Developmental Research Round-up

As part of the Big Clean Out of Spring 2011, I'm throwing away hard copies of articles I read for classes and that I don't have any reason to keep (i.e., they are outside my research areas).  Here is a dabbling of quotes from articles in developmental psychology for your edification and/or amusement.

"There is extensive work, for example, documenting the change in patterns of gene expression associated with learning and the formation of new memories. It has also been demonstrated that exposure to enriched environments induces changes in patterns of gene expression associated with neural structure, plasticity, and transmission. Additionally, there is recent evidence that early experience can have differential effects on carriers of different alleles of the same gene and that those differences in early gene-environment interactions have long-term effects on behavioral outcomes such as propensity to depression and IQ. Even something as simple as exposure to the smell of coffee has been shown to induce differential gene expression in rats, particularly under conditions of stress. Indeed, there is so much evidence for behavioral effects on gene expression that a neurobiologist would likely counter the question about whether behavior can influence gene expression with the possibly more interesting question of whether there are any behaviors that do not influence gene expression and activity." (Stiles, 2009)

"As Gottlieb (1997) relates, ducklings hatched from eggs incubated in isolation show a species-appropriate preference toward the maternal call of their species, and this auditory bias facilitates imprinting to associated visual cues. Lorez was quick to attribute this preference to innate, species-specific auditory recognition governed by genes. Gottlieb, however, experimentally demonstrated that the preference was not expressed by hatchlings that were incubated in isolation and devocalized, and therefore deprived or all prenatal auditory experience (i.e., maternal and sibling vocalizations as well as their own vocalizations). Indeed, self-stimulation from embryonic vocalizations tunes the auditory system and establishes a bias that shapes the later preference for the maternal call. In this way, embryos - so-called talking eggs - help create their own species-specific environment." (Spencer et al., 2009 - "Short arms and talking eggs: Why we should no longer abide the nativist-empiricist debate")

Title: "Theory of mind may be contagious, but you don't catch it from your twin" (Cassidy, Fineberg, Brown, & Perkins, 2005)

"Moffitt concluded that adolescent delinquency 'must be a social behavior that allows access to some desirable resource' and suggested 'that the resource is mature status, with its consequent power and privilege' (p. 686). GS [group socialization] theory suggests a different explanation: Adolescents are not aspiring to adult status - they are contrasting themselves with adults. They adopt characteristic modes of clothing, hairstyles, speech, and behavior so that, even though they are now the same size as adults, no one will have any trouble telling them apart. If they truly aspired to adult status they would not be spraying graffiti on overpasses, going for joyrides in cars they do not own, or shoplifting nail polish from stores. They would be doing boring adult things, like figuring out their income tax or doing their laundry." (Harris, 1995)

"Older individuals may indeed be more psychologically mature than younger people and may be happier as a result." (Sheldon & Kasser, 2001)

"The term cognitive reserve is frequently used to refer to the ubiquitous finding that, during later life, those higher in experiential resources (e.g., education, knowledge) exhibit higher levels of cognitive function. This observation may be the result of either experiential resources playing protective roles with respect to the cognitive declines associated with aging or the persistence of differences in functioning that have existed since earlier adulthood....Results suggest that cognitive reserve reflects the persistence of earlier differences in cognitive functioning rather than differential rates of age-associated cognitive declines." (Tucker-Drob, Johnson, & Jones, 2009)