Deck 7: Conceptual Development

Question 1

Which group lists the three objects in subordinate/basic/superordinate order?

A) flower/daisy/plant
B) hammer/screwdriver/tool
C) sedan/car/vehicle
D) food/fruit/apple

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Emily, a 7-month-old infant, is sitting on the floor in a nearly empty room. On each side of her is a television screen. Every 10 seconds, an interesting picture appears on the screen on her left. The screen on her right remains blank. Emily is then rotated so that the screen that has been showing the interesting pictures is now on her right. Where will Emily look in anticipation of the interesting picture?

A) directly in front of her
B) to her left
C) to her right
D) behind her

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Grouping together objects that have similar appearances is referred to as _____ categorization.

A) perceptual
B) manifestation
C) picture
D) observation

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Which statement about the ability of 5-year-olds to make logical inferences about time is TRUE?

A) Similar to their inability to estimate the passage of time, 5-year-olds are entirely unable to make logical inferences about time.
B) Although they are able to estimate the passage of time, 5-year-olds are entirely unable to make logical inferences about time.
C) Children who are 5 years old are able to make logical inferences about time only when the situation does not involve distracting features.
D) Children who are 5 years old are able to make logical inferences about time that are similar to those of adults.

Question 5

The study examining infants' ability to do simple arithmetic that showed infants one or two dolls and then either added or subtracted a doll from behind a screen demonstrated that infants were surprised in which of these scenarios? Scenario A: A doll is placed behind a screen where another doll was initially present, and lowering of the screen reveals a single doll.
Scenario B: A doll is removed from behind a screen where two dolls were initially present, and lowering of the screen reveals a single doll.
Scenario C: A doll is placed behind a screen where another doll was initially present, and lowering of the screen reveals two dolls.
Scenario D: A doll is removed from behind a screen where two dolls were initially present, and lowering of the screen reveals two dolls.

A) both scenarios A and D
B) both scenarios B and C
C) scenario A only
D) scenario C only

Question 6

Which statement BEST describes the ability of 6-month-old infants to use landmarks to code the locations of hidden objects?

A) Six-month-old infants are unable to use landmarks.
B) Six-month-old infants are able to use landmarks when there is only a single landmark and it is very close to the hidden object.
C) Six-month-old infants are able to use landmarks when there are many possible landmarks and one landmark is located right next to the hidden object.
D) Six-month-old infants are able to use landmarks regardless of the number of landmarks and proximity to the hidden object.

Question 7

The view that living things have an essence inside them that makes them what they are is referred to as

A) naturism.
B) essentialism.
C) nativism.
D) spiritism.

Question 8

On the subject of healing, preschoolers believe that

A) only people, not plants or animals, can heal.
B) living things, not inanimate objects, can heal.
C) living things and inanimate objects can both heal.
D) inanimate objects, not living things, can heal.

Question 9

Young children have difficulty understanding that plants are alive because children equate being alive with

A) being able to move.
B) breathing.
C) being able to dance.
D) having fur.

Question 10

The understanding that each object must be labeled by a single number word represents

A) one-one correspondence.
B) stable order.
C) cardinality.
D) order relevance.

Question 11

Which statement is NOT one of the counting principles proposed by Gelman and Gallistel?

A) Any set of discrete objects or events can be counted.
B) The numbers should always be recited in the same order.
C) Objects must be counted from left to right.
D) The number of objects in the set corresponds to the last number counted.

Question 12

The study that compared the spatial skills of aboriginal children growing up in the Australian desert with those of their White peers growing up in cities demonstrated the importance of

A) the active child.
B) nature.
C) sociocultural context.
D) discontinuous development.

Question 13

The general level within a category hierarchy is called a _____ level.

A) subordinate
B) perceptual
C) basic
D) superordinate

Question 14

Sheira, a 2-year-old, is told a story about a girl named Brenda. Brenda is looking for her favorite doll. Although Brenda thinks the doll is under the bed, it really is in the kitchen cabinet. When Sheira is asked where Brenda will look for her doll, Sheira will MOST likely predict that Brenda will look in which location(s)?

