Deck 7: Cognition in Infancy

Question 1

Describe the violation-of-expectation paradigm and how it can be used to disprove Piaget's stage theory.

Answer 1

Violation-of-expectation - infants look longer at unexpected events; e.g., object permanence experiment by Baillargeon, Spelke, and Wasserman (1985)

Question 2

Habituation paradigms are widely used to test infant development. How do habituation patterns vary between infants and across ages? What are possible reasons for individual differences in habituation patterns?

Answer 2

- 3 styles of habituation
o linear/exponential decrease (60%)
o increase-decrease (10%)
o fluctuating patterns (30%)
- duration of peak look decreases as infants age
- cumulative amount of time needed to habituate to a stimulus decreases dramatically over the first year of life
- reasons for differences in habitation rate:
o speed of information processing
o short-term memory
o attention
o neural maturation

Question 3

Explain classical conditioning and give an example of how it has been used to assess learning in infancy.

Answer 3

Classical conditioning capitalizes on the existence of stimulus-response relations built into the organism, as when a loud sound elicits an eye blink. The loud sound is called the unconditioned stimulus (UCS; because it elicits a response in the absence of any learning or conditioning), and the response it gives rise to is called the unconditioned response (UCR). A conditioned stimulus (CS), a stimulus that is initially neutral and does not elicit the response, is paired with a UCS. After repeated pairings of the CS with the UCS, the CS takes on properties of the UCS and elicits a conditioned response (CR), like the UCR.
Fifer and colleagues conditioned eye blink responses (CR) in newborn infants to a tone (CS) that was paired with an air puff (UCS) directed at the infants' eyelid. Infants in the experimental group, in which the tone was a reliable predictor of an air puff, made increasingly more anticipatory eye movements than infants in the control group, in which the tones and puffs were presented.

Question 4

Which statement best summarizes Piaget's notion of the acquisition of knowledge?

A) Children learn through action rather than passive observation.
B) Children learn best through observation of adults.
C) Children do not need to acquire any knowledge because they already know the necessary concepts from birth.
D) Children learn best through observation of peers.

Question 5

A child who sees a ball hidden under a chair thinks that everybody will know that the ball is there. This reflects the notion of

A) Limited mental capacity.
B) Independent thinking.
C) Egocentrism.
D) Sensitive period.

Question 6

Sam is sitting in his high chair and one after the other drops his spoon, his sippy cup, his toy, and his jar of apple sauce to observe the effect. This is an example of a

A) Reflexive scheme.
B) Primary circular reaction.
C) Secondary circular reaction.
D) Tertiary circular reaction.

Question 7

What are the three styles of habituation?

A) Linear/exponential decrease, increase-decrease, fluctuating patterns.
B) Linear decrease, linear increase, non-classifiable patterns.
C) Linear/exponential decrease, logarithmic increase, random patterns.
D) Linear decrease, exponential increase, random patterns.

Question 8

Which infant measure(s) predict(s) later IQ?

A) Inter-ocular transfer.
B) Decrement and recovery of attention.
C) Rate of imitation.
D) Response to an unconditioned stimulus.

Question 9

Michael tries to build a tower out of his blocks, but he has trouble stacking more than two blocks. His father shows him which blocks are best suited as a base for a higher tower. This is an example of

A) The specificity principle.
B) Short-term reliability.
C) Scaffolding.
D) Egocentrism.

Question 10

Which of the following is not true about Jean Piaget?

A) He wrote The Origins of Intelligence in Children.
B) He was a philosopher.
C) He had three children.
D) He was a nativist.

Question 11

According to Piaget's Theory of Knowledge, when do infants acquire mental representations?

A) Before birth.
B) At 6 months.
C) At 18 months.
D) Not until they talk.

Question 12

According to nativists and empiricists, which of the following is true about mental representations?

A) They are the residues of sensation.
B) They reflect the ability to think about people but not objects.
C) They require the internalization of motor activity.
D) None of the above.

Question 13

Which statement about the basic elements in developmental theories is true?

A) Piaget viewed innate ideas as the basic elements of knowledge.
B) Empiricists viewed sensations as the basic elements of knowledge.
C) Nativists viewed the scheme as the basic element of knowledge.
D) Empiricists viewed the scheme as the basic element of knowledge.

Question 14

What are schemes?

A) Ways of acting on the world.
B) Central nervous structures that produce motor activities.
C) Physical activity.
D) All of the above.

Question 15

Which of the following is not a scheme?

