PSY 333D exam 1: READINGS

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 3

Chapter 3

Challenges to Piaget ______: Piaget seems to have under- estimated the cognitive abilities of infants and young chil- dren, although he emphasized that he was more interested in understanding the sequences of changes than the specific ages at which they occur (Lourenco & Machado, 1996). When researchers use more familiar problems than Piaget's and simplify the tasks to their essentials, hidden competencies of young children—and of adolescents and adults—are some- times revealed. What should we make of these earlier compe- tencies when task demands are reduced? It may be that Piaget failed to distinguish between competence and performance. There is an important difference between understanding a concept (competence) and passing a test designed to measure it (performance). Piaget may have been too quick to assume that children who failed one of his tests lacked competence; they may only have failed to demonstrate their competence in a particular situation. Perhaps more importantly, Piaget may have overemphasized the idea that knowledge is an all-or- nothing concept (Schwitzgebel, 1999). Instead of having or not having a particular competence, children probably gain competence gradually and experience long periods between not understanding and understanding. Indeed, many of the seemingly contradictory results of studies using Piagetian tasks can be accounted for with this idea of gradual change in understanding (Miller, 2016 __________: According to Piaget, each new stage of cognitive development is a coherent mode of thinking applied across a range of prob- lems. Piaget emphasized the consistency of thinking within a stage and the difference between stages. Yet individuals are often inconsistent in their performance on different tasks that presumably measure the abilities defining a given stage. This may occur because cognitive development is domain specific—that is, it is a matter of building skills in particu- lar content areas—and growth in one domain may proceed much faster than growth in another (Fischer, Kenny, & Pipp, 1990). In addition, the transitions between stages are not swift and abrupt, as most of Piaget's writings suggest, but are often lengthy (over several years) and subtle. It is not always clear when a child has made the shift from one set of cognitive structures to a more advanced set of structures. Thus, research findings have cast serious doubts on the idea that stages can adequately describe development (Barrouillet, 2015). ______: Many critics have noted that Piaget did a better job of describing develop- ment than of explaining how it comes about (Bruner, 1997; Miller, 2016). To be sure, Piaget wrote extensively about his interactionist position on the nature-nurture issue and did as much as any developmental theorist to tackle the question of how development comes about. Presumably, humans are always assimilating new experiences in ways that their level of maturation allows, accommodating their thinking to those experiences, and reorganizing their cognitive structures into increasingly complex modes of thought. Yet this explanation is vague. Researchers need to know far more about how spe- cific maturational changes in the brain and specific kinds of experiences contribute to important cognitive advances. A good theory needs to be able to explain and predict the course of cognitive development, something that Piaget's theory struggles to accomplish. ______: Some critics say Piaget paid too little attention to how children's minds develop through their social interac- tions with more competent individuals and how they develop differently in different cultures (Karpov, 2005). Piaget's child often resembles an isolated scientist exploring the world alone, but children develop their minds through interactions with parents, teachers, peers, and siblings. True, Piaget had interesting ideas about the role of peers in helping children adopt other perspectives and reach new conclusions (see Chapter 13 on moral development). But he did not believe that children learned much from their interactions with adults. This may seem counterintuitive, but Piaget believed that children see other children, but not adults, as "like them- selves." Hearing a different perspective from someone like oneself can trigger internal conflict, but hearing a perspec- tive from someone different from oneself may not be viewed as a challenge to one's current way of thinking because the person—and their views—are simply too different. Thus, in Piaget's model, no notable cognitive disequilibrium, and therefore little cognitive growth, occurs from children inter- acting with adults. As you will see shortly, the significance of social interaction and culture for cognitive development is the basis of the perspective on cognitive development offered by one of Piaget's early critics, Lev Vygotsky.

Underestimating young minds Wrongly claiming that broad stages of development exist Failing to adequately explain development Giving limited attention to social influences on cognitive development

How do concrete and formal operational thinkers approach a task like the pendulum problem? -The _________ operator is likely to jump right in without much planning, using a ________ approach. They are unlikely to solve the problem. -The _______ operational thought involves being able to think systematically about hypothetical ideas and mastering the __________ reasoning.

concrete trial and error formal hypothetical-deductive

Continuity-Discontinuity Do you believe that humans change gradually, in ways that leave them not so different from the way they were before, or do you believe humans change abruptly and dramatically? The _______ issue focuses in part on whether the changes people undergo over the life span are gradual or abrupt. ________ theorists view human development as a process that occurs in small steps, without sudden changes, as when grade school children gradually gain weight from year to year. _________ theorists tend to picture the course of development as more like a series of stair steps, each of which elevates the individual to a new (and often more advanced) level of functioning. When an adolescent boy rapidly shoots up 6 inches in height, gains a bass voice, and grows a beard, the change seems discontinuous The continuity-discontinuity issue also concerns whether changes are quantitative or qualitative in nature. _______ changes are changes in degree and indicate continuity: a person grows taller, knows more vocabulary words, gains more wrinkles, or interacts with friends less frequently. Or there is continuity when people stay much the same. By contrast, ______ changes are changes in kind and suggest discontinuity. They are changes that make the individual fundamentally different in some way. The transformations of a caterpillar into a butterfly rather than just a bigger caterpillar, of a nonverbal infant into a toddler who uses language, or of a prepubertal child into a sexually mature adolescent are examples of qualitative changes. Discontinuity theorists often propose that people progress through ____________. A stage is a distinct phase of development characterized by a particular set of abilities, motives, emotions, or behaviors that form a coherent pattern. Development is said to involve transitions from one stage to another, each stage being qualitatively different from the stage before or the stage after. Thus, the adolescent may be able to grasp abstract concepts like human rights and justice in a way that the school-aged child can- not, or the middle-aged adult may be said to be concerned with fundamentally different life issues or conflicts than the young adult or older adult

continuity-discontinuity Continuity discontinuity quantitive qualitative developmental

