Q&A Hero

Q: Which of the following statements about overextension is true? A) It is a common error used when children apply words too narrowly. B) As vocabulary and pronunciation improve, overextensions increase. C) Children overextend because they have difficulty categorizing objects. D) Children often overextend deliberately because they have difficulty recalling or have not acquired a suitable word.

Q: Alice calls untying her shoelaces "opening" her shoes. This is an example of A) overextension. B) infant-directed speech. C) underextension. D) referential style.

Q: Sixteen-month-old Grayson calls all dogs "dog," but only uses the word "puppy" to refer to his family's dog. This is an example of A) overextension. B) underextension. C) infant-directed speech. D) referential style.

Q: When toddlers first learn words, they often apply them too narrowly, an error called A) overextension. B) underextension. C) referential style. D) telegraphic speech.

Q: Which of the following is the most likely to be among an English-speaking toddler's first 50 words? A) ball B) table C) vase D) lamp

Q: The earlier toddlers __________, the sooner they produce two-word utterances at the end of the second year. A) babble B) coo C) form word"gesture combinations D) participate in give-and-take interactions

Q: Infants' play maturity and __________ predict advanced language progress in the second year. A) vocalizations during games B) sleep patterns C) social interaction skills D) use of natural sign language

Q: Baby Kataro frequently experiences joint attention. This means that he will probably A) have a short attention span. B) be a late talker. C) produce meaningful words earlier. D) comprehend less language.

Q: Which of the following statements is supported by research on babbling? A) Babies of different native languages differ widely in the range of early sounds that they produce. B) A deaf infant not exposed to sign language will stop babbling entirely. C) Deaf infants do not start babbling until much later than hearing infants. D) Deaf infants produce a range of early sounds similar to those of hearing infants.

Q: Babies everywhere start babbling at about the same age, but for babbling to develop further, A) babies must be able to produce intonation patterns. B) the speech must be in the babies' native language. C) it needs to be paired with rudimentary sign language. D) babies must be able to hear human speech.

Q: Baby Greer says "babababababa." This is an example of A) babbling. B) cooing. C) an overextension. D) an underextension.

Q: Two-month-old Penny makes vowel-like noises. This is an example of A) babbling. B) telegraphic speech. C) child-directed speech. D) cooing.

Q: Social-interactionsts emphasize that A) a language acquisition device helps children rapidly learn new words. B) children's social skills and language experiences are centrally involved in language development. C) brain regions housing language also govern similar perceptual and cognitive abilities. D) a single system of grammar underlies all languages.

Q: Recent ideas about language development emphasize A) imitation and reinforcement. B) a universal grammar. C) operant conditioning. D) interactions between inner capacities and environmental influences.

Q: For most people, language is A) housed entirely in the right hemisphere of the cerebral cortex. B) not localized in either hemisphere of the brain, C) housed largely in the left hemisphere of the cerebral cortex. D) acquired quickly, without trial and error.

Q: Challenges to Chomsky's theory suggest that A) it provides only a partial account of language development. B) the ability to master a grammatically complex language is not unique to humans. C) there is no sensitive period for language acquisition. D) children acquire language more quickly than he suggests.

Q: Research on language acquisition indicates that A) childhood is a sensitive period for language acquisition. B) sign language can be learned equally well at any age. C) language learning is optimal after brain lateralization has occurred. D) the right hemisphere of the brain is biased for language processing.

Q: Efforts to teach language to nonhuman primates A) prove that, with appropriate training, any animal can acquire a vocabulary of several dozen symbols. B) show that, after extensive training, chimpanzees using sign language can produce short sentences with greater consistency than a preschool child. C) have been completely unsuccessful because animals cannot learn even basic language. D) support Chomsky's assumption that the capacity for elaborate grammar is unique to humans.

Q: Chomsky's "LAD" is a(n) A) device that allows parents to directly teach language to children. B) linguistic tutoring device by which parents provide children assistance in learning grammatical rules. C) computer device that attempts to generate the linguistic rules that are needed for language acquisition. D) innate system that enables children to understand and speak in a rule-oriented fashion as soon as they pick up enough words.

Q: According to Noam Chomsky, all children have a __________ device that contains a universal grammar. A) language acquisition B) listening C) speaking D) neurotransmission

Q: Nativist Noam Chomsky believed that A) children are born with a series of inborn modules that are specialized for different aspects of language acquisition. B) reinforcement and imitation fully explain language development in toddlers and preschool-age children. C) the rules of sentence organization are too complex to be directly taught to or discovered by even a cognitively sophisticated young child. D) children's innate desire to verbally interact with others promotes language development in most cultures throughout the world.

