Deck 7: Physical and Cognitive Development in Early Childhood

Question 1

Which of the following statements about brain development in early childhood is true?

A) Activity in the right hemisphere increases steadily throughout early and middle childhood for most children.
B) The left hemisphere is relatively inactive between 3 and 6 years.
C) By age 4, most parts of the cerebral cortex have underproduced synapses.
D) Between ages 2 and 6, energy consumption of most cortical regions diminishes to near-adult levels.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

The reticular formation

A) maintains alertness and consciousness.
B) aids in balance and control of body movement.
C) plays a vital role in memory and in images of space that help us find our way.
D) is a large bundle of fibers connecting the two cerebral hemispheres.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Priya was born with a deficiency of thyroxine.She did not receive prompt treatment.Priya is most likely

A) extremely tall for her age.
B) mentally retarded.
C) inattentive and unruly.
D) strong in spatial relationship skills.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Children who lack __________ reach an average mature height of only 4 to 4½ feet.

A) growth hormone (GH)
B) estrogen
C) thyroxine
D) thyroid-stimulating hormone

Question 5

Young children in homes with __________ are at increased risk for decayed teeth.

A) pets
B) lead paint
C) regular smokers
D) multiple caregivers

Question 6

The hippocampus

A) aids in balance and control of body movement.
B) contributes to dramatic gains in motor coordination.
C) plays a vital role in memory and in images of space that help us find our way.
D) supports smooth coordination of movements on both sides of the body.

Question 7

Differences in development of the two cerebral hemispheres suggests that __________ in early childhood.

A) the right hemisphere is more important than the left hemisphere
B) the left hemisphere is more important than the right hemisphere
C) they are continuing to lateralize
D) activity in both hemispheres is slow

Question 8

During early childhood,__________ skills increase at an astonishing pace.

A) shape recognition
B) drawing
C) language
D) map reading

Question 9

Doctors can estimate __________ using X-rays of epiphyses.

A) height
B) loss of baby teeth
C) skeletal age
D) weight

Question 10

Research on handedness demonstrates that

A) handedness is strongest for simple skills requiring little practice or training.
B) the orientation of most fetuses-facing toward the right-probably causes right-handedness.
C) right-handers are more likely than left-handers to develop outstanding verbal and mathematical talents.
D) most left-handers have no developmental problems.

Question 11

The cerebellum

A) maintains alertness and consciousness.
B) aids in balance and control of body movement.
C) plays a vital role in memory and in images of space that help us find our way.
D) is a large bundle of fibers connecting the two cerebral hemispheres.

Question 12

Spatial skills

A) develop suddenly in early childhood.
B) support children's improved executive function.
C) are typically housed in the left hemisphere.
D) develop gradually over childhood and adolescence.

Question 13

When children who lack growth hormone (GH)are given synthetic injections of GH starting at an early age,they

A) grow normally until the beginning of puberty.
B) show catch-up growth and then grow at a normal rate.
C) still reach an average mature height of only about 4 to 4½ feet.
D) gain more in weight than in height.

Question 14

__________ delays the appearance of permanent teeth.

A) Obesity
B) Prolonged malnutrition
C) Breastfeeding
D) Left-handedness

Question 15

Regarding food choices,young children

A) tend to imitate people they admire.
B) respond well to bribes.
C) show a preference for unhealthy foods.
D) typically eat more than adults do.

Question 16

Which of the following brain structures connects the two cerebral hemispheres?

A) corpus callosum
B) glial cells
C) reticular formation
D) cerebellum

Question 17

Connections between the cerebellum and cerebral cortex

A) contribute to spatial skills.
B) support motor coordination and thinking.
C) contribute to artistic ability.
D) support social and emotional development.

Question 18

Which of the following statements about handedness is true?

A) Left-handed people have a strong tendency to have left-handed children.
B) For right-handed people, language is housed in the left hemisphere.
C) The brains of right-handers tend to be less strongly lateralized than those of right-handers.
D) Prenatal events have little to no effect on handedness.

Question 19

By age 6 months,infants typically display a smoother,more efficient movement when __________ with their __________ than their __________.

A) reaching; left; right arm
B) kicking; left; right leg
C) reaching; right; left arm
D) kicking; right; left leg

Question 20

The years from 2 to 6 are often called "the __________ years."

A) play
B) growth
C) difficult
D) thinking

Question 21

Agata suffered from persistent diarrhea in early childhood.As a result,during her school years,Agata is probably __________ than her agemates who were not stricken with persistent diarrhea.

A) heavier in weight
B) shorter in height
C) better nourished
D) more attentive

Question 22

Throughout childhood and adolescence,a nutritionally deficient diet is associated with

A) taller stature.
B) attention difficulties.
C) obesity.
D) higher achievement scores.

