Introduction:

Why study developmental psychology? How to raise children, informed social policies, understand human nature +
evolution
Questions/themes in developmental psychology?
Nature (genes) vs nurture (environments) -> how do they work together to shape development
- Ex: schizophrenia – genetics (children w a parent higher probability of developing the illness and environment
(troubled homes more likely)
- Maturation: insensitive to environmental input, learning (insensitive to genetic variation)
Active child -> infants shape their development through selective attention
Continuity/discontinuity -> gradual changes vs occasional large shifts (qualitative)
Mechanisms of change: maturation vs learning and where changes occur
Sociocultural context: physical, social, economic, cultural, historical
Individual differences: genetic, treatment, reactions to experiences, choice of environment
Research and children’s welfare: practical benefits (educational innovations)
What shapes can development take? Stage theory: development occurs in distinct age-related stages
What are the various ways we can think about a question? (e.g., Tinbergen’s level of analysis)
Proximate/mechanism (immediate cause?): X sees other kids having fun and wants to join
Ontogenetic/development (factors across lifespan?): X has seen other kids join in by asking
Ultimate/function: play is important for social connections
Phylogenetic/evolution (Cross study): group play evolved for other cooperative behaviors which has increases bonding
and learning
Research Methods:
Challenges of doing developmental research? Ethical issues, practice effects, attrition, confirmation bias
Process of conducting psychological research? Rigorous testing of predictions with an attempt to falsify those predictions
through deductive (general -> specific) and inductive (specific -> general) reasoning
Difference between experimental and correlational research?
Experimental: random assignment with control groups by manipulating variables
- Benefit: causal inferences | Drawback: can lack validity due to controlled, artificial setting
Correlational: relationship between variables without manipulation
- Benefit: relations among many variables, many groups of interest | Drawback: confounding variables, no
causation
How do we study development?
Cross-sectional: participants of different ages compared over short period
- Benefit: revealing similarities/differences between older and younger children, practical (cheap and easy)
- Drawback: no info about stability of behavior over time or patterns of change shown by individual children
Longitudinal: follows same children over substantial period
- Benefit: stability of individual differences over time, patterns of change (broadly)
- Drawback: difficult to locate children for each reexamination, practice effects
Sequential: cross-sectional + longitudinal
- Benefit: cohort effect (people born around same time similarly exposed to historical experiences that influence
dependent variable)
- Drawback: more time/costly, high attrition
Microgenetic: studied repeatedly over a short period
- Benefit: inight into process of change
- Drawback: no info about stability and change over long periods
Operationalization? Challenges? Turning abstract conceptual ideas into measurable observations
- Very specific studies with general conclusions
Describe the differences between the various ways we can gather data:
naturalistic observation: examination of ongoing behavior in uncontrolled environment
structured observation: presenting identical situation to each participant and recording behavior
structured interviews: all are asked to answer the same questions
clinical interviews: questions are adjusted according to answers interviewee gives
questionnaires: gather information from participants simultaneously by presented them a uniform set of printed questions
Examples of both voluntary and involuntary responses we can measure in children?
Voluntary: preference for specific toys, choosing to help/share, pointing to object, what children say
Involuntary: eye movement, sucking, physiological (heart rate), psychophysiological (neural)
Describe the following paradigms:
habituation/dishabituation: look less at things seen multiple times, look longer at smt new
high amplitude sucking paradigm: present same stimulus (suck less often) but new stimulus (sucking faster)
preferential looking paradigm: prefer to look at smt over nothing (eyes)
head-turn paradigm: head
violation of expectation: look longer at things that surprise them
What issues are each of the following addressing in measurement:
Objectivity: fair, lack of bias, impartial
reliability: consistency
validity: does test measure what its intended to measure
Diff kinds of reliability? Interrater, test-retest, alternate forms
Diff kinds of validity? Face, construct (academic), criterion (applied, how well can predict a concrete outcome, concurrent
(present – field sobriety), predictive (future – GRE), Internal (whether effects observed within experiment can be
attributed to the factor the research is testing), external (generalize beyond research in question)
Hawthorne effect? Children may alter their behavior if they are aware they are being observed
Statistics:
Broadly, what is practical (size of an effect) vs statistical significance?
Which one does a p-value tell you? If p<.05, data unlikely to be observed if the null hypothesis is true
Which one does a confidence interval tell you? Range around point estimate
Conceptually, what is a meta-analysis? Average estimate of overall effect size
Evolution / Development across a species:
How does evolutionary developmental psychology differ from evolutionary psychology?
Evolutionary developmental psychology: study of how genetic and environmental mechanisms underlie development |
behaviors and cognitions of both adults and children are the product of natural selection
Evolutionary psychology: natural selection and adaptation to human behavior
What is the process of natural selection? Describe how a trait might be selected for through this process.
