Deck 4: Infancy: Early Learning, Motor Skills, and Perceptual Capacities

Question 1

In cultures where cosleeping is widespread,

A) children rarely sleep through the night.
B) parents often complain about bedtime struggles.
C) SIDS is rare.
D) SIDS is common.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

The function of the Babinski reflex is

A) to protect the infant from strong stimulation.
B) linked to human evolutionary past, and may have helped an infant cling to the mother.
C) to prepare an infant for voluntary reaching.
D) unknown.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

In relating to their physical and social worlds, babies are

A) passive for the first three to four months.
B) passive for the first year.
C) active from the very start.
D) passive for only the first month, and then active.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

The most common cause of a young infant's cry is

A) hearing a startling noise.
B) a novel stimulus.
C) fatigue.
D) hunger.

Question 5

Rapid eye movements during sleep

A) are a sign of central nervous system damage.
B) help protect the health of the eye.
C) are associated with a dreamless sleep.
D) cause the vitreous to remain motionless.

Question 6

In non-rapid-eye-movement sleep,

A) facial grimacing occurs.
B) breathing is uneven.
C) the body is almost motionless.
D) heart rate is irregular.

Question 7

Baby Callum is displaying an inborn, automatic response to a particular form of stimulation. Callum is displaying a

A) basic emotion.
B) reflex.
C) self-conscious emotion.
D) state of arousal.

Question 8

Babies with poor sleep organization are likely to

A) nap excessively during the day.
B) grow out of it by the end of the first year.
C) be behaviorally disorganized.
D) be cognitively advanced.

Question 9

Napping usually subsides

A) around 6 to 9 months.
B) by about 18 months.
C) between 18 months and 2 years.
D) between 3 and 5 years.

Question 10

Cross-cultural research shows that cosleeping

A) is the norm for approximately 90 percent of the world's population.
B) causes a decrease in mothers' total sleep time.
C) is a risk factor for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
D) children are at risk for later emotional problems, especially dependency.

Question 11

The percentage of REM sleep is greatest in

A) preterm babies.
B) full-term newborns.
C) infants between 2 to 3 months.
D) infants between 6 to 9 months.

Question 12

Psychologist William James viewed the world of a neonate as a(n)

A) blooming, buzzing confusion.
B) blank slate.
C) ordered, predictable environment.
D) refined, complex place.

Question 13

Pediatricians test reflexes carefully because weak, absent, overly rigid, or exaggerated reflexes may indicate

A) brain damage.
B) a circadian rhythm.
C) parental abuse or neglect.
D) skeletal trauma.

Question 14

Baby Yolanda's eyelids are closed, and her breathing is irregular. Her limbs show gentle movements, and she shows some facial grimacing. Occasional rapid eye movements can be seen beneath her eyelids. Yolanda is displaying which state of arousal?

A) regular sleep
B) irregular sleep
C) drowsiness
D) quiet alertness

Question 15

The rooting reflex disappears around

A) 3 weeks.
B) 3 months.
C) 4 months.
D) 6 months.

Question 16

The expression "sleeping like a baby" was probably meant to describe the __________ state of arousal.

A) REM sleep
B) drowsiness
C) NREM sleep
D) quiet alertness

Question 17

Which of the following reflexes may form the basis for complex motor skills that will develop later?

A) the Babinski reflex
B) the tonic neck reflex
C) the eye blink
D) the sucking reflex

Question 18

The American cultural norm of having infants sleep in a separate room from their parents is meant to foster

A) an awareness of personal boundaries.
B) respect for parents.
C) an interdependent self.
D) an independent self.

Question 19

During the first month of life, the most fleeting state of arousal is

A) regular sleep.
B) irregular sleep.
C) quiet alertness.
D) waking activity and crying.

Question 20

Baby Wesley cries at the sound of another infant crying. Some researchers believe that this response

A) is a form of simple imitation.
B) is an attempt to take an adult's attention from the other infant.
C) reflects an inborn capacity to react to the suffering of others.
D) is uncommon and probably signifies a cognitive abnormality.

Question 21

The cries of brain-damaged babies and those who have experienced prenatal and birth complications are often __________ than those of healthy infants.

A) quieter
B) longer in duration
C) more shrill and piercing
D) more muffled

Question 22

Which of the following is a protective measure to reduce the incidence of SIDS?

A) wrapping the baby in warm clothing and blankets
B) pacifier use
C) stomach sleeping
D) use of soft bedding

Question 23

Cross-cultural research using NBAS scores reveals that

A) Asian babies are more irritable than Caucasian babies.
B) Native-American babies are less irritable than Caucasian babies.
C) U.S. babies have a stronger, more flexible muscle tone than Kipsigis babies of rural Kenya.
D) in Zambia, Africa, maternal care has little to no effect on poor NBAS scores of undernourished infants.

