Question 1

Explain how Thelen's research on infant stepping behavior revolutionized what researchers understood about early infant motor development.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Explain how Thelen's research on infant stepping...

Question 2

Stable posture affects all of the following except

Accepted Answer

A)  what an infant sees, touches, and the actions they engage in. 
B)  the infant's ability to lean forward to grasp a toy. 
C)  the coordination of different muscle groups to maintain a steady seated position. 
D)  the ability of the infant's eyes to focus on near and distant objects. 
E)  the ability to walk upright.

Question 3

Dr. Tay is interested in examining at what age infants' visual acuity improves. She shows infants of various ages two photos of the same object, a flower. In one of the photos, the picture is slightly blurred. In the other photo, the picture is sharp. Based on the concept of preferential looking, if infants can see the difference between the two photos, they will likely

Accepted Answer

A)  look equally long at both the blurry and the clear photo. 
B)  look longer at the blurred photo compared to the clear photo. 
C)  look longer at the clear photo compared to the blurred one. 
D)  choose to not look at either photo. 
E)  None of the above-the infants' looking behavior cannot be determined from this study.

Question 4

To what extent did McGraw's research on twins Johnny and Jimmy challenge Gesell's hypothesis about the role of biology in explaining infant motor skills development?

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Question 5

Ainsley was looking out the window of her parents' car as they were taking a trip to the beach. To her eyes, it appeared as though the trees and fences nearest to the car went past her very quickly, but the large clouds overhead moved very slowly, a phenomenon known as

Accepted Answer

A)  motion parallax. 
B)  visual input. 
C)  perceptual focus. 
D)  size constancy. 
E)  depth perception.

Question 6

You are preparing to give a seminar on healthy eating to a group of expecting women. One of the most important points you want to stress is that healthy eating in infants can start even before the child is born. Based on what you know about infant eating preferences, how would you present this point?

Accepted Answer

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Question 7

According to the Gestalt theory of perception, infants' perceptual skills would result in

Accepted Answer

A)  initial difficulty in being able to visually separate objects from their surrounding environment. 
B)  an adultlike capacity to organize visual stimuli into meaningful patterns. 
C)  a strong preference for focusing on objects that are dynamic, rather than static in nature. 
D)  marked distress when viewing an array of new visual stimuli because it would overwhelm the senses. 
E)  preferences for matching colorful objects.

Question 8

Which of the following best illustrates how infants' ability to perceive color is different from adults'?

Accepted Answer

A)  Infants are unable to distinguish colors within the same color category as adults. 
B)  Infants categorize colors based on brightness rather than color. 
C)  Infants categorize colors in the same way as do adults. 
D)  Infants' color categorization depends on their visual acuity. 
E)  Infants show adult-like categorization of color for red versus blue, but group green and blue together.

Question 9

Being able to detect a sound is defined as _______ threshold, whereas being able to detect that a change in sound occurred from a first sound to a second sound is called _______ threshold.

Accepted Answer

A)  absolute; difference 
B)  minimal; change 
C)  difference; minimal 
D)  change; absolute 
E)  absolute; minimal

Question 10

Laticia loved eating spicy foods when she was pregnant, while Anne preferred foods that were heavily salted. Their interests in these foods continued as they breastfed their babies. Given what you know about the development of infant taste preferences, it is likely that

Accepted Answer

A)  both Laticia and Anne will have difficulty getting their children to enjoy the foods they themselves like. 
B)  Laticia's child will likely prefer spicy foods, while Anne's child will likely show no preference for flavor. 
C)  Laticia's child will prefer spicy foods and Anne's child will prefer salty foods. 
D)  both Laticia and Anne's children will show a preference for a wide variety of flavors. 
E)  Anne's child will prefer spicy foods and Laticia's child will prefer salty foods

Question 11

Kendra is beginning to display evidence of prospective control. This means that

Accepted Answer

A)  she will be able to pick up small objects using only her forefinger and thumb. 
B)  when reaching for objects, she will adjust her hand to match the object's size before touching the object. 
C)  she is beginning to be able to sit up unaided on a firm surface. 
D)  she can correctly anticipate the connection between the appearance of an object and its texture. 
E)  she can accurately follow a moving object with both eyes and by moving her head.

