Deck 8: Middle Childhood: Physical and Cognitive Development

Question 1

In a study investigating the time public school teachers spend in various classroom activities, teachers were found to spend about ____ % of the time in a 30-minute lesson on academic work.

A) 10-15
B) 30-40
C) 55-70
D) 85-90

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Heidi has a series of events that she follows every morning: she takes a shower, dresses, eats breakfast, and rides the bus to school. Her memory of this sequence of events would most likely be organized in the form of:

A) a series of retrieval cues
B) a script for "morning events"
C) a series of mental images
D) semantic elaboration of common events

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Control processes are strategies and techniques that enhance __________.

A) memory
B) self-control
C) empathy
D) overall intelligence

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Suppose you conducted a study of pairs of identical twins, one of whom was diagnosed with ADHD. Now you examine whether or not the other twins in each pair also have ADHD. In comparison to pairs of unrelated children, you would expect that the other twin in your study would be _______ likely to also be diagnosed with ADHD.

A) much less
B) somewhat less
C) equally
D) more
Name: __________________________
Chapter 8 - Middle Childhood: Physical and Cognitive Development -

Question 5

At what age does the human brain reach 95% of its adult size?

A) age 4
B) age 6
C) age 9
D) age 14

Question 6

Lynn tells the teacher, "I don't care if I learn anything; I just want to get an A." According to research conducted by Carol Dweck, you should conclude that Lynn has what type of motivation?

A) learning motivation
B) performance motivation
C) social motivation
D) anti-learning motivation

Question 7

The text states that there has been a gradual evolution in how mental retardation is regarded. In general, what change is at the center of that evolution in thinking?

A) Today, each person is considered to be more an individual with specific needs for accommodations.
B) Today, mental retardation is considered to be a biological, rather than a psychological, disability.
C) Today, mental retardation is diagnosed according to a person's IQ score, rather than to an assessment of that person's abilities.
D) Today, people understand that individuals with mental retardation cannot be expected to achieve at the same levels as people who do not have intellectual disabilities.

Question 8

If you were to look at a boy and a girl of average size in two different age groups, age 8 and age 10, who would you expect to be taller in each age group?

A) The 8-year-old girl would be taller than the 8-year-old boy, but the 10-year-old boy would be taller than the 10-year-old girl.
B) The 8-year-old boy would be taller than the 8-year-old girl, but the 10-year-old girl would be taller than the 10-year-old boy.
C) The boys would be taller than the girls at both 8 and 10 years of age.
D) The girls would be taller than the boys at both 8 and 10 years of age.

Question 9

Suppose you learn that two children, a 10-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl, have brains of quite different sizes, with the boy's brain being about 40% larger than the girl's brain. Which of the following conclusions would be the best to draw from this data?

A) The girl most likely has something wrong with her brain, because it should be at least 10% larger than the boy's brain.
B) The girl's brain most likely has something wrong with it, because it should be very close to the same size as the boy's brain at this age.
C) The girl most likely was malnourished in early childhood, giving rise to a smaller-than-average brain.
D) There is no reason for concern, since children's brain sizes can vary by as much as 50% without any appreciable difference in cognitive skills.

Question 10

Which of the following would be LEAST likely to contribute positively to the development of literacy?

A) enrolling a child in a formal program of reading and writing in which they are drilled on correct techniques and rewarded when they succeed
B) reading to children and talking with them about what was read
C) having children play together and make up stories and plays
D) allowing children a lot of pressure-free time to draw, even if their work is no more than scribbling on paper

Question 11

The original purpose for developing the first intelligence tests in the early part of the twentieth century was:

A) to identify children who would not do well in school
B) to provide a reason to discriminate against children from African descent
C) to give the French government a means of selecting especially talented children for placement in state-funded educational programs for the gifted
D) to study how physical health and intelligence were related

Question 12

Which of the following is the primary goal of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA)?

A) to train teachers to deal with children who have mental retardation and behavioral disorders
B) to fund special schools that provide education to children with disabilities
C) to raise the public's awareness of the unfairness being done to individuals with disabilities
D) to provide all children with a free and appropriate education

Question 13

According to Carol Dweck, which of the following statements represents the most effective way to praise a child?

A) "You are a very, very smart little girl."
B) "You are so cute, who could think you wouldn't do well in school?"
C) "You have a natural ability in mathematics; no wonder you do so well."
D) "You did a nice job in writing that story. I especially like the way you described the clown."

Question 14

The text discusses research about Southeast Asian immigrant families. The results of this study suggest that which of the following factors is important in determining children's IQs?

