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Classical Notes
Osnt v'a 9--OO-J-CO ANNOUNCtrMENTS
F 9G300
PI]OI.IE ?57-7638
HDE lOOA
Lecture 9
Poge 1 of 5
i Announcements: There are no announcements for today-
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previous Lecture: On Weclnesday, October 22"d, there was a midterm for this class. During
th" pr*-.rt l*trre (lecture #7 on Monday, 10120) w'e discussed maturation, and non-social
aspects of development such as physical growth, motor development, and exploration. Professor
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[I. Harper emphasized his
-'i D's" idea that a child must develop, then displav, and then deploy any
p O given trait.
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E This Lecture
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Chalkboard Outlinc:
IV. Organism-environment
a. Explore
b. "Flight"
i. Setting
ii. PeoPle
c. Food
I. Nervous System Dev€loPment
a. If a baby is not given "something to do" (provided a stimulus) at some point, that
baby wilt develop dilferently than normal.
b. Sensitive and Critical Periods
i- E.g. Romanian orphans ended up with atrophying developmental systems
due to no "inPut"-
II. My'thology
a. We shape/teach childrenl
b. The truth: children/babies are active!
& i. This doesn't mean that parents are inelevant to the development of a baby.
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v For example, a baby is more likely to play with toys in a room when their
mother is present because that gives the baby a "signal" that it's ok to
F play. That baby will not explore/play if the parent is not there.
H II. professor's argument: Children seek stimulation and create situations in which they can
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manipulate their environments !
a. Question from a student in class: What if a toy/stimulus gives negative feedback
to the baby? (E.g. falling off of a tricycle.)
i. Harper's response: It depends on the child and the child's "goal" with the
stimulus. For example, a child falling back down a staircase may get hurt,
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but they are likely to try climbing back up again if it was
interesting/important to climb up the stairs in the first place.
at dt i. Maybe the child won't perform a specific action again (e.g. going
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too fast or riding recklessly on the tricycle), but they will not stop
exploring (e.g. the baby will still ride the tricycle)!
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IV. "Flight"/Fear
a. Animals of every species avoid damaging/dangerous objects.
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b. I{uman babies: close their eyes and turn their heads when shown a "looming"
object (gets bigger and bigger and looks like it's coming closer on a computer
screen).
c. Certain genes are associated with "flight" equipmer-rt.
i. Serotonin is often involved.
ii. The variation in amounts of that hormone to begin with in different people
may be responsibie for variation in people's "flight" responses.
d. Babies' "flight" responses:
i. Are more inhibited in unfamiliar surroundings (especially if they are
learning to locomote on their own).
ii. Are less likety to explore in dark/dimly lit areas than brightly lit areas.
iii. Are less Iikely to explore if a parent is not present. The mother being
present is a "signal" to the baby that everything is safe and ok.
e. Children can have different fears (loud noises, dogs, bugs, snakes, and the dark)
and different degrees ofthose fears.
i. We don't really know why these fears are different yet.
ii. We DO know that children are often afiaid of other "unknown"/unfamiliar
adults.
iii. Babies up to 3 or 4 months: respond well to strange adults as long as they
are smiley and speak "motherese".
iv. Babies at 5 months: are more wary of unfamiliar adults, even if they are
friendly adults.
v. Babies at 7 or 8 months: will show negative response to an unfamiliar
adult. This response can last for a few years and is even seen in some
preschool aged children.
My'thology: either the baby responds this way because it had prior "bad"
experience with unknown adults (e.g. doctors administering injections) OR the
flight response at this age has to do with Piaget's cognitive maturity theory.
i. Piaget: suggested that the stranger response happens when a child realizes
that its mother is a stable part of the environment. A stranger is not part of
his/her environment, and therefore the child is wary of that adult.
1. Piaget noticed from observing his own children that 8 month old
babies start to look for hidden ob.iects in their environment.
2. The baby recognizes that an adult is ,.not mommy,, and doesn,t
trust the unfamiliar adult.
3. If you are asked to babysit a toddler without prior introduction, it's
good to leam a specific way to play some familiar game or some
familiar "ritual" (e.g. bedtime and feeding rituals).
ii. Hatper's idea: babies are very sensitive to behaviors in people (familiar or
not).
1. But babies can recognize their mother and leam pattems before 8
months old, so WHY does this response form at 8 months old???
a. Because babies learn to move on their own at g or 9
months. That gives them a choice about who is
around/who they want to be around.