Question 12

To what extent do changes in infant music preferences provide evidence of perceptual narrowing?

Accepted Answer

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Question 13

Which of the following statements correctly summarizes the contribution of Thelen's research to the understanding of infant motor development?

Accepted Answer

A)  Newborn stepping movement provides opportunities for early practice before higher order brain centers take over and voluntary walking appears. 
B)  Early experiences have significant effects on the timing of infant motor skill development. 
C)  Factors such as weight and muscle mass can impact the type of behaviors that infants display. 
D)  Motor skills such as standing and walking are predominately controlled by lower centers of the brain. 
E)  Cultural factors such as encouragement of early standing and walking can accelerate the timing of typical motor milestones.

Question 14

One explanation advanced for the "attractiveness effect" in infants is that

Accepted Answer

A)  infants look longer at their mothers' rather than a strangers' face, as they find such familiar faces to be attractive. 
B)  infants do not show any preference for attractive faces the way that adults do because they prefer faces that are familiar to them, attractive or not. 
C)  infants prefer to look at faces that match their own skin tone and consider those to be attractive. 
D)  young infants prefer to look at all faces, but as they get older, they begin to prefer attractive faces as they are exposed increasingly to screens with attractive faces. 
E)  infants prefer "attractive" faces as they resemble the "prototype" face that would result from averaging many faces.

Question 15

Molly and her mother are playing with several different size balls in their living room. With the small balls, Molly has learned how to grasp them in her hands and throw them back towards her mother. With the larger balls however, when Molly attempts to grasp them, as she touches and tries to hold them, she finds it is too difficult to do. As a result, she switches to rolling them back and forth. Which concept explains Molly's behavior?

Accepted Answer

A)  Habituation and recovery 
B)  Maturation 
C)  Shape constancy 
D)  Perception-action feedback loop 
E)  Perceptual accommodation

Question 16

Infants were initially habituated to the category "vehicles" by being shown images of different cars and trucks. Following this, they were shown a picture of a school bus next to a picture of an apple. Based on your knowledge of how infants form categories for different objects, which of the following statements would best illustrate how infants would respond?

Accepted Answer

A)  They would look less at the school bus relative to the apple because it does not look like the cars and trucks they encountered before. 
B)  They would look more at the school bus relative to the apple because it does not look like the cars and trucks they had seen before. 
C)  They would look less at the school bus compared to the apple, having grouped the bus as a type of vehicle. 
D)  They would look less at the school bus compared to the apple, because they have more experiences with apples than unfamiliar school buses. 
E)  They would look more at the school bus relative to the apple because they would recognize it as being part of the vehicle category.

Question 17

Which of the following structures in the retina is responsible for determining the overall visual acuity of infants?

Accepted Answer

A)  Fovea 
B)  Optic nerve 
C)  Rods 
D)  Lens 
E)  Cones

Question 18

To accurately track the eye movement of infants, researchers oftentimes use _______, or devices that are built into computer monitors or worn on the participants' head.

Accepted Answer

A)  eye-trackers 
B)  depth cues 
C)  monocular devices 
D)  perception scanners 
E)  motion detectors

Question 19

Explain how the "back to sleep" movement influenced infants' ability to progress through certain motor milestones.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Explain how the "back to sleep" movement...

Question 20

The use of the ghavora among mothers in Tajikistan contributes to our understanding of the role of culture in influencing motor development because

Accepted Answer

A)  it significantly restricts infant movement when used, and as a result, infants who spend many hours in the gahvora may show delays in certain motor skills based on norms established by the World Health Organization. 
B)  its use significantly restricts infant movement, but Tajikistan infants are meeting all motor milestones at the same ages as established by the World Health Organization. 
C)  it encourages complex motor coordination, which translates into faster achievement of motor milestones compared to other infants of Asian heritage. 
D)  the ghavora discourages fine motor coordination of the hands, which results in difficulties in writing by young children. 
E)  its use is consistent with East Asian practices that encourage early standing and walking behavior.

Exam 4: Perceptual and Motor Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood