Question 1

Your textbook describes several methodological problems that arise when conducting research with elderly individuals. These problems included the fact that

Accepted Answer

Elderly people typically have more health problems than younger people, which can introduce methodological challenges in research, such as affecting their participation or responses in studies.

Question 2

According to research on infants' recognition of their mothers,

Accepted Answer

Infants can recognize their mothers visually at less than 1 week of age, showing early perceptual abilities that distinguish their mother's face from that of strangers.

Question 3

According to the discussion of infants' memory,

Accepted Answer

Infants' brains are still developing, and some areas related to memory are not fully mature, which affects their memory capabilities.

Question 4

Carolyn Rovee-Collier's research used a moving mobile or a moving train to assess infant memory. This research shows

Accepted Answer

Carolyn Rovee-Collier's research demonstrated a steady improvement in memory during the first 18 months of life, showing that infants' ability to remember specific actions and their consequences develops progressively over this period.

Question 5

Studies on infants' recognition of their mothers show that

Accepted Answer

Infants can recognize their mother's face and voice within the first few days of life, indicating an early development of recognition abilities.

Question 6

Memory research is easier to conduct with children than with infants. However, one potential problem when children participate in memory studies is that

Accepted Answer

Children may not always fully understand what is being asked of them in research settings, which can affect the accuracy of the study's findings.

Question 7

When Carolyn Rovee-Collier and other researchers use the conjugate reinforcement technique, a baby demonstrates memory by

Accepted Answer

The conjugate reinforcement technique involves teaching infants to kick their leg to move a mobile, and memory is demonstrated when the infant kicks their leg upon seeing the mobile again, indicating they remember the association between kicking and the mobile moving.

Question 8

Chapter 13 discussed Rovee-Collier's conjugate reinforcement technique, and its usefulness in testing infant memory. The basic logic behind this technique is that

Accepted Answer

The conjugate reinforcement technique developed by Rovee-Collier involves infants learning that their leg movements can control the movement of a mobile. This technique is used to study memory in infants by observing if they remember how to kick to move the mobile after a delay, demonstrating their ability to remember specific actions and their consequences.

Question 9

One important reason that research on infant cognitive abilities is difficult to conduct is that

Accepted Answer

Infants' limited motor and language skills make it challenging to assess their cognitive processes directly, as traditional cognitive tasks often require verbal or precise motor responses that infants are not capable of.

Question 10

According to research on infant memory, if you want an infant to remember the sound of your voice, you should

Accepted Answer

Infants are more likely to remember sounds, including voices, when they are exposed to them in brief, repeated sessions rather than long, continuous ones. This method allows for better processing and memory encoding, as the quiet time in between helps with memory consolidation.

Question 11

Researchers have used Carolyn Rovee-Collier's conjugate reinforcement technique to assess memory during infancy. According to this research,

Accepted Answer

Research has shown that infants' memory is highly context-dependent, meaning that changing the environmental context can significantly lower their retention of learned behaviors, such as those observed in studies using the mobile conjugate reinforcement technique developed by Carolyn Rovee-Collier.

Question 12

Psychologists favor the lifespan approach to development because

Accepted Answer

The lifespan approach is favored because it highlights that development is a continuous process that occurs throughout an individual's life, not just in childhood or adolescence.

Question 13

According to the research on children's working memory,

Accepted Answer

Research has shown that there is a significant correlation between phonological working memory and reading skills in children. This relationship is important because phonological working memory helps in the processing and storage of verbal information, which is crucial for reading development and comprehension.

Question 14

Suppose that 6-year-old children and college students are given several memory tasks. Which of the following tasks is likely to reveal the smallest differences between the two groups?

Accepted Answer

Recognition tasks typically show smaller differences between age groups because they rely on the ability to identify information that has been previously encountered, which is less affected by age compared to tasks that require recall, working memory, or source monitoring.

Question 15

According to the introductory information about cognitive skills in elderly people,

Accepted Answer

Other variables like health or education indeed can explain part of the age-related cognitive differences, acknowledging that cognitive decline in elderly people is not solely due to aging but can also be influenced by other factors.

Question 16

When Carolyn Rovee-Collier and other researchers use the conjugate reinforcement technique,

Accepted Answer

The conjugate reinforcement technique, as used by Carolyn Rovee-Collier and other researchers, involves infants learning that their kicking behavior can control the movement of a mobile. This technique is used to study memory and learning in infants, demonstrating that they can remember the connection between their actions (kicking) and the consequences (movement of the mobile) over time.

Question 17

Suppose researchers test 100 college students, whose ages range from 18 to 23. They also test 100 people at a nearby community center for older adults, whose ages range from 70 to 75. The participants are instructed to read a series of short essays and answer questions on them. The average score is 72% correct for the elderly people and 85% correct for the college students. Which of the following four conclusions would you be most likely to choose?

Accepted Answer

The differences in average scores could be influenced by various factors beyond age, such as differences in education levels and health status between the two groups. Matching the groups on these variables would help isolate the effect of age on memory performance.

Question 18

According to research about the importance of context in infant memory,

Accepted Answer

Research indicates that context effects are indeed stronger for infants than for adults, meaning that infants' memory is more influenced by the context in which they learn or experience something.

Question 19

Chapter 13 discussed research conducted in China on infants' ability to recognize their mother's voice 1 or 2 weeks before the infants were born. In one condition, infants heard their mother's voice reading a poem. This research was appropriately conducted because, in the second condition, infants heard

Accepted Answer

The correct answer is D) another woman reading the same poem because it controls for the specific content of the poem while testing if infants recognize the voice itself, rather than just becoming familiar with the poem's rhythm or words.

Question 20

Carolyn Rovee-Collier and her colleagues conducted research to see whether infants demonstrate the spacing effect. The results of this research showed that

Accepted Answer

Carolyn Rovee-Collier's research found that both infants and adults remember better when their learning or practice is distributed over time, demonstrating the spacing effect across these age groups.

Quiz 13: Cognitive Development Throughout the Lifespan