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Lecture 9
Poge 3 of 5
b. This could be an instinctive "warning system" in the baby
to keep himself out of trouble.
V Eating
a. How do we get kids to eat the "right" food?
b. Mythology: we think that we need to monitor the child to some degree.
c. Experiment in France: children were fed in a cafeteria every day. They were not
fed a daily balanced diet; instead there were designated foods depending on the
duy. For example, there was a "meat day", a "vegetable day" and a "fruit day".
Over time the documented results seemed to show that the children received a
"balanced diet". (Hopefully this experiment will never be conducted again...)
d. Spices serve to mask flavors and trick the body into believing it is receiving a
certain nutrient associated with that flavor. The body can naturally let you know
what it needs by telling you what tastes good (if you're not being conned by
flavorings).
e. A baby's system tells them how much they need to intake. E.g. the baby ingests
more watered-down milk per feeding and less richer milk per feeding. The
system evens out intake of nutrients.
f. How do you get children to try something (a nutrient) they've never tried before?
i. Cut the food into small, appetizing "frnger foods sized bites? This might
work sometimes...
ii. Solution: put that food on your own plate, not theirs, and they baby will
want it too! (E.g. Professor Harper's grandfather used to say "don't steal
my spinach!" So baby Professor Harper would try to steal the spinach. It
was like a game.)
iii. What about blending/hiding the nutrient or new food in familiar foods?
1. Too much blending ("sneaking" food into other foods) is a bad
idea because different foods have different allergens. If a baby
were to react badly to a blend of foods, it would be difficult to
know which food was causing the reaction.
g. The idea that everyone should eat the same food in the same amounts goes against
the idea that the genome is a big mixture and humans can handle variation in
foods.
i. Saying someone has "too much x in the diet" is too simple an explanation!
ii. Metabolisms change and adapt over time.
iii. A malnourished previous generation produces a malnourished generation.
VI. Feedback from the Midterm I:
a. Question 1: "genetic" behavioral trait
i. Traditional parlance: a "genetic" behavioral trait would be one that you're
stuck with!
ii. Harper's point of view: everything is caused by genes AND environment!
One must be cautious when interpreting heritability statistics! If there is
high heritability of a trait within a population, there may be a risk of that
trait, but it doesn't mean that an individual will inherit atrait no matter
what. Heritability says nothing about individuals within a population.

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iii. Tanner's point of view: all you inherit is DNA. After that, everything
genetic is dependent on the environment. His model: G*E :> (GE).
Development is non-linear. He gives the example of the monozygotic
twin studies. In these studies two monozygotic twins who were raiiea in
drastically different environments (violent vs. non-violent) have similar
facial features/body shape but differ greatly in sizelweight.
iv. C+C (textbook) point of view: genes and environment are inseparable
when it comes to development. But heritability (represented by h
squared), is a degree to which phenotypic variation is in a population. The
heritability value varies according to population. Ex. Population with no
educational possibilities/opportunities has little to no heritability of Ie.
b. Question 2: neonatal capacities/"reflexes"
i. Harper's point of view: babies are adapted and organized. to begin with.
They can alter their environment including their intake of food
leating).
They are the product of genes and environment like every other animal.
There is no such thing as a "pure reflex". yes, those reflex receptors are
there and may be likely to react under certain circumstances, but they are
organizedlattached to a brainstem and a brain. Ex. when the baby,s head
drops back the limbs reach out, except the hand that is holding something
which pulls in. Ex. the "rooting" reflex shows that a hunery baby tums his
head and roots with his mouth (for a nipple) if his cheek is brushed. But a
baby that is not hungry will Nor root. This shows organization. Ex.
babies' have random leg movements that make the baby look like it
mimics an adult's walking/running motions. However, these movements
are organized differently in babies than adults.
ii. Bowlby's point of view: refers to reflexes as "fixed action patterns".
These are animal instincts that allow the organism to do "the right thing,,
the first time they try. But these are more than just .,reflexes,,. th" buuy
is organized and adapted when it is bom.
iii. The difference between Harper, c*c, and Bowlby has to do with how
adapted those reflexes are.
1. Bowlby and Harper would agree that it is not likely that the
reflexes are just conditioned.
c. Question 3: "coordinated with social world" (from sucking to nursing)
i. c+c's point of view: infants are helpless! They can,t even sleep through
the night, but parents need to sleep through the night in order to function,
so it is important to get the baby sleeping and eating according to the
parents' convenience. The infant's neryous system is so immature as a
newbom that it cannot sleep through the night until the nervous system
matures more. C+C claims that the baby can't even coordinate sucking
and breathing at first. They back this idea up with the evidence that there
are differences in how long a baby nurses for from the time it is a newborn
(a half hour to an hour of nursing) to the time it is a few months old (much
less time).

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ii. Harper's point of view: Harper explains this time difference in nursing at
different ages with the fact that a mother has no milk the day a baby is
born! The breasts contain a different fluid at first which has less nutrients
than the milk that comes a couple days later. It takes the baby longer to
feed as a newborn because they must work at getting any nutrients from
their rnother. Yes, baby adjusts to the mom's nursing style (how much
milk and when), but the baby is organized and ready to nurse from birth.
A baby is born with the ability to nurse and its body tells it when it needs
more fuel (when the baby is hungry!). It is not due to the nervous
system's maturity that keeps the baby from sleeping through the night. It
is the baby's rnetabolism! A newbom baby wakes up every 2-3 hours
because it needs fuel (to feed) every 2-3 hours. The baby needs food, and
the mom needs to nurse, otherwise she will dry out and stop lactating.
VII. Grading:
a. TA Kim Pasene sent out an explanation of the grading key.
b. NC: means part of the answer was good (A), but part of it was not quite right
(c).
c. 0: means the grade is NOT an F because the answer is thoughtful, but the
question was not actually answered.
d. 0*: means that it was a "glsat wrong answer"!
e. 0-: means you should not miss the question this badly again... or your average
will go down. Read and answer the question!
f. Professor Harper does not grade on a traditional curve. But he does grade on a
personal curve, which means that later exams/assignments may be given more
weight depending on your previous progress.