week 1 lectures developmental

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what is developmental psychology?
study of development of psychological processes
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what are the 3 questions that are focused on in this course?
contribution of genetic inheritance to human development, are we passive receivers shaped by environment or active independent thinkers?, do different skills involve different unique skills or do all depend on same abilities?
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what does the person as an active independent entity assume?
person builds understanding of world by observing it and constructing knowledge
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what is an issue with the person as an active independent entity?
children can determine how they are treated (rewarded, punished)
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what does the person as a passive receiver assume?
shaped by social and cultural environment, environment can shape development by punishment, reward, explicit teaching, setting examples
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what is stimulus response psychology?
human behaviour is a response to stimuli, these responses learned by prior trial and error - experience of the outcomes that result from different responses, behavior shaped by personal external processes, it's beyond behaviourism
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what is an example of stimulus response psychology?
pavlovs dog, bell rang when food brought so associated them, salivated whenever heard bell ring
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what is skinner's experiment?
also stimulus response, skinners box, rats pressing levers to get food, would press lever more when more food being brough would press less when not getting food every time
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what are skinner's main beliefs?
our behaviour is a result of lifetime events, our behaviour is shaped by personal external processes (caregivers, cultures, teaching)
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what did tolman do?
put rats in mazes to see how they figure out how to leave the maze, assumed would be affected by the presence of food
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what were the findings of tolmans experiment?
only error after food, if hungry and given reward they will find the food very quickly. lowest when less hungry and no reward
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what is the variation of tolmans experiment?
rats were rewarded on day 11, vast improvement in finding exit, rats with experience of maze learned faster, latent learning about environment taking place without reinforcement, some learning insight based rather than shaped
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what were tolmans main ideas?
in the middle between behaviour being shaped by personal external processes and behaviour being result of personal internal processes, but our behaviour is result of lifetime events not genetics
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what is the cognitive revolution?
in 1st half of 20th century psyc dominated by stimulus response approaches,thus the field emphasised experience over genetics but saw cog revolution in 50's - more attention to cognitive processes
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what is nativism?
focus more on complex behaviours than pressing levers, suggestion that behaviours are not learned at all but are actually result of innate knowledge
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who believed in nativism?
chomsky
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what did chomsky say about language learning?
not something the child does but something that happens to child placed in an appropriate environment, much as childs body grows and matures in predetermined way when given nutrition etc
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what is the poverty of the stimulus argument?
first showed up in chomsky, states people attain knowledge of structure of their language for which no evidence is available in data to which they are exposed as children - knowledge not learned but innate
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what did spelke propose?
humans inherit core knowledge in 4 areas - objecthood, agency, number, geometry. knowledge used to guide experience based inferences and give rise to full knowledge
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what is constructivism?
rejects stimulus-response (people not passive), believes child actively constructs their own model of the world, based on experience and reflection upon experience, recognises role of genetics in shaping what a child could learn but rejects innate
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what kind of psychologist was piaget?
constructivist
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what did piaget believe?
essential functions of mind consist in understanding and in inventing, child acts as builder of world
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what are piagets 2 mechanisms that lead to change?
assimilation and accommodation
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what is assimilation?
process of fitting reality in to ones current cognitive organisation. you have certain model of world and try to explain that world in terms of your theory and and selectively process facts (top down)
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what is accommodation?
adjustments to ones cognitive organisation resulting from demands of reality
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what is equilibrium?
assim and accom have to matchand be balanced
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what did the development of vygotsky and bruner do?
put sociocultural context back in to centre of study of human development
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what was vygotsky's view on language?
language is basis of thought, it is by assuming the language of others that thought arises, culture plays v important role
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what is the zone of proximal development?
distance between actual developmental lvl as determined by independent problem solving nd level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collab with peers
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what are the key issues in prenatal development in developmental psychology?
nature nurture debate and how do neurons know where in the brain they should be projecting to
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what are the 2 historical ideas of prenatal development?
vitalists and preformationists
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what is vitalists?
ontogenetic change is driven by vital life forces
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what is ontogenetic change?
change of the indiv organism
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what is preformationists?
complete human being is contained either in male sperm or in female eggs (genetic blueprint)
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what are the 3 stages of prenatal development?
germinal, embryonic and fetal
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when is the germinal period?
from conception to week 2 (includes creation of zygote, cell division and attachment of zygote to uterine wall)
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what happens in the germinal period?
single celled ovum leaves ovary, is fertilised, goes down fallopian tube, cell division occurs (36 hours), 4 cells after 48 hours, continued cell formation of inner cell mass (4-5days), embryo attach to uterine wall (6-7), joined to it at 11-12 days
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what do we have by the end of the germinal period?
100 cells exist in blastocyst which contains embyroblasts and trophoblasts
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what is the embryblast?
the actual embryo
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what is the trophoblast?
embryo's life support system
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when is the embryonic period?
week 2 to week 8
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what happens in the embryonic stage?
organs begin to form (hearts and lungs), and the heart begins to beat
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what is the size of a human embryo at 4-5 weeks?
1/4 inch
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what is the size of a human embryo at week 8?
