HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 1 PSYCHOLOGY 3050: Biological Bases of Cognitive Developement

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HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 1PSYCHOLOGY 3050Biological
Bases of Cognitive Developement

• Dr. Jamie Drover
• SN-3078, 737-8383
• e-mail jrdrover_at_mun.ca
• Winter Semester, 2009

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Evolution and Cognitive Development

• Evolution the process of change in gene
  frequencies in population over many generations
  that in time produces new species.

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Evolution and Cognitive Development

• Based on natural selection.
• Members of a species possess genetic variation.
• Environmental conditions allow some species
  members to survive and reproduce.
• Their traits will be passed on, i.e.,
  reproductive fitness.

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Evolution and Cognitive Development

• Evolution provides a framework for interpreting
  all aspects of behavior and development.
• It explains the how and why aspects of behavior
  and development.
• How natural selection
• Why its adaptive
• Evolutionary Psychology Explains human behavior
  through evolutionary theory and provide answers
  about adaptive fit to environment.

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Evolutionary Psychology

• Cosmides and Tooby (1976) believe that
  information processing evolved to solve
  real-world problems.
• Cognitive processes develop and infants and
  childrens cognition are adapted to their
  cultural contexts.
• Infants, children, and adults have evolved
  cognitive abilities to solve specific problems
  and these abilities are independent of other
  intellectual skills.
• E.g., face recognition, language

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Evolutionary Psychology

• These abilities are handled by domain specific
  brain modules whose operation was shaped by
  natural selection.

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Evolutionary Psychology

• (2) There are constraints (limitations) on
  development
• Constraints enable (promote) learning
• Infants born into a chaotic environment
• Too much stimulation would inhibit (or delay)
  learning
• Instead infants and children are constrained to
  process only some information in core domains
  (e.g., language some object knowledge)
• Cant /dont process everything focus on
  essentials

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Evolutionary Psychology

• Geary (1998) believes the mind evolved with a
  number of domain specific modules that handle two
  overarching domains.
• They control interactions with others and with
  the environment.

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Last Class

• Defined evolution and natural selection.
• Industrial melanism.
• Evolutionary Psychology (evolution and adaptive
  fit)
• Taste for sweet and fatty foods
• We evolved to handle specific environmental
  pressures.
• Evolution of domain specific modules.

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Why do does it take us so long to grow up?

• Humans have an extended juvenile period
• Longer than for any primate species
• Provides the time needed to process and master
  complex environments, provides flexible
  cognition.
• Long apprenticeship to learn about a broad
  range of environments
• Requires a large brain

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Evolutionary Psychology

• According to Geary (1995), we have two broad
  types of cognitive abilities.
• Biologically Primary Abilities Selected for by
  evolution (E.g., language)
• Biologically Secondary Abilities Cultural
  inventions (E.g., reading)

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Selectionist Theories

• Human behavior and cognition are variable
• Between and within individuals
• Within we possess a wide range of behaviors and
  cogntions.
• We emit these in certain environments
• Adaptive continue
• Maladaptive discontinue
• Environment selects appropriate behavior

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Selectionist Theories

• Neural level neurons, dendrites, synapses are
  overproduced in early development
• Those that are used survive, those that are not
  are lost (pruning)
• Use it or lose it
• Pruning is important to later development

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Models of Gene-Environment Interaction

• Developmentalists believe that development is the
  result of an interaction between genetic/biologic
  factors and environment/experiential factors.
• the child is an active agent in his/her
  development
• development proceeds through the bidirectional
  effect of structure and function
• context is as important as ones genes.

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Developmental Systems Approach

• Development occurs within a system of interacting
  levels.
• Our development is based on epigenesis.
• Development is characterized by increasing
  complexity of organization (the emergence of
  improved structures, functions, and abilities) at
  all levels of the system. This arises as a
  result of the interaction of all components of
  the system.
• Based on the bidirectional interaction of genes,
  RNA, proteins, neurons, etc. with the
  environment.

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Developmental Systems Approach

• Epigenetic phenomena do not involve changes to
  the DNA code.
• But it does involve change in the things that DNA
  influences
• RNA, proteins, cells, neurons, neurotransmitters.

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Developmental Systems Approach

• Cant understand development by looking at simple
  genetic or environmental effects
• Essentially dyanamic system approach applied to
  development.
• New structures and functions emerge through
  self-organization through bidirectional
  interactions of the elements at various levels.
• Implies plasticity in development

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Developmental Systems Approach

• The effects of genes vary in different
  environments
• Monoamine oxidase (MAOA) is an enzyme that
  metabolizes neurotransmitters in the brain
• Knocking out the gene for MAOA produces
  aggression in animals
• Low vs. high MAOA activity reflect different
  genotypes

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Developmental Systems Approach

• Caspi (2002) maltreated boys were more
  aggressive than non-maltreated boys in a New
  Zealand sample
• Aggression was high only for low MAOA-activity
  kids who were also maltreated
• Note MAOA activity itself was not associated
  with aggression