Psych 1XX3 Exam Review Questions And Answers

Development - ANS the changes and continuities that occur in an individual between conception and death Maturation - ANS the biologically-timed unfolding of changes within an individual according to the individual's genetic 'plan' Learning - ANS the acquisition of new neuronal representations of novel information, this results in relatively permanent changes in our thoughts, behaviors, and feelings as a result of our experiences Interactionist perspective - ANS believes that most of our developmental changes reflect the interaction between maturation and learning --maturation impacts learning & learning impacts maturation Habituation - ANS a decrease in responsiveness to a stimulus when it has been presented repeatedy Dishabituation - ANS an increase in the responsiveness to a stimulus that is somehow different from the habituated stimulus Habituation procedure - ANS a developmental test looking at an infant's ability to distinguish between stimuli. A stimulus is presented repeatedly to the infant while baseline vital signs/behavior are measured, and when a new stimulus is presented, the infant's vital signs and behavior should change (increase) accordingly Event related potentials - ANS a developmental test that measures electrical activity in the brain in relation to certain events High amplitude sucking method - ANS a developmental test that uses an infant's sucking behavior to look at preference for certain stimuli. A baseline sucking rate is established, and when exposed to the stimulus, the infant's sucking rate may increase or decrease--if the stimulus is preferred they suck at a higher frequency Preference method - ANS a developmental test where an infant is placed in a looking chamber that shows them two different stimuli. Using technology to track the infant's eye movements, researchers can determine which stimulus the infant spends more time observing, and therefore which stimulus is preferred, as well as how is the stimulus observed Competence-performance distinction - ANS something to take into account when designing a developmental test--an individual may fail a task, not because they lack the cognitive abilities to perform it, but because their current state of maturation makes them unable to demonstrate them Longitudinal design - ANS a developmental research design where you test the same individuals repeatedly over a portion of their lifetime--reduces confounding variables, but is also costly and susceptible to practice effects Selective attrition - ANS another issue with longitudinal studies--some participants in a study will drop out, so the end result is no longer accurate to the participation on a whole Cross-sectional design - ANS a developmental research design where individuals from different age groups are studied at the same point in time--less costly, but can't distinguish age and generation effects, and not directly tracking development Zygote - ANS the little thing formed when sperm meets egg Sex chromosomes - ANS the 23rd chromosome, determines sex Genotype - ANS an individual's inherited genes Phenotype - ANS the expression of an individual's genotype in terms of observable characteristics Simple dominant-recessive inheritance - ANS a pattern of inheritance where the expression of a trait is determined by a single pair of alleles, simple Mendelian inheritance Codominance - ANS a pattern of inheritance where two dominant alleles exist, and expressing both at once creates an intermediate phenotype--i.e. blood type Polygenetic inheritance - ANS a pattern of inheritance where multiple genes play a role in expressing a complex trait or behavior--i.e. criminal behavior, adultery, or eye color Sex-linked inheritance - ANS a pattern of inheritance where a gene is present on a sex chromosome, this leads to different inheritance patterns in males than in females--i.e. colorblindness or haemophilia Extreme behaviorist perspective - ANS the belief that genes play little role in one's development, and that if placed in a given environment, any individual could become anything Genetic perspective - ANS the belief that genes predict almost everything about an individual's development