Week 1
Introduction + giving an oral presentation
Topics course
1. prenatal development
2. brain development
3. genetics
4. perceptual development
5. motor development
6. cognitive development
7. learning
8. intelligence and academic achievement
9. language development
Presentation
Key focus points:
what you say
a. people love stories and stories have a structure
b. The three act structure
1. Introduction and set up
2. confrontation rising action, stakes get high
3. resolution with a crisis and failing action
c. In a scientific presentation →
1. exposition: introducing the topic and discussing the relevance of the topic
2. inciting incident: discuss the problem statement and define the research
question
3. rising action: discuss your methods and analyses and discuss results
4. discuss what the results mean and discuss answer to the research
question
how you say it
a. who is the audience (language use, how big, background knowledge) →
maybe start with a question which will grab the attention
b. attention management = (1) speech: tempo, intonation, emphasis, pauses,
articulation, words (2) body: face, posture, gestures, movement, clothes, eye
contact
visual aids
a. not too much text on a slide
b. 1 message per slide
c. attention snatchers: movement, signal colours, high contrast
,Week 2
Prenatal development
WEIRD science; Western Educated Industrialized Rich Democratic. For social and
behavioral sciences it is often generalized but not always really representable. A
good example is the way we perceive things, visual precaution (closely intertwined
with brain and motor development). This is not always biologically determined →
Mïller-Lyer illusion. This difference is explained with the amount of angular
structures that are present in the different cultures. What we know about
development and what we call normal is not always generalizable. This does not
make our information useless but it means that we should be careful and should
use more differentiation.
What is development? It is a specific type of change, this change is qualitative. Not
about the amount but about what the (type of) change is. It is also sequential, this
means that some developments can only happen after others have happened. It is
also cumulative, which means that some developmental stages build on other
stages. Development is directional, it can be progressive or regressive (build up or
broken down). It is multifactorial, there is not one factor determining the course of
the development, some are more important at some moments but at all times
multiple factors determine and are active. And last, development is individual, it is
different per person. It is important to think about the differences in milestones in
children and in development.
Prenatal development: The start of development in a new baby is when the mother
is 20 weeks old and starts to develop the baby. The egg cells are the female sex cells
and are very special. To explain this we look at cell division.
Mitosis is the normal cell division. Genes (organized in chromosomes) have
information about genetics and a kind of manual. During mitosis all genetic
material is copied and separated. This makes identical full copies. Meiosis is the
cell division that creates sex cells. During meiosis the dad/mom pares first
exchange the information they have. They don't make copies but slip the
information up and make four different cells with different genetic codes (with half
of the blueprint (only from the mom)). The process is the basis for genetic
variation → the genetic basis for individual differences and development. This helps
us understand the interactions between nature and nurture (for example with
monozygotic twins). Fertilization has four developmental processes that are
important. The first is mitosis (ordinary cell division). Then important is cell
migration, the cells need to get to when they need to go in the body. The third
process is cell differentiation. This is about the specialization of the (totipotent)
cells, the morula triggers cell differentiation because of the increasing pressure.
The cells are not totipotent but become part of the blastocyst or become
pluripotent. When becoming pluripotent they get a certain job and can not get
changed anymore. The final process is apoptosis, the programmed cell death. The
,example given is that of the cells that are needed to disappear for fingers and toes
to grow.
Stimulation from the outside: 10 weeks → sense of pressure (muscles, joints, skin).
13 weeks → detection of movements. 20 weeks → detection of light. 26 weeks →
detection of sound. 26-28 weeks → detection of smell and taste. The fetus responds
to the outside stimulation, for example more or less fluid. And they say that the
fetus learns from these simulations, they have prevenses and can recognize
sounds.
Fetal movement development: 5-6 weeks → bending of head and spine. 8-9 weeks
→ startle-like movements. 10 weeks → variety of limb movements. 10-11 weeks →
head movement, breathing movement. 11-12 weeks → yawn, suck, swallow
amniotic fluid. 14 weeks → non random movements. 20 weeks → movements with
all parts of their face. 25 weeks → opening and closing of eyes. Function of these
fetal movements: Swallowing is important for oropharyngeal cavity, lungs,
digestive system. Body movements are important for the development of muscles,
bones, joints and skin (this is why alcohol is problematic during pregnancy).
Teratogens, harmful influences. For example the state of the mother, drugs or
diseases. Timing, duration and intensity determine the effect on the development.
The time of exposure determines what is harmful for the child, the most sensitive
and at the time developmenting organ is the most likely to get harmed. The whole
Bronfenbrenner system can be looked at as possible teratogens.
Brain development
What is the brain made of? The brain is made up of 100
billion neurons, all these neurons have connections in the
brain. What do these neurons look like? → Cell body, the
soma, it contains the information and most processes
take place here. Then the dendrites, the receiving end of
the neuron. The axon is the sending part of the neuron
and is much longer than the dendrite. Signals are sent from one neuron to another
with axons. On the axon is the myelin sheath, to keep the neuron healthy and to
speed up signal transaction along the axon. The last important part of the neuron is
the axon terminals, where signals end up and are transmitted to other cells.
How do neurons communicate?
Neurons have a resting potential of - 70mV when they
are not sending any signals. The negative potential is
because of the ions outside and inside the neuron. They
have a certain charge. In the resting potential there are
more positive ions outside of the neuron then within.
, Within the wall of the neuron (the cell membrane) there are a lot of channels where
the ions can go in or out of the neuron. The sodium-potassium pump keeps the ion
levels relatively stable. It does this by transporting 3 positive sodium ions
(natrium) out of the neuron for every 2 positive potassium (kalium) ions that are
transported into the neuron. By doing so the negative resting potential stays
around - 70mV.
When the threshold of -55mV is reached special volted gated ion channels are
opened that makes the polarity switch because of the sodium ions that can all get
into the neurons. Then the potential of the neuron is around 40mV, this is called
the action potential, depolarization.
This potential opens up other voltage gates causing a lot
of positive ions to go outside of the neuron walls. Then
the positive charge changes back to negative, to around
- 90mV. This process is called repolarisation.
After that the sodium-potassium pump causes the
negative potential to go back to its resting potential. This
is the refractory period.
The overall figure of all these changes is shown right →
This action of these neuron potentials happens in the
openings of the neurons. Myelin sheaths come to play
here, when the threshold is reached at one side it goes to another opening. The
action potential hops from one opening to the other and so on.
When the axon terminal of the neuron gets the action potential, neurotransmitters
are reached. The electrical signal turns into a chemical signal when it is between
neurons. Neurotransmitters are synthesized from elements within the axon
terminal, when a signal reaches the axon terminal these elements diffuse and
release neurotransmitters into the synaptic graft. There the neurotransmitters can
hook up with receptors on the dendrite (there are specific receptors to specific
neurotransmitters). When the neurotransmitters bind with the receptors the action
in the neuron (in the dendrite) changes. With enough change the dendrite will fire
and the signal goes through another neuron. This neurotransmittion has imported
parts, the syntices, the finding of the receptors and the cleaning of the leftover
neurotransmitters in the graft. This can happen by recycling or by breaking them
down with certain chemicals.
Information processing, neurons need a lot of stimulation before the signal
continues when the threshold is reached. There are different factors that increase
or decrease polarity of the cell membrane. You have excitatory transmitters (make