Which method? Largely because it is unethical to manipulate people's lives, most developmental research is correlational rather than experimental. The _________ generally involves determining whether two or more variables are related in a systematic way. Researchers do not randomly assign participants to treatment con- ditions and manipulate the independent variable as in an experi- ment. Instead, researchers take people as they are and attempt to determine whether there are relationships among their experi- ences, characteristics, and developmental outcomes. What does this method use? we cannot draw firm _______ conclusions the way we can in an experiment.

correlational method correlational coefficient cause/effect

What is genetically informed research? Tries to determine whether there are genetic explanations for apparent __________ and establish more firmly whether environment matters.

environmental effects

One special pattern that has garnered much attention from researchers is the human face. Detecting faces from nonfaces and discriminating familiar from nonfamiliar faces are critical skills in successfully navigating the social world. Imagine the possible consequences, for example, if an infant was unable to detect the difference between a face and a balloon, or was unable to identify his mother's face from among the many faces that appear in his visual field each day. -Infants truly perceive a meaningful face (ex. Their mother's face) by 2-3 months of age. Soon after birth, young infants prefer to look at schematic drawings of faces rather than other patterned stimuli Newborns can distinguish a human face from a monkey face Cant tell action & recognize face As infants gain ______ with different objects, their attention is drawn to certain objects not only because they have certain physical properties, but also because their forms are recognized as familiar. With experience comes greater expertise.

experience

Which method? _______: In an experiment, an investigator manipulates or alters some aspect of the environment to see how this affects the behavior of the sample of individuals studied this method includes: _______: Random assignment. Random assignment of participants to different experimental conditions (for example, by draw- ing names blindly to determine who gets which treatment) is critical in experiments. It helps ensure that the treatment groups are similar in all respects at the outset (for example, in the baby video study, similar in socioeconomic status, ethnicity, previous level of cognitive and language devel- opment, and any other characteristics that could affect infants' performance). Only if experimental groups are similar in all respects initially can researchers be confident that differences among groups at the end of the experiment were caused by differences in which experimental treat- ment they received. Some studies, such as those evaluat- ing already-started interventions, cannot randomly assign participants to groups; instead they compare the group receiving the intervention to a control group. Such studies are sometimes called "quasi experiments" because uncontrolled differences between the two groups could influence the results. ________: Investigators must arrange the experiences that different groups in the experiment have so that the effects of those experiences can be assessed. If investigators merely compare infants who already watch baby videos with infants who do not, they cannot establish whether video watching causes an increase in word knowledge. For example, it could be that more-educated parents buy these videos more often than less-educated parents and also talk and read more to their children ______: In a true experiment with proper experimental control, all factors other than the independent variable are controlled or held constant so that they cannot contribute to differences among the treatment groups. In a laboratory study, for example, all experimental groups may be tested in the same room by the same experimenter read- ing the same instructions. It is hard in a field experiment like DeLoache's, where the experimental conditions are imple- mented in children's homes by their parents, to control all extraneous factors. However, DeLoache and her colleagues asked parents to keep a log of their use of the video (or of the time they spent teaching vocabulary words if they were in the parent teaching condition). This allowed the experiment- ers to check that parents were following instructions and not using other materials or departing from the study plan. They were trying their best to ensure that infants in the four treat- ment conditions were treated similarly except for the type of training they received

experimental method random assignment manipulation of the independent variable experimental control

-__________ is more developed than vision at birth. Infants can distinguish among speech sounds and recognize familiar sound patterns such as their mother's voice soon after birth.

hearing

Piaget Contributions Piaget is a giant in the field of __________. Piaget asked fundamentally important _______ about how humans come to know the world and showed that we can answer them "by paying attention to the small details of the daily lives of our children". His cognitive developmental perspective has been applied to almost every aspect of human development, and the important questions he raised continue to guide the study of cognitive development. Thus, his theory has undoubtedly stimulated much research in the decades following its creation Piaget showed us that infants and children are _____ in their own development—that from the start they seek to master problems and to understand the incomprehensible by using the processes of assimilation and accommodation to resolve their cognitive dis- equilibrium. Piaget taught us that young people think ______ than older people do—and often in ways we never would have suspected. Piaget was largely right in his basic description of ___________. The sequence he proposed—sensorimotor to preoperational to concrete operations to formal operations—seems to describe the general course and content of intellectual development for chil- dren and adolescents from the many cultures and subcultures that have been studied

human development questions active differently cogntive development

What are the indicators of emerging adulthood according to Arnett? 1. explore their _________ 2. lead _______ lives filled with job changes, new relationships, and moves 3. are ________, relatively free of obligations to others, and therefore free to focus on their own psychological needs 4. feel ____________ adult like in some ways but not others; and • 5. believe they have ________ possibilities ahead.

identities unstable self-focused in-between limitless

What are the 4 ways in which researchers respect the rights of participants? 1. Allowing them to freely give their ________ 2. ________ them afterward if they are not told everything in advance or are deceived 3. Protecting them from ____ 4. Treating any information they provide as _______

informed consent debriefing harm confidential

Baltes' 7 assumptions of 'today's' lifespan perspective 1. Development is a _________ process: Today's developmentalists appreciate that human development is not just "kid stuff," that we change throughout the life span. They also believe that development in any period of life is best seen in the context of the whole life span. For instance, our understanding of adolescent career choices is bound to be richer if we concern ourselves with how those choices took shape during childhood and whether and how they affect adult career development and success. 2. Development is _____: i To many pioneers of its study, development was a universal process leading in one direction—toward more "mature" functioning. Today's developmentalists recognize that different capacities show different patterns of change over time. For example, some intellectual abilities peak in adolescence while others do not peak until a person's 40s or 50s; some decline in late adult- hood, some don't change much, and some, such as command of vocabulary, continue to improve 3. Development involves both _______: Building on the theme that development is multidirectional and that it is not all gain in childhood and loss in old age, Baltes maintained that both gain and loss are evident in each phase of the life span. Moreover, he believed that gain inevitably brings with it loss of some kind, and loss brings gain—that gain and loss occur jointly. Examples? As infants become more able to discriminate the sounds of the language they hear spoken around them, they lose their ability to discriminate sounds used in other lan- guages of the world (Werker et al., 2012; and see Chapter 6). Similarly, choosing to hone certain skills in one's edu- cation or career often means losing command of other skills 4. Development is characterized by a lifelong ____: Plasticity refers to the capacity to change in response to experience, whether positive or negative. Developmental scholars have long appreciated that child development can be damaged by a deprived environment and optimized by an enriched one. It is now understood that this plasticity continues into later life—that the aging process is not fixed but rather can take many forms depending on the individual's environment and experiences. For example, older adults can maintain or regain some of their intellectual abilities and even enhance them with the help of physical exercise, a mentally and socially active lifestyle, or training designed to improve specific cognitive skills (Hertzog et al., 2009; Park et al., 2014; and see Chapter 9). Such cognitive benefits are rooted in neuroplasticity, the brain's remarkable ability to change in response to experience throughout the life span 5. Development is shaped by its ____ context: This theme was illustrated in Section 1.1 of this chapter and is illustrated beautifully by the pioneering work of Glen Elder and his colleagues. They researched how the Great Depression of the 1930s affected the later life courses and development of the era's children and ado- lescents (Elder, 1998; Elder, Liker, & Cross, 1984). This work gives us insights into the many effects of the eco- nomic crisis called the Great Recession that began in 2008 (see Chapter 15). A few years after the stock market crashed in 1929, one of three workers was unemployed and many families were tossed into poverty. Although many fami- lies survived the Great Depression nicely, this economic crisis proved to be especially difficult for children if their out-of-work and demoralized fathers became less affection- ate and less consistent in disciplining them. When this happened, children displayed behavior problems and had low aspirations and poor records in school. They turned into men who had erratic careers and unstable marriages and women who were seen by their own children as ill tempered. Adolescents generally fared better than children did. Less dependent on their parents than children, ado- lescents were pushed into working to help support their families and developed a strong sense of responsibility from their experience. No question about it: Our development is shaped by how our lives play out over time in the social contexts and historical times in which we develop 6. Development is ______ influenced: Today's developmental scientists believe that human development is the product of nature and nurture, of many interacting causes both inside and outside the person, and both biological and environmental (see Chapter 3). It is the often unpredictable outcome of ongoing interactions between a changing person and her changing world 7. Development must be studied by _______: Because human development is influenced by every- thing from biochemical reactions to historical events, it is impossible for one discipline to have all the answers. A full understanding of human development will come only when many disciplines, each with its own perspectives and tools of study, join forces. Not only psychologists but also biologists, neuroscientists, historians, economists, sociologists, anthro- pologists, and many others have something to contribute to our understanding. Some universities have established inter- disciplinary human development programs that bring mem- bers of different disciplines together to forge more integrated perspectives on development.

lifelong multidirectional gains and lose plasticity historical-cultural multiple multiple disciplines

The genome project Through the federally funded Human Genome Project, completed in 2003, researchers ____________________ of the chemical units or "letters" that make up the strands of DNA in a full set of 46 human chromosomes The human genome has about 3.1 billion of the chemical constituents A, C, G, and T. However, it turns out that only about 3% of the human genome consists of what has traditionally been defined as genes: stretches of DNA that are transcribed into RNA (ribonucleic acid), which then serves as a template for the production of particular proteins. The remaining stretches of DNA were at first called "junk DNA," but it soon became clear that they are not junk at all. These other segments of DNA play critical roles in regulating the activity of genes, helping to choreograph, along with environmental influences, how genes turn on and off in different types of cells at different times. Through such studies, researchers are gaining new insights into how the human species ______ and how humans are similar to and different from one another

mapped the sequence evolved

How do meiosis and mitosis differ ________: cell division that results in four daughter cells each with half the number of chromosomes of the parent cell (___). ( ) _______ : a cell divides to produce two identical cells, each containing the same __ chromosomes. (_______)

meiosis 23 ; gametes mitosis 46; somatic

When a woman becomes emotionally aroused, her glands secrete powerful hormones such as adrenaline (also called epi- nephrine) that may cross the placental barrier and enter the fetus's bloodstream. At the least, these hormones temporarily increase the fetus's ________. A temporarily stressful experience such as fall- ing or receiving a scare will generally not damage mother or fetus. It is only when a mother experiences prolonged and severe emotional stress and anxiety during her pregnancy (as a result, for example, of the death of her husband, chronic illness of another child, or unemployment) that long-lasting damage may be done. The most immediate effects on the fetus are a faster and more irregular _______ and stunted prenatal growth, which can lower birth weight, cause premature birth, and lead to birth complications Following birth, babies whose mothers had been highly stressed during pregnancy tend to be smaller, more active, more irritable, and more prone to crying than other They may experience delays in cognitive development, exhibit greater fearfulness as young children, and have higher rates of depression at age 11 Finally, severe maternal stress during the first trimester has been linked to an increased likelihood of develop- ing schizophrenia, a serious mental disorder whose symptoms typi- cally emerge in adolescence or early adulthood