A) race and skin color
B) ethnicity and first language learned
C) how long the family has lived in the U. S.
D) family emphasis on education and success

Question 15

Higher level cognitive functions, such as attention, emotion, language, and memory, are thought to be associated most closely to activity in:

A) the myelin surrounding axons
B) the cell axons themselves, but not the cell bodies
C) the gray matter of the brain
D) the white matter in the left cerebral hemisphere

Question 16

Which of the following people would be most likely to get an erroneous estimate of obesity when using the BMI method of calculation?

A) Susie, an overweight 12-year-old girl who is African American
B) Barbara, an underweight 12-year-old girl who has not yet hit the adolescent growth spurt
C) Mike, an overweight 16-year-old boy who gets very little exercise
D) Jeremy, a competitive athlete with very large muscles

Question 17

Addition and subtraction math problems rely on a child's ability to understand which of the following Piagetian concepts?

A) formal operations
B) reversibility
C) metacognition
D) scripts

Question 18

Tommy appears to not care at all about the quality of the school work he does. When asked, he says things like: "School is stupid. No one should try hard. Learning is useless." Using the terms identified by David McClelland, you would conclude that Tommy has:

A) very low achievement motivation
B) very high need for excellence
C) very low autonomy
D) a low "pride" quotient

Question 19

If a 5-year-old girl watches an adult pour juice from a tall, thin glass into a short, wide glass, and then she is asked, "Which glass has more juice?" she would typically:

A) conclude that either the short, wide glass has more juice or that the tall, thin glass has more juice
B) conclude that since no juice was spilled, the glasses have the same amount of juice
C) become very confused and ask to see the juice poured again and again
D) not be able to answer the question because she would be confused about why the adult was asking such an obvious question

Question 20

Generalizing from data presented in the text, which of the following children would have the greatest chance of suffering from asthma?

A) Linnea, a middle-class white girl who lives in northern Minnesota
B) Rollin, a poor African American boy who lives in St. Louis, Missouri
C) Jose, a Hispanic middle-class Hispanic boy who lives in rural California
D) Jeff, a poor white boy who lives on a farm in New York state

Question 21

2. Compared to the first two years of life, growth during middle childhood is:

A) faster and steadier
B) slower, but more erratic
C) faster, but more erratic
D) slower and steadier

Question 22

6 Based on information presented in the text, which of the following individuals would you expect to have the largest brain, as measured by brain size (or volume)?

A) Jackie, a 6-year old girl
B) Lucille, an 11-year-old girl
C) Andrea, a 27-year-old woman
D) Margaret, a 54-year-old woman

Question 23

8. At what age do children typically begin to lose their primary teeth?

A) 3
B) 6
C) 8
D) 10

Question 24

1. According to the text, in Western nations, middle childhood extends from about age:

A) 4 to 8 years
B) 5 to 10 years
C) 6 to 12 years
D) 8 to 12 years

Question 25

7. If you were babysitting for a 9-year-old child who complained of "growing pains" in his legs, what would be the appropriate thing to do:

A) give him an aspirin and tell his parents when they return
B) call an ambulance
C) massage the sore area and apply a heating pad
D) tell him that the pains are not real and are "all in his head"

Question 26

4. If you were to look at a boy and a girl of average size in two different age groups, age 8 and age 10, who would you expect to be taller in each age group?

A) The 8-year-old girl would be taller than the 8-year-old boy, but the 10-year-old boy would be taller than the 10-year-old girl.
B) The 8-year-old boy would be taller than the 8-year-old girl, but the 10-year-old girl would be taller than the 10-year-old boy.
C) The boys would be taller than the girls at both 8 and 10 years of age.
D) The girls would be taller than the boys at both 8 and 10 years of age.

Question 27

15. Suppose you learn that two children, a 10-year boy and a 10-year old girl, have brains of quite different sizes, with the boy's brain being about 40% larger than that girl's brain. Which of the following conclusions would be the best to draw from this data?

A) The girl most likely has something wrong with her brain, because it should be at least 10% larger than the boy's brain.
B) The girl's brain most likely has something wrong with it, because it should be very close to the same size as the boy's brain at this age.
C) The girl most likely was malnourished in early childhood, giving rise to a smaller-than-average brain.
D) There is no reason for concern, since children's brain sizes can vary by as much as 50% without any appreciable difference in cognitive skills.