Q: Dr. Hahn believes that language is etched into the structure of the brain. Dr. Hahn endorses the __________ perspective of language development. A) dynamic systems B) nativist C) behaviorist D) interactionist

Q: Which of the following statements about language development is true? A) Babies typically say their first words around 6 months of age. B) By age 6, children understand the meaning of about 1,000 words. C) Sometime between 12 and 15 months, most babies combine two words. D) By age 6, most children speak in elaborate sentences and are skilled conversationalists.

Q: Which of the following statements about early intervention is true? A) Early intervention programs increase IQ scores during the school years, but the gains are not sustained beyond middle childhood. B) The strongest effects of early intervention occur at sites that offer a mix of center- and home-based services. C) The U.S. Congress recently recognized the successes of early intervention and now fully funds all programs directed at low-income infants and toddlers. D) Even with early intervention, most children born into economically disadvantaged families will not reach their full potential.

Q: Research showed that by age 3, children in Early Head Start A) demonstrated gains in cognitive and language development. B) demonstrated an increase in aggression. C) experienced a "washout effect." D) scored, on average, 15 points higher in IQ than children not enrolled in the intervention.

Q: Early intervention programs A) serve economically at-risk children and their parents. B) are most effective during the preschool years. C) in the U.S. are plentiful enough to meet the needs of poor families. D) rarely improve the lives of poverty-stricken children.

Q: Child care in the United States is A) typically subsidized by the federal government. B) evaluated by state agencies using standards for developmentally appropriate practice. C) primarily high in quality and strictly regulated by the federal government. D) affected by a macrosystem of individualistic values and weak government regulation and funding.

Q: U.S. child care settings providing the very worst quality of care tend to serve __________ families. A) rural B) high-SES C) low-SES D) middle-SES

Q: In contrast to the United States, most European countries A) do not require that caregivers have special training in child development. B) nationally regulate child care to ensure its quality. C) offer government-subsidized child care only to low-SES families. D) do not regulate the child-care industry.

Q: Good quality child care A) cannot compensate for the negative effects of a stressed, poverty-stricken home life. B) can reduce the negative impact of a stressed, poverty-stricken home life. C) is more readily available in the United States than in most European countries. D) is primarily available to low-SES families with young children.

Q: Research consistently shows that infants and young children exposed to __________ child care score lower on measures of __________ skills. A) full-time; social B) poor-quality; social and cognitive C) developmentally appropriate; cognitive D) part-time; emotional

Q: __________ is/are (a) much better indicator(s) than an early mental test score of how children will do later. A) Warm, responsive parenting that builds on toddlers' current capacities B) Organization of the play environment and SES C) Provision of appropriate play materials and heredity D) A high DQ score and high Apgar scores

Q: Research using the HOME checklist reveals that the extent to which parents __________ is especially important in facilitating toddlers' intelligence test performance. A) engage their children in physical activity B) watch educational television with their children C) talk to their infants and toddlers D) take part in make-believe play with their children

Q: Infant intelligence tests are somewhat better at making long-term predications for __________ babies. A) extremely high-scoring B) average- to high-scoring C) low- to average-scoring D) extremely low-scoring

Q: Because infant scores do not tap the same dimensions of intelligence measured at older ages, they are conservatively labeled __________ rather than IQs. A) perceptual quotients (PQs) B) habituation quotients (HQs) C) distribution quotients (DQs) D) developmental quotients (DQs)

Q: Intelligence test scores of infants and toddlers often do not reflect their true abilities because A) they easily become distracted, fatigued, or bored during testing. B) the tests emphasize verbal, conceptual, and problem-solving skills. C) the tests cannot be relied on for screening developmental problems. D) the tests only identify infants who are likely to be intellectually gifted as older children.

Q: The IQs of 96 percent of individuals fall between _____ and _____. A) 60; 100 B) 70; 130 C) 85; 110 D) 100; 140

Q: Sophia has an IQ of 85. She performed as well or better than _____ percent of her agemates. A) 16 B) 36 C) 50 D) 85

Q: Knowing Niraj's IQ score helps his father A) determine if Niraj's mental age is the same as his chronological age. B) know whether Niraj is ahead, behind, or on time in mental development compared with his agemates. C) determine the percentage of younger and older children who fall above or below Niraj's score. D) know how Niraj compares in mental development to younger and older children.