motor activity heart rate

________: Among college students, about half of their time on the Internet is spent multitasking (Judd, 2013; Moreno et al., 2012). Terry Judd (2013) monitored computer sessions of students in an open computer laboratory and found that only 10% of the ses- sions were focused on a single task. When students are required to bring a laptop to class, presumably for course-related edu- cational reasons, the majority of students use email and access unrelated material through the browser, and some spend time instant messaging (Kraushaar & Novak, 2010). Students sur- veyed about their multitasking during class report engaging in a wide range of additional behaviors, including texting (50% of students), working on other course work (18%), eating (26%), posting to Facebook (25%), instant messaging (13%), and listen- ing to music (7%). These percentages are significantly higher when students are asked to report on their multitasking during an online class (Burak, 2012). And we suspect that if students report this much multitasking during class time, they are likely engaged in at least as much multitasking when studying outside of the class. When college students text during a class lecture, they don't perform as well when tested on the lecture material as students who did not text (Ellis, Daniels, & Jauregui, 2010). The same pattern occurs when students are on a laptop during a class lecture—they do not perform as well when tested on the material (Sana, Weston, & Cepeda, 2013). What's more, students who were close by and could also see their classmate's screen during the lecture also did not do as well on the test. The relationship here is fairly clear: As multitasking increases, students' grade point averages decrease (Burak, 2012). Students who multitask while reading or studying for a class take longer to complete their assignments. Their perceived study time, there- fore, may be longer than their actual study time, deceiving them into thinking they have spent a sufficient amount of time studying. Dividing up our attentional resources can be risky to the learning enterprise. While we may be able to multitask two activities that are familiar and well-learned, our success at multitasking quickly disappears when the tasks are less familiar and relatively new to us (Schumacker et al., 2001). When faced with multiple pieces of information coming in for processing, our brains are forced to make some decisions about what to attend to first and what to "put on the back burner"

multi tasking

Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological Model Bronfenbrenner formulated an ecological model to describe how the environment is ______and how it affects ______. He later renamed his framework a bioecological model of development to get the "person" back into the picture and to convey how it is really the transactions between person and environment that produce development The four environmental systems that influence and are influenced by the developing person are: A _______ is an immediate physical and social environment in which the person interacts face-to-face with other people and influences and is affected by them. The primary microsystem for a firstborn infant is likely to be the family—perhaps infant, mother, and father, all reciprocally influencing one another. The developing child may also experience other microsystems, such as a day care center or peer group. We have much evidence that the family environment is an important influence on child development and have also come to appreciate the importance of other microsystems such as peer groups, schools, workplaces, and the like. ________ consists of the interrelationships between two or more microsystems. For example, teenagers from Mexican, Chinese, and European American backgrounds who experience stressful events such as arguments in the family, one microsystem, show increased problems of poor attendance and difficulty learning at school, a second microsystem (Flook & Fuligni, 2008). Similarly, problems at school can spill over to the family if adolescents take their bad moods home with them. For any developing person, what happens in one microsystem can have implications, good or bad, for what happens in another microsystem—and for development. ________ involves social settings that individuals do not experience directly but that can still influence their development. For example, children can be affected by their parents' experiences of stress at work, by how strong their parents' social support network is, or by what kind of neighborhood they live in. They can also be affected by a decision by the local school board to eliminate health education from the curriculum or a decision by the police department to enforce underage drinking laws more aggressively. _________ is the larger cultural or societal context in which the microsystem, mesosystem, and exosystem are embedded. It includes a society's cultural values, laws, politi- cal and economic systems, and institutions. To illustrate, although the United States has a high standard of living, it is not a very family-friendly cultural environment in many ways, as Bronfenbrenner himself often lamented (Bronfen- brenner & Morris, 2006). For example, modern nations typi- cally offer paid leave from work to new parents, whereas the United States is among only three countries in the world out of 185 countries reporting that do not; the others are Oman and Papua New Guinea (International Labor Organization, 2014). Policies regarding paid family leave to care for sick children or ailing parents, affordable child care, and flexible work hours are also far behind those of other countries and have negative implications for American families and their children (Schulte, 2014). In addition to the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem levels, Bronfenbrenner introduced the concept of the ______ to capture the idea that people and their environments and the relations between the two change over time and unfold in particular patterns or sequences. This time dimension captures minute-by-minute changes (while learning a new skill, for example), changes during a person's life, and historical changes that may span generations. He began to call for the study of what he called _____: recurring, reciprocal interactions between the individual and other people, objects, or symbols that move development forward toward more effective functioning

organized development microsystem mesosystem exosystem macrosystem chronosystem proximal processes

Selected Behavioral Genetics Findings: Temperament and Personality As parents know well, different babies have different personalities. In trying to describe infant personality, researchers have focused on aspects of _______—tendencies to respond in predict- able ways, such as sociability and emotional reactivity, that serve as the building blocks of later personality. ______ contribute to individual differences in both early temperament and later personality t/f: Living in the same home generally does not do much to make children more similar in temperament and personality ______ environment is more influential than ____

temperament genes true nonshared;shared

A ______ is any disease, drug, or other environmental agent that can harm a developing fetus 4 generalizations: __________: The effects of a teratogenic agent are worst during this time when an organ system grows most rapidly. _________: The greater the level of exposure and the longer the exposure to a teratogen, the more likely it is that serious damage will occur. _________: Susceptibility to harm is influenced by the genetic makeup of the unborn child as well as the mother's genotype. _____: The effects of a teratogen depend on the quality of both the prenatal and the postnatal environment

