Deck 4: The First 3 Months

Question 1

The process of myelination, in which myelin covers nerve cells, assists in:

A) speeding the transmission of neural impulses or signals.
B) increasing the surface area of the brain.
C) the assimilation of new experiences.
D) generalizability.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Which of the following is a true statement about breastfed babies?

A) Breastfed children are more likely than formula-fed children to sleep through the night at an early age.
B) Breastfed children have an increased likelihood of developing immune-related diseases.
C) Breastfed children have an increased likelihood of becoming obese compared to formula-fed babies.
D) Breastfed children tend to score higher on tests of cognitive functioning than children who are fed formula.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

The soft spots on infants' skulls are known as:

A) myelins.
B) fontanels.
C) cortexes.
D) cerebellums.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

The main protruding branch of a neuron is the:

A) axon.
B) dendrite.
C) synapse.
D) myelin.

Question 5

The approximate number of neurons in the brain at birth is:

A) 1 billion.
B) 10 billion.
C) 100 billion.
D) unknown.

Question 6

What is the recommended length of time for mothers to breastfeed their infants?

A) 4 weeks
B) 6 months
C) 1 year
D) 3 years

Question 7

Axons, dendrites, and synapses perform the function of:

A) sending and receiving messages within the central nervous system.
B) neurotransmitters.
C) voluntary motor control, primarily.
D) myelination.

Question 8

The protruding parts of a neuron that receive messages from neighboring cells are called:

A) axons.
B) dendrites.
C) synapses.
D) neurotransmitters.

Question 9

The brain of an adult is approximately four times larger than that of a newborn. What accounts for this tremendous growth?

A) The complexity of networks between neurons increases.
B) The chemical reaction that occurs when myelin begins to dissolve triggers new nerve cells to develop.
C) New neurons form in response to experiences occurring in the first five years of life.
D) Nutritional benefits of breast milk and formula cause an increase in the production of neurons.

Question 10

Why might growth charts mislead parents and pediatricians who are evaluating a baby's physical growth?

A) They contain separate age-specific averages of height and weight for boys and girls.
B) They combine age-specific averages of height and weight for formula-fed and breastfed babies.
C) They indicate variations from averages in height and weight.
D) They are compiled using averages from both typically and atypically developing children.

Question 11

The interconnections between dendrites and axons form complex webs which are called:

A) myelin sheaths.
B) neuronal networks.
C) white matter.
D) synapses.

Question 12

The chemical that carries an impulse across the gap between axons and dendrites is called a:

A) synapse.
B) myelination.
C) neurotransmitter.
D) neuron.

Question 13

Charts that show average values of height, weight, and other measures of growth are called

A) measurement charts.
B) growth graphs.
C) measurement graphs.
D) growth charts.

Question 14

At birth, an average baby weighs about ____________ pounds and is about ____________ inches long.

A) 5; 21.5
B) 7; 19.5
C) 8; 19
D) 8; 21

Question 15

When a child jerks away her hand after she has touched a hot stove, her reaction is due to:

A) growth in her cerebral cortex and increasing myelination.
B) development in her occipital and parietal lobes.
C) cephalocaudal developmental patterns.
D) impulses being carried between her axons, dendrites, and synapses.

Question 16

Neuronal networks that are formed in utero:

A) remain fixed throughout later development.
B) undergo changes as a result of continued biological growth.
C) undergo changes as a result of experience in the world.
D) undergo changes as a result of both biology and experience.

Question 17

The tiny gap between the axon of one neuron and the dendrite of another is called the

A) dendrite.
B) neurotransmitter.
C) synapse.
D) myelin.

Question 18

Erum notices that her week-old infant has several "soft spots" on his skull. When she calls her pediatrician, she is MOST likely told to:

A) bring the baby in for immediate medical attention as such spots are indications of serious developmental concerns.
B) relax because these spots are nature's way of allowing the skull to accommodate brain growth.
C) relax because these spots will allow for positional skull flattening as her baby ages.
D) purchase a helmet-like device to help protect her baby's skull while the bones harden.

Question 19

During early childhood, the growth in brain volume can primarily be attributed to:

A) increasing grey matter.
B) increasing white matter.
C) increasing myelination.
D) increasing blood volume.

Question 20

In the first 3 months of life, an infant will gain approximately:

A) 2 pounds.
B) 4 pounds.
C) 6 pounds.
D) 12 pounds.