Question 24

T. Berry Brazelton's Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS)

A) is specially designed for use with newborns at risk for developmental problems.
B) is useful in Western cultures, but is not helpful in cross-cultural research.
C) evaluates a baby's reflexes, muscle tone, state changes, and responsiveness to physical and social stimuli.
D) evaluates a baby's skin color, complexion, pulse rate, reflex irritability, muscle tone, and breathing.

Question 25

Baby Xavier reacts especially strongly to unpleasant stimuli. His crying is intense and high-pitched. Xavier did not experience prenatal or birth complications and has no brain damage. Xavier probably

A) has colic.
B) is easier to calm down than other babies.
C) is at high risk for SIDS.
D) is deficient in REM sleep.

Question 26

Two-month-old Roderick lives in a home with parents who both smoke cigarettes. He has a mild respiratory infection and sleeps on a soft crib mattress. Roderick is at high risk for

A) SIDS.
B) an ear infection.
C) a urinary tract infection.
D) cognitive delays.

Question 27

The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Network Neurobehavioral Scale (NNNS)

A) is specially designed for use with newborns at risk for developmental problems.
B) is useful in Western cultures, but is not helpful in cross-cultural evaluations.
C) evaluates a baby's reflexes, muscle tone, state changes, and responsiveness to physical and social stimuli.
D) evaluates a baby's skin color, complexion, pulse rate, reflex irritability, muscle tone, and breathing.

Question 28

To soothe a crying baby, most Western parents usually try

A) swaddling the baby.
B) infant massage.
C) lifting the baby to the shoulder.
D) taking the baby for a walk in a carriage.

Question 29

In some hospitals, health professionals use the NBAS to

A) measure habituation and recovery to visual stimuli.
B) demonstrate to parents the capacities of their newborn infant.
C) measure the newborn's physical condition at 1 and 5 minutes after birth.
D) teach new mothers how to breastfeed their infants.

Question 30

Dr. Thatcher believes that parental responsiveness is adaptive in that it ensures that the infant's basic needs will be met. At the same time, it brings the baby in close contact with the caregiver, who encourages the infant to communicate through means other than crying. Dr. Thatcher probably endorses __________ theory.

A) psychoanalytic
B) ethological
C) behavioral
D) ecological systems

Question 31

Before learning takes place, a(n) __________ stimulus must consistently produce a reflexive, or __________, response.

A) unconditioned; unconditioned
B) unconditioned; conditioned
C) conditioned; unconditioned
D) neutral; neutral

Question 32

Crying typically peaks at

A) 3 weeks.
B) 6 weeks.
C) 3 months.
D) 6 months.

Question 33

Virtually all researchers agree that parents can lessen older babies' need to cry by

A) providing a multitude of engaging activities for them.
B) surrounding them with a variety of visually stimulating toys.
C) encouraging more mature ways of expressing their desires.
D) placing them in group child care in early infancy.

Question 34

Right before baby Dom's mother leaves for work every morning, she takes her car keys off of a hook on the wall. As soon as Dom's mother unhooks the keys, Dom cries. In this example, __________ is the conditioned stimulus.

A) Dom's mother leaving for work
B) Dom's mother unhooking the keys
C) Dom's crying
D) morning time

Question 35

Which of the following statements is true regarding adult responsiveness to infant cries?

A) A baby's cry stimulates stronger feelings of arousal and discomfort in men than women.
B) Parents who score low in empathy are most likely to respond quickly to infant crying.
C) Compared to non-depressed mothers, depressed mothers tend to be more sensitive to their infant's crying.
D) As babies get older, parents react to more subtle cues in the cry, which help them figure out what is wrong.

Question 36

Classical conditioning

A) works best after newborn reflexes disappear.
B) helps infants relax in unfamiliar situations due to the calming effect of the unconditioned stimulus.
C) makes an infant's environment more disorganized and less predictable.
D) helps infants recognize which events usually occur together in the everyday world.

Question 37

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) usually occurs

A) during the day.
B) during the second year of life.
C) in healthy infants with no signs of physical problems.
D) between ages 2 and 4 months.

Question 38

Which of the following statements is true about crying infants?

A) Few parents respond to a crying baby's call for help with extra care and attention.
B) Abusive parents sometimes cite a high-pitched, grating cry as one factor that caused them to lose control and harm the baby.
C) Preterm and ill babies are the least likely to be abused by highly stressed parents.
D) Colic rarely subsides before 12 months of age.

Question 39

Which of the following statements is true about learning capacities?

A) Newborns are capable of classical, but not operant, conditioning.
B) Infants do not yet learn by observing others.
C) Newborns have built-in learning capacities that permit them to profit from experience immediately.
D) Infants' natural preference for novel stimulation often interferes with learning.

Question 40

When Western parents choose to practice __________, amount of crying in the early months is reduced by about one-third.