teratogen critical period dosage & duration genetic makeup environment

Prenatal Detection of abnormalities Pregnant women, especially those over 35 or 40, turn to a variety of medical techniques to tell them in advance whether their babies are likely to be normal. How much can they learn? And what are the pros and cons of various prenatal diagnostic techniques? The easiest and most commonly used method is _______, the use of sound waves to scan the womb and create a visual image of the fetus on a monitor screen. Ultrasound can indicate how many fetuses are in the uterus, their sex, and whether they are alive, and it can detect genetic defects that produce visible physical abnormalities. Ultrasound is widely used even when abnormalities are not sus- pected because it is considered very safe To detect chromosome abnormalities such as Down syndrome and to determine, through DNA analysis, whether the genes for a particular single gene-pair disorder or some other genetic variation are present, ________ is used. A needle is inserted into the abdomen, a sample of amniotic fluid is withdrawn, and fetal cells that have been shed are analyzed. A risk of miscarriage exists but it is very low, mak- ing the procedure relatively safe and advisable for pregnant women over age 35. Its main dis- advantage is that it is not considered safe until the ________ week of pregnancy. __________ involves inserting a catheter through the mother's vagina and cervix (or, less commonly, through her abdomen) into the membrane called the chorion that surrounds the fetus, and then extracting tiny hair cells from the chorion that contain genetic material from the fetus. Sample cells are then analyzed for the same genetic conditions that can be detected using amniocentesis. The difference is that chorionic villus sampling can be performed as early as the _____ week of pregnancy. The risks of CVS are only slightly greater than those of amniocentesis. _________ has been used for a number of years to test the mother's blood for various chemicals that can indicate abnormalities in the fetus. However, now it can also be used to obtain loose embryonic DNA that has slipped through the placenta into the mother's blood—DNA that can then be analyzed for chromosome abnormalities and genetic diseases with no risk at all to the fetus. Methods for detecting Down syndrome with high accuracy at around 9 or 10 weeks after conception are now available. Maternal blood sampling of fetal DNA has the tremendous advantages of being noninvasive and usable early in the pregnancy, but it is normally followed up with amniocentesis or CVS to be 100% certain. ______: Finally, parents who know they are at high risk to have a baby with a serious condition can minimize their risk through preimplantation genetic diagnosis. This involves fertilizing a mother's eggs with a father's sperm in the laboratory using in vitro fertilization (IVF) techniques (see Chapter 4), conducting DNA tests on the first cells that result from mitosis of each fertilized egg, and implanting in the mother's uterus only eggs that do not have chromosome abnormalities or genes associated with disorders . Although costly, this option may appeal to couples who would not consider abortion but do not want to have a child with a serious defect. **THESE HAVE ETHICAL RED FLAGS**

ultrasound amniocentesis; 15th chorionic villus sampling; 10th Maternal Blood Sampling preimplamantation genetic diagnosis

_______: -Developments take place over time through a "self-organizing" process in which children use the sensory feedback they receive when they try different movements to modify their motor behavior in adaptive wats.

Motor Skills as Dynamic Action Systems

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER TWO

Does the ability to perceive the world around us depend solely on innate biological factors, or is this ability acquired through experi- ence and learning? ___________, including Jean Piaget who was introduced in Chapter 2 and will be further discussed in Chapter 7, come down on the side of nurture (Johnson & Hannon, 2015). They argue that perceptions of the world are constructed over time through learning. Yes, we come equipped at birth with functioning sensory systems, but understanding the input coming in through our senses requires interacting with the environment and figur- ing out what those sensations mean (Johnson & Hannon, 2015). For instance, the retinal image of an object located 50 feet from an observer is different from the retinal image of the same object located just 10 feet from the observer. According to the constructiv- ists, we need experience with viewing objects at various distances to learn how to interpret the different retinal images that they project. With experience, we create an association between the retinal image (for example, small) and its meaning (for example, distant object). The_______ argue that perception is not created by inter- preting external input; instead, innate capabilities and maturational programs are the driving forces in perceptual development. Infants come equipped with basic sensory capabilities, which are further refined according to an innate plan. Nativists would argue that theinfant does not need experience to learn how to interpret different retinal images cast by the same object at different distances. The brain automatically understands the meaning of different retinal images created as we move about our world (for example, a small image is automatically "read" by the brain as distant object). Thus, from the nativist perspective, perception is direct—it does not require inter- pretation based on previous experience (Johnson & Hannon, 2015).

Constructivists nativist

Prenatal stages: beginning & endpoints; major developments within each stage The first trimester begins with the _______, which lasts approximately __ weeks. For the first week or two, the zygote divides many times through mitosis, forming the _______, a hollow ball of about 150 cells that is the size of the head of a pin. When the blastocyst reaches the uterus around day 6, it implants tendrils from its outer layer into the blood vessels of the uterine wall. This is quite an accomplishment; only about half of all fertilized ova are successfully implanted in the uterus. In addition, not all implanted embryos survive the early phases of prenatal development. Although estimates vary widely, somewhere between as few as 8% and as many as 50% of pregnancies are short-lived, ending in miscarriage (also called spontaneous abortion) before survival outside the womb is possible, with many of these losses occurring before the pregnancy has even been detected. Many such early losses are because of genetic defects and are, perhaps, the body's natural way of eliminating an embryo or fetus that will not survive. ____: Happens ___ to ____ week. organogenesis begins (every organ takes its primitive form). The layers of the blastocyst differentiate into the outer and interior layers. The interior layer will develop into the ectoderm, mesoderm, and endoderm. The ectoderm folds into the neural tube. From the mesoderm, a heart forms and begins to beat. Ears, mouth, and throat take shape. Arm and leg buds appear and the heart divides into two regions and the brain differentiates. The heart eventually differentiates into four chambers and sexual differentiation begins, where ovaries and testes are evident. The embryo will straighten _____: : Happens __ to ______. bones tissue emerges and the embryo becomes a fetus. It can open its mouth and turn its head. The fingers, toes, and external genitalia have developed. Movements have increased and the fetus starts showing "breathing" movements. The heartbeat becomes audible and fetal movements become noticeable to the mother. Its skeleton becomes harder. Nails, hair, teeth buds, and eyelashes grow. Critical stage for brain development. Weeks 23-25 mark the age of viability where the fetus has a chance of survival outside the womb. The fetus gains weight and its brain grows and the nervous system becomes organized. The last few week of pregnancy bring further weight gain and brain activity and the lungs mature and expand/contract

