Developmental Plasticity. Behavioral and Biological Aspects of Variations in Development

277 Pages·1981·4.098 MB·English

by  Eugene Gollin (Eds.)

DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY SERIES
SERIES EDITOR
Harry Beilin
Developmental Psychology Program
City University of New York Graduate School
New York, New York
LYNN S. LIBEN. Deaf Children: Developmental Perspectives
JONAS LANGER. The Origins of Logic. Six to Twelve Months
GILBERTE PIERAUT-LE BONNIEC. The Development of Modal Reasoning:
Genesis of Necessity and Possibility Notions
TIFFANY MARTINI FIELD, SUSAN GOLDBERG, DANIEL STERN, and
ANITA MILLER SOSTEK. (Editors). High-Risk Infants and Children:
Adult and Peer Interactions
BARRY GHOLSON. The Cognitive-Developmental Basis of Human Learning:
Studies in Hypothesis Testing
ROBERT L. SELMAN. The Growth of Interpersonal Understanding:
Developmental and Clinical Analyses
RAINER H. KLUWE and HANS SPADA. (Editors).
Developmental Models of Thinking
HARBEN BOUTOURLINE YOUNG and LUCY RAU FERGUSON.
Puberty to Manhood in Italy and America
SARAH L. FRIEDMAN and MARIAN SIGMAN. (Editors). Preterm Birth
and Psychological Development
LYNN S. LIBEN, ARTHUR H. PATTERSON, and NORA NEWCOMBE.
(Editors). Spatial Representation and Behavior Across the Life Span:
Theory and Application
W. PATRICK DICKSON. (Editor). Children's Oral Communication Skills
EUGENE S. GOLLIN. (Editor). Developmental Plasticity: Behavioral and
Biological Aspects of Variations in Development
In Preparation
GEORGE E. FORM AN. (Editor). Action and Thought: From Sensorimotor
Schemes to Symbolic Operations
Developmental Plasticity
Behavioral and Biological Aspects
of Variations in Development
Edited by
EUGENE S. GOLLIN
Department of Psychology
University of Colorado
Boulder, Colorado
1981
ACADEMIC PRESS
A Subsidiary of Harcourt Brace Jovanouich, Publishers
New York London Toronto Sydney San Francisco
This volume is based, in part, on a continuing program in biobehavioral
development conducted by the Developmental Psychology Area of
the Psychology Department in the University of Colorado
COPYRIGHT © 1981, BY ACADEMIC PRESS, INC.
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
Developmental plasticity.
(Developmental psychology series)
Includes bibliographies and index.
1. Adaptability (Psychology) 2. Adaptation
(Physiology) 3- Developmental psychology.
k. Learning, Psychology of. 5. Psychology,
Comparative. I. Gollin, Eugene S/ II. Series.
[DNLM: 1. Child development. 2. Learning. WS
105 DU8917]
BF713.DU6 155.2*2 80-2331
ISBN 0-12-289620-3 AACR2
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
81 82 83 84 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
List of Contributors
Numbers in parentheses indicate the pages on which the authors' contributions begin.
DAVID CHISZAR (71), Department of Psychology, University of Col-
orado, Boulder, Colorado 80309
ROBERT DOOLING (135), Rockefeller University Field Research Center,
Millbrook, New York 12545
EUGENE S GOLLIN (231), Department of Psychology, University of Col-
orado, Boulder, Colorado 80309
JERRE LEVY (175), Department of Behavioral Sciences, University of
Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637
LEWIS P. LIPSITT (35, 101), Department of Psychology, Brown Univer-
sity, Providence, Rhode Island 02912
GERALD E. McCLEARN (3), College of Human Development, The
Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802
PETER MARLER (135), Rockefeller University Field Research Center,
Millbrook, New York 12545
STEPHEN TOULMIN (253) Committee on Social Thought, Univer-
sity of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637
JOHN S WERNER (35, 101), Department of Psychology, University of
Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309
STEPHEN ZOLOTH (135), Rockefeller University Field Research Center,
Millbrook, New York 12545
ix
Preface
Developmental scientists in the behavioral and biological areas are faced
with a twofold problem. First, they must strive to comprehend the enormous
diversity in form and function that exists among organisms of different
species, among members of the same species, and within individuals over
the course of ontogenesis. The second problem confronting developmental-
ists is that against this background of diversity there is the figure of species
and individual integrity. How are the themes of diversity and integrity that
characterize living systems to be reconciled? The contributors to this volume
are in general agreement that both diversity and integrity are phenotypic ex-
pressions of developmental processes, and that the task is to explore the con-
straints on and opportunities for variation in the course of development.