A) under the bed
B) in the kitchen cabinet
C) in the garage
D) both under the bed and in the kitchen cabinet

Question 15

Which factor is NOT a principle underlying counting that preschoolers have acquired?

A) one-one correspondence
B) stable order
C) cardinality
D) order relevance

Question 16

On false-belief problems, children who do not yet have a complete understanding of the relation between their own beliefs and others' beliefs

A) have difficulty understanding that other people could have false beliefs when they themselves know the truth.
B) have difficulty understanding that other people could know the truth when they themselves have false beliefs.
C) believe that others will not be convinced of the truth.
D) believe that others will be difficult to fool.

Question 17

Developmental psychologists and other researchers have found that the development of a theory of mind is severely impaired for

A) only children.
B) children with autism spectrum disorder.
C) children with imaginary friends.
D) first born children.

Question 18

The MOST basic sense of time is

A) timing of future events.
B) temporal order.
C) event duration.
D) ratio of duration of events.

Question 19

Many erroneously believe that spatial thinking is related to only

A) vision.
B) hearing.
C) touch.
D) taste.

Question 20

Which statement BEST expresses Piaget's beliefs about infants' spatial representations?

A) Self-locomotion is key to the development of spatial coding.
B) Landmarks are necessary for infants' spatial coding.
C) Infants are able to code space correctly only if they remain in a single location.
D) Infants' ability to reach for objects precedes their development of spatial coding.

Question 21

When surgery has restored sight to people who were born either blind or with severely impaired vision, they are unable to use visual information to represent space as well as those who never experienced impaired vision. This finding lends support to the role that _____ plays in spatial abilities.

A) vision
B) hearing
C) touch
D) taste

Question 22

Which research finding would be MOST consistent with a nativist perspective on children's development of the understanding of space?

A) Spatial information is processed in a part of the brain that is separate from the parts of the brain that process other information.
B) Arm movement is necessary for infants' initial concepts of space.
C) Language shapes spatial development.
D) Infants exposed to different cultural practices develop spatial understanding at different rates.

Question 23

The development of this spatial skill requires early visual experiences.

A) face perception
B) mental rotation
C) spatial awareness
D) space recognition

Question 24

Anna, a 6-month-old infant, is being tickled on the tummy by her grandmother. The grandmother repeatedly tickles Anna twice and then pauses for Anna's giggles. With the tickles, Anna's grandmother says, "Beep, beep." After a minute or so of this, Anna becomes bored and stops giggling. Anna's grandmother then changes the pattern to three tickles and "Beep, beep, beep." Which response to the change in number of tickles is Anna MOST likely to make?

A) Anna remains bored.
B) Anna begins to giggle again.
C) Anna adds two and three and giggles five times.
D) Anna says, "Wow, three tickles!"

Question 25

Trevor is in preschool and loves tractor tailors. Which question would he be LEAST likely to ask his teacher about a tractor trailer?

A) What are trucks for?
B) What do trucks like to eat?
C) How much stuff can fit in that truck?
D) Why are trucks so big?

Question 26

Which phrase is NOT a characteristic of naïve psychological concepts?

A) refer to invisible mental states
B) develop early in life
C) linked to each other in cause-effect relations
D) involved in understanding only the self

Question 27

In the domain of spatial representation and learning, nativists and empiricist agree on which statement?

A) Certain parts of the brain are specialized for coding particular types of spatial information.
B) Children possess an innate module that is specialized for representing and learning about space.
C) Children's experience with vision is essential to development of spatial representations.
D) General information-processing skills are the key to spatial representation.

Question 28

By the age of _____ years, the majority of children understand that human beings are animals that are similar in many ways to other animals.

A) 4
B) 6
C) 8
D) 10

Question 29

Which level of category hierarchies do children usually learn FIRST?

A) basic
B) subordinate
C) superordinate
D) supersubordinate

Question 30

Telling children that _____ is likely to influence the age at which children understand that plants are alive.