A) proximal care
B) the "cry it out" method
C) nighttime cosleeping
D) kangaroo care

Question 41

Baby Quinn's attention to a song on an iPod decreased after her mother played it several times. When her mother played a different song, Quinn's attention increased. This is an example of

A) recovery.
B) classical conditioning.
C) habituation.
D) operant conditioning.

Question 42

Research using the technique of attaching a baby's foot to a mobile with a long cord revealed that __________ babies remember how to activate the mobile for two weeks after training.

A) newborn
B) 2-month-old
C) 3-month-old
D) 6-month-old

Question 43

Which of the following statements is true regarding mirror neurons?

A) Brain-imaging studies confirm that human adults have especially elaborate systems of mirror neurons.
B) Mirror neurons do not appear until visual acuity is fully developed.
C) Mirror neurons undergo a short period of development during infancy.
D) Mirror neurons develop at the same rate as the development of the child's self-image and ego.

Question 44

A baby who first habituates to a green circle and then recovers to a blue circle

A) does not remember the green circle.
B) perceives both stimuli as identical.
C) prefers the green circle.
D) can distinguish between green and blue.

Question 45

Which of the following statements is true about learning using habituation versus operant conditioning?

A) In operant conditioning studies, infants retain certain information over much longer time spans than they do in habituation research.
B) Although habituation research tells us more about infant perceptual and cognitive capacities than operant conditioning, its findings are not clear-cut.
C) Operant conditioning studies reveals more about infant perceptual and cognitive capacities than habituation research.
D) Operant conditioning studies are a more reliable predictor of later intelligence than habituation and recovery.

Question 46

Studies of familiarity preference show that infants

A) look longer at the features of a familiar person than the action in which the person is engaged.
B) are better at discriminating faces in static displays than in moving displays.
C) retain information much longer in operant conditioning studies than in habituation studies.
D) look longer at a familiar action than the features of the person engaging in the action.

Question 47

Sam presents a conditioned stimulus alone enough times, without pairing it with the unconditioned stimulus, that the conditioned response no longer occurs. Sam is demonstrating

A) reinforcement.
B) punishment.
C) extinction.
D) a novelty preference.

Question 48

According to Andrew Meltzoff, newborns

A) do not actually imitate; their responses are actually mouthing.
B) have an automatic imitative capacity that declines with age.
C) imitate much as older children and adults do.
D) cannot yet imitate facial expressions.

Question 49

A study conducted by Rovee-Collier using a mobile attached to a baby's foot showed that after 2- to 6-month-olds forget an operant response,

A) they need only a brief prompt to reinstate the memory.
B) they have to relearn the skill using classical conditioning.
C) their memory returns but diminishes dramatically.
D) they have to relearn the skill using habituation.

Question 50

Which of the following statements is true regarding habituation and recovery in babies?

A) Newborn babies habituate and recover faster than 4-month-old babies.
B) Habituation to an auditory stimulus is evident in the third trimester of pregnancy.
C) Habituation and recovery are not mastered until the second half of the first year.
D) Newborns' attention spans are nonexistent; thus, they cannot habituate and recover.

Question 51

Each time Baby Masha sucks on her bottle, she receives a sweet-tasting liquid. When baby Masha sucks on a pacifier, she is met with a sour taste, which causes her to purse her lips and stop sucking entirely. The sour taste is a(n)

A) unconditioned response.
B) conditioned response.
C) reinforcer.
D) punisher.

Question 52

In __________, infants act on the environment, and stimuli that follow their behavior change the probability that the behavior will occur again.

A) classical conditioning
B) operant conditioning
C) habituation
D) recovery

Question 53

When baby Raj's mom first started carrying an on-call beeper, Raj was easily awakened by the sound of it going off. After several nights, Raj's sleep was not disturbed by the beeping. This is an example of

A) recovery.
B) operant conditioning.
C) habituation.
D) classical conditioning.

Question 54

Habituation and recovery make learning more efficient by

A) helping us anticipate what event is about to happen next.
B) focusing our attention on those aspects of the environment we know least about.
C) helping us generalize newly learned behaviors to unfamiliar contexts.
D) influencing the occurrence of stimulus events in the environment.

Question 55

Which of the following babies will most likely take the longest time to habituate to novel visual forms?

A) Aaron, a newborn
B) Jared, a 2-month-old
C) Virginia, a 4-month-old
D) Olivia, a 5-month-old

Question 56

__________ is strongly associated with 9-month-olds' formation of an increasingly context-free memory.

A) Food
B) Talking
C) Punishment
D) Crawling

Question 57

Sweet liquid increases the occurrence of the sucking response in baby Basil. Sweet liquid is a(n)

A) punisher.
B) conditioned response.
C) reinforcer.
D) unconditioned response.

