unit 2 fetal development and stuff for psy 244

Oocytes

cells in ovaries that will become eggs

Cryptic female choice

hidden process through which females influence which sperm fertilizes the egg

Teratogens

external agents that can cause damage or death during prenatal development

Types of teratogens

alcohol, drugs, environmental pollutants, maternal disease

Dose-response relation

greater exposure to teratogens can cause more severe effects

Sensitive period

period during development when exposure to a teratogen can have particularly strong effects

Developmental origins of health and disease

DOHaD

DOHaD hypothesis

prenatal nutrition and stress can program long-term health

Epigenetics

changes that affect gene expression without changing the underlying DNA sequence

Dutch Hunger Winter

prenatal exposure to severe famine and maternal malnutrition was associated with increased risks of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease later in life

Motor babbling

spontaneous fetal movement, not caused by external stimulation

Fetus visual preferences

fetuses prefer face-like patterns; the study had low construct validity

Language learning

fetuses are primed for their native language, suggesting they learn language before birth

Music exposure

repeatedly hearing a song before birth showed stronger neural responses to it after birth

EGG hypothesis

hypothesis that birth occurs when fetal energy needs exceed what can be supplied during pregnancy

Obstetrical dilemma

evolutionary conflict between bipedalism and big brains

Issue of bipedalism

upright walking influences pelvic shape, while large-brained babies have large heads that must pass through the birth canal

Bipedalism

the ability or habit of moving, walking, standing, or running on two legs rather than four

Vascularized placenta

human placenta has many blood vessels

Invasive placenta

implants deep in the uterine wall and accesses the maternal blood supply

Vascular remodeling

fetal cells help widen maternal blood vessels to increase blood flow to the placenta

Pre-eclampsia

dangerous pregnancy complication involving very high maternal blood pressure

Secondary altriciality

humans are born relatively immature compared to other great apes and require substantial development after birth

Fontanelle

soft gaps between the bones of an infant's skull

Purpose of fontanelle

allows flexibility during childbirth and early brain growth; soft spots close during early childhood

Partanen et al

studied prenatal learning with music before birth

Precocial animals

animals who are relatively developed and mobile soon after birth

Altricial animals

animals born underdeveloped, requiring a lot of caretaking

Fourth trimester

first three months after birth, when the baby continues adjustment and development and requires a lot of support

Two reasons why humans are born immature

the brain needs a lot of energy that the placenta cannot support, and the baby's large head needs to fit through the mother's birth canal, which is smaller due to a pelvis adapted for walking upright

Sensation

processing information from the external world through sensory receptors, such as the eyes and ears

Perception

organizing and interpreting sensory information to understand the world

Components of vision

visual acuity, color perception, visual scanning, object perception

Visual acuity

the sharpness or clarity of vision

Cones

cells responsible for color vision and detailed vision

Rods

cells important for vision in low-light conditions

Trichromatic vision

humans have three types of cones

S-cones

blue; short wavelengths

M-cones

green; medium wavelengths

L-cones

red; long wavelengths

Scotomas

blind-spot patches where the optic nerve leaves the eye; the brain fills in the space using surrounding information

Color blindness

condition where one or more cone types are missing or do not function normally, making certain colors harder to distinguish

Visual scanning

moving the eyes to explore the environment and locate objects

Saccades

jerky eye movements that help scan the visual field quickly

Smooth pursuit

smooth eye movements that continuously follow a moving object

Retinal disparity

the brain compares images from both eyes; the difference helps the brain estimate depth

Motion parallax

when you move, nearby objects appear to shift relative to farther objects, providing information about depth

Infant auditory development

hearing develops before birth, and auditory sensitivity continues maturing after birth

Taste development

infants prefer sweet and salty tastes and dislike sour and bitter tastes, which may discourage eating potentially harmful substances

Smell development

newborns can recognize familiar scents, including their mother's scent

Reflexes

automatic, organized patterns of action that occur in response to particular stimuli

Grasping reflex

when a newborn's palm is touched, their hand closes around it; this may have an evolutionary role in holding onto caregivers

Rooting reflex

newborns turn their head and open their mouths in the direction of a touch, helping them latch onto a nipple

Motor development

development of movement and control over the body

Alloparenting

care provided to an infant by individuals other than the mother

Cooperative breeding

offspring receive care from both parents and non-parent caregivers

Face perception

ability to detect, process, and recognize faces

Prosopagnosia

condition in which a person has difficulty recognizing faces; face blindness

Perceptual narrowing

ability to perceive commonly encountered stimuli becomes more specialized, while sensitivity to less familiar distinctions decreases

Newborn gaze recognition

newborns can distinguish direct and averted gaze

Pointing

important way infants can communicate information and direct another person's attention before they can speak

Biological motion

movement patterns associated with living organisms

Infant-directed speech

higher pitch and elongated vowels; preferred over adult-directed speech

Infant-directed song

songs carry social meaning, especially when learned from a parent

Goal-directed action

action performed to achieve a particular goal, such as reaching for a specific toy

Johnson et al

studied newborns' face preferences

Pascalis et al

studied perceptual narrowing of faces

Pascalis et al findings

younger infants can distinguish human and monkey faces, while older infants show more specialized discrimination of human faces

Farroni et al

studied direct versus averted gaze

Farroni et al findings

2–5-day-old newborns could distinguish direct from averted gaze

Liszkowski et al

studied infant pointing

Liszkowski conditions

joint attention, event, face, and ignore

Liszkowski et al findings

infants point to share interest socially, not just to request an object

Simion et al

studied biological motion

Woodward

studied goal directed action

Woodward findings

infants looked longer when the adult grasped a new toy than when the adult used a new movement path to reach the familiar toy

Warneken et al

studied prosocial helping

Call et al. (2004)

chimpanzees behaved differently when a human was unwilling or unable to give them food, suggesting sensitivity to intentions

Theory of mind

organized understanding of how mental processes, such as intentions, desires, beliefs, perceptions, and emotions, influence behavior

Components of theory of mind

visual perspective taking, understanding desires, understanding intentions, and understanding beliefs

Visual perspective taking

understanding that people can have different points of view

Understanding desires

recognizing that other people's actions stem from their desires

Understanding intentions

recognizing what someone plans or intends to do, regardless of the outcome

Understanding beliefs

recognizing that people can have false beliefs that differ from reality

False-belief task

task that tests whether someone understands that a person's belief can differ from reality and their own knowledge

Development of the false-belief task

4–5-year-olds pass the verbal version, while 3-year-olds struggle

Knowledge

information someone has about reality

Belief

information about what someone thinks is true, which may or may not match reality

Ignorance

someone lacks information about something

False belief

someone believes something that differs from reality

Representations

a mental model of the world

Meta-representations

a representation about another representation

Recursion

a process that refers back onto itself, allowing representations to exist within other representations

Second-order theory of mind

understanding that "A thinks that B thinks"; emerges around ages 5–7

Common knowledge

shared understanding that everyone in a group knows something and everyone knows that the others know it

Onishi and Baillargeon

studied false-belief task in infants looking in violation-of-expectation

Hare et al

studied chimpanzees may understand that another chimpanzee lacks information without necessarily understanding it as a false belief

Causality

the relationship between cause and effect

Hume on causality

causal connections link separate events together, helping us understand the world as a connected whole

Associative learning

learning that two events or stimuli occur together, without understanding the underlying causal mechanisms