In this volume these themes are examined from a variety of theoretical
viewpoints and research contexts. In Chapter 1 McCleam reviews the broad
evolutionary landscape and the specific genetic mechanisms implicated in
biological and behavioral development. Next Werner and Lipsitt describe the
sensory apparatus available to neonatal human beings. Chiszar, in Chapter
3, details the similarities and differences between ethological theories and
learning theories and considers developmental plasticity in interdisciplinary
contexts. The acquisition of behavior patterns during early postnatal develop-
ment is examined by Lipsitt and Werner from a traditional learning theory
point of view in Chapter 4, and in the following chapter the same general
phenomenon is approached by Marler, Zoloth, and Dooling from ethological
and comparative vantage points. The role played by asymmetry in general
and by cerebral asymmetry in particular in the generation of individuality is
examined by Jerre Levy in Chapter 6. In Chapters 7 and 8 Gollin and
Toulmin, respectively, explore epistemological, theoretical, and methodo-
logical questions that arise from a consideration of developmental plasticity.
xi
I
EVOLUTIONARY AND
GENETIC BACKGROUND
A recurrent theme in this book is the adaptive significance of organismic
change and the adaptive value of morphogenetic stabilization. Neither of
these aspects of Jiving systems is understandable without a consideration of
the proliferation of life forms during the history of the planet. It is the task of
evolutionary theorists to trace that history, to order it, and to render it into a
tale that makes sense. In the following chapter, McClearn portrays in drama-
tic fashion the vastness of the time scale that serves as the evolutionary stage.
It is a heroic story fashioned by brilliant, albeit temporary, successes and
many, many failures. The factors that contribute to success in the sense of
survival and to failure in the sense of extinction are, of course, the subject
matter of many scientific disciplines. To understand how selective processes
work to favor the vigor and prosperity of some organisms and the waning or
demise of others requires knowledge about how hereditary mechanisms
coact with environmental forces to produce particular phenotypes in the
course of individual development, for it is upon the phenotypic arrangements
that the selective pressures are exerted. In this chapter, the ground plan for
phenotypic variability is presented. Developmental plasticity must be con-
sidered within the structure provided by that ground plan.
1
1
Evolution and Genetic Variability
GERALD E. McCLEARN
Introduction
People differ from starfish and from squirrels and from elephants. Further-
more, people, starfish, squirrels, and elephants differ one from the other.
These observations are so obvious that they might be judged trite, but im-
plications of the genetic perspective on this intra- and interspecific variability
are of fundamental importance.
In terms of variance analysis, one might conceive of the total variability of
all organisms. The within-species term would represent the subject matter of
individual differences, and the between-species term would be the province
of evolutionary biology. The purpose of this chapter is to provide a frame-
work for thinking about variability in the developmental sciences. The picture
is necessarily painted with the broadest of strokes, and the interested reader is
directed to the cited references for more fine-grained expositions.
Contemporary Variability between Species
As a beginning, let us regard our species in an evolutionary perspective.
Together with the gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans, and gibbons, collec-
tively of the family Pongidae, we Hominidae constitute the superfamily
Hominoidea. Together with the superfamily Cercopithecoidea (the Old
World monkeys, including 13 genera) and the superfamily Ceboidea (New
World monkeys, 10 genera), we Hominoidea compose the suborder An-
thropoidea. All together, we Anthropoidea number about 140 species. The
suborder Prosimii — which includes the treeshrews, lemurs, and tarsiers—has
3
DEVELOPMENTAL PLASTICITY Copyright © 1981 by Academic Press, Inc.
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
ISBN 0-12-289620-3
4 GERALD Ε. McCLEARN
about 53 species. The Anthropoidea and the Prosimii make up the order
Primates, a group of mammals characterized most notably by mobile digits
on hands and feet, a shortened snout, frontally placed eyes, a tendency
toward upright posture, and a brain that is large relative to body size (see
Jolly, 1972; Le Gros Clark, 1965). Thus, we see that about 193 species are
in the immediate phylogenetic neighborhood of humankind.
