Deck 11: Human Development

Question 1

The term embryo describes the stage of development:

A) from conception to approximately 2 weeks postconception
B) from approximately 2 weeks postconception to approximately 2 months
C) from approximately 2 months to birth
D) during the last trimester

Answer 1

B

Question 2

What is the name of the stage of development which occurs from approximately 2 weeks postconception to approximately 2 months?

A) zygote
B) embryo
C) fetus
D) infant

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Which of the following is NOT likely to be an area studied by developmental psychologists?

A) the central role that culture plays in the order in which children develop certain skills
B) the critical point in fetal development that is responsible for social behaviours
C) the effects of exercise on memory in individuals with dementia
D) the neurotransmitters critical for hard-wiring of reflexes in the brain

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Which of the following is NOT true of teratogens?

A) Teratogens include any chemical in the environment that negatively affects a developing embryo or fetus.
B) Teratogens are a group of recessive genes that affect the child while still in the womb.
C) Teratogens include alcohol, prescription drugs, and environmental chemicals.
D) Teratogens are often avoidable.

Question 5

The case of "Genie" discussed in your textbook demonstrates:

A) how autism can affect behaviour
B) the negative impact of social isolation on normal development
C) that brain development is relatively unaffected by one's early environment
D) that early language develops even in the absence of environmental stimulation

Question 6

Maternal hormones:

A) have little effect on a fetus's development since the fetus is isolated from the mother's blood supply
B) can affect physical development, such as the time at which a child will walk, but not mental variables such as IQ
C) can have important effects on variables such as intellectual development and gender identity
D) have effect on a fetus's development only in the first trimester

Question 7

Sandra is a very emotional person, and is even more so when she is pregnant with her first child. A psychologist is counselling her about the effects of being highly stressed and distraught during her pregnancy. Which of the following is a possible effect of Sandra's highly emotional state on her baby?

A) Her stress may affect the fetus via exposure to high levels of stress hormones.
B) Her stress levels will impair future thyroid functioning in the fetus, resulting in growth difficulties.
C) Her stress may expose the fetus to high levels of testosterone, resulting in high aggression.
D) There are no known effects on fetus development.

Question 8

In 2005, a young 7-year-old girl was identified in Florida who had much of the same type of neglect and early upbringing as the famous girl "Genie." Given the Florida girl's age, you would expect that she:

A) will also not recover, as the brain is set in infancy and cannot be changed
B) might have some recovery, as the Florida girl is quite a bit younger than Genie was when she was found
C) is likely to completely recover because the brain is not set until the teen years
D) unlike Genie, will definitely recover because we are much better at repairing the brain today

Question 9

Which is likely to be the most critical period of fetal development and why?

A) zygote, because most of the internal organs are formed during this period
B) embryo, because most of the internal organs are formed during this period
C) fetus, because most of the internal organs are formed during this period
D) infant, because the baby is finally viable

Question 10

Social developmental psychologists are primarily concerned with:

A) how we learn to interact with other members of our species
B) cognitive functioning in children
C) how personality traits affect behaviour
D) how drug use affects thought processes

Question 11

Which of the following is a preventable birth defect?

A) Down syndrome
B) fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)
C) hemophilia, a genetic bleeding disorder
D) mental retardation

Question 12

Comparisons across cultures regarding when children develop particular skills indicates that:

A) culture plays a central role in the order in which children develop certain skills
B) crawling occurs at the same age in all cultures
C) the development of particular skills shows a consistent general pattern across cultures
D) no generalizations can be made regarding the process of human development without taking culture into account

Question 13

The drug thalidomide, when administered to pregnant women:

A) facilitated the development of immune responses in offspring
B) resulted in a high incidence of severe birth defects
C) did not relieve the negative symptoms of pregnancy as had been hoped
D) balanced the levels of hormones that a fetus was exposed to

Question 14

The fetus has a working nervous system by:

A) the second month
B) the fifth month
C) the seventh month
D) birth

Question 15

Studies of brain development:

A) confirm that the brain you have at birth is fully developed
B) show that unless you are born prematurely, your brain is mature at the end of the second trimester
C) indicate that brain development continues into adulthood
D) demonstrate that the major influences on brain development occur after birth

Question 16

Most psychologists now agree that behaviour is the product of both nature and nurture. An example of this interaction is that:

A) if the environment can prevent a gene from "expressing" itself, that gene will have little influence on behaviour
B) genes focus our attention on aspects of the environment that are required for our survival
C) if nature has not prepared us to respond to a particular environmental stimulus, we cannot learn to respond to it
D) if the environment is inconsistent with our innate reactions, we will be unable to adapt to the changes

Question 17

Which of the following is NOT true about the young girl named "Genie" described in your book?

