The study of human development is the examination of continuity and change across the lifespan
Continuity: how an organism remains the same across the lifespan
Change: how an organism changes across the lifespan
Sensation
physical signals that our body is receiving around us
Perception
interpreting and organizing the information that the signals give us to make sense of it
Cognition
thinking about our environments
Language
how youths and adults are changing in their use of language overtime
Emotion in youth
how young kids control emotions, how we manage our emotions
Social and moral behavior:
what is right and wrong, how to interact with one another
Prenatal period and infancy (conception - 2-3 years)
= Rather than using an age, we use the behavior the individual is using to determine it
Childhood (2-3 - 11 years)
= Puberty typically starts at 11 but it can start later, childhood ends at puberty
Adolescence (12 - ??)
When the brain stops growing
= Typically stops at 25, since most stop brain growth stops then
= Female brains mature earlier than males
Early memories typically begin at 3-4
Our earliest memories are often vague or non-existent
This failure of autobiographical memory often leads us to believe that our experiences as young infants are less relevant
= EARLY EXPERIENCES IN INFANCY are CRUCIAL to normal development!! and give rise to many individual differences observed across the human world
What are the earliest experiences of the human organism
Auditory signal: around 20-22 weeks when the auditory organs are developed around enough, in stational stage
Propriosensation: tactile and external from the outside world
Taste/smell: Baby in liquid so both are intertwined in a way
The prenatal development has 3 stages
Germinal stage/Zygotic stage (0-2 weeks)
Embryonic stage (3-8 weeks)
Fetal stage (9 weeks - birth)
= Germinal stage
Starts at the beginning of fertilization, for 2 weeks and ends during implantation in the uterine wall
Embryonic stage
Starts at implantation, lasts 3-8 weeks, ends when the senses begin to kick in
= Fetal stage
Gestational age till birth, most of everything else made
Neurogenesis
formation of new brain cells/neurons
= Occurs at a very high rate
Myelination
connections between the neurons to help it get stronger and faster
Synaptogenesis
connections and synapses get made, synapses between the neurons get formed
Synaptic pruning
deleting synapses that don’t get used
Fetuses experience stimuli in utero
Tastes and smells
Sounds
Tactile sensation
= E.X: Fetal heartbeat changes in reaction to external voices being played
Fetal heartbeat is different in reaction to music than human speech
Newborn babies (a few minutes old) recognize their mother’s language and their mother’s voice via sucking rate (how hard their suck and how fast they suck on a pacifier)
Not everything that the fetus experiences in utero is positive for its development
One of the most widespread fetus abnormalities is the presence of teratogens
= external agents that cause damage or death during prenatal development
= for example, alcohol, certain medications, drugs, cigarettes (nicotine), diabetes (?), parasites, illnesses, raw food
= Teratogens most affect fetuses during a series of critical and sensitive periods, periods of time where the most change is taking place
Critical periods for different things naturally happen during different times
Perceptual development
Perceptual development begins in utero
But the perceptual experiences beginning after birth are much richer
Preferential looking
shows interest in photo of mother compared to random woman photo, but when farther away, they cannot make the distinction, one of the most powerful methods we have available
= Infants, like, adults, choose to spend more time looking at objects and events that are interesting, stimulating, or familiar
