Exam 4: Infancy and Toddlerhood: Physical, Cognitive, and Language Development

Suppose an infant is shown the same picture of a cow over and over again. Eventually the infant grows tired of looking at the picture. Now, the infant is shown a picture of an elephant, and she stares intently at this "new" picture. The procedure used in this demonstration would best be considered to be an example of classical conditioning.

Most researchers today believe that Piaget was too optimistic about the speed with which infants develop, since many developmental processes, such as object permanence and symbolic representation, appear to emerge at ages considerable later than Piaget prescribed.

If a researcher is studying the "other race" effect, the research findings would suggest that:

The text describes a study in which infants were shown pictures of several different horses. Then they were shown a picture of a horse and a picture of a different animal, such as a giraffe. What research technique did this study employ to determine how infants learn to categorize objects?

Dr. Franklin believes that all humans are born with a biological predisposition to develop language, and that a specific region in the brain is highly adapted for language learning. In this respect, Dr. Franklin's view would emphasize the same central feature as which of the following concepts?

If a normal adult human brain weighs 3 pounds, about how much would a normal 1-year-old's brain weigh?

Suppose you show a newborn infant a sequence of 3 cards, each with an image printed on it. The first card consists of a very simple image of a black circle. The second card contains an image of moderate complexity, showing two circles and two squares. The third card contains a highly complex image of several different objects of various shapes, each overlapping the others. Which of these three cards would you expect a newborn to pay attention to for the longest period of time?

The child's ability to categorize objects into groups that are similar (round shapes, square shapes, triangles, and so forth) begins to emerge at about what age?

Suppose you show a newborn infant four photographs, one of his mother smiling, one of his mother making a fearful face, one of a stranger smiling, and one of a stranger making a fearful face. Which photograph should you expect the newborn to look at for the longest time?

You notice that little Charlie can now use his thumb and index finger to pick up small objects like marbles and cereal flakes. This ability is called the development of:

By studying the results of experiments such as those that use the visual cliff apparatus, scientists generally conclude that children's perceptual abilities develop somewhat in advance of their understanding of risks associated with certain actions. For example, a child typically develops the ability to perceive depth before she understands that crawling out on the "cliff" side of the visual cliff is dangerous.

Which of the following activities would an 8-month-old be LEAST likely to be able to do?

The typical child begins to produce repeated syllables, such as "ga-ga-ga," at about what age?

If three babies of different ages were shown the same picture of a human face, you would expect that the 2-month-old baby would look longest at __________; the 5-month-old baby would look longest at the ___________; and the 8-month-old baby would look longest at ___________.

Although infants have no sense of taste and smell at birth, by age 2 months these senses are functioning at the adult level.

At about what age do most children learn to use the "pincer grasp," which allows them to use their thumb and forefinger to "pinch" a small object to pick it up?

In Europe and the United States today, the infant mortality rate is about:

Which of the following was NOT one of the six arousal states identified in newborns by Peter Wolff?

Suppose you observe a researcher interacting with an infant by shaking a rattle while the baby is watching, and then placing the rattle underneath a pillow. The researcher then records whether or not the baby can find the rattle under the pillow. The concept this researcher is studying is most likely:

Jake suffered a head injury at the age of 2. In spite of his injury, Jake was able to recover most of the abilities that he had before the injury. Which of the following terms is most directly related to Jake's ability to regain these lost functions?