ASSIGNMENT 2 Question 1

What is a naturalistic experiment?

A naturalistic experiment is an experiment in whereby a researcher makes data happen out in the natural world, and then evaluates the results. It is an observation of the behaviours and events of a subject in the natural setting, without influence or manipulation. An example is matched pair testing to uncover discrimination. This type of research is often utilized in situations where conducting lab research is cost prohibitive or would affect the subject's behavior. Some famous examples of naturalistic observations include Charles Darwin's journey aboard the HMS Beagle, which served as the basis for his theory of natural selection, and Jane Goodall's work studying the behavior of chimpanzees (Bernard, 1994). There are different advantages of naturalistic experiment. First, the advantage of this type of research is that it allows the researcher to directly observe the subject in a natural setting. Second, it allows researchers to study things that cannot be manipulated in a lab due to ethical concerns. For example, while it would be unethical to study the effects of imprisonment by actually confining subjects, researchers can gather information by using naturalistic observation in real prison settings. Third, tt can help support the external validity of research because the findings of a lab study do not need to be generalized to a larger population, but there are observed actually occurring in a natural setting. (Goodwin, 1995) For example, the naturalistic experiment can be used to study differences in risk taking behavior between teenage boys and girls. It is possible to choose to observe behavior in a few different settings, such as on a sledding hill, a rock-climbing wall, an ice-skating rink and a bumper car ride. After you operationally define "risk-taking behavior," you would then observe teens in these settings and record every incidence of what you define as a risky behavior.

Question 2

Explain what is meant by longitudinal study.

Longitudinal research is a type of research method used to discover relationships between variables that are not related to various background variables. Longitudinal studies provide data about the same individual or group at different points in time allowing the researcher to track change at the individual level. Longitudinal studies are data sources that contain observations of the same research units over a period of time. Such data can be collected

either through surveys, or through linkage of administrative data. There are a number of different types of longitudinal studies, including: a) individual level panel surveys, where samples of individuals are tracked and interviewed. b) Household panel surveys, where individuals are followed within the context of the households where they live, and information is normally collected about the whole household at each wave. c) Cohort studies, where samples from a particular age range are followed to explore their different trajectories as they age. d) Record linkage studies, administrative or census data are linked across time. (Dunning, 2012) The benefit of this type of research is that it allows researchers to look at changes over time. Because of this, longitudinal methods are particularly useful when studying development and lifespan issues. However, longitudinal studies require enormous amounts of time and are often quite expensive. Because of this, these studies often have only a small group of subjects, which makes it difficult to apply the results to a larger population. Another problem is that participants sometimes drop out of the study, shrinking the sample size and decreasing the amount of data collected. One example of longitudinal studies linked to language development is the study realized by CMBN Infant Studies Laboratory at Rutgers Universiry. Such research helped to understand why children acquire language in different ways and specifically why some children have difficulty language learning. It also helped to determine whether all language delays have common markers or if there are different markers depending on particular risk factors. The Longitudinal Study of Language Development had two interrelated objectives. First, examining early information processing skills as indexed by performance on habituation, recognition memory, and rapid auditory processing tasks. Second, the study is looking at any differences in development across and within our control group of typically developing children and three at-risk groups of children: a) children with a family history of language impairment, b) children who were born very low birth weight and premature, c) children who had recurrent middle ear infections (otitis media) during their first year of life. The findings of the study provide strong evidence that rapid auditory processing (RAP) deficits may serve as a behavioral "marker" of language impairment and could be used as part of an early identification battery for language disorders. (Choudhury & Benasich, 2009, pp. 923)

The results of longitudinal studies about Language Acquisition by another species (like Gardner and Gardner (1972), Premark (1971), Rumbaugh (1977), or Patterson (1978) have shown that apes have some similarities with human child utterances (using the sign language). However they cannot copy the exact position of the hands without explicit instructions as human children do.

Question 3

How would the results of the above study be interpreted?