Question 23

In developing countries,__________ leads to growth stunting and nearly 1 million childhood deaths each year.

A) rubella
B) tuberculosis
C) diarrhea
D) oral rehydration therapy

Question 24

Most 3- and 4-year-olds can

A) draw so others can tell what their pictures are.
B) create conventional animal figures with the head and body differentiated.
C) represent depth in drawings.
D) use lines to represent the boundaries of objects.

Question 25

__________ parents are more likely to have children who suffer unintentional injuries.

A) Middle-income
B) Married
C) Educated
D) Teenage

Question 26

Public education programs directed at increasing parental knowledge about __________ are badly needed in the United States.

A) how to administer oral rehydration therapy
B) the importance of administering zinc supplements in infancy
C) the importance and safety of timely immunizations
D) the link between mercury-based preservatives used in vaccines and autism

Question 27

Which of the following statements about preventing childhood injuries is true?

A) About 5 percent of U.S. parents fail to place their preschoolers in car safety seats.
B) Even though they know better, many parents and children behave in ways that compromise safety.
C) Parent interventions that model and reinforce safety practice are ineffective in reducing injuries.
D) As early as 2 or 3 years of age, parents should begin relying on children's knowledge of safety rules.

Question 28

Few 3-year-olds

A) make gestures with crayons to represent an object or event.
B) scribble when given crayon and paper.
C) spontaneously draw so others can tell what their picture represents.
D) have the fine-motor skills to make representational forms.

Question 29

The United States lags behind other industrialized nations in immunizations because

A) immunizations are not readily available in all parts of the country.
B) many U.S. children do not have access to the health care they need.
C) there is a link between U.S. vaccines and autism.
D) childhood diseases have been virtually eradicated in the United States.

Question 30

Children do not find it useful to distinguish between mirror-image forms,such as b and d and p and q,when writing until

A) between ages 3 and 4.
B) they start to read.
C) preschool.
D) upper elementary school.

Question 31

Oral rehydration therapy

A) can prevent most developmental impairments and deaths due to diarrhea.
B) is not cost-effective.
C) has eradicated most childhood diseases in the United States.
D) depresses the body's immune system, making children far more susceptible to disease.

Question 32

Young children improve in fine-motor skills as

A) their bodies become more streamlined.
B) their center of gravity shifts downward.
C) control of the hands and fingers improves.
D) control of the legs and torso improves.

Question 33

Two-year old Mason placed a crayon on paper and quickly drew a line across the page,explaining,"Car zooms!" Which of the following statements best describes Mason's drawing progress?

A) His gestures rather than the resulting scribbles contained the intended representation.
B) His gesture made a recognizable shape, and then he labeled it.
C) He used lines to represent the boundaries of objects.
D) His drawing contained perceptual distortions because he had just begun to represent depth.

Question 34

The high childhood injury rate in developing countries is largely due to

A) stagnant population growth.
B) inattentiveness.
C) population concentration in rural areas.
D) widespread childhood poverty.

Question 35

Which of the following statements about older preschoolers' drawings is true?

A) Their drawings of humans look like a "tadpole" image, a circular shape with lines attached.
B) Their artwork looks fanciful and inventive because it contains perceptual distortions.
C) Their scribbles start to become pictures around age 6.
D) Even older preschoolers do not usually draw humans or animal figures with the head and body differentiated.

Question 36

Which of the following preschoolers is most at risk for unintentional injury?

A) Ellie, who lives in the United States with two older brothers
B) Yan, who lives in Norway
C) Carter, who lives in the United States in a single-parent home
D) Emilio, who has a slow-to-warm-up temperament

Question 37

In well-nourished children,ordinary childhood illnesses

A) occur earlier than in malnourished children.
B) often interfere with physical growth.
C) often have severe consequences.
D) have no effect on physical growth.

Question 38

Compared with other industrialized nations,the United States

A) has a low childhood injury death rate.
B) has a high childhood injury death rate.
C) has a high preschool immunization rate.
D) is safer in terms of childhood illnesses and injuries.

Question 39

Preschoolers' balance improves greatly when their

A) bodies become less bottom-heavy.
B) center of gravity shifts from the trunk upward.
C) bodies become more streamlined.
D) growth follows the cephalocaudal trend.

Question 40

Because of their activity level,__________ are more likely to be injured than __________.

A) shy children; outgoing children
B) boys; girls
C) girls; boys
D) underactive children; overactive children

Question 41

Conservation refers to the

A) failure to distinguish others' symbolic viewpoints from one's own.
B) belief that inanimate objects have lifelike qualities, such as thoughts, wishes, feelings, and intentions.
C) inability to mentally go through a series of steps and then reverse direction, returning to the starting point.
D) idea that certain physical characteristics of objects remain the same, even when their outward appearance changes.