Question 58

At first, infants' memory for operant responses is

A) nonexistent.
B) highly context dependent.
C) context-free.
D) inconsistent.

Question 59

Habituation studies test

A) recall memory.
B) imitation.
C) operant responses.
D) recognition memory.

Question 60

__________ is/are among the earliest available predictors of intelligence in childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood.

A) Classical conditioning
B) Operant conditioning
C) Habituation and recovery to visual stimuli
D) Imitation

Question 61

Which of the following pairs are examples of fine-motor activities?

A) sitting and crawling
B) standing and grasping
C) reaching and grasping
D) walking and crawling

Question 62

Baby Rolf first demonstrated the ability to kick and reach, then learned to rock on all fours, and later combined the skills to crawl. Rolf is exhibiting evidence of

A) dynamic systems theory of motor development.
B) the cephalocaudal trend.
C) the proximodistal trend.
D) a built-in maturational timetable.

Question 63

Which of the following statements is true about the sequence of motor development?

A) A baby who is a late reacher will probably also be a late crawler.
B) Motor skills are separate, innate abilities that emerge in a fixed sequence.
C) Motor skills are interrelated; each is a product of earlier motor attainments.
D) All children acquire motor skills in the same way.

Question 64

Reaching is largely controlled by

A) vision.
B) proprioception.
C) gross-motor development.
D) depth perception.

Question 65

Which of the following infants is the most likely to engage in a game of pat-a-cake with a caregiver?

A) Yolanda, age 4 months
B) Xavier, age 6 months
C) Juanita, age 8 months
D) Zeb, age 10 months

Question 66

Microgenetic research by James Galloway and Esther Thelen shows that

A) of all the motor skills, walking alone plays the greatest role in infant cognitive development.
B) infants reach for objects with their feet before they reach for objects with their hands.
C) there are minimal individual differences in the rate and progression of infant motor development.
D) infant motor skills develop according to a strict, predetermined cephalocaudal pattern.

Question 67

Newborn Alexia makes poorly coordinated swipes toward an object in front of her. Alexia is demonstrating

A) prereaching.
B) the ulnar grasp.
C) the pincer grasp.
D) voluntary reaching.

Question 68

Kipsigis and Jamaican infants walk considerably earlier than North American infants because

A) they are physically smaller at birth, requiring less leg-muscle strength for standing.
B) they must help their parents work in the fields at an extremely young age.
C) they are genetically "hardwired" to do so.
D) their parents promote early walking instruction, practicing formal exercises to stimulate skills.

Question 69

Which of the following motor achievements, on average, occurs last?

A) grasps cube
B) sits alone
C) rolls from back to side
D) rolls from side to back

Question 70

Twelve-month-old Britney picks up a raisin from the table. Britney is most likely using

A) the ulnar grasp.
B) prereaching.
C) the pincer grasp.
D) proprioception.

Question 71

According to dynamic systems theory of motor development, each new skill is a joint product of central nervous system development, the body's movement capacities, the child's goals, and

A) environmental supports for the skill.
B) the child's cognitive development.
C) the child's social relationships.
D) the child's age.

Question 72

Three-month-old Royal holds his rattle and shakes it. He is most likely using

A) the pincer grasp.
B) the ulnar grasp.
C) gross-motor skills.
D) prereaching.

Question 73

To find out how infants acquire motor capacities, researchers conduct

A) field experiments.
B) ethnographic studies.
C) microgenetic studies.
D) natural experiments.

Question 74

Dynamic systems theory provides convincing evidence that motor skill behaviors are

A) governed by a built-in maturational timetable.
B) hardwired.
C) genetically determined.
D) softly assembled.

Question 75

Of all motor skills, __________ may play the greatest role in infant cognitive development.

A) rolling over
B) reaching
C) crawling
D) walking

Question 76

Early __________ behaviors suggest that infants are biologically prepared to coordinate hand with eye in the act of exploring.

A) ulnar grasping
B) prereaching
C) visual acuity
D) pincer grasping

Question 77

In Wayne Dennis's research, Iranian babies who spent their days lying on their backs

A) learned to walk by 16 months of age.
B) scooted in a sitting position rather than crawled on their hands and knees when they first moved on their own.
C) rarely attempted to reach or grasp at moving objects.
D) transitioned from crawling to walking within several weeks of adoption.

Question 78

Ninety percent of infants will crawl between _____ months.

A) 2 to 7
B) 5 to 9
C) 5 to 11
D) 7 to 15

Question 79

Babies' motor achievements have a powerful effect on their

A) development novelty preference.
B) social relationships.
C) sleep-wake cycle.
D) visual acuity.

Question 80

Motor skills

A) develop more rapidly in boys than girls.
B) follow a fixed maturational timetable.
C) develop in highly individualized ways.
D) follow a strict, predetermined cephalocaudal pattern without exception.