A) Genie had been severely neglected and abused.
B) Genie had no language, self-help skills, or real world knowledge when she was found.
C) Genie was able to overcome all the obstacles of her early life and is essentially normal today.
D) Genie engaged in animal-like behaviour.

Question 18

What is the name of the stage of development which occurs from conception to approximately 2 weeks postconception?

A) zygote
B) embryo
C) fetus
D) infant

Question 19

What is the name of the stage of development which occurs from approximately 2 months to birth?

A) zygote
B) embryo
C) fetus
D) infant

Question 20

Your aunt who both smokes and drinks just got pregnant. What would you recommend to her?

A) She should quit both immediately.
B) She should stop drinking but can continue to smoke.
C) She can do both up until the end of the first trimester.
D) It is already too late to avoid harm to her fetus so it doesn't matter what she does.

Question 21

The nature of an infant's attachment to its caregivers is primarily a function of:

A) its genetic inheritance
B) parental treatment
C) which of Piaget's stages of development it has achieved
D) the degree of contact comfort it has experienced

Question 22

The concept of a sensitive period for language learning in humans means that:

A) if language is not learned by a certain age it will never be learned
B) first languages can be learned at any age but second languages must be acquired by middle adulthood
C) if a first language is not learned by a certain age language acquisition will become more difficult
D) vocabulary can be learned at any age but there is a small window during development when grammar can be acquired

Question 23

Which of the following is a disorder or syndrome used as an example of the conflict between women's personal rights versus the effects of women's behaviour on their infants?

A) Down syndrome
B) fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)
C) hemophilia, a genetic bleeding disorder
D) mental retardation

Question 24

Which of the following is NOT true of attachment?

A) Attachment is important because it promotes survival.
B) Attachment occurs in all animals, not just humans.
C) Attachment can occur at any age and does not show the typical sensitive period.
D) Behaviours that indicate the strength of attachment include separation anxiety.

Question 25

Which of the following is NOT a typical behaviour shown by adults when they interact with infants?

A) Adults use a high-pitched voice.
B) Adults make exaggerated facial expressions.
C) Adults talk in low, soft sounds.
D) Adults rock back and forth while holding babies.

Question 26

Which of the following is NOT true of imprinting?

A) There is a critical period in which imprinting must occur.
B) Imprinting occurs most commonly in humans.
C) Imprinting is a biological behaviour.
D) If the mother bird is not available, the baby bird can imprint on any available female of that species.

Question 27

Which of the following is NOT true about brain development?

A) As an adult, your brain has fewer synapses than it had when you were 2 years old.
B) Humans are less mature at birth than are most other animals.
C) The number of brain synapses increases rapidly during the 2 years following birth.
D) The brain of a full-term newborn is fully developed.

Question 28

Infants show signs of developing social attachments:

A) at about the same time they can move about in their environment
B) at about the same time language develops
C) when they are old enough to understand facial expressions of emotions like contempt
D) within the first few months of life

Question 29

Your best friend recently had a baby. She is excited because the baby smiled at birth, and she believes that the smiling indicated attachment. You know that:

A) your friend is absolutely right; newborns smile at their mothers from birth to indicate attachment
B) the smiling is likely the result of pleasurable feelings felt by the newborn, not social smiling
C) babies smile when they think about their mothers, even before birth
D) newborns rarely smile at their mothers, but are more likely to indicate attachment by crying and reaching

Question 30

Your father notices that you are taking Russian in university and decides that he too would like to learn a second language. On the basis of the concept of "sensitive periods" in learning, you would predict:

