DEA Question 1 Possible Answer (Prelim 1).docx

Note: This is an answer that I thought up by myself. Some sections of each question are to be composed independently. Make your own examples for these, as Prof. Evans requires DEA Prelim 1 Outline 1. Children/Goat and Cliff Reactions a. These findings indicate that depth perception in billy goats and human babies is most influenced by biological evolution. Billy goats, who can walk immediately when they are born, also show fear and distress at cliffs at the time they are born. Biologically, this is advantageous to avoid casualities because billy goats may experiences cliffs in their habitats with their ability to walk, immediately after birth. On the other hand, babies who cannot crawl also do not experience depth perception. At this age, the depth perception is not advantageous because they will not be in an enviroment with cliffs. However, when they do learn to crawl and are in danger of falling off heights, they have depth percetion, which protects them from this danger. Biologically, this need for depth perception at the age that the organism can move and is in danger of falling off cliffs, could have led to a gene mutation being incorporated in the DNA of babies to have depth perception at the age of crawling and to billy goats having depth perception at birth. - can talk a/b natural selection- goats born in mountains w/o depth perception are less likely to reproduce- you have depth perception at the time you start to be mobile Sociocultural evolution has little relationship to these findings, as it deals primarily with knowledge. The babies and billygoats were tested right at birth, at which time they could not have had sociocultural influences effecting them yet. b. Environmental determinsm means that the physical enviroment has a direct effect on human health or behavior. In this case, the results tell us nothing about the physical enviroment that the child grew up in. The babies who were tested right at birth could not have yet been affected by their physical environment, and we have no knowledge about the physical environment the babies of crawling age in the experiement experienced prior to testing. c. In this experiment, there will be four enviromental conditions for both goats and babies. one condition- the babies and and goats will be raised in a completely flat enviroment, with no heights or platforms of any sort (no tables, stairs, etc) between the ages of 0-6 weeks (and in an enviroment with stairs and platforms until the age of 1) second condition- the babies and goats will be raised in an enviroment with stairs and platforms such as desks as well as places readily available for climbing. third condition, the babies and goats (different specimens) will be raised in this same flat enviroment between the ages of 6-10 weeks (and in an environment with stairs and plat forms for the rest of the time). fourth condition- the goats and babies will be raised the flat enviroment always All groups will be measured for whether they have visible indications of stress when placed on a visual cliff at birth, and then at the 1 years old. This experiment assumes that the children will be crawling at this age. - can have mountainous enviroments Results: Goats always in flat env./ always in nonflat/ raised in flat env./ raised in flat env 0-6 wks 6-10 wks birth stress stress stress stress 1 y.o stress stress stress stress (age at which stress response at visual cliff measured) Babies always in flat env/ always in non-flat./ raised in flat env./ raised in flat env 0-6 wks 6-10 wks birth no stress no stress no stress no stress 1 y.o no stress stress stress no stress (age at which stress response at visual cliff measured) i. This data shows that growing up in a completely flat enviroment affects babies, but not billy goats. Billy goats experienced stress no matter what enviroment they grow up in. Babies, however, do not show stress at heights at 1 y.o if they are raised in a flat enviroment always, or if they are raised in a flat enviroment btwn 6-10 wks. This demonstrates that the physical enviromkent has a direct effect on human behavior. ii. This data shows that human babies have a critical period of 6-10 weeks in which they must be raised in a non-flat enviroment in order to develop depth perception. When they are raided in a flat enviroment during this time, at 1 y.o they do not experience stress at a visual cliff. If they are raised in a flat enviroment earlier, but then moved to a nonflat enviroment during this time, they still experience stress. Billy goats, however, always experience stress at the visual cliff, and do not have a critical period during which they must experience a non-flat enviroment in order to develop depth perception.