Deck 8: Representation in Infancy

Question 1

What are the two different kinds of memories? Give an example of each and discuss how they differ.

Answer 1

Declarative, or explicit memory, includes memory for names, events, places etc. It includes episodic memory (memory of events that have been experienced) and semantic memory (memory of facts about the world)
Four basic features characterize declarative memory:
1) It is conscious, i.e., memories are accessed by conscious effort
2) It is fast, i.e., memories can be formed in an instant
3) It is fallible, i.e., memories can fade or can fail to be retrieved
4) It is flexible, i.e., memories tend not to be context dependent
Procedural memory refers to habits and skills that are shaped by experience (e.g., riding a bike).
Four basic features characterize procedural memory:"
1) It is largely unconscious
2) It is slow to develop
3) It is relatively infallible, i.e., not prone to forgetting
4) It is inflexible, i.e., it is dependent on context

Question 2

How can habituation be used to study memory in infancy?

Answer 2

By habituating infants and testing them immediately afterward with the same stimulus, it is possible to study short-term recognition memory, just as it is possible to impose a delay between the end of habituation and a later test to assess long-term recognition memory. Similarly, comparing the rate of habituation to a stimulus at one time with the rate of habituation to the same stimulus at a later time can be used to assess short- or long-term retention of a stimulus. If the second course of habituation is quicker than the first course, it must indicate that the infant remembered the stimulus.

Question 3

What is known about the differences between American and Japanese mothers' play with their infants? How are these differences related to differences in culture and beliefs?

Answer 3

U.S. mothers promote autonomy and organize social interactions with their infants to foster physical and verbal assertiveness in children as well as interest in the external environment, whereas Japanese mothers organize social interactions so as to consolidate and strengthen mutual dependence within the dyad.

Question 4

What is interiorization?

A) The tendency to stay indoors and avoid sunlight.
B) Representing the external world using internal representations.
C) Using internal representations to solve problems.
D) Talking to oneself to make sense of other people.

Question 5

What is decontextualization?

A) The movement from the dependence on perceptual support to the ability to manipulate information in the absence of concrete objects.
B) The development of understanding people without them explicitly expressing their emotions.
C) The change from understanding objects only in a very narrow context to a broader, more general context.
D) The change from understanding only one's own view to understanding that others know different things.

Question 6

Why was Piaget's understanding of the object concept in children limited?

A) Because he did not observe them interacting with many different objects.
B) Because he only studied one child.
C) Because he relied only on manual search tasks.
D) All of the above.

Question 7

2.5-year-old Sarah is shown a teddy bear being hidden under a table in a shoebox-sized model of a room. She is then told to go look for a teddy bear in the same place in a real room. Where will Sarah most likely search?

A) Under the table because that's where she saw the bear being hidden in the model.
B) Behind the couch because she does not understand the purpose of the model yet.
C) In the shoebox that is in the real room because she thinks that the box is a model.
D) None of the above.

Question 8

Which of the following statements about categories is true?

A) A German shepherd is a prototype of the category "dog".
B) A Labrador is a boundary of the category "dog".
C) A rose is a prototype of the concept "plant".
D) A dolphin is a prototype of the category "fish".

Question 9

In what way(s) is categorization useful?

A) Categorization structures and clarifies perception.
B) Categorization enables infants to make inferences.
C) Categorization facilitates the storage and retrieval of information.
D) All of the above.

Question 10

What is the dependent measure in the sequential touching task?

A) The degree to which infants manipulate within-category objects sequentially compared to between-category objects.
B) The degree to which infants manipulate the novel category object compared to the familiar category object.
C) The degree to which infants look at the novel category object compared to the familiar category object.
D) The degree to which the sequential touching of objects within a category decreases with increasing familiarity of the category.

Question 11

Which of the following statements is true about infants' development of categorization?

A) Subordinate categorization is the last to emerge.
B) Basic level categorization is the last to emerge.
C) Superordinate categorization is the last to emerge.
D) All three levels of categorization emerge in parallel.

Question 12

Arterberry and Bornstein's experiment in which they habituated 9-month-old infants to moving dot displays of animals or vehicles and in test showed them color images of animals and vehicles showed that

A) Infants at this age cannot discriminate between moving dot displays of animals and vehicles.
B) Infants at this age can discriminate between moving dot displays of animals and vehicles.
C) Infants at this age can categorize across perceptual differences.
D) Infants at this age cannot categorize across perceptual differences.

Question 13

To remember one's sister's first birthday is an example of

A) Episodic memory.
B) Semantic memory.
C) Working memory.
D) Procedural memory.

Question 14

Which of the following is not a feature of procedural memory?

A) It is conscious.
B) It develops slowly.
C) It is not prone to forgetting.
D) It depends on context.

Question 15

According to Piaget, what is the reason for infantile amnesia?

