PSYC 101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Umbilical Cord, Amniotic Sac, Twin
Document Summary
Introduction: investigate perceptual capacities and ability to learn from experience before birth. Plays loud sound next to ear; participant moves vigorously in response, so concludes that the participant can hear the sound. Continues playing sound over and over, causing less of a reaction each time. Plays different sound, where participant reacts vigorously; recognize difference. Conclusion: while in the womb, fetuses can detect range of stimuli from the outside world and can learn from these experiences and be affected by them after birth. Rather believed in epigenesist: the emergence of new structures and functions during development. Experiment: opened fertile chicken eggs to observe chick organs in development. Notion of preformation still prominent at the time, wondering if the preformed human was in the mother"s egg or the father"s sperm: conception. Union sperm cell and egg (gametes/germ cells) create single cell. Gametes contain only half the genetic material found in somatic cells.
