1. PSYC 206
Lifespan Development
Bilge Yagmurlu

2. Chapter Overview Temperament Physical Growth Sensing the Environment
The Organization of Behavior
Becoming Coordinated with the Social World

3. Physical Growth In 12 weeks, infants Gain about 6 pounds
Grow more than 4 inches
Expanding head circumference
Growth charts:
Show the average values of height, weight, and other measures of a normally developing infant.

4. Growth Chart

5. Brain Development The brain at birth
Contains most of the neurons it will ever have.
Will grow four times larger by adulthood

6. Brain Development Growth in brain size as a results of:
Neuronal connections
Synaptogenesis: process of synapse formation
Synapse: Site where a nerve impulse is transmitted from one neuron to another.

7. Brain Development Myelination
Insulates axons and speeds transmission of impulses 7

8. Central Nervous System
Brain, brain stem and spinal cord

9. Central Nervous System
Spinal cord: extends from below the waist to the base of the brain.
Brain stem: controls reflexes as blinking and sucking and vital functions such as breathing.
Relatively more mature at birth
Enable movement, responses to stimuli etc.

10. Central Nervous System
Cerebral cortex: outermost layer and center for perception of patterns, decision making, speech, planning and execution of complex motor sequences
Less mature at birth 10

11. Development of the Brain
Two major classes of development:
Experience-expectant process
Under genetic controls, occur in any environment
Example: evolution of parts of the brain responsible for language. When expected experiences lack in sensitive periods, then the brain will fail to develop normally
Synaptic pruning: 70% pruned in four months

12. Development of the Brain
Experience-dependent process
Initiated in response to experience
These processes have evolved to allow the organism to take advantage of new and changing information in the environment. 12

13. Development of the Brain
Experience-dependent process
Example: work on enriched environments by Rosenzweig and colleagues
Impoverished
environment
Rat brain
cell
Enriched 13

14. Sensing the Environment
Newborns’ sensory systems
Variations in functioning show importance of systems for survival
Indications of sensation
Habituation
Dishabituation

15. How to measure sensory reactions?
Measure reaction to stimuli
Does a baby turn her head in the direction of a sound?
Habituation paradigm: relies on infants’ tendency to pay less and less attention to a repeatedly presented stimulus (habituation)
If the stimulus changes in a way that makes it seem new to the infant, he will once again pay attention (dishabituation)

16. Sensing the Environment
Newborns’ sensory systems
Variations in functioning show importance of systems for survival
Indications of sensation: perceiving an object or event
Habituation: attention to novelty decreases with repeated exposure
Dishabituation

17. Early Sensory Capacities
as opposed to the views of earlier century thinkers (e.g., John Locke’s tabula rasa), babies enters the world with some well-organized behaviors
sensory capacities: visual, auditory, taste-related, and tactile capacities are all functioning but, some capacities are more mature than others
looking, sucking, and crying are 3 behaviors that, unlike reflexes, are often not elicited by a discrete, identifiable stimulus

18. Early Sensory Capacities

19. Hearing Sensitivity to phonemes
2-month-olds can perceive distinctions used in all the world’s languages
By about 6 to 8 months of age, only the sounds made in the language(s) they hear

20. Hearing
Infants can distinguish the sound of the human voice from other kinds of sounds, and seem to prefer it
Are particularly interested in speech with the high pitch and slow, exaggerated pronun- ciation (i.e., “baby talk”)
Evidence that by 2 days old, some babies would rather hear the language that has been spoken around them than a foreign language

21. Vision Newborns are very nearsighted Newborns are able to:
scan their surroundings
perceive patterns and distinguish among forms. perception of contrast
show a preference for faces
distinguish their mother’s face

22. Vision

23. Perception of Faces
Infants show a preference for patterned stimuli over plain stimuli
Babies as young as 9 minutes old will look longer at a schematic moving face than a scrambled one

24. Taste and Smell Responses to Sweet tastes and smells
Example: breast milk
Calming effect
Pain relief
Sour, bitter, and salty tastes

25. Taste sensitivity to taste may be present before birth
when saccharin was added to the amniotic fluid of a near-term fetus, increased swallowing was observed
newborns prefer sweet substances than plain water-- suck longer with fewer pauses

26. Intermodal Perception
The simultaneous perceiving of an object or event by more than one sensory system

27. The Organization of Behavior
Behavioral organization is important for
Interacting more effectively and adaptively with their surroundings
Increasing physical control and coordination
Smiling in response to the smiles of others
Performing deliberate actions

28. The Organization of Behavior
Reflexes
Highly organized specific involuntary responses to specific types of stimulation
Building blocks for action
Some are adaptive, temporarily or permanently
Unusual patterns may be informative about development

30. Grasping Reflex
When a finger or some other object is pressed against the baby’s palm, the baby’s fingers close around it
Disappears in 3-4 months; replaced by voluntary grasping

31. Piaget’s Theory of Developing Action
Sensorimotor Stage
Perspective
Infants gain knowledge largely by coordinating sensory perceptions and simple motor responses

32. Piaget’s Theory Sensorimotor Stage:
Substage 1 ( months): Exercising reflex schemas.
infants learn to control and coordinate inborn reflexes
Substage 2 ( months): Primary circular reactions. New forms of behaviors appears.
accommodation first appears, with infants’ prolonging pleasant sensations arising from reflex actions

33. Becoming Coordinated with the Social World
Infants’ survival depends on:
Responsive caregivers
Coordinate their own actions with those of caregivers
Infant to caregiver
Caregiver to infant
Sleeping and feeding

34. Crying Primitive means of communication The effects of infant crying:
Evokes a strong emotional response in adults
Warning that something may be wrong
Certain distinctive patterns may indicate difficulties