Brain Development & Biological Foundations
Explain synaptic pruning?
Unused neural connections are eliminated, making frequently used pathways stronger and more efficient.
Which of Piaget’s stages includes the development of object permanence?
The sensorimotor stage.
Explain attachment:
A strong emotional bond between an infant and their caregiver.
What is an independent variable?
The variable the researcher manipulates.
What is the difference between NREM and REM sleep?
NREM sleep involves slower brain activity and is important for physical restoration. REM sleep involves rapid eye movements, dreaming, and heightened brain activity similar to wakefulness.
What is the difference between structural and functional brain imaging? Provide one example of each.
Structural imaging (e.g., MRI) shows the physical structure of the brain. Functional imaging (e.g., fMRI) shows which brain areas are active during tasks by measuring blood flow.
How would a pre‑operational child respond to a conservation task (think the glass/liquid video) compared to a concrete‑operational child?
A pre‑operational child focuses on one feature (centration) and thinks the taller glass has more liquid. A concrete‑operational child understands that quantity stays the same despite changes in appearance.
What is the key difference between secure and insecure‑avoidant attachment?
Secure infants seek comfort and are easily soothed. Insecure‑avoidant infants show little distress and avoid contact with the caregiver.
Name one ethical guideline required when researching children.
Informed consent from parents/guardians and ensuring no harm to participants.
How does sleep deprivation typically affect attention?
Sleep deprivation reduces sustained attention and increases lapses in concentration, making it harder to maintain focus on tasks over time.
How does myelination contribute to faster cognitive processing in adolescence?
Myelin insulates axons, allowing electrical impulses to travel more quickly and efficiently, improving processing speed and coordination between brain regions.
Compare Piaget’s stage theory with information‑processing theory.
Piaget proposes qualitative, stage‑based changes in thinking. Information‑processing theory suggests continuous improvements in attention, memory, and processing speed.
How does the development of the amygdala influence emotional responses during childhood and adolescence?
The amygdala is responsible for detecting emotionally significant stimuli, especially fear and threat. During childhood and early adolescence, the amygdala is highly reactive and develops earlier than the brain regions responsible for regulating emotions. This heightened reactivity can lead to stronger emotional responses, increased sensitivity to stress, and more intense reactions to social situations. As regulatory areas like the prefrontal cortex mature later, emotional responses gradually become more controlled and less impulsive.
A repeated‑measures design tests memory before and after caffeine. Give one advantage and one disadvantage
Advantage: Controls participant differences.
Disadvantage: Order effects (practice or fatigue).
Explain how controlled and automatic processes differ in terms of attention.
Controlled processes require conscious effort and high attention (e.g., learning to drive). Automatic processes require little conscious awareness and minimal attention (e.g., walking). Sleep loss makes controlled processes especially difficult because they rely heavily on attentional resources.
A researcher compares prefrontal cortex activity in 10‑year‑olds and 16‑year‑olds during a decision‑making task. Identify the independent and dependent variables.
Independent variable: Age group (10 vs 16).
Dependent variable: Prefrontal cortex activity during the task.
According to Vygotsky, how does the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) explain differences in children’s problem‑solving ability?
The ZPD is the gap between what a child can do alone and what they can do with guidance. Children perform more advanced problem‑solving when supported by a more knowledgeable other, showing that learning is socially mediated rather than limited by developmental stages.
A caregiver is inconsistent in responding to a child’s needs. What attachment style is likely to develop?
Insecure‑resistant (ambivalent) attachment, where the child becomes clingy and difficult to soothe due to unpredictable caregiver responses.
A correlation of r = 0.62 is found between sleep hours and attention scores. Interpret it.
There is a moderately strong positive relationship: more sleep is associated with better attention. It does not show causation.
A student stays awake for 20 hours before an exam. Explain how this level of sleep deprivation might affect their performance using the concept of selective attention.
Selective attention becomes impaired, making it harder to filter out irrelevant information. The student may struggle to focus on key exam questions, become easily distracted, and take longer to process information, reducing accuracy and performance.
How does research on London taxi drivers provide evidence for adult brain plasticity?
MRI studies found that experienced taxi drivers had enlarged posterior hippocampi due to extensive spatial‑navigation training. This demonstrates that the adult brain can structurally change in response to environmental demands.
Design an experiment to test whether adolescents show more advanced abstract reasoning than children aged 8–10.
Hypothesis: Adolescents will score higher on abstract‑reasoning tasks.
IV: Age group (8–10 vs adolescents).
DV: Abstract‑reasoning test score.
Design: Independent groups.
Procedure: Both groups complete the same reasoning task; scores are compared.
How can culture influence attachment behaviours?
Different cultures emphasise independence or interdependence, shaping how infants express attachment behaviours. These differences reflect cultural norms, not attachment quality.
Critique the hypothesis “Music affects how people feel” and rewrite it scientifically.
Answer: It is vague and not measurable. Improved hypothesis: “Participants who listen to upbeat music will report higher positive‑mood scores than those who listen to no music.”
Discuss how an altered state of consciousness (such as meditation or sleep deprivation) differs from normal waking consciousness in terms of awareness and cognitive processing.
Altered states involve changes in awareness, perception, and cognitive efficiency. Meditation may increase focused attention and reduce external awareness, while sleep deprivation reduces alertness, slows processing, and impairs decision‑making. Both differ from normal waking consciousness, where awareness and cognitive functioning are typically stable and efficient.