1. CODE 130
Orat v-n g-{o-iroo
F 9$O-3fO ANNOUNCEMENTS
Pr{oNE _ ?52-7638
HDE 1OOA
Lecture 7
Page 1 of 4
!
Announcements:
o Bring 3 bluebooks to the midterm on Wednesday 10122 just in case! There will
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--t fl.
be 3 essaY questions to choose from, and we only need to choose 2 to rarite on.
Each question needs its own bluebook ..- so only 2 are needed, but bring 3
.
case you mess up-
just in
trl
d o Midterm tips:
o Write (compare/contrast) as if you are writing for someone who has not
done the reading-
;
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E 4
cil previous Lecture: In the previous lecture we began by briefly discussing why infants are
J o. b"-gr. W" then discussed the concept of "maturation" and what conditions are needed
".t"*
for successfulphysical growth- Physical growth requires "input" (stimuli) of some sort. Studies
have shown thit a nutritional diet is not enough and children require a certain amount of physical
contact with others. We also'talked a little bit about Piaget's mobile experiment and Bowlby's
"strange situation" experiment.
This Lecture:
Chalkboard Outline:
I. Organism, environment and development
a. Maturation
b. Non-social
i. Physical growth
ii. Motor development
iii. Exploration
I. Certain conditions are required for growth
a. "Adequate nutrition" is needed, although that is a very broad spectmm-
d, i- Even a nutritious diet doesn't mean the baby will use the energy that they
rrl gain.
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b. A certain level of human contact is needed, or small infants may die! (E.g.
F Romanian orphan observation discussed in last lecture.)
E i. 3 and 4 year olds may look like 2 year olds or younger when they don't
o
z
have sufficient physical contact-
ii. Physical growth can be severely retarded.
c. Certain input is needed: probably touch, smell, sight, and sound (but it is unclear
j
exactly what input and how much)
d. The sound of a human heartbeat often helps the growth of isolated premature
babies.
b.l .
e. Professor Harper's point: The baby is responding to a "signal" that somebody is
there to provide resources (stimuli/nutrients).
i. If that "signal" is minimal, the baby will use energy resources sparingly,
S f.
and will not be as active.
Variation in physical growth depends on conditions! :> Ilow long some other
{ (l human is around; the quality of food that is provided.
ol
(./)
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d o o COPYRIGITTED MATERIAL-DO NOT DTJPLICATE,

2. HDE 1OOA
Lecture 7
Page 2 of 4
II. Motor development
a. A baby develops motor skills in a certain typical order: control of the head, then
crawling, then walking (naturar progression of motor development).
b. Sometimes there is regression of skills:
i. E.g. Spitz's orphanage studies
ii- The child may progress to a certain level of motor development (mature),
but then lose some of those abilities (or stop using them). This depends
on
the environmental conditions!
c' A woman born with no arms can still function in other ways. Our developmental
abilities as humans are flexible.
d. "3 Ds": Develop, Display, Deploy
i. A newborn will reach toward/turn toward "interesting,'stimuli.
ii' This may mean that the baby is genetically organized to develop these
behavioral traits, but the environment deiermines whether this
behavior is
"displayed". If there is no stimuli/object to reach for, baby won,t
display
the ability to reach!
iii' ln the fust few months of development, there is not enough evidence to
say that a baby's reach is visually guided.
iv' But this ability is not just a "reflexl'because the direction the hand reaches
is related to the stimuli!
v' Even in the dark, the baby will reach toward the stimuli. It is not clear
what input is responsible for this phenomenon.
vi' Display: the baby shows ttre aUitity to do something (able to reach).
Bowlby calrs this the "rereaser" or..fixed action pattern,,.
1- Ex- "Hand pray",- negotiating obstaclei, and discovering one,s
own control over body parts (hands). Newborns move hands
they can see them. They rearize "those are under my
if
contror,,.
vii' Deploy: the "learned" use of that particular ability; the baby discovering
what exactly he/she can do with the ability to reach.
1' Yth-g the displayed behaviors ior something; discovering what
that behavior can be used for.
viii- Every step requires certain stimulus/set of conditions.
ix' Having the "equipment" to do something J;;r not necessarily mean
that
the equipment will be used (stimuli is req"uired);
stimuli is also required to
allow the discovery ofhow those behaviois can be
x' Discoveries of what your body can do and what used. have control over
you
happen early on in development.
e. Reflexes:
i' A "flinch"/blink in response to a threat is not necessarily conscious (so it
is a subconscious reflex), BUT it is organized
because it can be controlled
- and it happens in response to a stimulus-
ii' Reflexes develop prenatally in response to sensorimotor
stimuli; different
cel groups send signars to each other (talk to each other).
iii. They occur due to genetics and environmentl

3. HDE 1OOA
Lecture 7
Page 3 of 4
iv. Genetics provide the pathways for signals, and the environment
(conditions during development) determines whether those signals are
sent.
v. They are the product of lots of interactions between genetics and
environment.
f. "Innate"
i. Implies that something will occur despite environmental factors.
ii. BUT there are causes and inputs that determine the outcome of those
"innate" behaviors.
iii. Each step of development (directly from conception/fertilization) requires
certain input to reach the next step. Any number of factors can deviate
from the "innate" outcome.
g. If a baby loses a limb in the first few months, it moves on and develops without
that limb while compensating for the loss with other limbs/other senses.
i- But if an adult loses a limb, they experience "phantom limb" pain! Their
circuitry is already "set".
ii- This means that at some point in infant development a baby's motor
circuitry is "set".
h. There are several steps of motor development:
i- The right conditions are needed after conception (fallopian tubes and
uterus must be working and intact). When the baby is bom into the world,
it needs to discover what reflexes can be used- A baby needs to take in its
environment! Which means a stimulating environment is needed.
ii. Ex- Babies discover that things fall (gravity). And babies rdiscover that
they have control over making things fall (e.g. pouring sand or dropping
acorns). Then babies discover what they can do with that ability (deptoy)i
i- Children pick up on "signals" from adults as to what they should d; pttsi"-ally
("watch and learn"; they want to do what adults do).
III. Side note: Eugenics Movement
a- Scientists didn't allow "mentally people to reproduce because they
-defective"
wanted to eliminate those traits from the human gene pool. However, mental
disabilities still exist, so there is something other than genes at play!
IV. Exploration
a. children play when there is someone/something to play with.
i. When resources are low, "play" is tho firs1 thing to go because it is an
investment of energy.
ii. "Playing" is important because it shows kids how to fully understand what
they can do (display) and what they can do with their newfound abilities
(deploy).
b. We must be careful not to push children too far beyond their limits. Children
should not be pushed to deploy before they can display.
i- Ex- If resources are pushed too hard, -*d/o. too fast, there comes
competition for space on earth: populations crumble and become extinct.
ii. Another example of pushing the system too far: a 5-year ol<i was just
discovering how things worked, but was "behind schedule" according
to

4. HDE 1OOA
Lecture 7
Page 4 of 4
the parents. The parents decided to ..catch him up,, by haining
him to
solve math problems at a 5-year-old level. But he huarr;t
disprafea those
abilities yet, so he was not able to deploy them except by rote.
He could
not use those math skills except in specific training situations.
The boy
could not develop/deploy those skills because the ..display,' stage
was
skipped- He had no actual understanding of the concepts.
iii- Too much structure gives children a feeling of no control.
iv. some structure is required for physical "safety, but too much structure
hinders the child's own discovery!
c. We underestimate the importance of spontaneity/discovering
(Understanding vs. rote learning/training.)
for oneselfl
i. Ex. "No child left behind,'act.