Question 28

14. Higher level cognitive functions, such as attention, emotion, language, and memory, are thought to be associated most closely to activity in:

A) the myelin surrounding axons
B) the cell axons themselves, but not the cell bodies
C) the gray matter of the brain
D) the white matter in the left cerebral hemisphere

Question 29

3 Which of the following children would you expect to grow the least during a 6-month period of time?

A) Renee, who is an 8-month-old girl
B) Rex, who is an 8-month old boy
C) Sara, who is a 2-year old girl
D) Babette, who is a 7-year-old girl

Question 30

16. During adolescence and adulthood, cognitive functions such as memory and judgment generally become more complex. According to the text, the neurological event most closely associated with such changes is:

A) an increase in the number of neurons in the brain
B) an increase in the overall size of the neurons in the cortex of the brain
C) a decrease in the amount of myelin present in the brain
D) a decline in gray matter that occurs after childhood

Question 31

13. If you were to observe a sample of brain tissue that was mostly composed of myelin and contained relatively few cell bodies, you would refer to this type of brain tissue as:

A) white matter
B) gray matter
C) cell body mass extract
D) pruned excess

Question 32

18. Mr. Martinez teaches third-grade physical education. To meet national health objectives, he should try to engage students in active physical exercise for at least what percent of their time in his physical education class?

A) 30%
B) 50%
C) 75%
D) 90%

Question 33

5 At what age does the human brain reach 95% of its adult size?

A) age 4
B) age 6
C) age 9
D) age 14

Question 34

10. According to the text, most of the fine motor skills required for writing develop between the ages of:

A) 3 and 4
B) 4 and 5
C) 5 and 6
D) 6 and 7

Question 35

19. Which of the following is NOT one of the four aspects of physical fitness conditioning?

A) flexibility
B) muscle strength
C) BMI of less than 28
D) cardiovascular efficiency

Question 36

20. Currently about what percent of school-age children in the United States are obese?

A) 5 percent
B) 19 percent
C) 31 percent
D) 48 percent

Question 37

12. The process in which specific functions, such as speech, develop in specific regions of the brain is called:

A) neural integration
B) differentiation
C) functional fixation
D) lateralization

Question 38

11. Suppose you are playing with a 6-year-old child and you ask the child to draw three different shapes: a triangle, a circle, and a square. Which shape would you expect the child to have the most difficulty drawing?

A) the triangle
B) the circle
C) the square
D) A 6-year-old can easily draw them all.

Question 39

17. Suppose you walk into a typical 6th grade classroom in a predominantly White, middle-class, suburban school in the United States. If the children there are typical, about what percent would you expect to be wearing glasses or contact lenses to improve their vision?

A) 75%
B) 50%
C) 33%
D) 25%

Question 40

9. According to the text, many studies find that boys are more athletic than girls during middle childhood. Research suggests that the major reason for this difference is:

A) much greater muscle mass in boys than girls, even before puberty
B) the male growth spurt occurs a few years earlier for boys than girls, giving them greater strength as well as size
C) opportunity and expectations about athletic activities are greater for boys than girls
D) brain growth occurs much earlier for boys, giving them much better fine and gross motor control than girls during middle childhood

Question 41

21. Of the children who are obese at ages 10 to 13, about what percent will go on to become seriously overweight as adults?

A) 33%
B) 50%
C) 70%
D) 90%

Question 42

24. The most prevalent chronic disease among children living in the United States is ___________; and the percentage of children affected by this disease is ____________.

A) diabetes; increasing
B) diabetes; decreasing
C) asthma; increasing
D) asthma; decreasing

Question 43

32. If all you know about Rashon is that he is a typical 6-year-old, you would guess that his thinking is undergoing a transition between which of Piaget's stages?

A) preoperational to concrete operational thought
B) concrete operational to preoperational thought
C) concrete operational to formal operational thought
D) preoperational to formal operational thought

Question 44

34. Suppose you line up two rows of marbles, each of which has 6 marbles in it. In Row A, the marbles are spaced closely together; in Row B, the marbles are spread out farther apart. If you asked a 5-year-old and an 8-year-old, "Which row has more marbles?" you should expect the 5-year-old to say __________ and the 8-year-old to say _____________.

A) Row A; Row B
B) Row B; Row A
C) Row B; they are the same
D) they are the same; they are the same

Question 45

40. Strategies, such as mental imagery and scripts, which elementary schoolchildren use to help them remember things are called:

A) metacognition
B) reconstructions
C) reviews
D) control processes

Question 46

25. Which of the following statements about asthma is false:

A) Asthma affects more African American than Hispanic or White children.
B) Asthma can be severe enough to cause death.
C) Asthma affects more boys than girls.
D) Children with asthma are less likely to suffer from other childhood diseases.

