Q&A Hero

Q: One of the most momentous early attainments is the realization that words can be used to cue mental images of things not physically presenta symbolic capacity called A) displaced reference. B) deferred imitation. C) rational imitation. D) inferred imitation.

Q: Follow-up research on cognitive development indicates that __________ is present as early as 6 weeks. A) object permanence B) deferred imitation C) rational imitation D) analogical problem solving

Q: Follow-up research on infant cognitive development suggests that mastery of object permanence A) is present in newborns. B) is not possible until toddlerhood. C) is a gradual achievement. D) develops suddenly, at around 4 months.

Q: In a series of studies using the violation-of-expectation method, Rene Baillargeon and her collaborators claimed to have found evidence for A) mental representations in babies between 6 and 12 months of age. B) mental representations in babies between 12 and 15 months of age. C) object permanence in the first few months of life. D) tertiary circular reactions in the first few months of life.

Q: In the violation-of-expectation method, __________ suggests that the infant is surprised by a deviation from physical reality. A) heightened attention to an unexpected event B) habituation to an expected event C) habituation to an unexpected event D) heightened attention to an expected event

Q: Researchers using the violation-of-expectation method may use __________ by exposing babies to a physical event until their looking declines. A) habituation B) assimilation C) accommodation D) imitation

Q: In Substage 6 of the sensorimotor period, the ability to create mental representations enables toddlers to __________ and __________. A) engage in deferred imitation; use make-believe play B) understand object permanence; engage in goal-directed behavior C) engage in deferred imitation; understand object permanence D) engage in functional play; solve invisible displacement problems

Q: Our most powerful mental representations include __________ and __________. A) images; imitation B) imitation; concepts C) images; concepts D) habituation; imitation

Q: In Substage 5 of the sensorimotor period, toddlers A) create mental representations. B) repeat chance behaviors largely motivated by basic needs. C) repeat behaviors with variation. D) arrive at solutions suddenly rather than through trial-and-error.

Q: Infants in Substage 4 of the sensorimotor period, who can better anticipate events, sometimes use __________ to try to change those events. A) hit-or-miss actions B) their capacity for intentional behavior C) make-believe play D) tertiary circular reactions

Q: Awareness of object permanence is not yet complete in Piaget's Substage 4 because A) babies still make the A-not-B search error. B) babies' schemes have a hit-or-miss quality. C) babies' schemes appear as sudden solutions. D) babies are not yet able to retrieve hidden objects.

Q: Baby Luigi retrieves his pacifier, which his mother has hidden behind a pillow. Baby Luigi has begun to master A) deferred imitation. B) object permanence. C) make-believe play. D) reflexive schemes.

Q: Baby Hannah is shown a stuffed sheep, and then it is hidden under a blanket. Which of the following statements is true? A) Hannah must coordinate two schemes to retrieve the object: "pushing" aside the blanket and "grasping" the stuffed sheep. B) Deliberately retrieving the stuffed toy is an example of a secondary circular reaction. C) Deliberately retrieving the stuffed toy is an example of a primary circular reaction. D) Hannah will not be able to retrieve the stuffed toy sheep until she is in Substage 5 of Piaget's sensorimotor period.

Q: In Piaget's theory, 8- to 12-month-olds can use __________ to solve simple problems. A) goal-directed behavior B) reflexive schemes C) make-believe D) primary circular reactions

Q: Baby Andrew accidentally kicks his mobile, producing music. Andrew then repeatedly kicks his leg to repeat the effect, gradually forming a new kicking scheme. Andrew is in which of Piaget's sensorimotor substages? A) 1 B) 2 C) 3 D) 4

Q: Baby Alan started opening his mouth differently for a nipple than for a spoon. Baby Alan is probably in Stage ___ of Piaget's sensorimotor stages. A) 2 B) 3 C) 4 D) 5

Q: According to Piaget's theory, when Baby Sasha sucks her thumb, she is demonstrating a __________ circular reaction. A) goal-directed B) primary C) secondary D) tertiary

Q: In Piaget's theory, __________ are the building blocks of sensorimotor intelligence. A) goal-directed behaviors B) cultural experiences C) problem-solving skills D) newborn reflexes

Q: Piaget named the sensorimotor substages after A) revisions in the circular reaction. B) his own three children. C) the various types of schemes. D) the internal struggles faced during each period.