A) Infants are unable to speak.
B) Infants are unable to form mental representation.
C) Infants suppress traumatic experiences.
D) None of the above.

Question 16

How does repetition affect memory?

A) Timing of the repetition is critical in facilitating recall.
B) Repetition helps facilitate recall.
C) Repeating related information facilitates recall of an event.
D) All of the above.

Question 17

Which of the following is not a paradigm that is commonly used to measure infants' memory?

A) Mobile conjugate reinforcement paradigm.
B) Novelty responsiveness paradigm.
C) Deferred imitation paradigm.
D) Sequential tapping paradigm.

Question 18

Why could forgetting be evolutionarily useful?

A) It allows the infant to adapt to changes in the environment and focus on relevant information.
B) It allows the infant brain to free resources needed for physical development.
C) It allows the infant to explore the world without preconceived notions.
D) It allows the infant to overcome early trauma.

Question 19

What happens during the still-face procedure?

A) The experimenter plays with the infant, then poses a still face, and then returns to playing with the infant.
B) The experimenter tries to get the infant to imitate a still face.
C) The experimenter measures the duration that an infant can maintain a still face.
D) The mother tries to get the infant to imitate a still face.

Question 20

DeLoache and colleagues repeatedly exposed a group of 12- to 18-month-old infants to a DVD that was designed to teach infants words for common objects. In another group, parents were instructed to teach their infants the same words. The infants in the latter group learned more words than the infants in the former group, showing

A) That educational media targeted at infants does not facilitate learning.
B) That infants learn best from real people.
C) That infants remember what they see and hear around them.
D) All of the above.

Question 21

Which of the following is not a major principle of play?

A) Pretend play develops slowly.
B) Pretend play develops late.
C) Pretend play shifts from only including oneself to including only objects.
D) Pretend play shifts from requiring the guidance of an adult to independent play.

Question 22

What is the earliest form of infant play and when does it emerge?

A) The earliest form of play involves repeated actions and emerges over the first 2-3 months of life.
B) The earliest form of play involves looking at objects and emerges over the first 2-3 months of life.
C) The earliest form of play involves imitating people and emerges at the age of 3 months.
D) The earliest form of play involves touching objects and emerges at the age of 4 months.

Question 23

14-month-old Peter puts a ball on a block and pretends that the ball is the driver and the block a big truck. He is engaged in

A) Exploratory play.
B) Relational play.
C) Functional-relational play.
D) Symbolic play.

Question 24

Emma puts a little block in front of her bear, and pretends to cut the block and feed the bear with it. What is Emma's approximate age and what kind of play is she engaged in?

A) Emma is about 18 months old and engaged in exploratory play.
B) Emma is about 24 months old and engaged in functional play.
C) Emma is about 28 months old and engaged in symbolic play.
D) Emma is about 36 months old and engaged in exploratory play.

Question 25

Play develops

A) At different rates in individual infants.
B) At the same rate in all infants.
C) In an unpredictable fashion.
D) Only in Western cultures.

Question 26

What are the five major domains of development that are facilitated by play?

A) Psychological, mastery, cognitive, social, and cultural.
B) Psychological, mastery, cognitive, social, and emotional.
C) Psychological, motor, cognitive, social, and cultural.
D) Psychological, motor, reasoning, social, and emotional.

Question 27

In what way does play foster social development?

A) It enhances reciprocity and self-efficacy.
B) It enhances self-regulation and representation abilities.
C) It enhances intersubjectivity and reciprocity.
D) It enhances problem solving and traditional thinking.

Question 28

What are the four levels of symbolic play?

A) Unitary functional, inappropriate combinatorial, appropriate combinatorial, transitional play.
B) Self-directed pretense, other-directed pretense, sequential pretense, substitution pretense.
C) Functional pretense, operational pretense, transitional pretense, substitution pretense.
D) Solitary pretense, interactive pretense, inappropriate pretense, appropriate pretense.

Question 29

Mandler and McDonough (1993) familiarized a group of 9-month-olds either to different toy birds with outstretched wings or toy airplanes. They subsequently gave them a new toy bird and a new toy airplane and measured the infants' examination times to these new toys. Infants who were familiarized to birds examined the airplane longer compared to the new bird, and infants who were familiarized to airplanes examined the bird longer compared to the new airplane. What can we infer from these findings? What does that tell us about infants' perceptual and conceptual categorization abilities? What are possible limitations of this study?

Question 30

Bigelow, Maclean, and Proctor (2004) measured 1-year-old infants' play with and without their mother. They coded for four play levels: exploratory, inappropriate relational, appropriate relational, functional. Describe their results based on the data in the table. The numbers refer to mean percentage of time infants engaged in each type of play in the alone and mother conditions. What do these results suggest about the role of parents for children's play? How does this fit with Vygotsky's idea of a zone of proximal development?