A) plants bend toward sunlight
B) plants drink water
C) animals eat plants
D) plants grow

Question 31

A hypothesized brain mechanism devoted to understanding other human beings is referred to as

A) a theory of mind module.
B) naïve psychology.
C) perceptual categorization.
D) a false-belief problem.

Question 32

The understanding that any set of discrete objects or events can be counted represents

A) one-one correspondence.
B) stable order.
C) cardinality.
D) abstraction.

Question 33

In the study in which 9- to- 11-month-old infants were shown a series of actions and then given opportunities to reproduce the actions, _____ was necessary for the infants to reproduce the actions accurately.

A) a causal relationship among the actions
B) prior experience with the objects
C) practice reproducing the actions
D) an opportunity to crawl to the objects on their own

Question 34

Which level of category hierarchies is the MOST specific?

A) basic
B) subordinate
C) superordinate
D) supersubordinate

Question 35

Kathryn, a 4-year-old child, is told a story about a baby turtle who is raised by a mommy and a daddy giraffe. When asked what the turtle will grow up to be, Kathryn is MOST likely to say a

A) grown-up giraffe.
B) grown-up turtle.
C) very tall turtle with a long neck.
D) baby turtle.

Question 36

Make-believe activities in which children create new symbolic relations, acting as if they were in a situation different from their actual one, is called

A) pretend play.
B) intersubjectivity.
C) object substitution.
D) theory of mind.

Question 37

Researcher Barnes is interested in infants' ability to retrieve a hidden toy after relocating to the opposite side of the hiding place. The first group of infants is carried to the opposite side, and the second group is encouraged to crawl to the opposite side. Which result would be expected?

A) Infants who are carried to the opposite side and those who crawl there will both do very well on the task.
B) Infants who are carried to the opposite side will be more successful than will those who crawl there.
C) Infants who crawl to the opposite side will be more successful than will those who are carried there.
D) Most infants will fail at this task, regardless of whether they are carried to the opposite side or crawl there themselves.

Question 38

Wayne is using a _____. This is an example of an object substitution.

A) scale model of a room to show where a toy is hidden in a larger room
B) toy backhoe, rather than a toy dump truck, to haul blocks
C) play stove to cook pretend broccoli cheese soup
D) a bowl as a magician's hat

Question 39

Trisha, who is 3 years old, views an event in which no cause is visible. She is likely to

A) expect that someone tricked her.
B) actively search for the cause.
C) laugh.
D) grasp that something strange has happened.

Question 40

Jerome is now 2 years old. This means that his understanding of the connection between people's _____ and actions is likely established.

A) beliefs
B) desires
C) abilities
D) goals

Question 41

The finding that babies smile less at rabbits than they do at people indicates that they

A) can distinguish between animals and inanimate objects.
B) can differentiate between people and other animals.
C) know that animals and humans both belong to the category of living things.
D) have all of these skills.

Question 42

Which statement does NOT support the claim of nativists that children are born with a "biology module"?

A) Across cultures, children are fascinated by plants and animals.
B) Japanese 5-year-olds are more likely than their Israeli peers to believe that inanimate objects can feel pain.
C) Children throughout the world organize information about living things in very similar manners.
D) Children learn about animals and learn about them much more quickly than about many other aspects of the environment.

Question 43

The most specific level within a category hierarchy is called a _____ level.

A) subordinate
B) perceptual
C) basic
D) superordinate

Question 44

Which influence is NOT cited by empiricists when explaining the development of preschoolers' theory of mind from age 3 to age 5?

A) increasing experience with other people
B) improved information-processing capacity
C) brain maturation
D) solitary play experiences

Question 45

Amelia, a 5-year-old, is told a story about a girl named Brenda. Brenda is looking for her favorite doll. Although Brenda thinks the doll is under the bed, it really is in the kitchen cabinet. When Amelia is asked where Brenda will look for her doll, Amelia will MOST likely predict that Brenda will look in which location(s)?

A) under the bed
B) in the kitchen cabinet
C) in the garage
D) both under the bed and in the kitchen cabinet

Question 46

A task that tests a child's understanding that other people will act in accord with their own ideas even when the child knows that those ideas are incorrect is called

A) theory of mind.
B) naïve psychology.
C) perceptual categorization.
D) a false-belief problem.

