1. DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
Day 1: Physical Development & Piaget

2. Major questions:
Nature v. Nurture – How much do genes and experience influence our development?
Continuity v. Discontinuity – Is development a gradual continuous process, or does it proceed through separate stages?
Stability v. Change – Do personality traits stay the same throughout life or do they change?

3. PRENATAL DEVELOPMENT Zygote Embryo Fetus conception – 2 weeks
period of rapid cell division
Embryo
cells attach to mother’s uterine wall & organs develop
Fetus
developing human organism

4. Prenatal Development - TERATOGENS
TERATOGENS: Agents that can reach the developing embryo or fetus and cause harm
Alcohol
Nicotine
Drugs (both prescription drugs & “street” drugs)
Viruses (the flu)
Toxoplasmosis (contact with cat feces)
Food poisoning
FETAL ALCOHOL SYNDROME – Birth defects of the baby due to high concentration of alcohol consumption during pregnancy. Side effects = delayed development, low birth weight, smaller head size, facial abnormalities and more

5. Infant Reflexes
Rooting reflex – touch cheek & baby will search for food source
Moro reflex – when startled, baby will throw arms and legs out and head back and then pull them into body
Toe curling reflex – stroke outer sole and baby spreads toes, stroke inner sole and baby curls toes.
Sucking reflex – touch roof of baby’s mouth and she will suck
Grasping reflex – put finger in baby’s palm and baby will grab

6. INFANT VISION
A baby’s vision improves dramatically during the first 6 months as children become able to focus
NEWBORN
Babies’ vision is 40x less accurate than adults at seeing fine details
1 MONTH
Most of the cells in the visual cortex are not yet coated in myelin. Poor contrast sensitivity & color recognition.
2 MONTHS
A newborns rods are fairly mature but their cones are not, making it difficult to decipher fine lines and color.
3 MONTHS
Dramatic change occurs as the visual cotex begins to control vision better. Vision has caught up to other senses. Depth perception is still not accurate.
6 MONTHS
A baby can focus at different distances as well as an adult can. Their ability to see fine details is only 8xworse than ours, 5x better than it was at birth.
ADULT
Between age 6-7 years, a child’s vision reaches adult values

7. INFANT VISION
Babies like to look at complex shapes, novel images, and faces

8. Habituation: infants’ decreasing responsiveness to repeated stimuli.
Newborn Capacities
Habituation: infants’ decreasing responsiveness to repeated stimuli.
Newborns have cognitive ability to differentiate between visual stimuli.

9. MATURATION: Orderly sequence of biological growth
Standing before walking – maturation sets our readiness to learn walking around age 1
Experience can adjust maturation

10. Growth of Neural Networks

11. IMPRINTING: Owen the baby hippo & Mzee, the 130-year-old tortoise
process by which animals form attachments during a limited critical period early in life
Owen the baby hippo & Mzee, the 130-year-old tortoise
More Imprinting

12. IMPRINTING
Tink the dachsand & her piglet “puppy”, Pink.

13. IMPRINTING: Koko’s Kitten

14. IMPRINTING

15. EARLY MEMORY FORMATION
  Why don’t we remember earlier events? Our brains are still developing
Limited language before age 3 – we remember in words
  What’s your earliest memory? Our earliest memories rarely predate our 3rd birthday. This is called “INFANTILE AMNESIA”.
EARLY MEMORY FORMATION

16. Constructed a stage theory of Cognitive Development
key name
Jean PIAGET
Constructed a stage theory of Cognitive Development
Observed that children think differently than adults

17. Piaget’s 4 Stages of Cognitive Development
Sensorimotor Birth – 2 years
stage 1
Lack object permanence (until about age 8-10 months)
Develop separation anxiety at about 12 months.
Stanger anxiety also occurs in this stage.

18. Piaget’s 4 Stages of Cognitive Development
Preoperational 2 – 6 years
stage 2
Egocentric (the inability to take another's perspective or even to recognize that others have different perspectives and points of view. )
Learns to use language and to represent objects by images and words 
Lacks the concept of conservation – quantity remains the same despite changes in shape.
Participate in pretend play/role play
Animism, or the tendency to attribute psychological properties to inanimate objects.

19. Piaget’s 4 Stages of Cognitive Development
Concrete 7 – 11 years
stage 3
By age 7, develop law of conservation
Can think logically about objects and events.
Can sort objects into multiple categories
(color & size, for example)

20. Piaget’s 4 Stages of Cognitive Development
Formal 12 years - adult
stage 4
Abstract thinking
Can think hypothetically
Can think about the future and ideological problems