Deck 8: Physical and Cognitive Development in Early Childhood

Question 1

Judy DeLoache reasons that the scale errors made by young children are likely due to:

A) an inability to perceive the true size of objects.
B) playfulness associated with the increase in pretend play during the early childhood years.
C) a dissociation between perception and action due to lack of experience with similar objects that vary in size.
D) a dissociation between perception and action due to immature brain development.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Which of the following BEST describes what a stage theorist would say regarding the unevenness of thought in early childhood?

A) Unevenness of thought reflects variability in performance due to task demands.
B) Unevenness of thought reflects differences in levels of cognitive competence.
C) Unevenness of thought is inconsistent with stage views.
D) Unevenness of thought is due to gradual increases in cognitive functioning.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Pediatricians recommend that young children get ____________ hours of sleep in a 24-hour period.

A) 6 to 8
B) 8 to 10
C) 10 to 12
D) 12 to 15

Answer 3

D

Question 4

When a family lacks enough food to ensure good health they can be said to be:

A) food-insecure.
B) food-secure.
C) high in food security.
D) moderate in food security.

Question 5

Ciara has just attempted to put her doll's shoe on her own foot. This is an example of:

A) her motor drive.
B) precausal reasoning.
C) a scale error.
D) decentration.

Question 6

Which of the following BEST describes the relationship between brain development and culturally organized activities in early childhood?

A) Brain development is not influenced by experience.
B) Cultural emphasis on activities such as language and spatial skills can promote brain growth in the associated cortical areas.
C) Brain development is only influenced by cultural activities that impact nutrition and health.
D) Experience can influence myelination processes, but not synaptic development.

Question 7

Four-year-old John's high motor drive is best demonstrated when he:

A) puts on his shoes and socks by himself.
B) spends 15 minutes practicing his newly developed ability to cut paper with scissors.
C) uses a spoon to effectively eat his lunch.
D) asks his older sister to help him button his shirt.

Question 8

Researchers concerned about health issues related to obesity look at children's actual weight gain, as well as the:

A) rate at which children gain their weight.
B) time of day that children consume the most calories.
C) relationship between children's weight and their gross motor skills.
D) relationship between children's weight and their family's level of food security.

Question 9

At the age of 5 years, Veronica demonstrates her developing ____________ by printing simple letters and demonstrates her ____________ by riding her new scooter.

A) gross motor skills; fine motor skills
B) fine motor skills; gross motor skills
C) motor drive; fine motor skills
D) gross motor skills; motor drive

Question 10

Which of the following BEST describes the relationship between childhood weight and later health?

A) An individual's weight during childhood does not predict later health concerns.
B) Young children who undergo rapid weight gain after a period of being underweight have a lowered risk of cardiovascular disease as adults.
C) Childhood obesity places children at risk for a variety of health problems later in life.
D) Childhood obesity is a risk factor for later health concerns for girls, but not boys.

Question 11

According to Piaget, mental operations are:

A) the tendency to focus on the most salient aspect of whatever one is trying to think about.
B) mental "actions" in which information can be combined, separated, and transformed in a logical manner.
C) a confusion between appearance and reality.
D) schemas that specify who participates in an event and the sequence of actions that make up the event.

Question 12

The thinking of children between ages 2 and 5 wobbles back and forth between all of the following EXCEPT:

A) logic and magic.
B) insight and ignorance.
C) object permanence and abstract reasoning.
D) reasoned and unreasonable.

Question 13

What is the process through which new bone tissue is formed at the growth plates of long bones?

A) ossification
B) physis
C) metaphysis
D) epiphysis

Question 14

Which of the following BEST describes the pattern of brain development in early childhood?

A) The brain is fully developed by the start of early childhood.
B) The rate of myelination, synaptic pruning, and synaptogenesis is consistent across brain areas.
C) The rate of my myelination, synaptic pruning, and synaptogenesis is inconsistent across brain areas.
D) The pattern of brain growth is independent of an individual's experiences in the world.

Question 15

The average amount of sleep that 2- to 5-year-old children get is approximately:

A) 6 hours per night.
B) 8 hours per night.
C) 10 hours per night.
D) 12 hours per night.