Question 21

The central nervous system is divided into three major sections, including:

A) cerebral cortex, neurons, brain stem.
B) brainstem, spinal cord, cerebral cortex.
C) brainstem, spinal cord, dendrites.
D) axon, dendrites, synapses.

Question 22

Which area of the brain appears to be quite immature at birth and is essential for a wide variety of voluntary behaviors?

A) neurons
B) spinal cord
C) brain stem
D) cerebral cortex

Question 23

Danielle was born severely visually impaired; as a result, the visual areas of her brain failed to develop normally. This is an example of:

A) synaptogenesis.
B) experience-expectant brain development.
C) experience-dependent brain development.
D) plasticity.

Question 24

Which of the following senses is the LEAST well-developed at birth?

A) vision
B) hearing
C) tasting
D) smelling

Question 25

At birth, which area of the central nervous system is the LEAST mature?

A) spinal cord
B) brain stem
C) cerebral cortex
D) cerebellum

Question 26

The development of neural connections under genetic control that occur in any normal environment is called a(n) ____________ process.

A) cultural
B) evolutionary
C) experience-expectant
D) experience-dependent

Question 27

Neurons send chemical messages to other neurons, which are called:

A) hormones.
B) synapses.
C) dendrites.
D) neurotransmitters.

Question 28

The oversupply of synapses in the brain during the early months of development provides the raw material for ____________ processes of brain development.

A) experience-expectant
B) experience-dependent
C) learning-based
D) exogenous

Question 29

Uncommitted areas of the brain provide infants with the capacity to develop brain circuits that grow and change depending upon the experiences infants encounter as they develop. These uncommitted areas permit developmental plasticity, and depend heavily on:

A) cultural influences.
B) evolutionary influences.
C) experience-expectant processes.
D) experience-dependent processes.

Question 30

Uncommitted areas of the brain provide infants with the capacity to develop brain circuits that grow and change depending upon the experiences infants encounter as they develop. These uncommitted areas permit _________ and depend heavily on experiences.

A) plasticity
B) evolutionary stability
C) synaptic pruning
D) hormonal regulation

Question 31

The outermost layer of the brain is called the:

A) cerebellum.
B) cerebral cortex.
C) hippocampus.
D) brain stem.

Question 32

What is the insulating material that forms a sheath around certain axons and speeds the transmission of nerve impulses from one neuron to the next?

A) myelin
B) dendrite
C) synapse
D) neurotransmitter

Question 33

Experience-expectant processes of brain development:

A) are the result of specific individual experiences.
B) have been found in chick embryos and rats, but not in humans.
C) anticipate certain experiences that are typically universal for humans.
D) allow organisms to learn from experience.

Question 34

The occipital lobe is specialized for:

A) vision.
B) hearing and speech.
C) spatial perception.
D) complex thought.

Question 35

A process in which infants lose their innate abilities to detect certain sensory features because those features do not occur very often in their environments is called:

A) experience-dependent.
B) synaptic pruning.
C) exuberant synaptogenesis.
D) perceptual narrowing.

Question 36

Which of the following statements MOST accurately summarizes findings from Rosenzweig's study of rats raised in different environments?

A) Rats raised individually performed better on learning tasks than those raised with other rats.
B) The brains of rats raised in enriched environments contained more synaptic connections than the brains of rats raised in standard laboratory cages.
C) The environments in which rats were raised had no effect on their performance on learning tasks.
D) The quality of the environment proved to impact female rats' brain development, but not the brain development of male rats.

Question 37

Which of the following is NOT a lobe in the cerebral cortex?

A) occipital lobe
B) parietal lobe
C) frontal lobe
D) spatial lobe

Question 38

The structure of the brain that controls such elementary reactions as blinking and sucking, as well as vital functions like breathing and sleeping, is called the:

A) cerebellum.
B) frontal lobe.
C) hippocampus.
D) brain stem.

Question 39

____________ reduces the oversupply of neural connections in the brain as part of the experience-expectant process of development.

A) Hormonal activity
B) Synaptic pruning
C) Experience
D) A proper diet

Question 40

The development of neural connections initiated in response to experience is called a(n) ____________ process.

A) cultural
B) evolutionary
C) experience-expectant
D) experience-dependent

Question 41

Studies of newborn infants' auditory preferences demonstrate that:

A) infants prefer to hear foreign languages more than their own language.
B) infants prefer the sound of the human voice to other types of sounds.
C) infants prefer low-pitched voices to high-pitched voices.
D) infants' hearing is not acute enough for them to demonstrate preferences for particular categories of sound.

