movie notes from class 2-9

February 10th, 2009 Movie Rousseau: human development philosopher English philosopher: John Locke Baby is a blank tablet and we learned from others and society and it determines who we become Debate becomes nature vs. nurture The case of the wild boy is proof that nature more than nurture affects human development We are more of the products of our environment than our genetic inheritance William James: America?s foremost psychologist Babies are scaled at all size from overwhelming sensation They are one huge confusion Watson: behaviorism Baby is capable of few responses Babies come into the world ready to perform amazing feats Few minutes after birth, eyes can move to the sound of voice; reach out a hand; turn head to follow a moving face Also born with likes and dislikes As early as 12 hours of age, they can tell us what they like by their facials Ready to respond to voices by the time they exit the womb Prefer woman?s voices Babies are born legally blind Not enough neuron connections within the vision part of the brain 1 month old can tell the definitions of a face 3 month old can bring distant objects into focus almost as well as an adult Knows contrast by this point as well; facials; Human infants are well equipped for the 3 main tasks: Stimuli they need Handle Harmful situations Contact with others Simple behaviors help their psychological states Babies prefer similarity Habituation and dis-habituation are ways to determine babies mental processes 1958. Robert Fance: Babies have silent speech Prefer objects with contours; complex over simple Piaget: Use simple demonstrations for the working of the child?s mind Water samples ? 8 year olds know there isn?t a difference Children?s mental ability forms before physical ability Object permanence: Objects exist when hidden Piaget started this first 8-9 months of age: kids think its really gone 12 months: they realize it?s hiding When infants are surprised or puzzled, they look at the object longer They perceive the events longer than we do; look longer at the impossible event rather than possible; 3 ½ months: objects continue to exist when hidden Duloche: cognitive development in older kids Symbol recognition Kids have to learn to speak, read, and etc? Acquisition of early symbolic understanding ?this model represents/symbol for something else Doll house and real house example Children have an enormous amount to learn Constantly try to figure things out 2 year old is very busy cognitively Think more than we do probably Visual cliff: Eleanor Gibson Depth perception and fear Babies smile and coo may be there most effective living mechanisms Babies temperament: Some are calm, others are passive. Based on culture Biologically based-affects child?s personality Kagen: studying inherited behaviors between timid and bold children Born shy doesn?t mean a lifetime of shyness Traits can be modified by learning and experience Environmental factors play an important role with ability ? so does cultural backgrounds ? environment determines if our potentials are realized Nature and nurture act together to mold our development Survival of the fittest: those who can survive and mate Skills that function shortly after birth: reflexes Fixed-action patterns: sequences of actions triggered automatically due to environment and are practiced the same way, same time. Learning is the way that a species profits from its experience ? mechanism in which past experience moves future experience For humans, it comes in many ways: language, school, sports, playing instruments An individuals behavior is modified within learning ? learns new habits and new ideas are put into practice New behavior can change environment itself, making it more conducive Learning allows us to do 2 things with survival: 1. control a complex and every changing environment 2. learn how to survive We are all truly born to learn Pavlov: Initially interested within digestion and saliva glands within digestion Food there: lots of saliva and quickly Dog eventually saliva when food was being seen He coined Classical conditioning: Response occurs as if original stimuli was there Reverse is also true When the condition stimulus doesn?t trigger an event, it?s response is weakened This lead to a conclusion: any stimulus that can be perceived can make any reaction Classical conditioning: Can make us sick even; affects immune system When immune system is conditioned not to work, results are devastating By carefully observing animals, Thorndike introduced instrumental conditioning: What an individual does most influences human development and learning Learning = behavior + consequences Watson: observational behavior Unlimited power of conditioning and environmental control Used infants as subjects Used classical conditioning with the rat and the loud noise, the rat eventually made her scared enough Anything that resembled the rat, scared the child and it was a learned fear This could never be done today-very controversial Jones: first behavior therapist Skinner: Built upon Watson, Thorndike, and piaget ideas Antecedents, behavior, consequences (ABC) Operant conditioning: change that takes place when consequences have a particular affect ? strengthening or reinforcing (affects) An important aspect of learned behavior all learned behavior can be stripped down to ABC?s. Any behavior that is followed by a consequence will change with its occurrence due to its consequence Self control is choosing between the large or late reward/ smaller or immediate reward. Good health is the result of long term behavior in which responsible behavior has been chosen He uses the bird and box example too with his rewards One button gives immediate-small reward while other gives larger-slower reward Rewards of self control are hard to pin down and relate Not a sum of a bunch of instances Diff between him and skinner: not only look at act to change, look at the alternatives; best way to manipulate a behavior is to work on the alternatives Desired behaviors are reinforced by operant conditioning Behavior therapy directly changes sources of reinforcement Learn to cope with fearful emotion Learning can be both positive and negative Something more than behaviors change-change in knowledge this must be remembered and kept in memory; learning without memory is impossible; memory without learning is useless