Question 16

Which of the following BEST describes the growth of the brain during early childhood?

A) Brain growth is extremely rapid.
B) Brain growth is relatively modest.
C) Myelination decreases, but synaptic pruning increases.
D) Myelination increases, but synaptic pruning decreases.

Question 17

Which of the following is an example of a child using a mental operation?

A) believing that a taller, narrower glass has more water than a shorter, water glass after watching the water poured from one to the other
B) children engaging in collective monologues
C) arranging a stamp collection according to country of origin
D) children having difficulty taking a listener's knowledge into account when communicating

Question 18

Preschool-aged children's thinking can be described as:

A) inconsistent.
B) logical.
C) even and predictable.
D) operational.

Question 19

Sarah has just learned how to skip and has spent the afternoon skipping around in her front yard. How old is she likely to be?

A) 2 years
B) 3 years
C) 4 years
D) 5 years

Question 20

Approximately what percent of U.S. families do not have access to enough food to ensure good health for all family members?

A) 5 percent
B) 10 percent
C) 20 percent
D) 40 percent

Question 21

In Piaget and Inhelder's classic "three-mountain problems," where preoperational children are asked to identify the doll's perspective, they almost always choose the picture that corresponds to:

A) the doll's point of view.
B) their own point of view.
C) the first view that they saw.
D) the experimenter's point of view.

Question 22

According to Piaget, what is the principle goal of cognitive development?

A) centration
B) egocentrism
C) objectivity
D) object permanence

Question 23

What is the cognitive ability to pull away from focusing on just one feature of an object in order to consider multiple features?

A) centration
B) decentration
C) objectivity
D) egocentrism

Question 24

Preschoolers may sometimes appear to be illogical because:

A) they engage in mental operations.
B) they are working on coordinating their sensory perceptions and simple motor behaviors.
C) their still-developing language skills make it difficult for them to demonstrate understandings.
D) they have not acquired object permanence or mental representations.

Question 25

According to Piaget, early childhood is a time of transition between:

A) preoperational thinking and formal operational thinking.
B) the overtly physical schemas of infancy and the egocentrism of middle childhood.
C) the sensorimotor stage of infancy and the ability to think symbolically which emerges in middle childhood.
D) the overtly physical schemas of infancy and the ability to use mental operations in middle childhood.

Question 26

According to Piaget, a child who has difficulty identifying a picture that corresponds to another's point of view of a model has limited:

A) spatial perspective taking.
B) mental modules.
C) ability to differentiate between appearance and reality.
D) precausal reasoning.

Question 27

According to Piaget, "egocentrism" referred to the characteristic ____________ thinking of young children.

A) selfish
B) arrogant
C) operational
D) "centered on oneself"

Question 28

As used by Piaget, "egocentrism" refers to:

A) a form of confusion.
B) a form of selfishness.
C) the ability to use decentered thought.
D) considering the world entirely from one's own point of view.

Question 29

According to Piaget, the three most common errors in early childhood reasoning include all of the following EXCEPT:

A) egocentrism.
B) confusion of appearance-reality.
C) precausal reasoning.
D) scale errors.

Question 30

According to Helen Borke, 3-year-old Jennifer is MORE likely to solve a perspective-taking problem correctly:

A) if the task involves familiar objects.
B) when she turns 4.
C) if instructions involve actions rather than words.
D) if the perspectives are clearly differentiated.

Question 31

Which of the following behaviors demonstrates that 3-year-old Jasmin is not as egocentric as Piaget would have predicted?

A) Jasmin likes to cuddle her teddy bear when she gets hurt. When her friend Bobby got hurt, Sally brought him her teddy bear.
B) Jasmin really loves giraffes. When selecting a birthday gift for her friend Jamie, Sally picks out a toy giraffe.
C) Jasmin and Molly are talking. Molly tells Jasmin about her new baby sister. Jasmin replies by saying, "My favorite show is Blue's Clues."
D) Jasmin loves macaroni but dislikes peas. Tracy loves peas but dislikes macaroni. When Tracy asks Jasmin to pass her some more snack, Jasmin gives her the peas.