Question 42

Three-year old Abah refuses to leave his stuffed elephant at home.He explains,"She feels scared because she is alone." Abah is using

A) conservation.
B) egocentrism.
C) animistic thinking.
D) dual representation.

Question 43

Piaget __________ preschoolers' __________.

A) underestimated; magical thinking
B) overestimated; animistic beliefs
C) overestimated; abstract thinking
D) underestimated; egocentrism

Question 44

A researcher hands 20-month-old Andrea a cup.Based on her age,Andrea will most likely

A) pretend to drink from the cup.
B) use the cup as a hat.
C) use the cup as a chair for her doll.
D) pretend that the cup is a rocket.

Question 45

According to Piaget,egocentrism is

A) the ability to view a symbolic object as both an object in its own right and a symbol.
B) common among adolescents.
C) the cornerstone of logical thought.
D) the most fundamental deficiency of preoperational thought.

Question 46

Which of the following preschoolers is the most likely to be seen as more socially competent by teachers?

A) Sasha, who spends more of her time in the reading corner
B) Tim, who spends more of his time in the art corner
C) Rajesh, who spends more of his time with building blocks
D) Kendra, who spends more of her time at sociodramatic play

Question 47

Follow up research indicates that preschoolers' notions of magic are

A) rare.
B) almost nonexistent by age 4.
C) flexible and appropriate.
D) exaggerated by their love of storytelling.

Question 48

About 60 percent of 1½- to 2-year-olds' questions ask

A) about function.
B) for names of objects.
C) about activity or state.
D) about theory of mind.

Question 49

Which of the following statements is supported by research on sex differences in motor skills?

A) Parents tend to foster gender-stereotyped physical activities in their children.
B) Preschoolers exposed to formal lessons tend to be advanced in gross-motor development.
C) In early childhood, girls have a slight edge over boys in skills that emphasize force and power.
D) Sex differences in motor skills are largely due to genetically based differences.

Question 50

When children ask questions,parents

A) rarely respond informatively, unless the children are extremely persistent.
B) adjust the complexity of their answers to fit their children's maturity.
C) should respond with "prior cause" explanations.
D) should respond with "mechanism" explanations.

Question 51

In the classic Piagetian conservation task using liquid,Jabar focuses on the heights of the water,failing to realize that changes in width compensate for changes in height.Jabar's thinking is characterized by

A) dynamic transformation.
B) centration.
C) magical thinking.
D) irreversibility.

Question 52

Heidi is shown 16 flowers,4 of which are blue and 12 of which are red.When asked,"Are there more red flowers or flowers?" Heidi,a preoperational child,responds,"More red flowers." This problem demonstrates Heidi's difficulty with

A) animistic thinking.
B) egocentrism.
C) hierarchical classification.
D) magical thinking.

Question 53

Compared with social nonpretend play activities,during sociodramatic play preschoolers' interactions

A) are shorter.
B) are less cooperative.
C) draw more children into the activity.
D) show less involvement.

Question 54

Irreversibility is the

A) failure to distinguish others' symbolic viewpoints from one's own.
B) belief that inanimate objects have lifelike qualities.
C) most important illogical feature of preoperational thought.
D) tendency to focus on one aspect of a situation, neglecting other important features.

Question 55

Piaget believed that __________ leads to internal images of experience,which children then label with words.

A) imagination
B) intentional behavior
C) sensorimotor activity
D) role playing

Question 56

Follow-up research indicates that

A) when given simplified tasks based on familiar experiences, preschoolers rely on trial and error to solve problems.
B) a preoperational stage, as described by Piaget, really exists.
C) Piaget was partly right and partly wrong about young children's cognitive capacities.
D) preschoolers rely on faulty logic to solve problems even when given simplified tasks based on familiar experiences.

Question 57

As children move from the sensorimotor to the preoperational stage,

A) make-believe play diminishes.
B) thinking becomes abstract.
C) the use of objects in play becomes more realistic.
D) symbolic mental activity increases.

Question 58

Follow-up research on preoperational thought indicates that

A) perspective taking develops gradually throughout childhood and adolescence.
B) toddlers are unable to infer others' intentions.
C) preschoolers attribute biological properties to objects.
D) most preschoolers do not believe that magic accounts for events they cannot explain.

Question 59

Which of the following statements is supported by research on individual differences in motor skills?

A) Environmental factors have little impact on sex differences in motor skills.
B) Sex differences in motor skills decrease with age.
C) Children master the motor skills of early childhood during everyday play.
D) Participation in competitive sports at a young age fosters motor development.