A) that you will learn the language more easily than he will
B) that since he has had more experience with language he will learn Russian faster than you
C) that he will master the Russian vocabulary faster than you, but will have problems with the grammar
D) nothing, since acquisition of a second language is unrelated to age of exposure to it

Question 31

Separation anxiety appears in infants:

A) at various times depending upon the culture they are in
B) at 6 to 8 months of age
C) primarily if they have been deprived of caretaker comfort
D) at about the same time they reach the formal operational stage of development

Question 32

Recent research suggests that critical periods for learning specific skills such as language are:

A) more time constrained than originally thought
B) more determined by culture than brain development
C) more flexible than originally thought
D) not supported by the data

Question 33

What is the influence of the environment on brain development?

A) none; brain development is controlled by genes
B) none; the brain is fully developed at birth
C) substantial; but the influence is primarily through diet
D) substantial; a broad range of environmental factors affects brain development

Question 34

Myelination:

A) occurs in all brain regions at roughly the same time
B) increases the speed at which a neuron can transmit signals
C) is not complete in the brain areas involved in abstract thought until young adulthood
D) increases the speed at which a neuron can transmit signals and is not complete in the brain areas involved in abstract thought until young adulthood

Question 35

Harlow did an experiment with infant rhesus monkeys, requiring them to make a choice between an imitation mother that provided contact comfort or one that provided food. The results demonstrate that for this species:

A) food is the most important reinforcement
B) food is used as a method for tension reduction in the young
C) tactile comfort is more important than food, particularly during stress
D) infants were distressed because the "mother" providing contact comfort did not also supply food

Question 36

As part of a science project you hatched a baby duckling and are raising it. The duckling follows you even when other adult ducks are around. This is an example of:

A) faulty learning
B) imprinting
C) a fixed action pattern
D) the absence of a critical period in duck following behaviour

Question 37

In terms of sensory capabilities, you came into the world with:

A) good visual sensitivity but unable to smell or taste
B) the ability to process stimuli related to all five senses
C) good taste and smell but only a minimal sense of hearing
D) excellent vision but poorly developed senses of smell and taste

Question 38

The notion of critical periods:

A) is now viewed as too rigid to explain aspects of human development
B) has been generally discarded in the analysis of all animal behaviour
C) is useful in explaining biological but not cognitive development
D) has been documented for human language acquisition

Question 39

The concept of a sensitive period differs from a critical period in that:

A) the former is more flexible in terms of time
B) the former relates to environmental factors while the latter relates to genetic factors
C) the latter applies to human behaviour while the former applies to nonhumans
D) They are essentially equivalent concepts.

Question 40

Synaptic pruning is:

A) the brain's way of doing away with synaptic connections that are not being used
B) a process induced by teratogens that negatively impacts development
C) a process that occurs in all brain areas at the same time
D) a process that is detrimental to normal brain development

Question 41

Imagine that you are visiting your sister and her 1-year-old child Jamie. You note that Jamie becomes distressed whenever your sister leaves the room, can be easily comforted by you while she is gone and something stressful occurs, and ignores your sister when she comes back into the room. Ainsworth would describe Jamie's attachment to your sister as:

A) avoidant
B) secure
C) anxious-ambivalent
D) disorganized

Question 42

If your mother was emotionally or behaviourally inconsistent with you, you are likely to have a(n) ____________ attachment style.

A) secure
B) avoidant
C) anxious-ambivalent
D) disorganized

Question 43

The strange-situation test was designed to allow psychologists to assess:

A) how infants respond to separation and reunion with their mothers
B) an infant's tendencies to seek or avoid novelty
C) a mother's response to a fearful infant
D) the level of social skill an infant has acquired

Question 44

A hormone that has recently been shown to play an important role in mother/infant attachment is:

A) testosterone
B) oxytocin
C) epinephrine
D) norepinephrine

Question 45

If your infant was securely attached to you, as defined by Ainsworth, when placed in the strange-situation test he would:

A) explore the room and the objects in it
B) stay very close to you for support
C) be fearful of any stranger who came in
D) be extremely disturbed if you left the room

Question 46

An infant is presented with two stimuli, one of which it has seen before and one of which it has not. He or she will:

A) look at the familiar stimulus longer than the unfamiliar
B) look at the unfamiliar stimulus longer
C) shift its gaze between the two, allocating roughly equal amounts of attention to both
D) look at the one with subtle compared to bold patterns

Question 47

A toymaker wants to determine which of three colours infants like best. Which of the following techniques would be best for assessing this preference?

