory to solve problems

• continuous development that happens at different ages on different tasks

• task analysis

• computer simulation

• active problem solving

• memory

• executive functioning

• encoding, rehearsal, selective attention