Deck 5: Perception, Action, and Learning in Infancy

Question 1

Experience shapes preference for

A) own-race faces over other-race faces.
B) top-heavy stimuli over bottom-heavy stimuli.
C) attractive faces over unattractive faces.
D) all of these.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

When two segments always move together in the same direction and at the same speed, _____ has occurred.

A) common movement
B) common texture
C) knowledge about the world
D) all of these

Answer 2

A

Question 3

At the age of 2 months, infants exhibit

A) stable reaching.
B) pre-reaching movements.
C) poorly controlled reaching.
D) continuation of reflexes.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Regarding infants' perception of pictures, infants do NOT

A) perceive pictures as depictions of real objects.
B) have the visual acuity to perceive the differences between two-dimensional and three-dimensional objects.
C) understand that the nature of two-dimensional objects means that they cannot be picked up.
D) interpret the pictured objects as real because their poor perceptual constancy inhibits them from doing so.

Question 5

These early researchers concluded that infants' motor development was governed by brain maturation.

A) Jean Piaget and Erik Erikson
B) Abraham Maslow and Sigmund Freud
C) Arnold Gesell and Myrtle McGraw
D) Mary Ainsworth and Sigmund Freud

Question 6

Rebecca suffers from strabismus and as an adult experiences pervasive challenges in binocular vision. By what age could she have received treatment that would have been effective in treating the disorder?

A) 6 months
B) 1 year
C) 2 years
D) 3 years

Question 7

This is a reward that reliably follows a behavior and increases the likelihood that the behavior will be repeated.

A) positive reinforcement
B) negative reinforcement
C) positive punishment
D) negative punishment

Question 8

Which factor is involved in active learning?

A) surprise
B) motivation
C) improved neural mechanisms
D) rational learning

Question 9

Samantha is watching a children's television program and tries to pass an object to the character through the screen. She is demonstrating a _____ error.

A) scale
B) grasp
C) media
D) motor

Question 10

Four-month-old infants respond more to a film _____ than to a film _____.

A) of a monkey hopping; of a human hopping
B)that matches the sounds they are hearing; that doesn't match the sounds they are hearing
C)
Showing a face in which lips move out of sync with the speech they hear; showing a face in which lips move in sync with the speech they hear
D)
Showing a person saying "Peek-a-boo!"; showing a hand beating a drumstick against a block

Question 11

Cousins Bailey, Sofia, and Zola are playing at an indoor baby gym. Bailey has recently begun to crawl, Sofia has been crawling for a while, and Zola has recently begun to walk. The three cousins' attention is suddenly grabbed by the pleasing sounds of a familiar toy that has rolled down a too-steep incline. Which cousin is likely to attempt to go down the incline?

A) Zola
B) Bailey and Sofia
C) Bailey and Zola
D) Sofia

Question 12

When an infant looks longer at one of two stimuli presented side by side, researchers can infer that the infant

A) prefers that stimulus.
B) can discriminate between the stimuli and favors one side over the other.
C) favors one side over the other.
D) can discriminate between the stimuli and prefers that stimulus.

Question 13

The study in which infants were first presented with a cube in multiple locations and then were presented with the same cube and a larger cube that was placed farther away demonstrated that infants

A) preferred to look at the original cube.
B) perceived the multiple presentations of the original cube as a single object.
C) were unable to differentiate between the cubes.
D) perceived each presentation of the cubes as a unique object.

Question 14

Changes in the ability to perceive differences in stimuli that happen with experience are referred to as

A) perceptual narrowing.
B) sensory decay.
C) perceptual decline.
D) sensory contraction.

Question 15

In terms of perceptual and motor development, which statement is NOT a reason as to why infancy is such an important time?

A) Extremely rapid changes occur in perception, action, learning, and cognition during the first 2 years of life.
B) Infant development in perception, action, learning, and cognition are intertwined.
C) The methods used to investigate infants' development in perception, action, learning, and cognition are similar to methods used to study older children.
D) Most recent research on perceptual and motor development has focused on infants and young children.

