Exam 5: The First Two Years: Biosocial Development

Perception takes place in the corpus callosum.

Explain how biology and environment interact in the development of gross motor skills. What would you advise for parents who are worried that their 14-month-old baby hasn't begun walking independently yet?

A typical child at 24 months weighs about _____ pounds.

A basic nerve cell in the central nervous system is called a(n) "_____."

Transient exuberance is the _____.

Pruning neural connections improves neural communication and increases thinking ability.

The part of the brain that seems to be devoted to perceiving faces is the _____ face area.

_____ is a life-threatening injury that occurs when an infant is violently moved back and forth in a reckless manner, because this motion ruptures blood vessels in the brain and breaks neural connections.

Fine motor skills are those that _____.

From birth until age 2, dendrites in the cortex increase about _____.

The last part of the brain to mature is the _____.

Why are breast-fed babies less likely to contract infectious diseases than bottle-fed babies?

Sensation occurs when a sensory system detects a stimulus; _____ occurs when the brain processes this sensory information.

Eli is 6 months old. He slaps the water repeatedly each time he is in the bathtub, squealing as the water splashes. His tendency to continue splashing water demonstrates his sensation and his attempt to make sense of it.

_____ is required for normal brain maturation to occur.

Small movements made by fingers and toes are called _____ motor skills.

The space between neurons in the brain most likely contributes to complex thinking in humans.

The great but temporary increase in the number of dendrites that develop in an infant's brain during the first two years of life is called "________."

Based on research about SIDS, caregivers are advised that babies should be _____.

The process through which unused dendrites atrophy and die is called "_____."