GERMINAL PERIOD 2 BLASTOCYTES embryonic 3 8 The Fetal Period 9 - birth

Activity-Passivity The ________ issue focuses on the extent to which human beings are active in creating and influencing their own environments and, in the process, in producing their own development, or are passively shaped by forces beyond their control. Some theorists believe that humans are curious, active creatures who orchestrate their own development by exploring the world around them and shaping their environments. The girl who asks for dolls at the toy store and the boy who clamors instead for a toy machine gun are actively contributing to their own gender-role development. Both the budding scientist who experiments with chemicals in the basement and the sociable adolescent who spends hours text messaging are seeking out and creating a niche that suits their emerging traits and abilities—and that further develops those traits in the process Other theorists view humans as passively shaped by forces beyond their control—usually environmental influences but possibly strong biological forces. From this vantage point, children's academic failings might be blamed on the failure of their parents and teachers to provide them with appropriate learning experiences, and the problems of socially isolated older adults might be attributed to societal neglect of the elderly

activity-passivity

Does the father's state have any influence on the quality of the prenatal environment or the outcome of a pregnancy? Unfortunately, there is not a lot of research on the father's contributions to prenatal development beyond his genetic contribution. But researchers know that the father's ____, just like the mother's, can influence development Children born to older fathers also face elevated risk of congenital heart defects, neural tube defects, and kidney problems, as well as preterm delivery and low birth weight down syndrome : young or old fathers schizophrenia

age

Nature v Nurture Is development primarily the product of nature (_________ forces) or nurture (______ forces)? As you saw in Chapter l, the nature-nurture issue has been resolved in the sense that the two forces always "co-____" to produce development. However, different theories have taken different positions on the issue and it remains centrally important in the study of human development Strong believers in ______ stress the importance of individual genetic makeup, universal maturational processes guided by genes, biologically based predispositions built into genes over the course of evolution, and other biological influences. They are likely to claim that children will typically achieve the same developmen- tal milestones at similar times because of maturational forces, that major changes in functioning associated with aging are largely bio- logically based, and that differences among individuals are largely because of differences in their genetic makeup and physiology. strong believers in ______ emphasize environment—influences outside the person. Nurture includes influences of the physical environment (crowding, climate, and the like) as well as the social environment (for example, learn- ing experiences, child-rearing methods, peer influence, societal trends, and the cultural context in which the person develops). A strong believer in nurture is likely to argue that human develop- ment can take many paths depending on the individual's experi- ences over a life

biological; environmental act nature nurture

Strengths and weaknesses Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological Model Systems theories of development are complex, but that is one of their great strengths: They capture the _______ of life-span human development. We can applaud Bronfenbrenner and like- minded theorists for conceptualizing development as the product of many biological and environmental forces interacting within a complex system and for challenging us to look closely at ongoing transactions, including proximal processes, involving person and environment (Newman & Newman, 2016). Yet systems theories can be faulted for not yet providing a _______ of the course of human development and for being only partially formulated and tested at this point (New- man & Newman, 2016). Indeed, an even more serious criticism can be made: Systems perspectives may never provide a coher- ent picture of development. Why? If we take seriously the idea that development can take any number of paths depending on a range of interacting influences both within and outside the person, how can we ever state generalizations about develop- ment that will hold up for most people? If change over a life- time depends on the ongoing transactions between a unique person and a unique environment, does each life require its own theory? The problem is this: "For the contextual or systems theorist, often the only generalization that holds is, 'It depends'" (Goldhaber, 2000, p. 33). Human development may be more predictable than Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model implies, though. When children with typical human biological endowments grow up in typical human environments, they may change in similar directions at similar ages, much as stage theorists like Piaget and Erikson maintain (Hoare, 2009; Lerner & Kauffman, 1985). Perhaps it is still possible to see humans as moving in orderly and similar directions in many aspects of their development while also appreciating the tremendous diversity of human development and the many contextual influences on it (Gold- haber, 2012):

complexity clear picture

When do researchers use concordance rates to assess the heritability of a trait? When do they use correlation coefficients? When they study traits that a person either has or does not have (for example, a smoking habit or dia- betes), researchers calculate and compare _______________— the percentage of pairs of people studied (for example, pairs of identical twins or adoptive parents and children) in which if one member of a pair displays the trait, the other does too. If concordance rates are higher for _____ genetically related than for _____ genetically related pairs of people, the trait is heritable. When a trait can be present in varying degrees, as is true of height or intelligence, ___________ rather than concordance rates are calculated. The _____ the correlation for a group of twins, the closer the resemblance between members of twin pairs.

concordance rates more; less correlation coefficients larger

What are the 3 stages of childbirth? -Stage 1: ________ occur and the cervix opens -Stage 2: After the head appears, the baby passes through the ________ -Stage 3: Expulsion of the ______

contraction vagina placenta

Which method? _______: the performances of people of different age groups, or cohorts, are compared. A cohort is a group of individuals born at the same time, either in the same year or within a specified span of years (for example, a generation is a cohort). A researcher interested in the development of vocabulary might gather samples of speech from several 2-, 3-, and 4-year- olds; calculate the mean (or average) number of distinct words used per child for each age group; and compare these means to describe how the vocabulary sizes of children age 2, 3, and 4 dif- fer. The cross-sectional study provides information about age dif- ferences. By seeing how age groups differ, researchers can attempt to draw conclusions about how performance changes with age. In cross-sectional studies, such as Tun and Lachman's, ____ effects and ____ effects are confounded, or entangled. Age effects are relationships between age (a rough proxy for changes brought about by nature and nurture) and an aspect of development. Cohort effects are the effects of being born as a member of a particular cohort or generation in a particular historical context. Cross-sectional studies tell how people of different ages (cohorts) differ, but they do not necessarily tell how people normally change as they get older. researchers learn nothing about how individuals ____ with age.

cross-sectional design age cohort change

The general idea of _________ is that environmental events and maternal conditions during pregnancy may alter the expected genetic unfolding of the embryo/fetus or reset its physiologic functions. As a result of these alterations, prenatal experience can change a person's physiology and the wiring of the brain and influence how the individual responds to postnatal events.