Q: The circular reaction initially centers on A) the manipulation of objects. B) internal depictions of events. C) the infant's own body. D) imitation of familiar behaviors.

Q: According to Piaget, a __________ is a means of building schemes in which infants try to repeat chance motor behaviors again and again. A) sensorimotor reflex B) circular reaction C) mental representation D) goal-directed behavior

Q: According to Piaget, organization takes place A) through direct contract with the environment. B) internally. C) in the zone of proximal development. D) externally.

Q: Apart from direct contact with the environment, schemes also change A) through organization. B) externally. C) abruptly. D) reflexively.

Q: In Piaget's theory, each time the back-and-forth movement between equilibrium and disequilibrium occurs, A) children temporarily regress to a previous stage of cognitive development. B) less effective schemes are produced. C) children adapt more than they organize. D) more effective schemes are produced.

Q: In Piaget's theory, children shift from assimilation toward accommodation when they are A) in a state of cognitive disequilibrium. B) bored and fatigued. C) in a state of cognitive equilibrium. D) overwhelmed.

Q: In Piaget's theory, when children are in a state of disequilibrium, A) they shift away from accommodation toward assimilation. B) cognitive change is rapid. C) they are likely to construct inefficient schemes. D) assimilation and accommodation are balanced.

Q: When children are not changing much cognitively, they __________ more than they __________. A) accommodate; organize B) organize; assimilate C) assimilate; accommodate D) organize; adapt

Q: Two-year-old Laura dropped a block into her toy box. She then dropped a cup, a car, and a doll into the box, throwing some objects gently, while using more force with others. Laura's modification of her dropping scheme is an example of A) equilibrium. B) organization. C) accommodation. D) assimilation.

Q: During __________, children use their current schemes to interpret the external world, whereas in __________, children create new schemes or adjust old ones after noticing that their current ways of thinking do not capture the environment completely. A) assimilation; accommodation B) equilibration; disequilibration C) adaptation; organization D) accommodation; assimilation

Q: __________ involves building schemes through direct interaction with the environment. A) Equilibration B) Adaptation C) Assimilation D) Organization

Q: Six-month-old Eva drops her teething ring in a fairly rigid way, simply letting go and watching it with interest. This example demonstrates Piaget's belief that, at first, schemes are A) sensorimotor action patterns. B) deliberate. C) creative. D) awkward and disorganized.

Q: According to Piaget, specific psychological structures called __________ are organized ways of making sense of experience. A) schemes B) adaptations C) assimilations D) circular reactions

Q: Piaget believed that infants and toddlers A) carry out many activities inside their heads. B) "think" with their eyes, ears, and hands. C) assimilate more than they accommodate. D) are incapable of constructing schemes.

Q: Piaget's first stage, the sensorimotor stage, spans the first __________ of life A) six months B) one year C) two years D) three years

Q: Which of the following statements about pattern perception is true? A) Newborns prefer to look at plain rather than patterned stimuli. B) As they get older, infants prefer less complex patterns. C) Because of their poor vision, very young babies prefer to look at complex patterns over large, bold checkerboards. D) If babies are sensitive to the contrast in two or more patterns, they prefer the one with more contrast.

Q: Which of the following pictures is newborn Alex most likely to prefer to look at? A) a pastel pink square B) a black-and-white checkerboard with a few large squares C) a multicolored checkerboard with hundreds of squares D) a black oval

Q: Infants with a lot of crawling experience A) tend to be delayed in walking, as they prefer crawling. B) are far less likely to refuse to cross the deep side of the visual cliff. C) are more likely than their inexperienced agemates to remember object locations. D) become more fearless of the side of a bed or a staircase.