Question 32

A father pours a glass of juice for his daughter, Iona. Iona wants more, so the father pours the juice from a short, fat glass into a tall, thin one. Iona is now happy to have gotten more. The daughter:

A) is able to reason abstractly.
B) focuses on a single attribute of the situation.
C) understands that properties of an object stay the same even though it may look different.
D) can successfully reverse the pouring action in her mind.

Question 33

Young children's tendency to focus on only one feature of an object is called:

A) centration.
B) decentration.
C) objectivity.
D) egocentrism.

Question 34

Piaget used the term "preoperational" to describe children between the ages of 3 and 5 because they do not yet have the ability to:

A) learn language.
B) understand simple commands.
C) operate simple machines, such as staplers.
D) combine, separate, and transform information mentally.

Question 35

Piaget believed that children's inability to keep two aspects of a problem in mind was at the heart of all of the following characteristics of thinking in early childhood EXCEPT:

A) egocentrism.
B) the confusion of appearance and reality.
C) object permanence.
D) precausal reasoning.

Question 36

Which of the following is an example of the "centered" thinking of young children?

A) They report that a tall and narrow beaker has more water than a shorter and wider beaker even when the amount of water is the same.
B) They describe the view in a farm scene from the perspective of a familiar character.
C) They attribute different insides to animate vs. inanimate objects.
D) They think systematically about cause and effect.

Question 37

Piaget described thinking during early childhood as:

A) operational.
B) centered.
C) a mental module.
D) logical.

Question 38

According to Piaget, the stage in which children cannot decenter their thinking or think through the consequences of an action is known as the:

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

Question 39

An outcome of centration in children's thinking is that they:

A) appear to have more sophisticated understanding than they actually have.
B) misinterpret instructions when asked to solve tasks.
C) consider multiple aspects of a task at the same time.
D) are particularly susceptible to biased reasoning because they focus on a single aspect of a task.

Question 40

When compared to their performance on Piaget's classic "three-mountain-problem," children who were asked to reason about a more familiar farm scene:

A) exhibited greater limitations in taking the perspective of others.
B) exhibited greater success at taking the perspective of others.
C) were equally able to take the perspective of others.
D) became distracted by the toys and failed to complete the task.

Question 41

When John Flavell and his colleagues showed children objects that appeared to be one thing but were really another, they found that:

A) 5-year-olds were never fooled by the appearance of the objects.
B) Chinese 3-year-olds were better able to distinguish appearance from reality.
C) both American and Chinese 3-year-olds were able to solve the problem if given enough time.
D) both American and Chinese 3-year-olds experienced similar difficulties distinguishing appearance from reality.

Question 42

Research has demonstrated that young children have the _____ to take the perspectives of others, but their _____ may be affected by the demands of the task.

A) competence; performance
B) performance; objectivity
C) objectivity; competence
D) competence; centration

Question 43

When young children think transductively, they:

A) are at least 6 years of age.
B) are in the concrete operations stage.
C) are likely to confuse cause and effect.
D) have mastered the appearance/reality distinction.

Question 44

The fact that most 3- to 4-year-old children know that a person in a costume is the same person when in his or her regular clothes indicates that children at this age:

A) are egocentric.
B) can distinguish appearance from reality.
C) can take another's perspective.
D) have achieved formal operations.

Question 45

What pattern of responses has been found when experimenters ask young children questions regarding appearance/reality distinctions?

A) Three-year-olds answer incorrectly while 4-year-olds do not.
B) Three- and 4-year-olds answer incorrectly, and 6-year-olds answer correctly.
C) Three-year-olds answer incorrectly, while 4-year-olds are confused and sometimes answer correctly and sometimes incorrectly; however, 6-year-olds answer correctly.
D) Three-year-olds answer incorrectly; however, by the age of 9, children still sometimes answer incorrectly.

Question 46

Information-processing theorists view the main components of the mind as including all of the following EXCEPT:

A) environmental input.
B) sensory register.
C) short-term memory.
D) long-term memory.

Question 47

Because they reason transductively, Piaget referred to young children's reasoning as:

A) precausal.
B) egocentric.
C) concrete operational.
D) symbolic.