Question 47

Which category do children generally form last?

A) flower
B) oak
C) tree
D) plant

Question 48

When 7-year-old Jacob is asked why giraffes came to exist, he is MOST likely to use _____ in his explanation.

A) a physical process
B) a biological process
C) a purpose
D) magic

Question 49

Which statement would BEST support nativists' view of causal reasoning?

A) Causal reasoning is evident during the 1st year.
B) Parents explicitly teach children about causal relations.
C) The development of causal reasoning is delayed in blind children.
D) Children can reason about living things before they can reason about inanimate objects.

Question 50

The realization that all sets of N object have something in common is called

A) algebraic inequalities.
B) numerical equality.
C) subitizing.
D) counting commonalities.

Question 51

A commonsense level of understanding of other people and oneself is referred to as

A) naïve psychology.
B) basic psychology.
C) an informal theory.
D) theory of mind.

Question 52

Developmental psychologists have settled on which description of children's understanding of living things?

A) Children have only a shallow understanding of living things until they are 7 to 10 years old.
B) Children understand the essential characteristics of living things by the age of 5.
C) Young children simultaneously possess both mature and immature biological understanding.
D) Children are fascinated by living things, especially animals.

Question 53

The Phillips and colleagues study that recorded infants' looking times when they were presented with actors holding stuffed toy kittens was examining infants' understanding of the connection between

A) beliefs and actions.
B) desires and beliefs.
C) abilities and actions.
D) desires and actions.

Question 54

Which of these describes the purpose of concepts?

A) help us understand the world
B) tell us how to emotionally react to new experiences
C) provide a basis by which to group together objects
D) serve all of these functions

Question 55

A plate and a clock would be put into the same category if the categorization were based on

A) a superordinate-subordinate relationship.
B) cross-class correspondence.
C) perceptual similarities.
D) functional similarities.

Question 56

When children engage in activities where they enact miniature dramas with other children or adults, they are engaging in

A) pretend play.
B) sociodramatic play.
C) solitary play.
D) object substitution.

Question 57

Which list places the types of play in a typical developmental progression?

A) object substitution, sociodramatic play, pretend play
B) sociodramatic play, object substitution, pretend play
C) pretend play, object substitution, sociodramatic play
D) object substitution, pretend play, sociodramatic play

Question 58

General ideas or understandings that can be used to group together objects, events, qualities, or abstractions that are similar in some way are referred to as

A) concepts.
B) perceptions.
C) theories.
D) beliefs.

Question 59

Emilio, an 11-month-old infant, is sitting on the floor in a nearly empty room. On each side of him is a television screen. Every 10 seconds, an interesting picture appears on the screen on his right. The screen on his left remains blank. Emilio is then rotated so that the screen that has been showing the interesting pictures is now on his left. Where will Emilio look in anticipation of the interesting picture?

A) directly in front of him
B) to his left
C) to his right
D) behind him

Question 60

The coding of spatial locations relative to one's own body, without regard to the surroundings, is known as

A) dead reckoning.
B) egocentric spatial representation.
C) egotistic spatial representation.
D) external environment representation.

Question 61

Which category do children usually learn first?

A) superordinate
B) subordinate
C) basic
D) supersubordinate

Question 62

Children's psychological understanding begins to emerge by about what age?

A) 1 year
B) 3 years
C) 5 years
D) 10 years

Question 63

Which group is made up of members of the same perceptual category?

A) lizard, kangaroo, salmon
B) mat, hat, cat
C) sofa, grandfather clock, table
D) iPad, picture frame, book

Question 64

Which statement BEST characterizes the findings of cross-cultural research on children's understanding of false beliefs?

A) The pattern of development is very consistent across cultures.
B) Children in Western cultures develop the understanding earlier than do children in Eastern cultures.
C) Children in Western cultures develop the understanding later than do children in Eastern cultures.
D) Children in developed countries develop the understanding earlier than do children in developing countries.