Q: __________ depth cues arise because our two eyes have slightly different views of the visual field. A) Binocular B) Dimensional C) Pictorial D) Patterned

Q: __________ is the first depth cue to which infants are sensitive. A) Motion B) Binocular depth cue C) Pictorial depth cue D) The visual cliff

Q: __________ improves steadily, reaching 20/80 by 6 months and an adult level of about 20/20 by 4 years. A) Contrast sensitivity B) Visual acuity C) Depth perception D) Pattern perception

Q: __________, infants can focus on objects about as well as adults can. A) At birth B) Around 1 month C) Around 2 months D) Around 4 months

Q: For exploring the environment, humans depend on __________ more than any other sense. A) touch B) hearing C) vision D) taste

Q: Which of the following statements about speech stream patterns is true? A) When presented with controlled sequences of nonsense syllables, babies listen for statistical regularities. B) Babies learn to talk long before they learn the meaning of speech. C) Babies and toddlers cannot discriminate a word-internal syllable pair from a word-external syllable pair. D) Children cannot detect words that start with weak syllables until around 3 years of age.

Q: Around 7 to 9 months, infants A) can detect words that start with weak syllables. B) start to talk in sentences. C) begin to prefer their native language to foreign languages. D) begin to divide the speech stream into wordlike units.

Q: Research suggests that there is a sensitive period, __________, when babies are biologically prepared to "zero in" on socially meaningful perceptual distinctions. A) from birth to three months B) in the first half of the first year C) in the second half of the first year D) during the second year of life

Q: Which of the following individuals is the most likely to be able to discriminate individual faces of both humans and monkeys equally well? A) Jake, a 6-month-old B) Monica, an 18-month-old C) Bartholomew, a 6-year-old D) Jade, an 18-year-old

Q: At first, babies are sensitive to virtually all speech sounds, but around 6 months, they A) gain musical rhythm perception. B) begin to perceive grammatical structure in sentences. C) narrow their focus, limiting distinctions to the language they hear and will soon learn. D) show a preference for their native tongue.

Q: ERP brain-wave recordings reveal that around 5 months, babies A) can "screen out" sounds not used in their native tongue. B) recognize the same melody when it is played in different keys. C) demonstrate superior linguistic ability. D) become sensitive to syllable stress patterns in their own language.

Q: Dr. Sardoza is interested in research on the organization and interpretation of what we see. Dr. Sardoza studies A) sensation. B) habituation and recovery. C) perception. D) visual acuity.

Q: One-year-old Jameson sits on the sidewalk picking up blades of grass left after his mother mows the lawn. Jameson is using A) the pincer grasp. B) the ulnar grasp. C) gross-motor skills. D) prereaching.

Q: A baby's ability to manipulate objects greatly expands with the development of __________, use of the thumb and index finger opposably. A) the pincer grasp B) the ulnar grasp C) the fine-motor reflex D) prereaching

Q: Four-month-old Kaitlyn reaches for a toy. She grabs it by closing her fingers against her palm. Kaitlyn is using A) the pincer grasp. B) the grasp reflex. C) the ulnar grasp. D) prereaching.

Q: Newborn Sam's poorly coordinated swipes or swings toward an object in front of him is called A) the pincer grasp. B) the ulnar grasp. C) prereaching. D) voluntary reaching.

Q: Of all motor skills, __________ may play the greatest role in infant cognitive development. A) rolling over B) reaching C) crawling D) walking

Q: Kipsigi and West Indian infants walk considerably earlier than North American infants because A) the babies are smaller at birth, requiring less leg-muscle strength for standing. B) they have a genetic tendency toward early motor development. C) North American babies are mentally overstimulated, resulting in less motivation to walk. D) their parents emphasize early motor maturity, practicing formal exercises to stimulate particular skills.

Q: Which of the following mothers is the most likely to actively discourage rapid motor development? A) Elyse, a Canadian mother B) Indira, a West Indian mother C) Biyaki, a Gusii mother D) Cheruiyot, a Kipsigis mother

Q: Dynamic systems theory provides convincing evidence that the development of motor skills A) is profoundly influenced by the physical environment. B) is hardwired. C) is genetically determined. D) always follows the proximodistal trend.

Q: According to __________ of motor development, mastery of motor skills involves acquiring increasingly complex systems of action. A) the proximodistal trend B) the cephalocaudal trend C) ecological systems theory D) dynamic systems theory

Q: Children acquire motor skills A) on a fixed maturational timetable. B) in highly individual ways. C) with a highly predictable rate of progress. D) as a series of unrelated accomplishments.

