Psych Week 3

Week 3 Lecture 6
Issues in Developmental Psychology
Nature and nurture- how do genes and experience develop over our
lifespan?
Change and stability- In what ways do we change as we change and in
what ways do we stay the same?
Continuity vs. changes- Is development gradual change or are there
some leaps to a new way of thinking or behaving
Research methods- how can we study infants and children?
I. Starting the Path to Personhood: Prenatal Development and the
Newborn
Conception- sperm and egg unite to bring genetic material together
and form one organism. The zygote- the fertilized egg
Prenatal Development
The zygote stage: first 10 to 14 days
After the nuclei of the egg and the sperm fuse, the cell divides in
2,4,8..
Milestone of the zygote stage: cells begin to differentiate into
specialized locations and structures
Implantation: the embryo, 2 to 8 weeks
This stage begins with the multicellular cluster that implants in
the uterine wall
Milestone of the implantation stage: differentiated cells develop
into organs and bones
The fetus
At nine weeks, hands and face have developed; the embryo is
now called a fetus
At 4 months, many more features develop. Milestone of the fetal
stage: by six months, the fetus might be able to survive outside
the womb
Fetal life: responding to sounds
Fetuses in womb can respond to sounds
Fetuses can learn to recognize and adapt to sounds that they
previously heard only in the womb
Fetuses can habituate to annoying sounds, becoming less
agitated with repeated exposure
Capabilities of Newborn
Reflexes
Rooting- when something touches the babys cheeks, baby look
around

 Sucking- for breastfeeding

Senses
Vision- very nearsighted in the beginning, and then have normal
vision around 1 year old
Hearing- can discern human sounds from other sounds
Taste and smell- babies like sweet, over sour and bitter
Turn heads over sweet smells
They prefer the smell of their own mothers milk| showing
preference
More inborn abilities
Newborns (one hour old) will looks twice as long at the image on the
left because it looks like a human
II. Infancy and Childhood
Infancy= newborns growing into toddlers
Childhood- toddlers growing almost into teenagers
Maturation- In psychology, maturation refers to changes that occur
primarily because of the passage of time
In developmental psychology, maturation refers to biologically driven
growth and development enabling orderly (predictably sequential)
changes in behavior
Experience (nurture) can adjust the timing, but maturation (nature)
sets the sequence
Brain Development: Building and Connecting Neurons
Prenatal number of neurons grows by about 750,000 new cells per
minute in the 2nd trimester
Beginning at birth, the connections among neurons proliferate
Growth in neural connections
Infancy in brainstem and limbic system; motor and sensory strips
Early childhood association areas
Motor development
Maturation takes place in the body and cerebellum enabling the
sequence below
Physical training generally cannot the change the timing
Cognitive Development: Jean Piaget
Viewed cognitive development as a combination of nature and nurture
Children development cognitive abilities through
Maturation and interacting/playing with the environment
Studied the errors in cognition made by children in order to understand
the ways they think differently than adults
Viewed children as inquiring scientists

 Schemas- theories about how the physical and social worlds operate
Used and adjusted through assimilation and accommodation of new
experiences
Baby sees a picture of dog, sees a cat and calls it a dog. Baby
adapts schemas
Jean Piaget Stages of Cognitive Development
I. Sensorimotor stage- birth to 2 years
Experiences the world through senses and actions
Developmental phenomena
Object permanence
Stranger anxiety
II. Preoperational stage- 2 to 7 years
Learns to use language
Represent things with words and images
Uses intuitive rather than logical reasoning
Developmental phenomena
Pretend play
Egocentrism- cant look things from another perspective
because they think their lives are centered around them
Conservation- objects conserve their own properties even
after they change properties, but they cant tell
Maturing beyond egocentricism- The theory of mind refers to
the ability to understand that others have their own thoughts
and perspectives.
III. Concrete operational stage- 7 to 11 years
Thinks logically about concrete events
Grasps concrete analogies and performs arithmetic operations
Developmental phenomena
Conservation
Mathematical
IV. Formal operational stage- 12 years
Reasons abstractly
Test hypothesis systematically
Developmental phenomena
Abstract logic
Potential for mature and moral reasoning
Lev Vtgotsky: alternative to Jean Piaget
Vygotsky studied kids too, but focused on how they learn in context
of social communications
Principle: children learn thinking skills by internalizing language
from others and developing inner speech

