Prof. Greg Francis 6/17/081Focus on physical growthIIE 366: DevelopmentalPsychologyGreg FrancisLecture 10I. Physical AttractivenessA. Who Is? Who Isn’t? How Do We Decide?B. How Does Attractiveness Affect A Child’s Development?II. Lack of SleepA. Studies of extreme sleep deprivationB. Studies of early school startC. A more realistic study: Sadeh et al. (2003)III. Studying Brain FunctionA. Electroencephalography (EEG)B. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)I. PhysicalAttractivenessA. Who is? Who Isn’t? How Do WeDecide?B. How Does Attractiveness AffectA Child’s Development?True or false: Beauty is in the eye ofthe beholder.True or false: Beauty is only skindeep.Answers: Both false.Prof. Greg Francis 6/17/082Who Is Attractive?Why? Some ideas: Youthfulness,symmetry More recent evidence:“Average” Is “beauty in the eye of thebeholder”? No.Facial beauty Average faces are almost always beautifulFacial beauty Average faces are almost always beautifulFacial beauty Average faces are almost always beautifulProf. Greg Francis 6/17/083Facial beauty Average faces are almost always beautiful http://www.faceresearch.org/demos/averageLanglois & Roggman (1990)Results for “Liking”22.22.42.62.833.23.41 face 8 face 16 faces 32 facesLanglois et al. (1991) results forinfants’ looking at facesHow Does AttractivenessAffect A Child’sDevelopment? By age 5, physically attractive childrenare more popular, in part because theyare less aggressive toward others and,instead, interact more positively. More attractive children are also moresuccessful in school.Langlois et al. (1995) study ofmothers and newborns Mothers treat attractivebabies differently. More affection interaction Less routine care giving More attention to others Both for newborns and for 3-month olds (attractivenessrated by undergraduates)II. Lack of SleepElementary-school age children needabout 9 hours of sleep each night.What are the consequences of reducedsleep?Prof. Greg Francis 6/17/084Sleep Sleep is essential for growthsince 80% of growth hormone issecreted during sleep Many children do not get enoughsleep Around 25% Children must be taught how tofall asleep Nighttime rituals helpA. Studies of extreme sleepdeprivation (e.g., only 4 hours) showreduced attention and alertness.B. Studies of early school start timesshow poorer concentration andinattention.C. A more realistic study:Sadeh et al. (2003)• Studied 9- to 12-year-olds in Israel over5-day period.• For first two days, children sleepnormally• For last three days,• some children sleep normal amounts• others get 30+ minutes of extra sleep• still others get 30+ less sleep.C. Sadeh et al. (2003)• Children with reduced sleep duration report improvedsleep quality (fewer nighttime wakings)• Children with increased sleep duration report poorersleep quality (more nighttime wakings)• However, shorter sleep duration leads to morereports of fatigue the following evening• These differences of sleep duration also lead tobehavioral effects• Measured attention (in the morning) before andafter changed sleeping patterns.III. Studying Brain FunctionA. Electroencephalography (EEG)B. Functional magnetic resonance imaging(fMRI)Prof. Greg Francis 6/17/085A. EEGMolfese et al. (1975) Studied 6-month-olds Repeated (100X)presentations ofsyllables (e.g., “ba”) ornonspeech sounds(e.g., music, “whitenoise”) Recorded electricalactivity in the left andright temporal regionsof the brain.fMRI Provides a “direct” measure of brain activity. Based on change in magnetic properties ofoxygenated versus deoxygenated blood. Produces a “map” of brain regions“consuming” large amounts of oxygen.Work by Joan Stiles on face processing in the temporal lobeProf. Greg Francis 6/17/086Summary1. Physical attractiveness: Beauty is neither in the eyeof the beholder nor skin deep. There arewidespread standards of facial attractiveness thathave consequences for development.2. Cumulative loss of even small amounts of sleep canmake children less attentive.3. EEG and fMRI techniques show that the brain isorganized early in development.Next time Perceptual development Methods of measuring infant