Question 47

33. If a 5-year-old girl watches an adult pour juice from a tall, thin glass into a short, wide glass, and then she is asked, "Which glass has more juice?" she would typically:

A) conclude that either the short, wide glass has more juice or that the tall, thin glass has more juice
B) conclude that since no juice was spilled, the glasses have the same amount of juice
C) become very confused and ask to see the juice poured again and again
D) not be able to answer the question because she would be confused about why the adult was asking such an obvious question

Question 48

22. What two factors are considered in computing a child's BMI (Body Mass Index)?

A) age and weight
B) gender and age
C) gender and percent body fat
D) weight and height

Question 49

23. Which of the following people would be most likely to get an erroneous estimate of obesity when using the BMI method of calculation?

A) Susie, an overweight 12-year-old girl who is African American
B) Barbara, an underweight 12-year-old girl who has not yet hit the adolescent growth spurt
C) Mike, an overweight 16-year-old boy who gets very little exercise
D) Jeremy, a competitive athlete with very large muscles

Question 50

31. In Piaget's terms, the type of thought that is characteristic of children during the elementary school years is called:

A) formal operational thought
B) preoperational thought
C) sensorimotor thought
D) concrete operational thought

Question 51

36. According to Piaget, what would be the best way to teach children in kindergarten about the mathematical concept of addition:

A) Explain to them in words how addition problems should be solved and then ask them to explain back to you in their own words.
B) Give them objects, such as blocks, to manipulate so they can see how moving blocks from one pile to another represents changes in number (e.g., addition).
C) Read stories about math problems to them to enhance their motivation to learn mathematical concepts.
D) There is no good way to teach children in the preoperational stage about mathematics because this topic requires the ability to understand reversibility, which develops later.

Question 52

26 Generalizing from data presented in the text, which of the following children would have the greatest chance of suffering from asthma?

A) Linnea, a middle-class white girl who lives in northern Minnesota
B) Rollin, a poor African American boy who lives in St. Louis, Missouri
C) Jose, a middle-class Hispanic boy who lives in rural California
D) Jeff, a poor white boy who lives on a farm in New York state

Question 53

39. Control processes are strategies and techniques that enhance __________.

A) memory
B) self-control
C) empathy
D) overall intelligence

Question 54

29. Of the children in the United States who have a mental disorder, about what percent receive appropriate diagnosis and treatment?

A) 20%
B) 50%
C) 75%
D) over 95%

Question 55

28. According to the Surgeon General's report, about what percent of children and adolescents age 9 to 17 are estimated to have mental disorders with at least mild functional impairment?

A) 2%
B) 5%
C) 10%
D) 20%

Question 56

38. Piaget's theory of cognitive development suggests that elementary school education should:

A) allow children to discover principles by doing rather than by being shown
B) spend more of the class day on math and science instruction and less on free play activities
C) not be expected to learn mathematics or science until about the 3rd or 4th grade
D) emphasize the use of verbal rewards such as praise in order to increase motivation for learning

Question 57

37. Addition and subtraction math problems rely on a child's ability to understand which of the following Piagetian concepts?

A) formal operations
B) reversibility
C) metacognition
D) scripts

Question 58

27. What is the number one cause of death in middle childhood?

A) pneumonia or influenza
B) accidents
C) birth defects
D) cancer

Question 59

35. Which of the following changes is characteristic of the transition from Piaget's preoperational stage into the stage of concrete operations?

A) thinking becomes more egocentric
B) thinking becomes more logical and less focused on perception of objects
C) thinking becomes less reversible
D) thinking becomes less focused on the future and more focused on the present

Question 60

30. Luke's parents are concerned about him because, beginning at about age 2, he began to show little affection toward other people, his speech became very limited to the point where he seldom talked, and he began to engage in repetitive behavior, such as spinning his crayons and rocking back and forth. If you were to guess what Luke's diagnosis might be, the best choice would be:

A) attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
B) childhood depression
C) autism
D) child-onset schizophrenia

Question 61

52. Whole-language theorists focus on the concept of:

A) metacognition
B) emergent literacy
C) logical inference
D) cooperative learning

Question 62

43. Heidi has a series of events that she follows every morning: she takes a shower, dresses, eats breakfast, and rides the bus to school. Her memory of this sequence of events would most likely be organized in the form of:

A) a series of retrieval cues
B) a script for "morning events"
C) a series of mental images
D) semantic elaboration of common events

Question 63

59. The original purpose for developing the first intelligence tests in the early part of the twentieth century was:

A) to identify children who would not do well in school
B) to provide a reason to discriminate against children from African descent
C) to give the French government a means of selecting especially talented children for placement in state-funded educational programs for the gifted
D) to study how physical health and intelligence were related

Question 64

50. Eleven-year-old Susan overheard her father say, "I drove to the store." She is able to infer the presence of a car even though he never mentioned the word. This example best illustrates what memory strategy?