Individuals exhibit variation
Many more individuals are born each generation that can or do survive and reproduce, resulting in competition
Individuals possessing favorable characteristics have a better chance of surviving/reproducing
If characteristics are heritable, then they will become more common
Over time, organisms become adapted to environment
Why might a trait appear maladaptive?
Something bad for lifespan can be good for reproduction, Can help a relative, Environments change , Constraint placed by
traits can be removed
What is a life history strategy?
Life history strategy: strategy an organism uses to allocate its energy towards growth, maintenance, reproduction, raising
offspring to independence, and avoiding death
- Slow: invest in growth, delay reproduction, invest heavily in fewer offspring (stable environment)
- Fast: invest little in growth, reproduce early/often, invest little in more offspring (dangerous environment)
Direct, indirect, and inclusive fitness?
Direct: genetic contribution to next generation (# of offspring)
Indirect: adjusts for how related relatives are (# of offspring*relatedness)
Inclusive: reproductive success (DF + (r*IF)
What is the developmental systems approach taken by many evolutionary developmental psychologists?
- Genes and environment interact at all levels: genes make brains which makes environment which impact genes
What are some examples of how:
Parents’ genotypes can contribute to a child’s genotype: Dominant and recessive traits
A child’s genotype can contribute to child’s phenotype: Gene expression and physical features
A child’s environment can contribute to a child’s phenotype: Maltreatment as a child can lead to violent behavior
A child’s phenotype can contribute to a child’s environment: Those who are smarter may spend more time in library
A child’s environment can contribute to a child’s genotype: Farmers exposed to pesticides may cause mutations that are
passed down to future generations
Advantage of twin studies? Can distinguish between the impacts of genetics and environment
Prenatal development:
What are the four cellular processes involved in prenatal development?
Cell division (mitosis): cell splits into two
Cell migration: cell moves to a different location
Cell differentiation: embryonic stem cells -> specialized functional cells
Cell death (apoptosis): more cells produced than needed (ex: finger formation)
What are the three phases during prenatal development? When do each of these phases occur during the pregnancy? What
happens during each of these phases?
Germinal: week 1-2:
Embryonic: week 3-8: major development across all organs and systems
Fetal: week 9-birth: growth
What is cephalocaudal development? Areas near the head develop earlier than those farther away
Describe the function of each of the following: umbilical cord: connects the fetus and the placenta, amniotic sac:
protective buffer, even temperature, cushion against jolting, placenta: support organ, oxygen, CO2, nutrients
What methods are available for studying prenatal development? Fetal heart rate, ultrasound, features of amniotic fluid or
mother’s urine
Describe what occurs during prenatal development for each of the following domain:
Auditory: heart rate higher when parent speaks, 3rd trimester external noises, can tell music from non music
Visual: 3rd trimester, face light preference
taste: prefer sweeter tasting stuff
What are teratogens? What are some examples of teratogens? Potentially harmful agents on prenatal development (ex:
alcohol, cigarettes)
What is the developmental timeline of the impact of teratogens? Most serious damage during embryonic phase ->
structural defects then functional defects
What does a newborn infant’s day look like (on average) in terms of their states of arousal?
Sleep: Quiet (non REM): 8 hours, Active (REM): 8 hours
Drowsing: 1 hour
Awake: Alert: 2.5 hours, Active : 2.5 hours
Crying: 2 hours
Describe the nature of newborn / infant sleep patterns and how it differs from adults: Twice as much as adults, REM low
for adults, 50% for newborns, Newborn not disconnected from external stimulation
Brain development:
2 types of cells the brain is made up of? Neurons and glial cells (neural stem and progenitor cells)
Myelin sheath: forms around axons and increases speed of info transmission
Structure of a neuron?
Cell body: contains basic biological material that keeps the neuron functioning
Dendrite: neural fibers that receive input from other cells and conduct it TOWARD the cell body in the form of electrical
impulses
Axon: conduct electrical signals AWAY to other neurons
Synapses: junctions between axon and dendrites
4 different lobes of the brain? What are the functions are each of the lobes responsible for?
Frontal: cognitive control (working memory, planning, decision-making, inhibitory control)
Occipital: processes visual information
Temporal: speech, language, emotion, auditory information
Parietal: spatial processing and integration of information from different sensory modalities
Describe the different ways we can study the developing brain.