Question 16

Which statement about the development of reaching is NOT true?

A) Vision is necessary for accurate reaching.
B) Successful reaching begins at about 3 to 4 months of age.
C) Reaching becomes stable at about the same time that infants can sit independently.
D) Infants seem to have a sense of how long their arms are.

Question 17

Charlie is 3 months old and consistently swipes clumsily toward the general area of objects he sees. He is engaged in

A) pre-reaching movements.
B) self-locomotion.
C) gross motor skills.
D) reflexive movement.

Question 18

The use of diapers may _____ development.

A) promote fine motor skill
B) hinder motor skill
C) hinder perceptual
D) promote perceptual

Question 19

The preferential-looking method enables researchers to assess

A) contrast sensitivity.
B) visual acuity.
C) visual scanning.
D) habituation.

Question 20

Research by Baillargeon in which 4½-month-old infants were shown a screen that apparently rotated through a box and a screen that rotated up and stopped at the top of the box demonstrated that infants

A) looked longer at the screen when it rotated the full 180 degrees than when it stopped.
B) looked longer at the screen when it stopped than when it rotated the full 180 degrees.
C) looked at both events for the same length of time.
D) were unable to mentally represent the box when it was out of view.

Question 21

Which statement about infants' color vision is TRUE?

A) By the end of the 1st month, infants' color vision is similar to that of adults.
B) Four-month-olds prefer more complex colors to basic colors.
C) Two-month-olds respond similarly to two different shades of blue.
D) All of these statements are true.

Question 22

Research demonstrating that young infants reach for objects in the dark is evidence of their

A) conception of object permanence.
B) inability to mentally represent objects.
C) innate learning mechanism.
D) excellent night vision.

Question 23

Research on the music perception of infants has demonstrated that, with experience, humans

A) become less sensitive to differences in musical stimuli.
B) become more sensitive to differences in musical stimuli.
C) come to prefer consonant music over dissonant music.
D) come to prefer dissonant music over consonant music.

Question 24

Studies in which young infants were given "sticky mittens" demonstrated that

A) disrupting the necessity of reaching disrupted the natural maturation process.
B) increased ability to interact with objects was associated with decreased interest in social partners.
C) object exploration led to earlier reaching.
D) pre-reaching behaviors emerged prior to 4 months of age.

Question 25

To examine whether infants can perceive a difference between a square of uniform color and a square with a pattern on it, a researcher displays the two squares side by side. The researcher records the number of seconds infants look at each square. This method is called the _____ technique.

A) habituation
B) preferential-looking
C) contrast-sensitivity
D) pattern-recognition

Question 26

Newborns prefer which taste?

A) salty
B) spicy
C) sweet
D) sour

Question 27

Relative size is an example of which type of depth cue?

A) pictorial
B) binocular
C) disparity
D) expansion

Question 28

The identification of separate objects in a visual array is called

A) shape constancy.
B) subjective contour.
C) pattern perception.
D) object segregation.

Question 29

A 6-month-old infant is trying very hard to reach a colorful rattle that is on the floor in front of her. The infant's mother mistakenly drops a blanket over the rattle, concealing it from the infant. The infant reacts by looking away from the covered rattle and picking up another nearby toy. How would Piaget attribute the infant's reaction?

A) The infant's reaching behavior is not consistent with her understanding.
B) The infant has a short attention span.
C) The infant lacks problem-solving skills.
D) The infant lacks object permanence.

Question 30

The preferential-looking technique is founded on the expectation that infants will

A) look longer at objects they like or find interesting.
B) look away from complicated or frightening objects.
C) recognize familiar patterns.
D) lose interest in objects that are familiar.

Question 31

Researchers are able to assess infants' _____ using the preferential-looking method.