Vygotsky saw development as building on a scaffold of mentoring,

language, and cognitive support from parents and others
Social Development: Attachment- refers to an emotional tie to another
person
Origins of attachment: experiments with monkeys suggest that
attachment is based on physical affection and comfortable body
contact, and not based on being rewarded with food
Familiarity- most creatures tend to attach to caregivers who have
become familiar
Birds have a critical period, hours after hatching during which they
might imprint
Assessing Attachment with the strange situation
Procedure developed by Mary Ainsworth: child observed as primary
caregiver leaves and return to the room
Secure attachment: most children feel distressed when mother
leaves, and seek contact with her when she returns
Insecure attachment (anxious style): clinging to mother, less
likely to explore environment, and may get loudly upset with
mothers departure and remain upset when she returns
Insecure attachment (avoidant style): seeming indifferent to
mothers departure and return
What causes these different attachment styles: nature or nurture?
Is the strange situations behavior mainly a function of the childs
inborn temperament? Temperament refers to a persons
characteristic style and intensity of emotional reactivity
Is the behavior a reaction to the way the parents have interacted
with the child previously? If so, is that caused by the parenting
behavior? Ainsworth believed that sensitive, responsive, calm
parenting is correlated with the secure attachment style

Week 3 Lecture 7
Piagets Stages of Cognitive Development
Lev Vygotsky: Alternative to Jean Piaget
o Studied kids to, but focused on how they learn in the context
of social communications
o Principle: children learn thinking skills by internalizing
language from others and developing inner speech
o Vygotsky saw development as a building on a scaffold of
mentoring, language, and cognitive support from parents and
others

 Erik Erikson: Stages of Psychosocial Development

o Divided lifespan into 8 stages, each stage has its own task to
accomplish
o If not accomplished, it can have consequences
o Infancy (to 1 year) trust vs. mistrust
If needs are dependably met, infants develop a sense of
basic trust
o Toddler (1 to 3 years) autonomy vs shame and doubt
Toddlers learn to exercise their will and do things for
themselves, or they doubt their abilities
o Preschool (3 to 6 years)- Initiative vs. guilt
Preschoolers learn to initiate tasks and carry out plans,
or they feel guilty about their efforts to be independent
o Elementary school (6 years to puberty)- competence vs.
inferiority
Children learn the pleasure of applying themselves to
tasks, or they feel inferior
o Adolescence (teen years into 20s)- identity vs. role confusion
Teenagers work at refining a sense of self by testing
roles and then integrating them to form a single identity
or they become confused about who they are
o Young adulthood (40s to 60s)- generativity vs stagnation in middle age, people discover a sense of contributing
to the world, usually through family and work, or they
may feel a lack of purpose
o Late adulthood (60s and up)- integrity vs. despair
Reflecting on his or her life, an older adult may feel a
sense of satisfaction or failure

Social Development: Attachment- refers to an emotional tie to

another person
o Origins of attachment: experiments with monkeys suggest
that attachment is based on physical affection and
comfortable body contact, and not based on being rewarded
with food
o Harlows experiment on young monkeys- will the infant
monkey switch to soft doll with no food or wired doll with
food?
o Monkeys like the cloth mother over the wire monkey
o Origins of Attachment: familiarity

