Assignment Paper

1. A sensitive period is a short window of time during a baby animal’s development during which a critical event must occur in order for the baby to develop “normally”. For example, it appears that some songbirds must learn their species’ song, and this learning must occur during a sensitive period. If they don’t hear another bird sing the song during this sensitive period, then they will not learn to sing. Suppose that you are a researcher attempting to examine this hypothesis. Design an appropriate experiment to test this hypothesis, and explain what potential confounds you would need to address.

At least two paragraphs each:
1. You read a letter to the editor that remarks on the high correlations between children watching violent TV, and later violent behavior. The writer argues that this means that watching violent TV causes children to become violent, so the government ought to prevent these shows from being broadcast during times when children are watching.
Write responding to the writer explaining why she or he has “gone too far” with the evidence.

2. Using a search engine of your choice, find a web page whose main content is about the effects of age on some psychological variable. Briefly describe what you learned, and discuss whether any of the methods discussed in this chapter would be appropriate to explore this area of psychology. Methods used in the chapter “Descriptive and Correlational Methods”