A) habituation
B) visual acuity
C) contrast sensitivity
D) visual scanning

Question 32

Research on infants' statistical learning indicates that infants appear to prefer statistical patterns that are

A) perfectly predictable.
B) very complex.
C) neither too easy nor too hard.
D) unpredictable.

Question 33

Of sensation and perception, _____ involve(s) the organization and interpretation of information.

A) both sensation and perception
B) sensation
C) perception
D) neither sensation nor perception

Question 34

An infant's sibling always jumps off his bed with a loud bang when he wakes up from his nap. He then comes downstairs and greets the infant with a tickle, making the infant laugh and cough reflexively. Eventually, the infant begins to laugh and cough reflexively when he hears the bang, even before he sees his brother. In this scenario, the laugh and cough in response to the bang are a(n)

A) conditioned stimulus.
B) unconditioned stimulus.
C) conditioned response.
D) unconditioned response.

Question 35

Parents who are concerned about the habituation effect of their children watching violent acts on television are worried that their children will

A) learn how to commit violent acts.
B) cease to be shocked by violence.
C) become angered by the violence.
D) look up to violent people as role models.

Question 36

Which statement about 3-month-old Isabella's vision is TRUE?

A) Isabella prefers blue over red.
B) Isabella's color vision is similar to that of an adult.
C) Isabella is unable to smoothly track slow-moving objects.
D) Isabella tends to look only at the outer edges of complex shapes.

Question 37

The change in retinal image size as a moving object gets closer, causing more and more of the background to be occluded, is referred to as

A) retinal enlargement.
B) perceptual constancy.
C) optical expansion.
D) relative size.

Question 38

Which theme has been contentious within developmental psychology since the inception of the field?

A) nature versus nurture
B) continuity versus discontinuity
C) stability versus instability
D) active versus passivity

Question 39

James has a disorder in which his two eyes do not line up in the same direction. Which disorder is this?

A) stereopsis
B) tonic neck
C) perceptual narrowing
D) strabismus

Question 40

An infant plays with a toy block in the dark, so he cannot see it. Later, he is shown a ball as well as the block. He realizes that it was the block, not the ball, that he played with in the dark through:

A) intermodal perception.
B) bimodal distribution.
C) visual localization.
D) interobject recognition.

Question 41

The closer an object is to a person, the _____ there is.

A) more binocular disparity
B) less binocular disparity
C) more perceptual constancy
D) less perceptual constancy

Question 42

The "visual cliff" was designed to evaluate

A) self-locomotion skills.
B) depth perception.
C) scale errors.
D) stereopsis.

Question 43

_____ drives the other-race effect in infants.

A) Frequent exposure to faces of a similar race
B) The race of the infant
C) The inherent racism of the infant
D) Minimal exposure to faces of a similar race

Question 44

Research by Meltzoff in which 18-month-olds observed either an adult or a mechanical device pull at two ends of a dumbbell demonstrated that children can learn by imitating what?

A) the behavior of adults
B) both the behavior and intentions of adults
C) the behavior of adults and inanimate objects
D) both the behavior and intentions of adults and inanimate objects

Question 45

Seven-month-old Vivi is presented with a trapezoidal object that adults would perceive as a rectangle placed on a diagonal, with one side closer than the other side, similar to the window from the Yonas, Cleaves, and Pettersen study described in the text. During the first set of trials, a patch is placed over one eye, and the object is presented in front of Vivi. During the second set of trials, the patch is removed and the object is again presented. Researchers record Vivi's reaches toward the object. The MOST likely result will be that Vivi reaches

A) toward the longer side on both sets of trials.
B) toward the longer side on the first set of trials but equally toward both sides on the second set of trials.
C) equally toward both sides on the first set of trials but toward the longer side on the second set of trials.
D) toward the longer side when viewed with one eye closed.

Question 46

Which statement BEST describes researchers' current view of young infants' ability to mentally represent objects?