Question 48

When asked what a sponge that appeared to be a rock looked like and what it really was, a 3-year-old who said it looked like a rock, would say it really was a ____________.

A) rock
B) sponge
C) pretend rock
D) pretend sponge

Question 49

Some evidence that 3-year-old children can engage in decentered thinking comes from their performance on:

A) standard false belief tasks.
B) the standard three-mountain task.
C) standard appearance-reality tasks.
D) modifications of standard Piagetian tasks.

Question 50

Piaget may have underestimated young children's cognitive competence in causal reasoning because:

A) his problems deliberately tried to confuse young children.
B) he relied on verbally presented problems and verbal justifications of reasoning.
C) he used only interviews with his own children as the basis of his conclusions.
D) he required children to manipulate objects they were not yet capable of manipulating.

Question 51

Children's increasing ability to remember events can be attributed to all of the following EXCEPT:

A) children's increasing prior knowledge about events to be remembered.
B) adult assistance in helping children remember events.
C) the development of more effective processes for encoding, storing, and retrieving information.
D) age-based increases in the duration with which information can be held in short-term memory.

Question 52

The information-processing approach compares the neural features of the human brain to ____________ and the strategies individuals use to ____________.

A) computer hardware; computer software
B) computer software; computer hardware
C) animal physiology; animal behavior
D) animal behavior; animal physiology

Question 53

A young child thought that because there are no graveyards in New York City, people do not die there. This is an example of:

A) centering.
B) egocentrism.
C) decentering.
D) transductive reasoning.

Question 54

According to Piaget, a child who reasons that it can't be afternoon yet because she has not had her nap is engaged in:

A) mental operations.
B) collective monologues.
C) precausal thinking.
D) decentered reasoning.

Question 55

When asked what a stone that appeared to be an egg looked like and what it really was, a 3-year-old would say it was a(n) ____________, a 4-year-old would say it was a(an) ____________, and a 6-year-old would say it was a(n) ____________.

A) egg; stone; stone
B) egg; egg; egg
C) stone; egg sometimes and stone sometimes; stone
D) egg; egg sometimes and stone sometimes; stone

Question 56

According to the _____, the sensory register, short-term storage, and long-term storage represent the basic system for attending to, interpreting, and storing information.

A) modularity theory
B) information-processing model
C) theory theory
D) cross-cultural perspective

Question 57

The information-processing approach considers cognitive development:

A) to be analogous to the workings of a digital computer.
B) within each child's cultural context.
C) to be based on maturation of innate modules.
D) to be focused on children's ability to perform mental operations.

Question 58

Piaget's reliance on children's verbal explanations of their reasoning may have:

A) been too simplistic for young children.
B) been appropriate for false-belief tasks but not for perspective-taking tasks.
C) led him to focus too much attention on egocentric thinking in young children.
D) led him to underestimate their causal reasoning abilities.

Question 59

Halloween is likely to be frightening to 3-year-olds because:

A) most 3-year-olds are afraid of the dark.
B) at that age, many children are afraid of strangers.
C) a child that age has difficulty distinguishing appearance from reality.
D) a 3-year-old is likely to believe that a mask can transform whatever it is covering.

Question 60

Investigations of children's performance on appearance-reality tasks suggests that:

A) 3-year-old children demonstrate abilities to reason about appearance-reality distinctions when tasks rely on verbal responses.
B) 3-year-old children are able to distinguish appearance from reality on tasks in which they are asked to help trick other people.
C) a variety of task modifications converge on the finding that 3-year-olds have difficulty reasoning about appearance-reality distinctions.
D) the difficulty that U.S. children demonstrate in reasoning about appearance-reality distinctions has not been replicated in other countries.

Question 61

When children see a surprising causal event that is inconsistent with what they have already learned about the world, their first response is to:

A) ignore the new information.
B) explore the unusual event.
C) accept new rules for the ways the world works.
D) confirm the accuracy of their prior understandings.

Question 62

According to information-processing theorists, control processes:

A) hold information temporarily and execute operations.
B) are a relatively permanent storehouse of knowledge and strategies.
C) plan and run each phase of information processing.
D) log in environmental input.