A) retrieval
B) mental imagery
C) organization
D) semantic elaboration

Question 65

41. Remembering the details about a family dinner, such as helping set the table, washing hands before eating, saying grace at the dinner table, eating the food, and clearing off the dishes, best illustrates what memory control process?

A) mental imagery
B) the use of a script
C) semantic elaboration
D) organization

Question 66

58. The first tests of intelligence were developed in France by:

A) Louis Terman and his colleagues
B) Robert Sternberg
C) Alfred Binet
D) Jean Piaget

Question 67

56. Suppose that 7-year-old Anna is having trouble learning to read in school. Her teacher investigates how her family encourages reading, how her friends interact with her during play, and how she uses oral language to communicate. The teacher concludes that her reading will likely develop in its own time, and encourages Anna to continue to interact verbally. The teacher's approach would be very compatible with which of the following points of view?

A) the metacognitive viewpoint
B) the whole-language viewpoint
C) the preoperational viewpoint
D) the formal operational viewpoint

Question 68

42. Memory for routine events, such as getting ready for bed, is most likely to be organized by using:

A) mental imagery
B) rehearsal
C) scripts
D) semantic elaboration

Question 69

51. The term literacy refers to:

A) the use of control processes in thinking and problem solving
B) the skills involved in reading and writing
C) the percentage of people in a group who can read at least at the 4th-grade level
D) the ability to monitor and understand one's own thoughts and thinking processes

Question 70

54. Which of the following is the most accurate statement about the whole-language viewpoint about literacy?

A) Children must learn to read correctly before they can learn to speak correctly.
B) Children must learn to read short sentences before they can learn to read long sentences.
C) Children can only learn to read when they are "ready" from a biological point of view.
D) Early language skills like listening form the basis for later language skills like reading.

Question 71

46. Restructuring the material to be learned so that it is arranged categorically is the major feature of the control process called:

A) scripts
B) organization
C) mental imagery
D) semantic elaboration

Question 72

55. The essential idea encompassed by the term emergent literacy is that:

A) language learning is best done in the home, rather than in school
B) learning to read "emerges" when the child is "ready" to learn
C) learning to read is an entirely different process than learning to speak
D) language learning is a continuous and gradual process

Question 73

60. Suppose that Lucy is 6 years old and she is answers the same number of questions on an intelligence test as the average 8-year-old. Her mental age would be:

A) 6 years
B) 7 years
C) 8 years
D) none of the above, since there is not enough information given to determine it

Question 74

48. Samuel tells his little brother an elaborate story about imaginary creatures with three heads and sharp tails who can fly like helicopters by rotating a huge wing that comes out of their back. Samuel's ability to imagine these creatures and describe them to his brother is a good example of which of the following control processes?

A) mental imagery
B) semantic elaboration
C) organization
D) scripts

Question 75

53. According to whole-language theory, the skills associated with oral and written language acquisition develop over a period of years, beginning in:

A) infancy
B) the preschool years
C) about 1st grade
D) about 3rd grade

Question 76

47. Nine-year-old Kimberly is presented with a list of words to memorize. She groups the words by common features. For instance, she groups the words "dog," "cat," and "horse" as animals. What strategy does she use to help her remember the list?

A) organization
B) mental imagery
C) scripts
D) semantic elaboration

Question 77

49. Jude learns the concept of subtraction by forming a picture in his mind of removing blocks from one stack and adding them to another stack. His memory strategy is best considered an example of the use of:

A) mental imagery
B) rehearsal
C) organization
D) semantic elaboration

Question 78

44 The intellectual process that allows people to monitor their own thoughts and thinking processes is called:

A) a control process
B) metacognition
C) mental elaboration
D) a personal script

Question 79

45. Maria is asked to create and tell a story about how a lost dog was able to find its home. She talks and talks about the dog, and about its home, but is never able to figure out how to end the story or what would be required to make the story complete. In terms of her control processes, her problem in finishing her work would be described as a failure of:

A) motivation
B) retrieval
C) metacognition
D) rehearsal

Question 80

57. Which of the following would be LEAST likely to contribute positively to the development of literacy?

A) enrolling a child in a formal program of reading and writing in which they are drilled on correct techniques and rewarded when they succeed
B) reading to children and talking with them about what was read
C) having children play together and make up stories and plays
D) allowing children a lot of pressure-free time to draw, even if their work is no more than scribbling on paper