A) Young infants are able to mentally represent objects, but they do not have any expectations about the behavior of objects that are out of sight.
B) Young infants are able to mentally represent objects, but they are unable to act on these mental representations.
C) Young infants are able to mentally represent objects and to act on these mental representations.
D) Young infants are unable to mentally represent objects.

Question 47

Research on the music perception of infants has NOT demonstrated that North American infants

A) have preferences for some musical sounds over others.
B) can remember the key of songs they have heard previously.
C) are able to perceive note changes that adults are unable to perceive.
D) are less able to detect changes in complex rhythm than are adults.

Question 48

What did research by Baillargeon examining infants' attention to a screen that rotated into the space occupied by hidden objects that were either tall or short demonstrate about infants' thinking about objects?

A) Infants cannot mentally represent objects that are out of their view.
B) Infants know that hidden objects still exist, but they are unable to remember their size.
C) Infants are able to reason about some characteristics of unseen objects.
D) Infants reach differently for objects depending on their size.

Question 49

The process by which the visual cortex combines the differing neural signals caused by binocular disparity, resulting in depth perception, is called

A) optical expansion.
B) stereopsis.
C) binocular disparity.
D) monocular vision.

Question 50

This form of depth perception emerges around 4 months of age and is complete within just a few weeks.

A) optical expansion
B) stereopsis
C) binocular disparity
D) monocular vision

Question 51

_____ is indicative of a possible neurological problem.

A) The existence of the tonic neck reflex
B) Persistence of any neonatal reflexes past infancy
C) An abnormally strong sucking reflex
D) The disappearance of the grasping reflex

Question 52

The idea that we learn by doing is called

A) social knowledge.
B) object permanence.
C) active learning.
D) rational learning.

Question 53

Which scenario is the BEST example of an infant's discovery of an affordance?

A) Roger learns that the beep of a microwave often means he will soon be given his bottle.
B) Xena learns to bang on a drum by watching her brother bang on it.
C) Henry learns that his grandma kisses him whenever she holds him.
D) Leah learns that she can sit in chairs that are low to the ground.

Question 54

The types of patterns that infants appear to prefer are those

A) with which they are very familiar.
B) that provide maximum new information.
C) that are unpredictable.
D) that are simple.

Question 55

Bree is an 11-month-old baby girl who insists on trying to walk in order to explore and navigate her environment. However, she is not very good at walking and does much better at crawling. Yet she refuses to crawl. This demonstrates the vital role of

A) balance.
B) motivation.
C) posture control.
D) perceptual skills.

Question 56

Research examining infants' sitting skills and their 3D object completion skills suggests that

A) there is overlap in the brain maturation required for each of these skills.
B) 3D object completion is necessary for skilled sitting.
C) there is a great deal of interaction between visual development and motor development.
D) there are specific brain regions devoted to each of these skills.

Question 57

Two infants of different ages, Diego and Hannah, are tested with the preferential-looking technique to determine their visual acuity. A series of black-and-white-striped patterns are presented individually next to a gray square. Diego can distinguish stripes that are narrower than the stripes Hannah can distinguish. Compared with Hannah, Diego has

A) a smaller retina.
B) better object segregation.
C) more cones.
D) better contrast sensitivity.

Question 58

Infant Greta hears a bell that she cannot see and immediately turns toward the sound. This is an indication that Greta has which ability?

A) auditory localization
B) auditory segregation
C) pattern perception
D) music perception

Question 59

_____ is an example of a scale error.

A) Attempting to put one's own foot into a tiny doll shoe
B) Attempting to reach for an object that is too far away
C) Misjudging that one can successfully walk down a too-steep incline
D) Mistakenly believing that a large sponge is heavier than a large rock

Question 60

Statistical learning involves

A) extracting from the environment those elements that remain stable.
B) learning the relationship between one's own behavior and its result.
C) decreased response to repeated stimulation.
D) forming associations between stimuli that occur in a predictable pattern.