Question 63

According to information-processing theorists, the sensory register:

A) stores incoming information for a fraction of a second.
B) can retain information that is attended to for several seconds.
C) is the place where active thinking takes place.
D) stores memories for a long period of time.

Question 64

Research has shown that one reason why children may give inaccurate testimony in criminal proceedings is:

A) they want to escape from an unpleasant situation.
B) they have trouble remembering stressful events.
C) they are trying to mislead the investigators.
D) they are susceptible to misleading questions.

Question 65

According to information-processing theorists, which of the following stores information for a fraction of a second before it is processed?

A) sensory register
B) short-term (working) memory
C) long-term memory
D) mental modules

Question 66

Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of short-term memory?

A) Information is stored for several days.
B) Information is stored for several seconds.
C) It is continually monitored by control processes.
D) New information is combined with knowledge from long-term memory.

Question 67

According to information-processing theorists, long-term memory:

A) holds information temporarily and executes operations.
B) is a relatively permanent storehouse of knowledge and strategies.
C) plans and runs each phase of information processing.
D) logs in environmental input.

Question 68

According to information-processing theorists, short-term or working memory:

A) holds information temporarily and executes operations.
B) is a relatively permanent storehouse of knowledge and strategies.
C) plans and runs each phase of information processing.
D) logs in environmental input.

Question 69

Information-processing psychologists are united by a common view of capacity limitations, citing the causes of young children's difficulties as all of the following EXCEPT:

A) limited memory.
B) insufficient or uneven attention.
C) no capacity for precausal reasoning.
D) limited strategies for acquiring and using information.

Question 70

Research on the reliability of children's eyewitness testimony demonstrates that children are more accurate when which of the following conditions is met?

A) The event they are asked to recall is not emotionally intense.
B) Interviewers provide candid information about the questioning process itself.
C) The event occurred in the distant past.
D) Children are asked the same question multiple times.

Question 71

Which of the following is not included in the elaborative style of mother-child interaction?

A) wh- questions
B) follow-ins
C) associations
D) negative evaluations

Question 72

Research with infants and young children watching videotaped sequences of a ball rolling off the edge of a ramp indicate that:

A) infants have an intuitive understanding of gravity and inertia.
B) 2-year-olds are sensitive to gravity, but not inertia.
C) 2-year-olds are sensitive to both gravity and inertia.
D) 6-year-olds are sensitive to both gravity and inertia but have not fully mastered these concepts.

Question 73

Caregivers who relate children's experiences to their prior knowledge and discuss aspects of events that children find interesting are using a(n) ____________ style of interaction.

A) repetitive
B) reminiscing
C) elaborative
D) engaging

Question 74

Stimulation from the environment is detected by sensory organs and passes on to the:

A) sensory register.
B) working memory.
C) short-term memory.
D) long-term memory.

Question 75

According to information-processing theorists, development:

A) proceeds in a stage-like manner.
B) occurs because of changes in strategy use lead to gradual shifts in behavior.
C) is guided by one's cultural context.
D) occurs because of changes in innate modules of knowledge.

Question 76

Which of the following is NOT considered a privileged domain?

A) psychology
B) reasoning
C) biology
D) physics

Question 77

Naïve psychology refers to:

A) the ability to comfort another person.
B) the ability to communicate with peers.
C) the understanding of the relationship between mental states and behavior.
D) the desire for social support.

Question 78

According to the information-processing view of development, preschool children have:

A) limited information-processing capacity.
B) the ability to direct their attention at will.
C) more than enough memory to solve problems.
D) more than enough attention to solve problems.

Question 79

The practice of parents using a highly elaborative interaction style with their children has been associated with which of the following outcomes?

A) These children show an improved memory for events and experiences.
B) These children show a decreased memory for events and experiences.
C) These children show decreased memory abilities when compared with children whose parents who do not typically engage in a highly elaborative style of interaction.
D) Research has not revealed an effect of interaction style on memory development.

Question 80

The term privileged domain refers to:

A) calm and quiet physical spaces, such as gardens, that allow children to reflect on complex problems.
B) specific areas of knowledge acquisition that are most important for later academic achievement.
C) areas of knowledge acquisition that have evolutionary significance, such as physics.
D) general properties of intellectual thought, such as memory.