1 inch
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when is the fetal period?
week 9 to birth
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what happens in the foetal period?
grows from 1 inch to about 20 inches, continued development and differentiation of structures, beginning of motor and sensory behaviour (move arms, legs, fingers, smile etc)
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what sensorimotor movements can foetus' do at week 12?
move arms, legs, fingers, toes, frown and smile
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what sensorimotor movements can foetus' do at week 20?
hiccup, **** thumb
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what sensorimotor movements can foetus' do at week 28?
rudimentary breathing movements
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what sensorimotor movements can foetus' do at week 32?
respond to sounds
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when does development of the brain start?
at about 18 days after conception (after blastocyst is fully implanted)
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what is the gross neuroanatomy of prenatal brain development?
9 days after fertilisation blastocyst nearly fully implanted self in endometrium, differentiates onto embryonic disc between yolk sac and amniotic cavity, disc undergoes gastrulation and 3 layers formed in the disk
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what are the 3 layers that are formed in the embryonic disk during gastrulation?
ectoderm, mesoderm, endoderm
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what is the ectoderm?
nervous system
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what is the mesoderm?
skeletal system and muscles
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what is the endoderm?
gut and digestive organs
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what happens to the ectoderm at 16-18 days?
cells in the ectoderm thicken to form neural plate
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how is the neural tube formed?
at 18 days, groove appears in neural plate and begins to close forming neural tube, and the walls of the tube will thicken and form the neuroepithelium from which all the cells of the brain develop.
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what happens to neural tube in day 22?
begins to close, by end of 4th week completely closed
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what happens if the neural tube does not close properly?
could lead to spina bifida
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what does the neural tube develop in to?
3 main structures of the brain: forebrain, midbrain and hindbrain
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what have neural tube defects been associated with?
folic acid deficiencies
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what is the cerebral cortex in charge of?
cog functions, sensory processing
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what is the midbrain in control of?
movement
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brain growth genetic or environmental?
mostly genetically determined
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how many cells in 10th-26th week?
250,000 cells a min - have all the neocortical neurons will ever have
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how many cells in adulthood?
100 billion cells
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what is cell death?
pruning, 50-70% of brain cells initially produced are pruned in postnatal period (significant brain growth)
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what is the order of prenatal development of neurons and synapses?
genesis of neurons (cell proliferation, migration, differentiation), genesis of connections (synapse formation), elimination of cells and synapses (cell death, synapse elimination)
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what is cell labelling method?
for cell proliferation (when neurons are made), inject radioactively labelled H-thydimine, taken up by cells that exist at time, only cells that undergo division at the time will result in radioactively labelled neurons, and use autoradiographic view
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what happens in cell migration?
all neurons that form cortex arise from ventricular zone which contains precursor cells (undifferentiated cells from which neurons and glia cells are produced), the immature neurons migrate outwards away from ven zone along radial glia cell
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how does the cerebral cortex develop through migration?
immature neurons im ventricular zone divide to form cortical neurons, migrate to form cortical layers and later neurons go to more superficial layers (cortex built from inside out)
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what happens in radial glia cells in migration?
immature neurons migrate from VZ to particular cortical layer, this migration is along glia cells whose processes act as scaffold and withdraw their fibres when migration complete. cells born next to each other end up next to each other in cortex
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what happens in cell differentiation?
all neurons and glial cells come from precursor cells through cell division and differentiation, and type of neuron the cell becomes is determined at cell division (cortical protomap)
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how can it be proved that the final determination of a neuron is preprogrammed in cell differentiation?
take embryonic cell from donor animal in early development stage, and transplant in to host animal already at later developmental stage. the transplanted neuron will migrate to layer V
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what happens in synapse formation?
as neurons differentiate they extend axons that must find their appropriate target neurons to communicate, they use growth cone
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what is growth cone for?
to show neuron which neurons it should connect to and which direction the axon should grow
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what is a growth cone?
growing tip of developing axon (or dendrite)
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what does the growth cone do?
identifies appropriate path for the axon elongation
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what are pioneer axons?
axons that stretch as nervous system expands for initial establishment of connections.
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how do pioneer axons grow in to the right direction?
long trajectories are broken in to short segments, axons reach intermediate target neurons and from there sent to another intermediate target neuron. process continues until axon reached final destination
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what are growth cones guided by?
chemical cues: chemoattractants and chemorepellants (molecules that act over distance to attract/repel growing axons towards their targets
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what is the chemoaffinity hypothesis?
idea that chemical markers on growing axons are matched with complementary chemical markers on their targets to establish precise connections
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what happens in cell death?
entire populations of neurons eliminated during pathway formation. after axons have reached their target there is decline in presynaptic neurons
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what is cell death caused by?
shortage of life sustaining substances (trophic factors) that are provided in limited quantity by target cells - process of cell death produces right amount of pre and postsynaptic neurons
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what is elimination of synapses?
each neuron can receive on it's dendrites and soma a large number of synapses. then synaptic rearrangement so 50% more synapses in adult brain. more synapses and less neurons. increases specificity of neurons
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what is a critical period?
period during which the development of brain mech/organ can be influenced
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when are the critical periods in prenatal development?
most birth defects more serious in embryonic period
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what are teratogens?
substances in environment that can cause physical malfunctions during prenatal development (most damage done in embryonic period)
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