Question 61

Month-old infants have the ability to link their visual experience with their _____ experience.

A) tactile
B) auditory
C) proprioceptive
D) oral

Question 62

Which activity is NOT an example of self-locomotion?

A) crawling
B) walking
C) reaching
D) "bum shuffles"

Question 63

Perceptual learning is necessary for

A) exhibiting differentiation.
B) the development of intermodal perception.
C) statistical reasoning.
D) the effectiveness of classical conditioning.

Question 64

Developmental changes in which experience fine-tunes the perceptual system are referred to as

A) perceptual narrowing.
B) sensory decay.
C) perceptual decline.
D) sensory contraction.

Question 65

Movement is an important cue for

A) shape constancy.
B) subjective contour.
C) pattern perception.
D) object segregation.

Question 66

The vast majority of North American infants can sit without support by _____ months of age.

A) 4
B) 7
C) 10
D) 14

Question 67

Research using shallow and steep inclines has NOT demonstrated that

A) inexperienced crawlers are poor judges of what they can and cannot handle.
B) infants are able to transfer judgment skills learned as crawlers to walking.
C) experienced crawlers will disregard parents' encouragement when it is inconsistent with their own judgment.
D) infants have to learn from experience what they can and cannot do.

Question 68

Baby Chiara learns that the sound of the door opening regularly comes before the sight of mail dropping from the mail slot to the floor. Baby Chiara has learned this through what type of learning?

A) statistical learning
B) habituation
C) instrumental conditioning
D) observational learning

Question 69

Optical expansion is a cue used to perceive

A) depth.
B) color.
C) relative size.
D) patterns.

Question 70

Neurons that are activated when a monkey observes another being perform a goal-directed action as though the monkey were performing the action are referred to as _____ neurons.

A) memory
B) repeat
C) imitation
D) mirror

Question 71

This is a dramatic demonstration of auditory-visual blending.

A) the McGurk effect
B) contrast sensitivity
C) visual scanning
D) perceptual constancy

Question 72

When Shelly picks up her sleeping baby quickly, her baby throws back his head and expends his arms and then rapidly draws them in. Her baby is demonstrating the _____ reflex.

A) rooting
B) sucking
C) swallowing
D) moro

Question 73

_____ was first discovered by Pavlov in his research with dogs.

A) Observational learning
B) Classical conditioning
C) Perceptual learning
D) Operant conditioning

Question 74

The decrease in response to repeated presentation of the same stimulus is referred to as

A) habituation.
B) dishabituation.
C) operant learning.
D) observational learning.

Question 75

Which culture does not actively encourage motor development in infants?

A) Gusii
B) Wolof
C) Kung San
D) urban China

Question 76

A study examining infants' response to a breast pad worn by their own mother versus one worn by another woman demonstrated that 2-week-old infants

A) cannot distinguish between the scent of their mother and the scent of another woman.
B) can distinguish between the scent of their mother and the scent of another woman but do not show a preference.
C) prefer their own mother's scent to that of another woman.
D) prefer the scent of another woman to that of their mother.

Question 77

Closing the fingers around an object that is pressed to the palm demonstrates the _____ reflex.

A) rooting
B) sucking
C) swallowing
D) grasping

Question 78

Infants can detect changes in music that adults cannot make. This phenomenon is thought to demonstrate

A) perceptual narrowing.
B) sensory decay.
C) perceptual decline.
D) sensory contraction.

Question 79

Among infant-directed speech, adult-directed speech, infant-directed singing, and adult-directed singing, 6-month-old infants show a preference for

A) any singing over any speech.
B) any speech over any singing.
C) infant-directed singing over infant-directed speech.
D) infant-directed speech over any singing.

Question 80

Older infants are NOT sensitive to the correspondence between

A) monkey facial movements and monkey vocalizations.
B) emotional expressions in faces and voices.
C) visual and auditory stimuli produced by moving objects.
D) their own visual and tactile experience as they manipulate objects.