A) strange-situation test
B) preferential-looking technique
C) visual acuity tests
D) There is no good technique, as infants cannot yet distinguish colours.

Question 48

You present an infant with two stimuli and time how long she looks at each of them. Over a 5-minute period the infant looks at each of them for the same amount of time. You can probably conclude that the:

A) stimuli are of no interest to the child
B) child has never seen the stimuli
C) child can see no differences in the two stimuli
D) stimuli are similar

Question 49

A securely attached infant differs from one who is avoidantly attached in terms of:

A) what they do when the attachment figure leaves
B) how they respond to strangers
C) what they do when the attachment figure returns after an absence
D) all of the above

Question 50

Harlow's research with infant monkeys demonstrated that:

A) fear can be reduced by food
B) when fearful, infant monkeys lose their appetites
C) fear produces a preference for contact comfort over food
D) fear inhibits the development of attachment behaviours

Question 51

The orienting reflex is the tendency for an infant to:

A) pay more attention to novel stimuli than to stimuli he or she is familiar with
B) move toward any breastlike stimulus
C) prefer subtle patterns to bold patterns
D) look away less quickly when the stimulus is familiar

Question 52

The results of Harlow's research with infant monkeys:

A) supported Freud's notions of human development
B) supported behavioural theories of development
C) challenged both Freudian and behavioural theories of development
D) undermined the notion of sensitive periods during development

Question 53

According to Bowlby's theory of attachment:

A) infants have a set of innate behaviours that cause adults to attend to them
B) infants must learn how to elicit attention from adults
C) social attachment is largely an outcome of how adults respond to infants
D) social attachment is largely an outcome of how infants respond to adults

Question 54

One sign that a child is securely attached to its caregivers is that:

A) it continues to play happily when the caregiver leaves
B) it is not afraid of strangers when the caregiver is present
C) when the caregiver returns after an absence he or she is ignored
D) in the caregiver's absence the child can be comforted by a stranger

Question 55

Approximately what percentage of children develop what Ainsworth called a secure attachment style?

A) 15 percent
B) 25 percent
C) 45 percent
D) 65 percent

Question 56

The New York Longitudinal Study of social development showed that the most important variable affecting a child's development was:

A) whether the parents had been divorced
B) the extent to which parental behaviour appropriately takes the child's temperament into account
C) whether parents of multiple offspring treated them equitably
D) the environment rather than anything the parents did

Question 57

Environmental influences begin to affect children's development:

A) when they are able to move about in their environment
B) shortly after conception
C) within hours of their birth
D) as soon as they begin attending to peers

Question 58

Comparisons across cultures showed that when infants begin to crawl they:

A) begin to lose interest in their caregivers
B) display signs of being more interested in age peers than in caregivers
C) play happily even when the caregiver leaves
D) show signs of distress when separated from caregivers

Question 59

Which of the following is true of young infants?

A) They show no preferences for particular stimuli because they cannot discriminate among them.
B) They prefer familiar to unfamiliar stimuli.
C) They prefer novel rather than familiar stimuli.
D) They prefer circular rather than rectangular stimuli.

Question 60

The implication of Harlow's research on infant rhesus monkeys for parenting behaviour is that when your infant is frightened you should:

A) feed her
B) leave her alone until the fear passes
C) utter reassuring sounds to her
D) hold her

Question 61

What does Piaget call the process of changing or modifying a schema in response to environmental factors?

A) assimilation
B) accommodation
C) maturation
D) conservation

Question 62

Confabulation occurs when young children:

A) deliberately lie
B) recall an event with made up memories as well as accurate memories
C) use their imagination rather than recalling the actual event
D) cannot remember where they learned something

Question 63

Your brother's child has just learned to organize her blocks according to their relative sizes. What stage of development would Piaget say she has reached?