A) Sneezing.
B) Grasping.
C) Tasting.
D) Looking.

Question 16

In Piaget's theory of cognitive development the process of changing a schema in light of new information is called:

A) Accommodation.
B) Equilibration.
C) Assimilation.
D) Conservation.

Question 17

According to Piaget's theory, egocentric bias refers to the fact that the young child

A) Is innately self-centered and selfish.
B) Has no object permanence.
C) Can only take one point of view.
D) Has mastered complex instrumental behavior.

Question 18

According to Piaget, the process whereby a child incorporates a new action into an old schema is called

A) Threshold.
B) Concrete operations.
C) Assimilation.
D) Accommodation.

Question 19

John likes to touch everything that he encounters. One day he burns his hand on the hot stove. John learns that some objects are safe to touch while others are not. This is an example of

A) Equilibrium.
B) Assimilation.
C) Décalage.
D) Classical conditioning.

Question 20

What is the critical measure in a violation of expectation paradigm?

A) Infants' looking time to an unexpected compared to an expected event.
B) Infants' pupil dilation.
C) Degree to which infants' vocalizations express surprise.
D) Infants' furrowing of their eyebrows.

Question 21

When do infants start to imitate other people?

A) Right after birth.
B) At around 3 months.
C) At around 6 months.
D) Not until 12 months.

Question 22

What does classical conditioning rely upon?

A) The existence of learned responses to a stimulus.
B) The existence of conscious responses.
C) The existence of stimulus-response relations.
D) On the existence of central nervous system and complex motor responses.

Question 23

What is the main difference between classical and operant conditioning?

A) In classical conditioning, a signal is placed before the reflex; in operant conditioning, a reinforcing or punishing signal is given after the behavior.
B) In classical conditioning, a signal is placed after the behavior; in operant conditioning, a reinforcing or punishing signal is given before the behavior.
C) In classical conditioning, a signal is placed between two behaviors; in operant conditioning, two contradictory signals are given before and after the behavior.
D) In classical conditioning, two reinforcing signals are placed before and after the reflex; in operant conditioning, a reinforcing or punishing signal is given before or after the behavior.

Question 24

What are mirror neurons?

A) Nerve cells that respond when a person sees himself or herself in the mirror.
B) Nerve cells that respond when a person plans a future behavior.
C) Nerve cells that respond when a person observes another person doing an action.
D) Nerve cells that respond when a person thinks about himself or herself.

Question 25

6-month-old Lilly can already crawl while 7-month-old Ben can barely sit by himself. This example shows that

A) Female infants develop faster than males.
B) Crawling emerges before sitting.
C) There are large variations in development between individuals.
D) All of the above.

Question 26

What does short-term reliability mean?

A) Given similar testing conditions, an infant will respond similarly on two occasions spaced closely in time.
B) An infant will maintain his or her behavior until toddlerhood.
C) A paradigm can be used for infants at various ages but not for older children.
D) An experimental measure that can be used multiple times within the first year of life.

Question 27

What might be a reason for the low predictive validity of the BSID for later IQ?

A) Infant items on the BSID tap into different constructs than childhood items.
B) The BSID lacks internal validity.
C) Infant items on the BSID are not difficult enough.
D) The BSID lacks face validity.

Question 28

According to Vygotsky, what is the crucial factor for an infant's development?

A) The infant's age.
B) The infant's interactions with others.
C) The infant's self-initiated actions.
D) All of the above.

Question 29

In a study by Baillargeon and colleagues, 9-month-old infants watched an experimenter either lower a tall object inside a short container until it became fully hidden (containment condition) or lower a short cover over the same object until it became fully hidden (covering condition). The infants detected the violation in the containment but not the covering condition. However, at 12 months of age, infants also succeeded in the covering condition. What do these findings tell us about infants' understanding of the physical world? How do they relate to Piaget's stage theory?

Question 30

In a study by Spencer, Smith, and Thelen, 2-year-olds watched as a toy was buried in a sandbox at Location A. Following a 10-s delay, children searched for the object. After the A trials, children watched as a toy was hidden at Location B, 8 to 10 inches from Location A. In all experiments, children's searches after a 10-s delay were significantly biased in the direction of Location A. Furthermore, this bias toward Location A decreased with repeated trials to Location B, as well as when children completed fewer trials to Location A. Discuss how this behavior relates to the six stages of the decline of egocentrism that Piaget proposed. What does this finding tell us about the validity of Piaget's theory?