Question 60

Janelle pretends that a cup is a hat.Janelle grasps the concept of

A) egocentrism.
B) dual representation.
C) animistic thinking.
D) irreversibility.

Question 61

Vygotsky saw __________ play as the ideal social context for fostering cognitive development in early childhood.

A) outdoor
B) make-believe
C) parallel
D) cooperative

Question 62

After a field trip to the farm,Ms.Parks wants to elicit the children's autobiographical narratives.She asks each child she calls on,"Do you remember the farm? What did we do at the farm?" Ms.Parks is using a(n)__________ style of questioning.

A) repetitive
B) elaborative
C) metacognitive
D) episodic

Question 63

Children whose parents are effective scaffolders

A) are less successful when attempting difficult tasks on their own.
B) are behind in overall cognitive development.
C) use more private speech.
D) more often lack self-control.

Question 64

The ability to __________ is a skill that predicts social maturity and reading and math achievement from kindergarten through high school.

A) use guided participation
B) resist the "pull" of their attention toward a dominant stimulus
C) think out a sequence of facts ahead of time
D) distinguish appearance from reality

Question 65

Ignacio lives in a remote Mayan village in Yucatan,Mexico.Ignacio does not rely on conversation and play to teach his children.Which of the following is the most likely reason for this?

A) Ignacio is too busy working and maintaining his household to interact with his children.
B) Ignacio instead focuses on preparing his children for academic success and civic engagement.
C) Ignacio's young children spend most of their time playing with and talking to their agemates.
D) Ignacio's children spend their day in contact with adult work and start to assume mature responsibilities in early childhood.

Question 66

Dr.Frolicker shows a group of 4-year-olds a set of 10 items on a tray.She then mixes them up with some unfamiliar items and asks the children to point to the ones in the original set.Dr.Frolicker is testing

A) recognition memory.
B) recall memory.
C) sustained attention.
D) episodic memory.

Question 67

Three-year-old Maya is asked to describe what happens at preschool.This task requires Maya to use

A) scripts.
B) recognition memory.
C) autobiographical memories.
D) digit span tasks.

Question 68

In scaffolding,when the child has little notion of how to proceed,the adult

A) guides the child to an easier activity.
B) provides direct instruction.
C) withdraws support.
D) turns the responsibility over to the child.

Question 69

Guided participation

A) is a narrower concept than scaffolding.
B) does not allow for variations across situations and cultures.
C) involves shared endeavors between more expert and less expert participants.
D) is accomplished entirely using verbal communication methods.

Question 70

Children's self-directed speech is now called __________ speech.

A) telegraphic
B) egocentric
C) inner
D) private

Question 71

Mary is helping her son,Dean,put together a difficult,but manageable,puzzle.When Dean tries to insert a piece in the wrong place a few times,Mary points to the bottom of the puzzle and says,"Does it go down here?" Mary is engaging in

A) scaffolding.
B) dual representation.
C) proximal teaching.
D) transitive inference.

Question 72

Four-year-old Rex goes with his family to New York City.When Rex returns to his preschool,he volunteers to tell the class about his trip.Rex's memory of this personally meaningful,one-time event is known as

A) a script.
B) metacognition.
C) episodic memory.
D) autobiographical memory.

Question 73

A color-matching activity is within Zelda's zone of proximal development.In order to complete this task,Zelda will need

A) realistic props.
B) some guidance from an adult or more experienced peer.
C) to have a firm understanding of conservation.
D) step-by-step instructions from an adult or older child.

Question 74

Five-year-old Sebastian is becoming better at thinking out a sequence of acts ahead of time and allocating his attention accordingly to reach a goal.Sebastian is developing __________ skills.

A) planning
B) centration
C) reversibility
D) recall

Question 75

Compared to their Western agemates,5-year-old Yucatec Mayans

A) engage in more sophisticated make-believe play.
B) more often spontaneously do tasks beyond those assigned.
C) are less competent at self-care.
D) are not as self-sufficient.

Question 76

Preschoolers

A) have little or no ability to sustain attention.
B) become more aware of their own mental life.
C) have little or no ability to inhibit impulses.
D) do not have the skills to engage in planning.

Question 77

Vygotsky saw __________ as the foundation for all higher cognitive processes.

A) egocentrism
B) language
C) sensorimotor activity
D) self-reflection

Question 78

Asking a child to remember 10 items that she was shown in an activity,without providing any perceptual support,requires her to use which type of memory?

A) episodic
B) planning
C) recall
D) recognition

Question 79

Improvement in recall in early childhood is strongly associated with

A) language development.
B) use of scripts.
C) use of scaffolding.
D) gross-motor development.

Question 80

According to Vygotsky,children speak to themselves

A) for self-guidance.
B) because they are egocentric.
C) for the pleasure of hearing language.
D) because they are lonely.