Most creatures tend to attach to caregivers who have

become familiar
Birds have a critical period, hours after hatching during
which they imprint
Assessing attachment with strange situation
o Baby shows secure attachment
o Procedure- developed by Mary Ainsworth: child observed as
primary caregiver leaves and returns to the room
o Secure attachment
o Insecure attachment (anxious style): clinging to mother, less
likely to explore environment, and may get loudly upset with
mothers departure and remain upset when she returns
o Insecure attachment (avoidant style): seeming indifferent to
mothers departure and return
Attachment stylesnot just about bonding with parents
Eriksons concept of basic trust resembled the
concept of attachment, but extends beyond the
family into feeling of whether the world is
predictable and trustworthy
Attachment style may be relevant to our ability to
manage and enjoy adult relationships
Are basic trust and attachment style determined in
childhood?
Erikson believed that basic trusts is established by
relationships with early caregivers
What causes these different attachment styles: nature or nurture?
o In the strange situations behavior mainly a function of the
childs inborn temperament?
Temperament refers to a persons characteristics style
and intensity of emotional reactivity
Maybe based on mothers reaction?
o Is the behavior a reaction to the way the parents have
interacted with the child preciously? If so, is that caused by
the parenting behavior?
Ainsworth believed that sensitive, responsive, calm
parenting is correlated with the secure
o Fathers count too many studies of the impact of parenting
have focused on mothers
o Correlational studies have shown a strong relationship
between paternal involvement in the parenting and the childs
academic success, health
o Children in day care time in day care does not significantly
increase or decrease separation anxiety

Warm interaction with multiple caretakers can result in

multiple healthy attachments
Time in day care correlates with advanced thinking
skills and also with increased aggression and defiance
Childhood: Hypothetical Parenting styles
o Authoritarian too hard- parents impose rules because I said so
and expect obedience
o Permissive too soft- parents submit to kids desires, not
enforcing limits of standards for child behavior
o Authoritative just right- parents enforce rules, limits, and
standards but also explain, discuss, listen, and express respect
for childs ideas and wishes
Associated with high self-reliance, high social competence,
low aggression
The next phase of development
o Developmental psychologists used to focus attention only in
childhood
o Lifestyle perspective refers to the idea that development is a
lifelong process
o The next phase is adolescence (the transition period from
childhood to adulthood, the period of development ranging from
puberty to independence
Physical Development- Puberty is the time of sexual
maturation. During puberty increased sex hormones lead
to primary and secondary sex characteristics; some
changes in mood and behavior
Height changes are an early sign of puberty
o Cognitive development: according to Jean Piaget, adolescents are
in the formal operational stage. They use this reasoning to:
Think about how reality compares to ideals
Think hypothetically about different choices and their
consequences
Plan to pursue goals
Think about the minds of others, including what do they
think of me?
o Influences on Identity: Parent and Peer relationships
Peer relationships take central stage
Adolescents often still see their parents as the primary
influence in many areas, including career, religion, and
politics
o Moral Development Lawrence Kohlbergs Levels of Moral
Reasoning

Postconventional morality (later adolescence and

adulthood): sometimes rules need to be set aside to pursue
higher principles
Conventional morality (early adolescence)- follow the
rules because we get along better if everyone does the
right thing
Preconventional morality (up to age 9): follow the rules
because if you dont, youll get in trouble. If you do, you
might get a treat
o Adolescence, the sequel...emerging adulthood
In some countries, added years of education and later
marriage has delayed full adult independence beyond
traditional adolescence. This seems to have created a new
phase which can be called emerging adulthood, ages 18-25
o Challenges of Healthy adulthood
Arising first: Erik Eriksons intimacy issues (affliation,
attachment, connectedness)
Arising later: Erik Eriksons generativity issue
(achievement, productivity, competence)
Physical Changes with age
o Visual acuity, both sharpness and brightness
o Hearing, especially sensing higher pitch
o Reaction time and general motor abilities
o Neural processing speed, especially or complex and novel tasks
Changes in the brain
o Myelin-enhanced neural processing speed peaks in the teen
years, and declines thereafter
o Regions of the brain related to memory begin to shrink with age,
making it harder to form new memories
o The frontal lobes atrophy, leading eventually to decreased
inhibition and self-control
o By age 80, a healthy brain is 5 percent lighter than a brain in
middle adulthood
Exercise can slow the aging process
o Build muscles and bones
o Stimulate neurogenesis (in hippocampus) and new neural
connections
o Maintain telomeres
o Improve cognition
o Reduce the risk of neurocognitive disorders