EEG: electrical activity of neurons (good temporal, bad spatial) - Direct measurement (indirect are better in humans)
fNIRS: infrared lights to see blood flow (moderate of each)
MEG: magnetic fields generated by electrical currents (good temporal, bad spatial) Impacted by movement
MRI: magnetic fileds to see blood flow, gray/white matter (fMRI has good spatial resolution, poor temporal)
Impacted by movement
Spatial: if you can see or detect the details in locating brain activity
Temporal: how fast it is at receiving signals
When does brain development begin? What does the timeline of brain development look like? Begins with fertilization
Week 3: embryo forms ectoderm (brain), mesoderm, and endoderm
Week 3-4: ectoderm folds into neural groove which closes into neural tube
Week 5: neural tube differentiates into forebrain, midbrain, and hindbrain
Week 4-25: neurogenesis, cell migration, differentiation, synaptogenesis
neurogenesis (including migration and arborization): neurons are formed through cell division | 4 2 days after conception
myelination: axons become coated with myelin | begins prenatally and continues into early adulthood
synaptogenesis: dendrites and axons form connections | before birth and for some time afterwards
- sensorimotor cortex, parietal/temporal, prefrontal
synaptic pruning: synapses are cut away that are rarely activated (more than adults) | over 1 st few years
Ex of disorders related to atypical brain development? Autism (under pruning), schizophrenia (over pruning)
why plasticity over hard-wired connections? Plasticity allows for adaptability
experience-expectant plasticity: neural connections based on general experiences that almost all infants have (senses)
experience-dependent plasticity: neural connections based on specific experiences
What do some of the studies done with cats and kittens (Blakemore & Cooper, 1970; Hubel and Wiesel’s work) teach us
about brain development / visual perception? Leaves room for vulnerability is developmental experiences is atypical (ex:
cats in vertical striped environment were unable to perceive horizontal stripes)
What is a sensitive period? What is a critical period?
Sensitive period: when experience has strong impact on the brain | malleable window, experience not necessary
Critical period: when a system is open to structuring based on input from the environment | firm windows dictated by
maturation and specific inputs, primary systems
What does research with rats teach us about experience-dependent plasticity? What studies have examined experience-
dependent plasticity in humans?
Rats that grow up in richer environments have more dendritic spines, synapses per neuron, synapses overall, thicker
cortex (perform better in learning tasks)
Humans: wind instruments have thicker cortical areas (lip control), deaf and not exposed to sign language have smaller
cortical areas and gray-matter volume
Describe the impact of poverty on the brain. What are some differences we see as a result of children growing up in higher
or lower levels of SES?
Low SES more likely to die and slower brain growth and volume
Motor development:
What is the difference between precocial and altricial infants?
Precocial: advanced state, ready to fend for itself almost immediately (horses)
Altricial: underdeveloped, requires care/feeding (birds, humans)
What are reflexes? What are some of the reflexes we see in neonates?
Reflexes: innate fixed patterns of action that occur in response to a particular stimulation
Rooting: turning the head and opening mouth in direction of where the infant was touched
- Value: increases chance of nourishment
Sucking/swallowing: oral response when the roof of the mouth is stimulated
- Value: increases chance of nourishment
Grasping: closing figure around object pressed to palm
- Value: prepare for voluntary grasping
Tonic neck: when head turns, arm on that side of the body extended while arm and knee on the other side flex
 - Value: unknown
Developmental timeline for motor milestones in Western children?
Zero to 0.5 months: Prone, lifts head;
2 to 4 months: Prone, chest up, uses arms for support;
2 to 4.5 months: Rolls over;
3 to 6 months: Supports some weight with legs;
4.5 to 7.5 months: Sits without support;
5 to 10 months: Stands with support;
6 to 10 months: Pulls self to stand;
7 to 12.5 months: Walks using furniture for support;
9.5 to 14 months: Stands alone easily;
11 to 15 months: Walks alone easily
When do children begin to reach?
a) Pre-reaching period: before 3 months -> swiping in general vicinity of what they want
b) Successful reaching: 3-4 months: but lots of failed too
c) Sit upright: 7 months
d) Anticipate: 10 months -> can anticipate what they will do with the object and reach accordingly
- Plan out action in a coordinated fashion
What is the “sticky mittens” intervention? What do experiments using this intervention demonstrate?
Helps infants in pre-reaching period grab object at earlier age -> facilitates cognitive development by increasing ability to
visually inspect objects
What is self-locomotion? When do infants begin to self-locomote?
Self-locomotion: move around in environment
8 months (crawling)
12 months (walking)
In what ways does self-locomotion change the ways infants interact with their social and physical world?
Mobile: less reliant on parent
Crawling: less time looking at faces
What does is mean that self-locomotion is embodied and embedded?
Specific to one’s body and environment
Describe the visual cliff experiment? What did it demonstrate? What does modern research done in Karen Adolph’s lab
contribute to our understanding of the original visual cliff study?
What is it: integrating perception with motor ability
Demonstrated that learning curve restarts when type of self-locomotion changes
What are scale errors? Attempts to perform an action on a small item that is impossible due to large size discrepancy
How does sociocultural context impact motor development?
Different cultures encourage or discourage self-locomotion (ex: stretching in Mali, China limiting baby time on floor for
hygienic reasons)
Tajikistan: cradle -> early motor delays and sleep more