Q: Dr. Ewing measured individual differences in a large sample of individuals using intelligence testing. If performances at each age level formed a normal distribution, the results were probably __________-shaped. A) U B) L C) bell D) star

Q: An intelligence quotient (IQ) A) is a more accurate predictor of intelligence than a developmental quotient. B) rarely fluctuates between toddlerhood and adolescence. C) is expressed as the ratio of an individual's chronological age to his or her mental age. D) indicates the extent to which the raw score deviates from the typical performance of same-age individuals.

Q: Most infant intelligence tests emphasize A) concepts and memory. B) memory and mental representations. C) perceptual and motor responses. D) attention and categorization.

Q: One goal of mental testing is to A) explain how children's thinking changes over time. B) measure the process of cognition. C) show how the environment influences cognitive change. D) arrive at scores that predict future performance.

Q: Compared with cognitive theories, mental tests A) focus on the products of cognitive development rather than on the process of development. B) focus on the process of cognitive development rather than on the products of development. C) are more accurate indicators of what babies and toddlers understand. D) focus on environmental influences on intelligence.

Q: In cultures where extended-family households and sibling caregiving are common, make-believe is more frequent and complex with __________ than with __________. A) older siblings; mothers B) fathers; siblings C) mothers; siblings D) non-related agemates; family members

Q: Research demonstrates that early make-believe play is A) less frequent and rich in collectivist cultures than in individualistic cultures. B) the combined result of children's readiness to engage in it and social experiences that promote it. C) usually initiated by toddlers rather than their parents or older siblings. D) discovered by toddlers independently, once they are capable of representational schemes.

Q: Vygotsky challenged Piaget's conclusion that A) toddlers discover make-believe play independently, once they are capable of representational schemes. B) society provides children with opportunities to represent culturally meaningful activities in play. C) make-believe is first learned under the guidance of experts. D) almost all play episodes are initiated by mothers.

Q: Two-year-old Carmen is trying to fit pieces into a wooden puzzle form. Her father helps Carmen turn the pieces so they fit snuggly in place. As Carmen's skill improves, her father steps back, letting her try on her own. This example best illustrates the concept of A) novelty preference. B) accommodation. C) sustained attention. D) scaffolding.

Q: In the form of teaching known as scaffolding, as a child's competence increases, the adult A) guides and supports the child by modeling the task. B) steps back, permitting the child to take more responsibility for the task. C) enters the zone of proximal development by taking over the child's task. D) introduces the child to a new activity.

Q: According to Vygotsky, __________ is a range of tasks that a child cannot yet handle alone but can do with the help of more skilled partners. A) transitive inference B) the dynamic systems approach C) the zone of proximal development D) scaffolding

Q: According to Vygotsky, children master activities through A) joint activities with more mature members of their society. B) interaction with the physical environment. C) operant conditioning and modeling. D) trial and error.

Q: Vygotsky believed that complex mental activities have their origin in A) sensorimotor behavior. B) perception, attention, and memory. C) social interaction. D) developmental quotients.

Q: One of the greatest drawbacks of the information-processing approach is its difficulty with A) breaking down children's thoughts into precise procedures. B) integrating information into a broad, comprehensive theory. C) analyzing cognition into its components. D) implementing rigorous research procedures.

Q: Korean toddlers often develop object-sorting skills later than their English-speaking counterparts because A) Korean adults rarely call babies' attention to commonalities among objects. B) the Korean language often omits object names from sentences. C) Korean parents discourage babies from exploring objects. D) English-speaking adults have better categorization skills than their Korean-speaking counterparts.

Q: Babies' earliest categories are A) conceptual. B) based on similar overall appearance or prominent object part. C) based on common behaviors. D) based on subtle sets of features.

Q: By 6 months of age, babies can categorize on the basis of A) shape only. B) size only. C) two correlated features. D) concepts.

Q: __________ helps infants reduce the enormous amount of new information they encounter every day so they can learn and remember. A) Categorization B) Recall C) Recognition D) Recovery

Q: Studies of infantile amnesia suggest that __________ contributes to the end of infantile amnesia. A) an implicit memory system B) acquiring mnemonic strategies C) the development of object permanence D) the advent of a clear self-image

Q: Research on infantile amnesia suggests that adults typically cannot remember events that happened during the first few years of life because A) early memories are stored in an explicit memory system that is difficult to recall. B) most adults have forgotten these early memories due to the passage of time. C) long-term memory does not emerge until around age 7. D) adults cannot translate early preverbal memories into language.