Lecture 8

 Sensation vs. Perception

o Sensation- The process by which our sensory receptors and
nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from
our environment
The brain receives input from the sensory organs
o Perception- the process of organizing and interpreting sensory
information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and
events
The brain makes sense out of the input from the sensory
organs
Types of Processing
Bottom up- taking sensory information and then
assembling and integrating it
Raw sensory data
Top down- using models, ideas, and expectations to
interpret sensory information
o From sensory organs to the brain
Reception-the stimulation of sensory receptor cells by
energy( sound, light, heat, etc)
Transduction- transforming this cell stimulation into neural
impulses
Transmission- delivering this neural information to the
brain to be processed
Characteristics of Sensory Modalities
o Absolute Thresholds- minimum level of stimulus intensity
needed to detect a stimulus half the time
Signal detection theory refers to whether or not we detect
a stimulus, especially amidst background noise
What is the quietest sound you can hear/ dimmest light
you can see?
o Detecting Changes in Intensity
Difference threshold or just noticeable difference (jnd):
refers to the minimum difference in stimulus for a person
to be able to tell the two stimuli apart half the time
Webers Law: the intensity by which the standard
stimulus must be increased for the difference to be
noticeable is proportional to the intensity of the standard
(rather than an absolute difference)
o Sensory Adaptation- to detect novelty in our surroundings, our
senses tune out a constant stimulus
Vision (seeing)
o Perceptual set is what we expect to see, which influences what
we do see

o Context Effect on Perception- context influences perception

o Effect of Emotion, Physical State, and Motivation on Perception.
Experiments show that:
Destinations seem farther when youre tired
A target looks farther when your crossbow is heavier
A hills looks steeper with a heavy backback, or after sad
music, or when walking alone
Something you desire looks closer
o Vision: Energy, sensation, and perception
Color/Hue and Brightness- whole different range of
electromagnetic energy. But only a small portion is visible
to humans
Wavelength (Hue)- Different wavelength result in different
color
Intensity (Brightness): higher amplitude of wave = higher
intensity
o The Eye- has to pick up signal and send the signal

Iris- colored muscle that expands and contracts to change

the size of the opening (pupil) for light
Cornea: transparent tissue where light enters the eye
Lens: focuses the light rays on the retina
Retina: contains sensory receptors that process visual
information and send it to the brain
Rods and Cones found in the retina
o Cones- sharp details in bright light 6 mil
o Rods- required in dim light 120 mil

Light entering eye triggers photochemical reaction in

rods and cones at back of retina
Chemical reaction in turn activates bipolar cells
Bipolar cells then activate ganglion cells, the axons
of which converge to form the optic nerve. This nerve
transmits information to the visual cortex (via the
thalamus) in the brain
Visual Information Processing- optic nerves connect to the
thalamus in the middle of the brain, and the thalamus to the
visual cortex
Feature detection- Brains detector cells respond to specific
features such as edges, lines, or movements and pass that
information on to supercells
Parallel Processing- refers to building perceptions out of sensory
details processed in different areas of the brain
Turning light into the mental act of seeing: light waves
chemical reactions neural impulses features objects
Visual Processing
Recognition- brain interprets the constructed image based
on information from stored images
Parallel processing- brain cell teams process combined
information about color, movement, form, and depth
Feature detection- brains detector cells respond to specific
features- edges, lines, and angles
Retinal processing: receptor rods and cones bipolar cells
ganglion cells
Perception Organization
Grouping objects
Gestalt refers to meaningful pattern/ configuration,
forming a whole that is more than the sum of its
parts
Three of the ways we group visual information into
wholes are proximity, continuity, and closure
Figure-ground perception- depends on where you are
perceiving the figure, and where you see the ground
Perceiving form, motion, and depth
Binocular (using both eyes) cues
o Retinal disparity- greater the difference
between two images, closer the object is
perceived to be
Monocular (using one eye) cues
o Interposition- when one object appears to block
the view of another, we assume that the