There are different definitions of intelligence because the intelligence has been studied from different perspectives. Burt refers it as a inborn ability, Spearman as the ability to educe, correlate, and discover relation. Guildford proposed 120 different factors. Such a large difference of opinions makes the study and the testing of intelligence a difficult task. However there is a consensus about what an intelligent test must measure. The main purpose of intelligence test is to obtain an objective measure of childs intelligence in comparison with all other children of his ages. Intelligence test establishes a relation between the mental age and chronological age linked to a specific range of performances arranged by difficulty. The general formula for calculating I.Q is: Mental age divided by Chronological Age multiplied by 100. There are some theories about the distribution of intelligence in a population. The Stanford-Binet test shows a normal distribution. The most of the intelligence test are evaluating the following elements: 1) verbal comprehension, 2) word fluency, 3) number, 4) space, 5) memory, 6) perceptual speed, 7) reasoning. Recent developments in intelligence testing create new instruments and new scales of intelligence (WISC, WPPSI, etc.). The new approach of Gardner multiple intelligence theory requires some change of the methodology of study and testing of intelligence. The classical twin study design relies on studying twins raised in the same family environments. Monozygotic (identical) twins share all of their genes, while dizygotic (fraternal) twins share only about 50 percent of them. Modern twin studies also try to quantify the effect of a person's shared environment (family) and unique environment (the individual events that shape a life) on a trait. There are different kind of twins studies: a) Twins-reared-apart design focuses on twins who were adopted into separate homes when they were infants. These twins do not share their

Question 4

environments, so genetic influences are thought to account for their similarities. b) Longitudinal studies of twins follow twins over time to assess the development of adult-onset conditions and traits. This approach allows for a more complete and accurate assessment of environmental factors over time. Twin study designs and statistical analysis methods are also constantly evolving and improving. The original twin study design has expanded to include studies of twins' extended families, longitudinal studies and other variations. Some of these variations allow researchers to address previous limitations. The assumptions those studies rest on are: a) Equal environments. Twin researchers also assume that fraternal and identical twins raised in the same homes experience equally similar environments. But some research suggests that parents, teachers, peers and others may treat identical twins more similarly than fraternal twins. b) Gene-environment interaction. Some researchers think that interactions between genes and environment, rather than genes and environment separately, may influence many traits. A recent study from Science (Vol. 297, No. 5582) by Avshalom Caspi, PhD, of King's College London, for example, suggests that a gene might moderate propensity for violence, particularly in people who are severely maltreated as children. Many twin study designs don't take this type of complication into account. c) Genetic mechanisms. Traits can be inherited through different genetic mechanisms. For traits governed by dominant genetic mechanisms, a dominant gene inherited from one parent trumps a recessive gene inherited from the other parent: If a person inherits a recessive gene for blue eyes from one parent and a dominant gene for brown eyes from the other parent, then the dominant brown gene wins, and the person's eyes are brown. Since 1979, a study of monozygotic and dizygotic twins separated in infancy has subjected more than 100 sets of reared-apart twins or triplets to a week of intensive psychological and physiological assessment. Smaller studies of monozygotic twins reared apart found that about 70 percent of the variance in IQ has been found to be associated with genetic variation. On multiple measures of personality and temperament, occupational and leisure-time interests, and social attitudes, monozygotic twins reared apart are about as similar as are monozygotic twins reared together. These findings extend and support those from numerous other twin, family, and adoption studies. It is a plausible hypothesis that genetic differences affect psychological differences largely indirectly, by influencing the effective environment of the developing child. The evidence for the

strong heritability of most psychological traits, however, does not detract from the value or importance of parenting, education, and other interventions. Adoption studies are another important way of disentangling genetic and environmental effects. These studies investigate children who were brought up from an early age by parents other than the ones who conceived them (Schaffer, 1996). Adopted children can be compared to their adoptive parents to determine how similar or different they are from each other. If adoptive parents and children are found to be similar to one another on a given measure, then this is likely support for environmental influence (because they do not share genetic material). Adopted children can also be compared to their biological parents (those by whom they have not been reared). If biological parents and adopted children share similar characteristics, this lends support to the argument for genetic influences. However, adoption studies are not lacking criticism. Oftentimes biological parents cannot or do not want to be located/do not wish to be tested, and children who are going to be adopted are often placed within families that resemble or share characteristics with their biological parents (Schaffer, 1996). Studies of identical twins who are raised separately due to adoption are also very important in understanding the difference between genetic and environmental traits. In these studies, since twins have almost identical genetic profiles, the major differences seen between the twins can be ascribed to environmental effects. In a Parent-Offspring Adoption Study (Plomin & DeFries, 1985), Robert Plomin and his fellow researchers concluded that genetics, not environment, play a larger role in the development of the cognitive processes. These researchers were interested in cognitive ability, or the mental process of knowing, including aspects such as awareness, perception, reasoning, and judgment. Results for children aged 1-16 showed that adoptees, although resembling their adoptive parents minimally at first, became more and more like their biological parents and less like their adoptive parents as they aged. By adolescence, there was a strong resemblance to the cognitive functioning of the biological parents, to the same degree as in the control families, and no similarity to that of the adoptive parents. Despite the fact that the children did not spend any time with their biological parents, they were more similar to them, cognitively speaking. These findings suggest that the genes affecting cognitive ability are not all expressed until adolescence and, further, that whatever environmental factors may affect cognitive functioning are not strongly correlated with the cognitive ability of the parents who raise the child.

