Human Development Operant conditioning could be used to get my roommate to make his bed by providing negative reinforcement every time he fails to make his bed. I could tell him that he is not allowed to use the TV. This should reinforce the idea that he must not fail to make his bed. Classical conditioning could be used to get my roommate to make his bed by providing an unconditioned stimulus -- telling him our neighbor is coming by to use the computer in the mornings from now on. He will naturally react by wanting to tidy the room including his bed.

The hypothesis I would use for testing the effect of Baby Einstein videos on cognitive development would be: Baby Einstein has a positive effect on the cognitive development of toddlers between the ages of 1-3. This would be a longitudinal study, using a randomized sample. A control group would also be used. The methodology would be survey, and parents of children would be surveyed -- questions ranging from how much Baby Einstein is watched during the experimental period to what sort of developmental behaviors does the child exhibit. This methodology is the best for this study because it is an easy and effective way to gather quantifiable data over time. Limitations for this study would be that data would be self-reported, which could allow for respondents to try to give the "right" answer rather than the real answer. This could confound interpretations.

6. Were I an adopted child, from my observable characteristics or phenotype, one could...

For example, if I am particularly drawn to the arts and enjoy being creative, it might be said that my biological parents were also drawn to this. If I am fond of mechanical processes and of being neat and tidy, this might be the result of a genetic inheritance from my biological parents. If I am easily angered or have a short temper this could be another trait inherited from my parents.
9. Cultural differences can shape aspects of language development. For example, one difference between cultures may be the ratio of nouns to verbs and adjectives that one culture uses over another -- and this could stem from cultural values. Thus, in the English/Western culture, we might have a mixture of nouns, verbs and adjectives to select from -- however, from an African-American culture in the inner-city, the vocabulary and language (sometimes called Ebonics) may have a much more limited ratio of nouns to verbs and adjectives -- a result of the culture's poverty, inexperience with many different words, places, peoples, and ideas, and basically an overall roadblock between the community and education. As a result, a Westerner who lives in a well-off community and learns English may be exposed to more ideas, peoples and places and as a result learn a language that is rich, while the African-American who learns…