blocking object is in a position between our

eyes and the blocked object. Assume the
blocking object is closer to us
o Relative size- we are aware of size, farther
away we know objects will be smaller
o Linear perspective- objects seem farther
because the rows are converging| sign of
distance. Perception of distance affects our
perception of length
o Relative height- we tend to perceive the higher
part of a scene as father away
o Shading effect shading helps out perception of
depth
o Relative motion
Perceptual constancy (color, brightness, shape and
size)- our ability to see objects as appearing the same
even under different lightning conditions at different
distances and angles, is called perceptual constancy. It is a
top down process
Color constancy- this ability to see a consistent color
in changing illumination helps us see the three sides
as all being yellow, because our brain compensates
for shading
Brightness constancy: brain compensates for color
even though they are in shadow
Shape constancy- shapes have constant shapes
despite different sensory image. Brain adjusts for the
fact that they are different angles
Audition (Hearing)
o Frequency- length of the sound wave; perceived as high and low
sounds (pitch)
Corresponds to our perception of pitch
o Amplitude- height or intensity of sounds wave; perceived as loud
and soft (volume)
Corresponds to our perception of timbre
o Complexity perceived as sound quality or resonance
Corresponds to our perception of timbre
o Sounds Waves reach the ear
The outer ear collects sound and funnels it to the eardrum
In the middle ear, the sound waves hit the eardrum and
move the hammer anvil, and stirrup in ways that amplify
the vibrations. The stirrup then sends these vibrations to
the oval window of the cochlea

In the inner ear, waves of fluid move from the oval window
over the cocleas hair receptor cells. These cells send
signals through the auditory nerves to the temporal lobe of
the brain
o Sound Perception: Loudness
Loudness refers to more intense sound vibrations. This
causes a greater number of hair cells to send signals to the
brain
Soft sounds only activate certain hair cells; louder sounds
move those hair cells and their neighbors
o Sound Perception: Pitch- How does the inner ear turn sound
frequency into neural frequency?
Place theory- at high sound frequencies, signals are
generated at different locations in the cochlea, depending
on pitch. The brain reads pitch by reading the location
where the signals are coming from
Frequency Theory- at low sound frequencies, hair cells
send signals at whatever rate the sound is received
Volley Principle- at ultra-high frequencies, receptor cells
fire in succession, combing signals to reach higher firing
rates

o Sounds Perception: Localization| How do we seem to know the

location of the source of sound?
Sounds usually reach one of our ears sooner, and with
more clarity than they reach the other ear
The brain uses this differences to generate a perception of
the direction the sound was coming from
Other senses| Four components of touch: pressure, warmth, cold, pain
o Biological Factors in Pain Perception: The pain circuit
Nociceptors are sensory receptors whose signals are
interpreted by the brain as pain
The pain circuit refers to signals that travel to the spinal
cord, up through small nerve fibers, which then conduct
pain signals to the brain
o Taste- our tongues have receptors for five different types of
tastes, each of which may have and survival functions
Sweet: energy source
Sour- potentially toxic acid
Umami (savoriness)- proteins to grow and repair tissue
Bitter-potential poisons
Salty- sodium essential to physiological processes

o Smell
Odorants bind to receptors
Olfactory receptor cells are activated and send electric
signals
The signals are relayed via converged axons
The signals are transmitted to higher regions of the brain
o Sensing body position and movement
Kinethesis (movement feeling)- refers to sensing the
movement and position of individual body parts relative to
each other
Vestibular sense- refers to the ability to sense the position
of the head and body relative to gravity, including the
sense of balance