For a more comprehensive picture, we note that primates belong to the
class Mammalia, which also includes the orders Monotremata (such as the
duck-billed platypus), Marsupialia (kangaroo, opossum, and anteater),
Lagomorpha (rabbit), Dermoptera (flying lemur), Chiroptera (bat), Insecti-
uora (shrew), Fissipeda (dog, cat), Rodentia (mouse, rat), Pinnipedia (seal),
Artiodactyla (pig, deer, hippopotamus), Perissodactyla (horse, rhinoceros),
Proboscoidea (elephant), and several others. All of these mammals belong to
the subphylum Vertebrata. This is to say, they have backbones. Our species
constitutes only a small part of all vertebrates; there are, in fact, about
55,000 vertebrate species. Approximately 4300 are mammalian species,
about 3000 are amphibian species, 6000 are reptiles, 11,000 are birds, and
the bony fishes come in the enormous variety of 28,000 species. Thus, even
though diversity of species is a commonplace observation, common
knowledge does not give one an adequate view of the range of diversity of
living things. We do not encounter even a small sample of this diversity in the
ordinary course of events. Even a trip to the zoo can only whet the intellec-
tual appetite. No zoo can stock all 55,000 vertebrate species!
If this number of vertebrates is awesome, consider that there are about
1,055,000 specific types of creatures without backbones—among others, the
jellyfishes, crabs, spiders, insects, oysters, flatworms, roundworms, sponges,
and starfishes of the world. These invertebrates surpass us vertebrates in
species number almost 20 to 1.
Particularly unlikely to be the object of everyday observation are single-
celled organisms, but the fact that they are small does not mean that they are
unimportant either qualitatively or quantitatively. It has been estimated that
there are about 100 octillion living cells in the world today—that is,
100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (Hockett, 1973). Of these
100 octillion cells, perhaps as many as 99 octillion, and at least as many as
90 octillion, are tied up in single-celled organisms (bacteria, algae, and so
on). We, the metazoan, multicellular animals, are in a decided minority. We
should note further that the preceding discussion has concerned only the
animal kingdom. We have not even considered the plants, which also exist in
dazzling diversity.
How different are human beings and squirrels? In view of the enormous
diversity of living things, the answer to this question will depend on the
measuring stick used to assess variability. If a visitor from Mars were to ex-
1. EVOLUTION AND GENETIC VARIABILITY 5
amine a squirrel and a man, many similarities would be observed. It would be
found that both are responsive to similar kinds of energies; our sense organs
work according to the same basic principles and have similar sensitivities. If
the human being and the squirrel were dissected, the specimens would look
remarkably alike except for the difference in size. In both cases, the Martian
investigator would find a little pump for blood, an inflatable bellows to
transfer oxygen from the surrounding environment into the blood stream, a
bean-shaped organ for waste disposal, and so on. These are remarkable
similarities. If one's frame of reference were the whole array of over a million
living animal species, one would conclude that squirrels and human beings
are not very different at all.
However, there are differences between human beings and squirrels—
differences in size, hair covering, complexity of behavioral processes, and so
on. Whether species are alike or different is thus a matter of perspective.
There is no absolute yardstick with which to measure interspecies distance.
The apparent distance will shrink or expand depending upon our emphasis
on the similarities or the differences—whether we are emphasizing the theme
of all living beings, or the variety of specific forms the living assume.
Evolutionary Variability
The variability of living beings represents only differences among the sur-
vivors of the winnowing process called natural selection. Many more species
have become extinct than are alive today. To consider the full range of vari-
ability, therefore, we need to turn to the evolutionary sequence that has
culminated in the species that are our contemporaries.
The evolutionary scale in Figure 1.1 begins 5 billion years ago when the
sun started glowing. Matters of professional interest to biologists or psychol-
ogists began about 3.5 billion years ago when life originated. Life evidently
began in the oceans when exposure of a particular set of atmospheric ingre-
dients to high temperatures and lightning produced the forerunners of amino
acids—the building blocks of protein. Amino acids gradually accumulated in
the ocean, making it a dilute organic soup. In this soup, combinations of
organic constituents formed, and one of these yielded a molecule that could
replicate itself. At that point, life was off and running (see Orgel, 1973).
Shortly thereafter, a matter of only a few million years, another funda-
mental development occurred. In the presence of the energy from sunlight,
photosynthesis permitted the building up of carbohydrates from the car-
bon dioxide that was accumulating in the atmosphere. Photosynthesizing
organisms were self-feeding; moreover, and of profound ultimate impor-
tance to us, they produced oxygen as a waste product. Oxygen, which was
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