Question 42

Infants' sucking rate increased when they heard a phoneme change from /pa/ to /ba/. This is evidence that:

A) infants have some hearing capacity.
B) human infants have a unique capacity to perceive properties of human speech.
C) infants can perceive differences in the phonemes of their native language only.
D) All of the answers are correct.

Question 43

Habituation and dishabituation in an infant are important because they show that the infant:

A) can perceive change.
B) is too young to learn.
C) is overwhelmed by his world.
D) is able to think about what she is doing.

Question 44

Which of the following responses is NOT used to evaluate infants' sensory capacities?

A) head turns
B) variations in brain waves
C) changes in heart rate
D) perceptual narrowing

Question 45

Electroencephalography involves measurement of:

A) sucking rate.
B) brain waves.
C) heart rate.
D) galvanic skin response.

Question 46

Terrance, age two months, turned his head toward his mother every time she spoke to him in "baby talk" or Child Directed Speech (e.g., spoken at a high pitch with slow, exaggerated pronunciation). What conclusion can you draw from this example?

A) His mother should stop talking to him in this manner because it is distracting to him.
B) His hearing capacities are developing normally.
C) He is developing more quickly than is typical.
D) He is probably experiencing a hearing difficulty.

Question 47

Newborns have been found to show a preference for the sound of:

A) human voices.
B) low-pitched tones.
C) instrumental music.
D) very loud noises to very soft noises.

Question 48

A comparison of how long babies look at different stimuli is the basic feature of:

A) electroencephalography.
B) the visual preference technique.
C) the habituation paradigm.
D) the preferred exposure strategy.

Question 49

Researchers assume that infants can tell the difference between two stimuli if they:

A) look at only one stimulus.
B) refuse to look at either stimulus.
C) pay more attention to one stimulus than to the other.
D) spend equal amounts of time looking at both stimuli.

Question 50

All of the following appear to be responsible for blurry vision in early infancy except:

A) immaturity of the lens of the eye.
B) immaturity of the retina of the eye.
C) immaturity of the neural pathway from the retina to the brain.
D) immaturity of the fovea of the eye.

Question 51

The ability to make phonemic distinctions begins to narrow to just those distinctions that are present in one's native language at about what age?

A) birth
B) 3 to 4 months
C) 6 to 8 months
D) 12 months

Question 52

Which of the following is an example of habituation?

A) A newborn cries because she is hungry.
B) An infant tires of looking at his mobile.
C) A newborn is startled by a loud truck horn.
D) An infant cannot differentiate between two round objects.

Question 53

The habituation/dishabituation technique is used primarily to:

A) measure infants' sensory capacities.
B) teach infants early sensory-motor skills.
C) measure infants' rate of physical growth.
D) predict infants' later aptitude for learning.

Question 54

Which of following has occurred when a newborn stops attending to a repeatedly presented stimulus?

A) modeling
B) habituation
C) classical conditioning
D) operant conditioning

Question 55

Shortly after birth, infant hearing capacities can be described as:

A) nonexistent.
B) particularly sensitive to phonemes and the human voice.
C) sensitive to loud noises only.
D) sensitive to their mother's voice only.

Question 56

When presented with a picture of a house cat and a picture of a tiger, Radha looks longer at the picture of the house cat. This suggests that she:

A) has seen more house cats in her life than tigers.
B) is able to tell the two pictures apart.
C) has no preference for either house cats or tigers.
D) is aware that tigers are often dangerous.

Question 57

Studies conducted by Peter Eimas and others indicate that:

A) newborns do not have the ability to make phonemic distinctions.
B) the ability to perceive basic language sounds is present very early.
C) the ability to make phonemic distinctions is only slight at birth and grows to its greatest capacity by the age of 6 to 8 months.
D) a newborn's sense of hearing is poor until absorption of amniotic fluid, which is present in the ears at birth, is complete.

Question 58

Babies are often called "Citizens of the World." What evidence supports this?

A) Newborns only make those phonological distinctions that are present in their native language.
B) Humans never lose the ability to hear differences among phonemes.
C) Newborns prefer to listen to others speaking foreign languages more than others speaking their own native language.
D) During the first 7 months of life, babies can distinguish phonemes from any of the world's languages.

Question 59

Which of the following is an example of a phoneme?

A) the word "sap"
B) the sound of /t/
C) the sound of the syllable /so/
D) the sound of middle C on the piano

Question 60

One of the MOST striking discoveries about the hearing of very young infants (Eimas, 1985) is that they are particularly sensitive to the sound category known as:

A) phonemes.
B) the purr of a cat.
C) baby talk register.
D) their mother's voice.