Question 5

The main problems with Twins Studies are the following: a) the

sample of the study is very small because there are no much identical twins. b) when identical twins reared apart are studied, the majority of the cases share the almost identical environmental circumstances. c) is difficult to distinguish between monozygotic and dizygotic twins. To overpass these difficulties the researchers are using the correlation coefficients. The general pattern of results of these studies indicates that the closer the genetic relationship, the more similar the individuals IW scores are. For non identical twins the correlation coefficient is 0.60. For identical twins reared apart is 0.74 and for those reared together is 0.89. The findings of these studies suggest that there is certainly a large genetic component to a persons intelligence, but environmental conditions are extremely important too..

Question 6

Name and describe the stage which these eight-year olds have reached according to Piagets theory.
The stages of cognitive development proposed by Jean Piaget indicate that a eight year child is situated in the operational period, especially concrete operation stages. At this stage, the childs thinking becomes more logical and mathematical. The child is able to perform reversible thoughts operations, is able to be attentive to several kind of information in the same time, and he can to decentre himself, being able to attend to several aspects of a situation and look to an object from the point of view o someone else. At this age the child generally master the conservation tasks regarding quantity, mass, and substances. He starts to understand the conservation of weight. However, at this stage children can only think in terms of real world objects and events, can use the inductive logic, so they can form general principles from their own actual experience. They are prepared to step into the next stage of development: the deductive logic. During this stage, the thought process becomes more rational, mature and 'adult like', or more 'operational', Although this process most often continues well into the teenage years. The process is divided by Piaget into two stages, the Concrete Operations, and the Formal Operations stage, which is normally undergone by adolescents. Belief in animism and ego centric thought tends to decline during the Concrete Operational stage, although, remnants of this way of thinking are often found in adults. (Berk, 2009) Children's ideas about different objects, are formed and dominated by the appearance of the object. For example, there appears to be more blocks when they are spread out, than when they are in a

small pile. During the Concrete Operational Stage, children gradually develop the ability to 'conserve', or learn that objects are not always the way that they appear to be. This occurs when children are able to take in many different aspects of an object, simply through looking at it. Children are able to begin to imagine different scenarios, or 'what if' something were to happen. This is because they now have more 'operational' thought. Children are generally first able to conserve ideas about objects with which they are most comfortable. (Lightfoot, Cole, & Cole, 2009)

Bibliography Berk, L. E. (2009). Child development. Boston: Pearson/Allyn & Bacon. Bernard, H. R. (1994). Research methods in anthropology: qualitative and quantitative approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Choudhury, N., & Benasich. (2009). Infant information processing and family history of specific language impairmet: Converging evidence for early auditory perceptual deficits. In H. Eswaran (Ed.), Advances in developmental neuroscience and imaging (pp. 923). New Delhi, India: Anamaya Publishers. Dunning, T. (2012). Natural experiments in the social sciences: a design-based approach. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. Goodwin, C. J. (1995). Research in psychology: methods and design. New York: Wiley. Lightfoot, C., Cole, M., & Cole, S. (2009). The development of children. New York, NY: Worth Publishers. Plomin, R., & DeFries, J. C. (1985). A parent-offspring adoption study of cognitive abilities in early childhood. Intelligence, 9(4), 341356. doi:10.1016/0160-2896(85)90019-4 Schaffer, H. R. (1996). Social Development. Wiley.

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