PSYCH 1XX3 Study Guide - Final Guide: Twin Study, Assistive Technology, Habituation
Psychology notes
Development 1
Biological basis of thought and behaviour.
• Development
gene-eiroet iteratios aross idiiduals lifespa
• Evolution
Gene-environment interactions across the evolutionary history of a species
• Neuroscience
Study of the nervous system
Development: refers to changes and continuities that occur within the individual between
conception and death. How you change, and how you stay the same. (maturation and learning)
Maturation: biologically-timed unfolding of changes within the idiiduals geeti pla
Eg. An infant in the right environment will mature at a certain rate (baby teeth at 5 months,
walking at 12 months, puberty at 12 years, and die at 80 years)
Learning: Relatively permanent changes in our thoughts, behaviours, and feelings as a result of
our experiences. Acquisition of neuronal representations of new information
Practice can make controlled processes automatic: avoid touching hot stoves, playing the piano,
and looking both ways before crossing the street. Sometimes looking to the left/right is not
useful in a foreign country like the UK. Must change optimal strategy by firs looking to the
right/left
Interactionist perspective: Maturation and learning interact during development
Eg (maturation → learning). Cat teah a kid to alk uless the usles are strog eough
Cat lear to speak util togue a reah a leel of deterit
Eg (learning → maturation). Given proper nutrition but isolated in a dark room without any
iteratio. Child ot deelop oral vision, speech, motor, and social skills compared to
other kids who are exposed the normal environmental stimulus. Without input from the
outside world, maturation will be delayed.
Studying development
Changes occurring early in life are more dramatic than the ones later in life.
How to study infants who cannot speak their mind
4 measures of measuring ability of infants
1. Habituation procedure: Infants very interested in novel stimulis
repeating same stimulus to infants while measuring changes in physiological or
behaviour. Responses are heightened at the start of a new stimulus, but then
everything returns to normal after a while, that is habituation
Habituation: decrease in responsiveness to a stimulus following its repeated
presentation
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Dishabituation: increase in responsiveness to a stimulus that is somehow different
from the habituated stimulus
2. Event-related potentials (ERP)
Changes in brain activity in specific areas indicate response to certain stimuli
Occipital activity: visual processing
Temporal activity: auditory processing
3. High-amplitude sucking method:
measure baseline sucking rate for infant (absence of stimuli)
during shaping procedure, infants can make a stimulus occur more frequently by
sucking faster, and make it stop by sucking slower
4. Preference method
researhers a trak here the ifat is lookig to see hat there the ost
interested in. eg infants like black/white contrast and human faces
Preference method measures the amount of time an infant attends to different
stimuli.
Competence-performance distinction:
individual may fail a task not because they lack cognitive abilities, but because unable to
demonstrate the abilities.
Eg. Asking a preverbal child to distinguish between which toys they like better. If they cannot
actually understand your question, you could wrongly say that the child cannot discriminate
between the two toys
Developmental studies: look at how certain abilities change over a lifetime eg. Memorizing
numbers
Longitudinal design
Developmental research design in which same individuals are studies repeatedly over some
subset of their lifespan. Allows for accurate and direct comparisons over time
Disadvantages: time consuming, expensive, subjects can die, quit, and become non-responsive
over time. seletie attritio Pratie effets ad hages i partiipats resposes due to
repeating testing
Cross sectional design
a developmental research design in which individuals from different age groups are studied at
the same point in time
-allows researchers to assess developmental change
-relatively less time consuming and expensive; can uncover age differences
Disadvantages: cannot distinguish age effects from generational effects and cannot directly
assess individual developmental change
Development 2
Chromosomes contain all of your genetic information
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Zygote: new cell with 46 chromosomes (forms after the sperm meets the egg)
Chromosome: threadlike structure made from DNA.
Segments of dna make genes, which provide chemical code for development. Humans have 30k
- 40k genes
Males are responsible for the sex of the child
Each parents can create 64 trillion genetically different offspring in theory
Identical twins are monozygotic, fraternal twins share ½ genes
Genotype: an individuals inherited genes
Pheotpe: the epressio of a idiiduals geotpe i ters of oserale harateristis
Four main patterns of genetic expression
1. Simple dominant-recessive inheritance
A pattern of inheritance in which the expression of a trait is determined by a single pair
of alleles
2. Polygenetic inheritance
when multiple genes determine the expression of a trait
no single gene can account for most complex behaviours
3. Codominance
when two dominant alleles are equally expressed
eg. A,B dominant, O recessive
4. Sex linked inheritance
When the expression of a trait is determined by genes on the X chromosome
Females rarely express sex-linked disorders
Canalization principal: genotype restricts the phenotype to a small number of possible
developmental outcomes. Some developmental processes are buffered against environmental
variability
Bottleneck concept for development: No matter what environment, will most likely not be
taller than 8 feet.
Eg all infants babble the same, regardless of cultural background
Range-of-reaction principle
Genotype establishes a range of possible responses to different kinds of life experiences
height is determined by environment and genetic factors. Your environment influences how
your genotype is expressed
How genes and environment influence each other
(Genes → environment)
passive genotype/environment correlations
-the environment that parents choose to raise their children in was influences by their parents
own genes
evocative genotype/environmental correlations
-the traits that we have inherited affect how others react to and behave towards us
-genes can affect your social environment
active genotype/environment correlations
-our genotypes influence the kinds of environments that we seek
find more resources at oneclass.com
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Document Summary
Biological basis of thought and behaviour: development, evolution gene-e(cid:374)(cid:448)iro(cid:374)(cid:373)e(cid:374)t i(cid:374)tera(cid:272)tio(cid:374)s a(cid:272)ross i(cid:374)di(cid:448)idual(cid:859)s lifespa(cid:374) Gene-environment interactions across the evolutionary history of a species: neuroscience. Development: refers to changes and continuities that occur within the individual between conception and death. How you change, and how you stay the same. (maturation and learning) Maturation: biologically-timed unfolding of changes within the i(cid:374)di(cid:448)idual(cid:859)s ge(cid:374)eti(cid:272) pla(cid:374) An infant in the right environment will mature at a certain rate (baby teeth at 5 months, walking at 12 months, puberty at 12 years, and die at 80 years) Learning: relatively permanent changes in our thoughts, behaviours, and feelings as a result of our experiences. Practice can make controlled processes automatic: avoid touching hot stoves, playing the piano, and looking both ways before crossing the street. Sometimes looking to the left/right is not useful in a foreign country like the uk. Must change optimal strategy by firs looking to the right/left. Interactionist perspective: maturation and learning interact during development.