Q: Which of the following statements about infantile amnesia is true? A) Infantile amnesia is more common in females than males. B) Most older children and adults cannot retrieve events that happened before age 3. C) Infants' memory processing is fundamentally different from that of adults. D) During the first few years, children remember largely with verbal techniques.

Q: Recall is more challenging than recognition because it A) involves noticing when a stimulus is identical or similar to one previously experienced. B) does not involve a deliberate search of long-term memory. C) does not involve the imitation of novel behaviors. D) involves remembering something that is not present.

Q: __________ and __________ provide windows into early memory by showing that retention of visual events increases dramatically over infancy and toddlerhood. A) Classical conditioning; accommodation B) Habituation; recall C) Operant conditioning; recognition D) Operant conditioning; habituation

Q: With the transition to toddlerhood, attraction to __________ declines and __________ improves. A) intentional behavior; gazing B) stimuli; reflexive action C) novelty; sustained attention D) goal-directed behavior; memory

Q: One reason that very young babies' habituation times are so much longer than those of older babies is that A) they attend more to familiar rather than novel events. B) they can sustain attention. C) they have difficulty disengaging attention from a stimulus. D) their attention too readily shifts from one stimulus to another.

Q: _________ controls attention, suppresses impulses, coordinates information in working memory, and flexibly directs and monitors thought and behavior. A) Automatic processes B) Sensory processes C) Executive function D) Mirror neurons

Q: __________ are so well-learned that they require no space in working memory and, therefore, permit us to focus on other information while performing them. A) Executive functions B) Sensory processes C) Permanent functions D) Automatic processes

Q: In the information-processing system, a special part of working memory, called the __________, directs the flow of information. A) sensory register B) central executive C) permanent knowledge base D) automatic cognitive processor

Q: __________ can be thought of as a "mental workspace" that we use to accomplish many activities in daily life. A) Automatic processing B) Sustained attention C) Working memory D) The sensory register

Q: In the __________, sights and sounds are represented directly and stored briefly. A) sensory register B) short-term memory C) working memory D) long-term memory

Q: In the information-processing system, information first enters A) the central executive. B) working memory. C) the sensory register. D) long-term memory.

Q: Information-processing researchers focus on A) interactions between the various core domains of thought. B) many aspects of thinking, from attention, memory, and categorization skills to complex problem solving. C) general concepts like assimilation and accommodation to describe how children think. D) learning within the zone of proximal development.

Q: Current research on infant cognition yields broad agreement on which of the following? A) The cognitive changes of infancy are stagelike. B) Most aspects of infant cognition develop concurrently. C) Many cognitive changes of infancy are gradual and continuous. D) Most aspects of infant cognition develop abruptly.

Q: Research suggests that infants A) can discriminate quantities up to five. B) have basic numeric knowledge. C) can multiply and divide single-digit problems. D) experience cognitive change abruptly.

Q: Core knowledge theorists assume that A) an inherited foundation of linguistic knowledge enables swift language acquisition in early childhood. B) experience helps young infants refine their sensorimotor schemes. C) infants start out life as "blank slates" with minimal understanding of the outside world. D) experience is unnecessary for the development of linguistic and psychological knowledge.

Q: According to the core knowledge perspective, each of an infant's __________ permits a ready grasp of new, related information. A) core domains of thought B) sensorimotor schemes C) mental states D) five senses

Q: Professor Rellinger believes that babies are born with a set of innate knowledge systems. Professor Rellinger's beliefs are consistent with the __________ perspective. A) sociocultural B) core knowledge C) information-processing D) sensorimotor

Q: Unlike Piaget, most researchers now believe that A) the cognitive attainments of infancy develop in a neat, stepwise fashion. B) young babies construe all mental representations out of sensorimotor activity. C) even newborns process information much like adults. D) infants have some built-in cognitive equipment for making sense of experience.

Q: The video deficit effect A) increases around age 3. B) is strongest when toddlers view interactive videos. C) declines around age 2. D) is strongest when videos are rich in social cues.

Q: A group of 2-year-olds watch through a window while a live adult hides an object in an adjoining room. Another group watches the same event on a video screen. Which of the following is likely to occur? A) Children in the direct viewing condition will retrieve the toy easily, while those in the video condition will have difficulty. B) Children in the video condition will retrieve the toy easily, while those in the direct viewing condition will have difficulty. C) Both groups of children will have difficulty retrieving the toy. D) Children in both groups will be able to retrieve the toy easily.

Q: The average U.S. 2-year-old watches __________ of TV and video per day. A) 30 minutes B) 1 hour C) 1 hours D) 3 hours