A) sensorimotor
B) preoperational
C) concrete operational
D) formal operational

Question 64

Young children are unable to:

A) create false stories
B) remember the source of where they learned something
C) confabulate stories
D) remember longer than 24 hours

Question 65

Using a task in which an infant moved a mobile by kicking, it was demonstrated that over the first 18 months of life:

A) memory is good and relatively stable
B) children cannot remember anything
C) children fail to see a relationship between kicking and mobile movement
D) children develop the ability to remember an event for several weeks

Question 66

Infantile amnesia refers to the observation that:

A) infants quickly forget stimuli they have recently seen
B) infants repress any sexual images
C) adults are unable to remember things that occurred to them before about the age of 3
D) we can remember what occurred in infancy but not why it occurred

Question 67

Human newborns:

A) cannot discriminate brightness and colour
B) can clearly focus on objects up to 15 metres away
C) can tell the difference between their mother's voice and that of a stranger
D) can perceive depth

Question 68

Visual acuity reaches adult levels in a child:

A) within weeks after birth
B) at approximately 1 year
C) by grade one
D) at about 10 years of age

Question 69

Piaget argued that development:

A) is a progression through a series of different stages of cognitive ability
B) is primarily a biological process
C) varies widely across cultures as a function of the physical environment
D) depends more upon physical skills than cognitive skills

Question 70

Recent studies have shown that infant brains:

A) cannot process speech until about 6 months old
B) process speech in a manner highly similar to adults
C) process speech in a unique manner from adults
D) cannot process speech until they begin to talk

Question 71

When a psychologist says you have become habituated to a stimulus she means that:

A) you are familiar with it and prefer to look at it rather than at other stimuli
B) you habitually engage in behaviour that makes the stimulus accessible to you
C) your interest in the stimulus declines
D) you no longer see, smell, or feel it

Question 72

Your brother's son shows evidence of understanding both abstract thought and the use of symbols. Piaget would place him in the ____________ stage of development.

A) concrete operational
B) formal operational
C) preoperational
D) sensorimotor

Question 73

Infants less than 10 days old:

A) will alter their behaviour if the alteration allows them to hear their mother's voice
B) have the auditory acuity of an adult
C) can see stimuli in depth
D) begin to learn vocabulary audiovisually

Question 74

Depth perception:

A) is not present until a child is approximately 4 years old
B) does not develop until visual acuity has reached its maximum level
C) is undermined by binocular disparity
D) usually has developed by 6 months of age

Question 75

When did you first learn to recognize your mother's voice?

A) while still in the womb
B) within a week after being born
C) not until about 6 months, when auditory acuity was fully developed
D) as soon as you could make language-like sounds

Question 76

What is the correct ordering of Piaget's stages of cognitive development?

A) formal operational, concrete operational, preoperational, sensorimotor
B) concrete operational, preoperational, sensorimotor, formal operational
C) preoperational, concrete operational, sensorimotor, formal operational
D) sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational

Question 77

Your sister has a 4-year-old child. According to Piaget he is probably at the ____________ stage of development.

A) preoperational
B) sensorimotor
C) concrete operational
D) formal operational

Question 78

Research suggests that infants younger than 18 months:

A) cannot remember events for longer than 24 hours
B) have little recall of any stimuli not relevant to their immediate needs
C) can remember some things for several weeks
D) remember stimuli or events directly associated with caregivers but little else

Question 79

One aspect of memory that distinguishes children younger than 3 from children over 5 is that:

A) older children do not confabulate
B) younger children have greater source amnesia
C) younger children are more likely to experience what Freud called infantile amnesia
D) older children have greater source amnesia

Question 80

When visiting your sister you notice that her infant enjoys watching a mobile that hangs over his head. Of the various objects hanging on the mobile, which are likely to get more of his attention?

A) red ones, because infants are particularly responsive to this colour
B) gray ones, because these are least frightening to a child
C) objects with bold black and white patterns, because patterns are easier for infants to make out
D) objects with simple shapes, because these are easier for the infant to recognize