Week+2

All activities and content, including timing, will be depicted on this page for all classes in week 2. What content that needs to be covered in the second week for psychology unit 1 - Development of individual behaviour - will be described here.

Lesson 1 (100mins) - Tuesday 5 May @ 10.50 am
At recess before class; arrange tables to seat groups of 5 and place a box, sticky tape, a plastic pocket and a piece of paper with checkered pattern on each table. Add scissors.

Board notes: __Todays lesson__; Sit down quietly at a table please. 1. Open books to page... 2. Gibson & Walk (1960): 3. Campos, Bertenthal & Kermoian (1992):

You should be in groups of equal numbers, around 5 or 6 per table.

- For the next 10mins we are going to construct 5 mini replicas of the visual cliff. - When this is done I want one leader from each group to tell the class one thing this box was used for...
 * Can everyone please open their books to page... and observe the diagram of the visual cliff used by Gibson & Walk in their study.

After activity explain the points refered to on unit outline;-

__**Gibson & Walk (1960):**__


 * Used the visual cliff to study depth perception in infants.


 * They studied 36 human infants ranging in age from six to 14 months.

- However, this experiment could not conclude whether a human infants' perception of depth is innate.
 * Gibson & Walk found that 'most human infants can discriminate depth as soon as they can crawl'.


 * This experiement did not reveal much about how depth perception develops or when it first appears in the human infant.


 * A limitation of the Gibson & Walk experimental proceedures is that depth perception can only be studied properly with infants who are mobile.

Hand around print outs of the worksheet named "Gibson & Walk (1960)" and "Campos et al (1992)" Gibson - Give students 10mins to work quietly through the first worksheet, then work through it with everyone.

Explain now about the more recent study by Campos... using the unit outline;-

__**Campos, Bertenthal & Kermonian (1992):**__


 * Also used the visual cliff to study depth perception in human infants.


 * Used increased heart rate as a measure of depth perception.


 * Found that infants who were capable of "self-produced" motion showed significant increase in heart rate when placed on the deep side of the visual cliff.


 * Those who were not capable of "self-produced" motion (including the physically disabled) showed either no change or a slight decrease in heart rate (slight decrease is an indicator of interest).

- However, research by Campos and his colleagues shows that pre-mobile infants are not frightened by height (depth). - Wariness and fear of heights do not develop until an infant is old enough to crawl (or move in some away) into trouble or harmful situations.
 * It seems that, as measured by changes in heart rate and other physiological signs, the ability to perceive depth is present in infants who are too young to crawl or incapable of self-produced motion.

Allow 10mins to have a go at the Campos et al (1992) worksheet if havn't already. - work through with class.

If time left over then hand around Depth Perception "fill in the blanks" worksheet.

If finished this then do LA6 Questions.

Homework: Finish of classwork, do LA6 Questions...


 * Should be up to Dotpoint 3 now...

Lesson 2 (60mins) - Wednesday 6 May @ 2.35 pm

 * To finish off work on depth perception hand around depth perception "fill in the blanks" worksheet.

- make them get questions out and show their progress. - elaborate on the imortance of doing these for homework.
 * Check that students are doing their LA6 homework questions.

Start dotpoint 3; implications of sample size and population on research.

- Discuss possible examples of populations around Bendigo aside from VCE students; What are some examples around Bendigo of populations? Questions to ask: - How might you select a sample from a population? - What are the benefits of, and limitations of using a sample to study a particular group (population)? - Does the sample size effect the accuracy of a study? - What influences [personal characteristics, environmental factors, peer group pressure, mode of study, cultural influence) might effect the results of the study.
 * Read out the definitions of Sample and Population from unit outline.

Aid:- Draw a few big circles on the board; - Give names to these "populations" - Indicate how you might take a "sample" - Draw big samples and small samples when discussing sample size. - list Benefits and limitations under the "samples". - may also add in outside influences with arrows pointing at the sample drawings and muddling them up.


 * Discuss scenarios where it would be appropriate to use only a small sample (eg. when a population is very small) and scenarios where you would have to use a large sample (eg. when population is very large) - need to account for individual differences.