development: change in organisms over time

cognitive development - changes in processes of the mind (ability to learn, think, remember)

social development - changes in interactions and relationships with other people

physical development - changes in the body and physiology

Cognitive changes as we age:

- Memory for NEW information worse than memory for old

- Declines in fluid intelligence - intellectual capacities that have no specific content, but are used in processing information; problem solving ability, but not crystallized intelligence - people's store of knowledge

- People are slower on timed tasks as they get older

- Recall declines more than recognition

Bahrick, Bahrick, & Whittlinger (1975) - Yearbook study

recall - fill in the blank

recognition - multiple choice

- Decline in tasks that require divided attention

Practice question!

Performance on which of the following tasks is likely to decline as a person ages?

a. Their ability to remember the names of their children

b. Their ability to remember the names of their grandchildren

c. A vocabulary test

d. Their ability to match a list of states with a list of state capitals.

selective optimization with compensation : older people pare down number of activities to deal with deficits, but concentrate attention in areas that most interest them

Fredrickson & Carstensen (1990) - age and anticipated endings

Cross sectional design -- different age groups are measured at the same point in time.

cohort effects - shared experience of a group

Longitudinal design -- research design in which one group is studied repeatedly over a period of time

Practice question!

Which of the following is a longitudinal design?

a. The U of O Dean of students wants to know if students' drinking habits become worse over the 4 years they are in college, so the dean gives a group of freshmen, a group of sophomores, a group of juniors and a group of seniors an alcohol consumption survey.

b. A marital counselor wants to know if there is more stress early on in marriages, or if stress increases as "the honeymoon wears off" so she surveys a sample of people who applied for marriage licenses in the past month, and then surveys them again on their next 5 wedding anniversaries.

c. The Teaching Effectiveness Program wants to know if professors become better teachers over time, so they observe courses that are taught by both first year professors, and tenured (experienced professors) and compare teaching.

d. A psychologist who studies relationships wants to know if men are more likely to give presents to women at the beginning of a relationship or after the relationship has been going on, so he gathers together a group of women who have been dating someone less than six months and a group of women who have been dating someone longer than six months, and asks them what gifts they have received.

Jean Piaget - Swiss developmental psychologist; landmark work in cognitive development (some of it came from watching his own kids).

Piaget's Sensorimotor stage (birth to 2):

- before the development of "symbolic thought" (ability to think about things they are not actually sensing)

- no concept of object permanence

egocentrism

Preoperational (age 2 - approx. 7) - start to use symbolic thought

theory of mind: the development of kids' understanding about the mind; understanding of beliefs, intentions and desires.

second order thought - "meta" thoughts; thoughts about thought

develops 1st: understanding of desires

later: beliefs

Along with Theory of Mind comes an understanding of the concept of false belief (appears between ages 3 and 5 usually)

Ability to distinguish between appearance & reality - appears around the same time as understanding of false belief

DeVries (1969) - inability to distinguish reality/appearance seems to be universal:

1 - occurs in variety of cultures

2 - Simplifying tasks doesn't make it go away

3 - Giving kids "training" on the task doesn't make it go away

Stage at which kids are learning that sex can't (easily) be changed corresponds to Freud's phallic stage

For kids in pre-operational stage, appearance vs. reality problem is particularly hard in visual modality (when things literally LOOK one way but are another)