Question 65

Wesley and his mother are focusing intentionally on the same reference. What is occurring?

A) understanding intention
B) a sense of self
C) joint attention
D) intersubjectivity

Question 66

Which list is an example of a category hierarchy?

A) people/grown-ups/Mommy
B) men/Daddy/Grandpa
C) people/plants/animals
D) people/Daddy/firemen

Question 67

Tina, a 3-year-old, is shown a Cheerios box and then shown that it contains marbles. If asked what her friend Mark will think on seeing the box for the first time, Tina will MOST likely say that Mark will think it contains

A) Cheerios.
B) marbles.
C) Raisin Bran.
D) beads.

Question 68

Which statement would be considered evidence that an infant has formed the category "furniture"?

A) The infant habituates after repeatedly being shown pictures of tables.
B) After repeatedly being shown pictures of tables, the infant dishabituates to a picture of a sofa.
C) After repeatedly being shown pictures of tables, chairs, sofas, dressers, and grandfather clocks, the infant dishabituates to a picture of a car.
D) After repeatedly being shown pictures of tables, chairs, sofas, dressers, and grandfather clocks, the infant does not dishabituate to a picture of a car.

Question 69

The parents of Elizabeth, a 2-year-old, are trying to teach her what hammers are. Which action would be MOST likely to help her learn this new category?

A) describing what hammers look like
B) showing her a nail
C) demonstrating what hammers do
D) showing her a range of atypical hammers

Question 70

A structured understanding of how desires, beliefs, perceptions, and emotions influence behavior is referred to as a theory of

A) mind.
B) behavior.
C) thought.
D) psychology.

Question 71

Aidan, a 4-year-old child, is told a story about a girl who wants to grow to be taller than her daddy, but she is still a young girl. When asked if the girl will get her wish, Aidan is MOST likely to

A) predict that she will get her wish.
B) predict that she will not get her wish.
C) say that if her mom and dad are both tall, she will be tall too.
D) be confused by this false belief.

Question 72

Research demonstrating infants' habituation to a constant pattern was concerned with their knowledge of

A) future events timing.
B) temporal order.
C) event duration.
D) event duration ratios.

Question 73

When 3-year-old children are presented with the categories of people, caterpillars, and chimpanzees, and asked which two are most similar, research indicates that they will MOST likely choose

A) people and caterpillars.
B) people and chimpanzees.
C) caterpillars and chimpanzees.
D) any of the three possible pairs with equal likelihood.

Question 74

Children typically succeed on false-belief problems by the age of _____ years.

A) 2
B) 3
C) 5
D) 8

Question 75

Which category would be considered by researchers to be a child-created basic category that is likely to disappear as the child matures?

A) objects with wheels
B) food
C) objects that make you cool
D) places we go

Question 76

Children tend to engage in pretend play, at least occasionally, until approximately what age?

A) 3 years
B) 6 years
C) 9 years
D) 12 years

Question 77

Amanda has autism spectrum disorder. She is NOT likely to have trouble with

A) showing concern for people when they are distressed.
B) interacting with other people.
C) false-belief problems.
D) spending time by herself.

Question 78

Trains, boats, and buses are members of the same _____ category.

A) causal
B) subordinate
C) superordinate
D) perceptual

Question 79

Cases where adults who were born blind and have surgery to restore sight have provided evidence that

A) self-locomotion, even without visual input, is sufficient for perfect development of the ability to mentally represent space.
B) the stream of visual information that accompanies self-locomotion is important for an individual's current sense of space only.
C) early visual experience is important for full development of the ability to mentally represent space.
D) individuals who are blind are better able to mentally represent space than those with normal vision.

Question 80

The debate between nativists and empiricists reflects what fundamental, unresolved question about human nature?

A) Do children shape their own concepts, or are they passive recipients of the concepts taught to them by others?
B) Do children form all concepts through the same mechanisms, or do they possess special mechanisms for forming a few particularly important concepts?
C) In what ways is concept development continuous, and in what ways is it discontinuous?
D) Do all children learn concepts in the same manner, or does the sociocultural context matter?