Question 1

What is the term that describes the actions that neonates take when they extend their arms awkwardly toward an interesting object?

Accepted Answer

Prereaching refers to the early motor behavior of infants where they extend their arms towards objects before being able to grasp them. Primordial grasping describes the finger curling and grasping that occurs when an object is placed in an infant's palm, while plantar and palmar reflexes refer to reflexive movements of the foot and hand in response to touch.

Question 2

You have an infant who is 11 months old.She can hold small objects between her thumb and forefinger,such as marbles,coins,and crayons.You are amazed at this ability and believe that she is highly advanced.What is your pediatrician likely to say?

Accepted Answer

The pincer grasp, or the ability to hold small objects between the thumb and forefinger, typically develops around 9-12 months of age. Therefore, it is a typical and expected ability for an 11-month-old infant. The pediatrician is unlikely to comment on whether the child is "highly advanced" or "less developed" based on this ability alone, as it falls within the normal range of development. The comment about being an artist is also not relevant to the infant's current developmental stage.

Question 3

The ability to combine the images of each eye into one image is called ____.

Accepted Answer

Binocular vision refers to the ability to use both eyes together to create a single, three-dimensional image. This is what allows us to perceive depth and distance accurately.

Question 4

If infants can hear generally well at birth,why do they not encode all auditory aspects of a situation?

Accepted Answer

Infant attention, memory, and processing speed are limited, which means they cannot encode all auditory aspects of a situation. As they mature and develop, their ability to process and retain auditory information improves.

Question 5

____ in infants was first demonstrated in a classic experiment by Eleanor Gibson and James Walk (1960)with their use of a table called the "visual cliff."

Accepted Answer

The use of the "visual cliff" table demonstrated the development of depth perception in infants. The other options, fine motor skills, attachment, and temperament may also develop during infancy but were not tested with the visual cliff experiment.

Question 6

The integration and coordination of sensory information is called ____.

Accepted Answer

Intermodal perception refers to the brain's ability to integrate and coordinate information from different senses, such as sight, sound, and touch. It allows individuals to create a cohesive understanding of the world around them. Binocular vision and depth perception are more specific to vision, while gross motor skills relate to physical movement.

Question 7

In regards to the development of intermodal perception,which of the following is the most complex task an 8-month-old infant can perform?

Accepted Answer

The answer of In regards to the development of intermodal...

Question 8

Later studies utilizing the visual cliff paradigm showed the importance of disentangling depth perception from the emotion of ______.

Accepted Answer

The visual cliff paradigm is used to study depth perception in infants and animals. In early studies, it was believed that infants avoided the "cliff" due to fear of falling, but later research showed that depth perception was the primary factor. Therefore, the best choice that represents an emotion that needs to be disentangled from depth perception is fear (choice B).

Question 9

Are there sex differences in length and/or weight at birth? Does this pattern continue? Explain.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Are there sex differences in length and/or...

Question 10

The ability to discern the relative distance of objects in the environment is called ____.

Accepted Answer

Depth perception refers to the ability of the eyes and brain to perceive the relative distance of objects in the environment. This is achieved through a combination of visual cues such as texture, size, shading, and motion parallax. Binocular vision and far-sightedness are related to the physical properties of the eyes, while distance vision is a more general term that refers to the ability to see objects at varying distances.

Question 11

By 9 to 12 months of age,infants can hold a small object between their thumb and forefinger,such as marbles,coins,and crayons.What is the name of this ability?

Accepted Answer

The ability described in the question is the pincer grasp, which involves using the thumb and forefinger to hold small objects. The other options (plantar grasp, drawing grasp, palmar grasp) involve different parts of the body or different types of grasping movements.

Question 12

Infants typically have the earliest ability to see color ______.

Accepted Answer

Infants typically have the earliest ability to see color at birth.

Question 13

Some researchers have proposed that infants use _____ to encode and learn about the world by extracting regularities in information.

Accepted Answer

Statistical learning refers to the process by which infants extract regularities in information and use them to learn about the world. This specifically involves identifying patterns and likely relationships between different stimuli in the environment, using statistical cues to identify meaningful information, and developing expectations about what will happen next based on past experience. Sensorimotor learning, on the other hand, refers more specifically to the development of physical and motor skills. Observational learning involves acquiring new behaviors or information by watching others, and is most commonly associated with social learning in humans and other primates. Satirical learning is not a recognized term in psychology or neuroscience research.

Question 14

From 4 to 8 months of age,hearing infants shift their attention from looking at the ___ to the ___ as they are learning language.

Accepted Answer

During this age range, infants increasingly focus on the mouth of the speaker, likely to help them learn lip movements associated with speech sounds, after initially focusing more on the eyes.

Question 15

____ is the basis of fine motor development,the deft movements of our hands that enable us to make a tool,pick up a small object,throw a weapon,or thread a needle.

Accepted Answer

The opposable thumb allows us to grasp and manipulate objects with precision, which is the basis of fine motor skills. Binocular vision is important for depth perception, bipedal motion refers to walking on two legs, and the vertical stance refers to standing upright on two feet, but neither of these directly relate to fine motor development.

Question 16

Which of the following is the basis of fine motor development?

Accepted Answer

The opposable thumb is crucial for fine motor development, as it allows individuals to grasp and manipulate small objects with precision. Binocular vision and fast speed are not directly related to fine motor development, and while muscular build may assist with some aspects of motor control, it is not the primary basis.

Question 17

The key to depth perception is ____,the ability to combine the images of each eye into one image.

Accepted Answer

Depth perception requires the use of both eyes, which is known as binocular vision. The images from each eye are combined in the brain to create a sense of depth and distance. Retinal disparity, which refers to the slight difference in the images seen by each eye, is also an important factor in creating depth perception through binocular vision. Monocular vision, which only uses one eye, cannot create the same sense of depth and distance. Myopic vision, or nearsightedness, is a refractive error that affects the ability to see distant objects clearly, but it is not directly related to depth perception.

Question 18

Describe the cephalocaudal principle of growth.Is this unique to babies born in developed countries?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Describe the cephalocaudal principle of growth.Is this...

Question 19

Infants first use _____ to understand emotions in others before the rely on recognizing emotions from facial or vocal expressions alone.

Accepted Answer

Infants rely on intermodal perception, which is the ability to use multiple senses (such as sight and sound) simultaneously to understand emotion in others. This develops before they can rely on recognizing emotions from facial or vocal expressions alone. Binocular vision, depth perception, and gross motor skills are important developmental milestones, but they are not directly related to understanding emotions in others.

Question 20

Researchers who used the visual cliff paradigm to study emotional development found infants use ____ to interpret situations.

Accepted Answer

The visual cliff paradigm is a research method for studying depth perception in infants. However, researchers who used this paradigm to study emotional development found that infants used facial expressions to interpret situations. Specifically, they found that when confronted with a situation that appeared dangerous, such as a large drop-off on the "cliff", infants showed signs of fear or distress, which were mediated by the facial expressions of their caregivers.

Quiz 4: Infancy