A specific period in development where an organism is most vulnerable to the deprivation of certain experiences
Critical periods have identifiable start and end times and begin and end suddenly
A brain injury or not having a particular environmental input at specific times after birth can impact the development of neural pathways and it becomes harder to correct later on in life
Experiments in animals hae shown that if one eye of the animal is closed or isn't working properly for a certain time after birth, the visual cortex fails to develop properly causing the eye to be forever blind
Imprinting is another example of a critical period in development and the behaviour was discovered by Austrian zoologist Konrad Lorenz
Imprinting is the idea that a newly born duck will attach to or imprint the first noisy moving object it encounters after birth
American psychologist Edward Ness found that if the duckling was too young or old imprinting won't take place
Psychologists have yet to identify any specific critical period for any human mental process or behaviour
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Sensitive Periods
A period of time during development when an individual is more responsive ('sensitive') to certain types of environmental experiences or learning
Outside of this period the same environmental influences need to be stronger to produce the same negative or positive effects
It's the best time to learn a certain skill or knowledge as you can learn quicker and easier
Sensitive periods indicate that brain development goes through specific periods during the time when synaptic connections and neural pathways are most easily formerd
Learning is best during this time because there is an increase in the number of synapses during synaptogenesis
Lasts for short periods of time for physical characteristics and long periods of time for psychological characteristics
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