Question 61

Bronson argues that the increase in scanning competence seen in 3-month-old infants is due to:

A) global growth.
B) brain maturation.
C) experience in seeing objects.
D) seeing their mother's face during nursing.

Question 62

Infants are able to perceive color at adult levels by:

A) 2 weeks of age.
B) 2 months of age.
C) 6 months of age.
D) 1 year of age.

Question 63

When tested, which of the following tastes do neonates show a preference for?

A) sour
B) sweet
C) slightly salty
D) They cannot differentiate distinct tastes.

Question 64

__________ eye movements originate in the neural activity of the central nervous system.

A) Endogenous
B) Exogenous
C) Facial perception
D) Schematic

Question 65

Infants can coordinate the vision of both their eyes:

A) between 1 and 2 months.
B) between 2 and 3 months.
C) between 3 and 4 months.
D) between 4 and 5 months.

Question 66

Investigations of newborn infants' ability to discriminate among different tastes reveals that:

A) newborn infants are only able to discern differences among sweet and not-sweet flavors.
B) newborn infants are able to discriminate among sweet, bitter, salty, and sour tastes.
C) newborn infants demonstrate a clear preference for salty flavors.
D) it is difficult to identify infants' perceptual abilities in this area because they show no outward reaction to varying tastes.

Question 67

Which of the following is NOT one of a young infant's sensory capacities?

A) slightly blurred vision
B) the ability to differentiate tastes
C) a fully developed visual acuity
D) the ability to distinguish among phonemes

Question 68

Studies of how mothers' diets affect newborns' taste preferences revealed that:

A) the flavors of the mothers' diets do not influence infants' taste preferences.
B) infants of mothers who drank carrot juice in their third trimester and while breastfeeding were more averse to carrot-flavored cereal than infants without such exposure.
C) infants of mothers who drank carrot juice in their third trimester and while breastfeeding were more tolerant of carrot-flavored cereal than infants without such exposure.
D) although mothers' consumption of strong flavors (e.g., garlic) influence infants' taste preferences, their consumption of milder flavors (e.g., carrots) does not.

Question 69

Sharpness of vision is referred to as:

A) visual acuity.
B) visual scanning.
C) color perception.
D) facial perception.

Question 70

Babies born with _____ typically develop poor vision as children and adults.

A) cataracts
B) hearing loss
C) nearsightedness
D) colic

Question 71

Visual acuity in children is close to adult levels:

A) at birth.
B) sometime after they learn to walk.
C) around the time they are able to crawl.
D) around the same time they can talk in complete sentences.

Question 72

Fantz's early studies on face perception found that newborns:

A) preferred to look at a jumbled face.
B) had a learned preference for human faces.
C) preferred to look at a schematic human face.
D) could not distinguish between jumbles and schematic faces.

Question 73

__________ eye movements may be an initial, primitive basis for looking behavior.

A) Endogenous
B) Exogenous
C) Facial perception
D) Schematic

Question 74

Psychologists who propose that the driving force behind visual scanning is "endogenous" believe that scanning:

A) originates in spontaneous neural activity.
B) is a result of cultural experience.
C) is a response to environmental stimulation.
D) is a result of infants' poor visual capacity.

Question 75

Infants are able to see objects about 12 inches away. This allows them to _____, which aids attachment between mother and child.

A) cry as needed
B) hold their head without support
C) communicate via facial expressions
D) make eye contact

Question 76

James would like to purchase a mobile to hang in his son's nursery. At which of the following mobiles would his newborn baby MOST enjoy looking?

A) a mobile with soft pastel flowers
B) a mobile with black and white patterned abstract shapes
C) a mobile with fuzzy brown teddy bears
D) a mobile with bright colorful flowers

Question 77

Visual acuity in children is close to adult levels:

A) at birth.
B) by 2-3 months.
C) by 7-8 months.
D) by 1 year.

Question 78

How would you describe the visual scanning of thirteen-week-old infants?

A) It is completely random and haphazard.
B) They follow only the regions of high contrast.
C) They scan boundaries of objects.
D) They scan the entire boundary.

Question 79

When looking at images of faces, newborns prefer images that:

A) have jumbled features over those with normal configurations.
B) are stationary to those that move in front of them.
C) depict a stranger over those that depict someone more familiar.
D) have more elements in the upper half than the bottom half.

Question 80

Looking stimulated by the external environment is referred to as:

A) endogenous.
B) exogenous.
C) visual acuity.
D) phoneme.