fetal programming

Gene/environment correlations: passive, evocative & active ______: The effects of our genes depend on what kind of environment we experience, and how we respond to the environment depends on what genes we have. The kind of home environment that parents provide for their children is influenced partly by the parents' genotypes. __________ correlations work like this: Because parents provide children with both their genes and a home environment. compatible with those genes, the home environments to which children are exposed are correlated with (and are typically likely to reinforce) their genotypes. For instance, sociable parents not only transmit their "sociable" genes to their children but also, because they have "sociable" genes themselves, create a highly social home environment—inviting their friends over, taking their children to social gatherings, and so on. The combination of genes for sociability and a sociable environment may make their children more sociable than they would otherwise be. By contrast, the child with shy parents may receive genes for shyness and a correlated environment without as much social stimulation. In ______ correlations, a child's genotype also evokes certain kinds of reactions from other people. The smiley, sociable baby is likely to get more smiles, hugs, and social stimulation—and more opportunities to build social skills—than the wary, shy baby who makes you worry he will howl if you try anything. Similarly, the sociable child may be chosen more often as a playmate by other children, the sociable adolescent may be invited to more parties, and the sociable adult may be given more work assignments involving public relations. In short, genetically based tendencies may affect the reactions of other people to an individual and, hence, the kind of environment the individual will experience through life. Finally, through _________ correlations, children's genotypes influence the kinds of environments they seek. The individual with a genetic predisposition to be extraverted is likely to go to every party in sight, invite friends over, join organi- zations, collect Facebook friends, and otherwise build a "niche" that is highly socially stimulating and that strengthens social skills. The child with genes for shyness may actively avoid large group activities and instead develop solitary interests. Scarr and McCartney (1983) suggest that the balance of the three types of genotype-environment correlations shifts during development. Because infants are at home a good deal and are dependent on their caregivers, their environment is largely influenced by their parents through passive influences. Evocative influences operate throughout life; our genetically influenced traits consistently evoke certain reactions from other people. Finally, as humans develop, they become increasingly able to build their own niches, so active gene- environment correlations become increasingly important.

gene-environment interaction Passive gene-environment evocative gene-environment active gene-environment

young infants do more than just sense the world—they come equipped with organized systems of knowl- edge, called________, which allow them to make sense of the world. From an early age, children distinguish between the domains of knowledge adults know as phys- ics, biology, and psychology. They organize their knowledge in each domain around causal principles and seem to understand that different causal forces operate in different domains (for example, that desires influence the behavior of humans but not of rocks). According to this intuitive theories perspec- tive, young infants have innate knowledge of the world, and they perceive and even reason about it much as adults do. Coming to know the physical world is then a matter of fleshing-out understandings they have had all along rather than constructing entirely new ones as they get older. All in all, it is clear that young infants know a good deal more about the world around them than anyone imagined, although they learn more every year

intuitive theories

Which method? ______: one cohort of individuals is assessed repeatedly over time. A study of the development of vocabulary would be longitudinal rather than cross-sectional if a researcher identified a group of 2-year-olds and measured their vocabulary sizes, then measured their vocabularies again at age 3 and then again at age 4, and compared the children's mean scores at ages 2, 3, and 4. In any longitudinal study, whether it covers only a few months in infancy or 50 years, the same individuals are studied as they develop. Thus, the longitudinal design provides information about age changes rather than age difference Because the longitudinal design traces changes in individuals as they age, it can tell whether most people change in the same direction or whether different individuals travel different developmental paths. And it can tell whether experi- ences earlier in life predict traits and behaviors later in life. The cross-sectional design can do none of these In a longitudinal study, then, age effects and time-of-measurement effects are confounded. Because of time-of-measurement effects, we may not know whether the age-related changes observed in a longitudinal study are generalizable to people developing in other sociohistorical contexts. It is costly and time-consuming; its methods and measures may seem outdated or incomplete by the end of the study; its participants may drop out because they move, lose interest, or die; and participants may be affected by being tested repeatedly

longitudinal design

_______: new knowledge is constructed through changes in the neural structures of the brain in response to experiences

neuroconstructivism theory

In short, older adults have their greatest difficulties in processing visual information when the situation is _________ (when they are not sure exactly what to look for or where to look) and when it is ______ (when there is a great deal of distracting information to search through or when two tasks must be per- formed at once). By contrast, they have fewer problems when they have clear expectations about what they are to do and when the task is not overly complicated

novel; complex

What is the importance of evidence-based practice? To those who are or aspire to be teachers, psychologists or counselors, nurses or occupational therapists, or other helping professionals, applied research aimed at ___________ development is especially relevant. Today's educators and human service and health professionals are being asked to engage in evidence-based practice, grounding what they do in research and ensuring that the curricula and treatments they provide have been demonstrated to be effective. We can all probably agree that we would rather have interventions of ___________ than interventions that are ineffective or even harmful.

optimizing proven effectiveness

How do the processes of maturation and learning contribute to development? Can you recognize examples of each process? _______: The growth of the body and its organs, the functioning of physiological systems including the brain, physical signs of aging, changes in motor abilities, and so on. _______: changes and continuities in perception, language, learning, memory, problem solving, other memory processes ________: Changes and carryover in personal and interpersonal aspects of development, such as motives, emotions, personality traits, interpersonal skills and relation- ships, and roles played in the family and in the larger society.

physical development cognitive development psychosocial development

The air we breathe contains numerous _______, including ozone, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulpher dioxides, and lead. Some of these originate from natural events such as volcanic eruptions, but others are by-products of fuel combustion from engines. Exposure to heavy metals, such as ____ in the air we breathe and the water we drink, is an ongoing concern. Children exposed prenatally to lead are smaller at birth and may be born preterm. _________ exposure typically results from eating certain long- lived fish such as tuna, mackerel, and swordfish that have higher levels of mercury than shorter-lived fish such as salmon. Studies looking at prenatal exposure to mercury from maternal consumption of fish suggest adverse consequences, including delayed development and memory, attention, and language problems, with the effects related to the amount of mercury exposure Finally, prenatal exposure to pesticides, dioxins, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) has also been associated with perinatal and postnatal problems

pollutants lead mercury

What are primary, secondary, and tertiary circular reactions? -_________ circular reactions: Infants repeating actions relating to their own bodies that had initially happened by ______. (Ex. Moving their tongue or fingers around) -_________ circular reactions: Infants derive ________ from repeatedly performing an action on an object. (Ex. Sucking or banging a toy) (involve the external environment) -________ circular reactions: Infants experiment in varied ways with toys, exploring them thoroughly and learning all about their properties. A true sense of curiosity and interest in novel actions appears.

primary ; chance secondary; pleasure

____: deliberately concentrating on one thing while ignoring something else Research suggests that preschool children have an adultlike ________ system but an immature _________ system of attention. Between approximately 3 1⁄2 and 4 years, there is a significant ________ in focused attention. Kathleen Kannass and John Colombo (2007) tested 3 1⁄2- and 4-year-olds while they worked on a task under one of three conditions: no distraction, constant distraction (a TV program in an unfamiliar language played continuously in the background), or intermittent distraction (the same TV program played in the background but it was frequently turned on and off as the children worked). Among the 3 1⁄2-year-olds, the two groups working with any distraction had more trouble completing their task than the group working without distraction. Among the 4-year-olds, only the group working with constant distraction had trouble finishing the task. Those working with intermittent distraction were able to stay as focused on the task as children working without distraction. Finally, the researchers found that when a distractor was present, looking away from the task led to worse performance, whereas looking away when there was no distraction did not impair performance. Selective attention continues to improve throughout childhood, with 8- to 11-year-olds better able to ignore irrelevant information and focus on what's important during an auditory task than 4- to 7-year-olds (Jones, Moore, & Amitay, 2015). Similarly, on a visual task, 8- to 10-year-olds show greater selective attention than 6-year-olds (Kovshoff et al., 2015). These findings should suggest to parents and teachers of young children that performance will be better if distractions in task materials and in the room are kept to a minimum. In particular, the presence of a continuous distractor will lead to trouble completing tasks (Kannass & Colombo, 2007). If distractions cannot be avoided, children can benefit from regular reminders to stay on task (Kannass, Colombo, & Wyss, 2010

selective attention orienting focusing increase

mechanisms of inheritance _______: each of thousands of human characteristics are influenced by only one pair of genes— one from the mother, one from the father. Although he knew nothing of genes, the 19th-century monk Gregor Mendel con- tributed greatly to our knowledge of single gene-pair inheritance and earned his place as the father of genetics by cross-breeding different strains of peas and carefully observing the outcome ______: a characteristic is influenced by single genes located on the sex chromosomes rather than on the other 22 pairs of chromosomes. Indeed, you could say X-linked rather than sex-linked because most of these attributes are associated with genes located on X but not Y chromosomes. In fact, most important human characteristics are influenced by _________—by multiple pairs of genes, interacting with multiple environmental factors, rather than by a single pair of genes. Exam- ples of polygenic traits include height, weight, intelligence, per- sonality, susceptibility to cancer and depression, and much more.

single gene inheritance sex linked polygenetic inheritance

Universality-Context Specificity Finally, developmental theorists often disagree on the universality-context specificity issue—or the extent to which developmental changes are common to all humans (_____) or are different across cultures, subcultures, task contexts, and individuals (________). Stage theorists typically believe that the stages they propose are ______. For example, a stage theorist might claim that virtually all children enter a new stage in their intellectual development as they enter adolescence or that most adults, sometime around age 40, experience a midlife crisis in which they raise major questions about their lives. From this perspective, development proceeds in certain universal directions. But other theorists believe that human development is far more varied because it is so influenced by contextual factors. Paths of development followed in one culture may be quite different from paths followed in another culture (or subculture, neighborhood, or even situational context). For example, preschool children in the United States sometimes believe that dreams are real but give up this belief as they get older. By contrast, children raised in the Atayal culture of Taiwan have been observed to become more and more convinced as they get older that dreams are real, most likely because that is what adults in their culture believe (Kohlberg, 1966b). Within a particular culture, developmental change may also differ from subcultural group to subcultural group, from family to family, and from individual to individual.

universal context specific universal

Consider this scenario: Annie, a 4-year-old, receives a jigsaw puz- zle, her first, for her birthday. She attempts to work the puzzle but gets nowhere until her father sits down beside her and gives her some tips. He suggests that it would be a good idea to put the corners together first. He points to the pink area at the edge of one corner piece and says, "Let's look for another pink piece." When Annie seems frustrated, he places two interlocking pieces near each other so that she will notice them. And when she succeeds, he offers words of encouragement. As Annie gets the hang of it, he steps back and lets her work more independently. ______ said that this kind of social interaction fosters cognitive growth. How? First, Annie and her father are operating in what Vygotsky called the zone of ________—the gap between what a learner can accomplish independently and what she can accomplish with the guidance and encouragement of a more-skilled partner. Skills within the zone are ripe for develop- ment and are the skills at which instruction should be aimed. Skills outside the zone are either well mastered already or still too difficult. In this example, Annie obviously becomes a more competent puzzle-solver with her father's help than without it. More importantly, she will internalize the problem-solving tech- niques that she discovered in collaboration with her father, work- ing together in her zone of proximal development, and will use them on her own, rising to a new level of independent mastery. What began as a social process involving two people becomes a cognitive process within one. _________: actively participating in culturally relevant activities with the aid and support of their parents and other knowledgeable guides __________: providing structure to a less skilled learner to encourage advancement

vygotsky proximal development guided participation scaffolding