Q: Four-month-old Logan's parents are tracking his motor development. Which of the following motor skills is Logan likely to have already achieved? A) sits alone B) when prone, lifts self by arms C) crawls D) plays pat-a-cake

Q: Which of the following is an example of a fine-motor skill? A) grasping B) crawling C) walking D) standing

Q: __________ refers to control over actions that help infants get around in the environment, whereas __________ has to do with smaller movements, such as reaching and grasping. A) Fine-motor development; gross-motor development B) Sensorimotor development; gross-motor development C) Lateralization; dynamic systems D) Gross-motor development; fine-motor development

Q: __________ fire identically when a primate hears or sees an action and when it carries out that action on its own. A) Imitation neurons B) Glial cells C) Mirror neurons D) Neurotransmitters

Q: Which of the following statements about imitation is true? A) Newborn chimpanzees imitate more facial expressions and gestures than human infants. B) Imitation is harder to induce in newborns than in babies 2 to 3 months old. C) Babies several months old often do not imitate an adult's behavior right away because they first try to play familiar social games. D) Many researchers now believe that newborn imitation is actually a spontaneous reflex and not an actual learning mechanism.

Q: By focusing on the shift from a novelty preference to a familiarity preference, researchers can use habituation to assess A) remote memory. B) recent memory. C) an infant's imitation ability. D) an infant's motor development.

Q: Dr. Eden studies a fetus's sensitivity to external stimuli by measuring changes in fetal heart rate when various repeated sounds are presented. Dr. Eden is probably using A) classical conditioning. B) operant conditioning. C) habituation and recovery. D) imitation.

Q: A baby who first habituates to a visual pattern and then recovers to a new one appears to A) have forgotten the first pattern. B) perceive the second pattern as the same as the first pattern. C) perceive the second pattern as new and different from the first pattern. D) be accessing her remote memory.

Q: Following habituation, when a new stimulus causes responsiveness to return to a high level, the increase is called A) imitation. B) recovery. C) reinforcement. D) repetition.

Q: At first, baby Mario was easily awakened every night by a barking dog in his neighborhood. Several weeks later, Mario's sleep is not bothered by the dog's barks. This is an example of A) classical conditioning. B) extinction. C) habituation. D) recovery.

Q: __________ refers to a gradual reduction in the strength of a response due to repetitive stimulation. A) Imitation B) Recovery C) Habituation D) Reinforcement

Q: A researcher hangs a mobile over the crib of 4-month-old Anya. When the researcher attaches Anya's foot to the mobile with a long cord, Anya can, by kicking, make the mobile turn. The turning of the mobile is an example of a(n) A) reinforcer. B) punishment. C) unconditioned stimulus. D) conditioned response.

Q: Removing a desirable stimulus or presenting an unpleasant one to decrease the occurrence of a response is called A) habituation. B) reinforcement. C) recovery. D) punishment.

Q: In operant conditioning, a reinforcer A) decreases the occurrence of a response. B) removes a desirable stimulus. C) is a neutral stimulus. D) is a stimulus that increases the occurrence of a response.

Q: 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

Q: Some responses, such as __________, are very difficult to classically condition in young babies because they do not yet have the motor skills needed to deal appropriately with stimuli. A) contentment B) fear C) hunger D) sucking

Q: Young infants can be classically conditioned most easily when A) they are sleeping or drowsy. B) the association between two stimuli has survival value. C) the stimuli presented involve pain. D) the stimuli presented involve pleasure.

Q: In classical conditioning, if the conditioned stimulus is presented alone enough times, without being paired with the unconditioned stimulus, __________ will __________. A) a conditioned response; occur B) extinction; occur C) learning; take place D) learning; be severely compromised

Q: Every time baby Gloria nurses, she is placed on a nursing pillow. Gloria's mom later noticed that each time Gloria was placed on the pillow, she made sucking movements. In this example, __________ is the conditioned stimulus. A) breast milk B) sucking C) crying D) placement on the pillow

Q: In classical conditioning, once a baby's nervous system makes a connection between two stimuli, the __________ stimulus produces __________. A) neutral; the behavior by itself B) conditioned; a reflexive response C) unconditioned; an unconditioned response D) neutral; a reflexive response

Q: Newborn reflexes make __________ possible in the young infant. A) operant conditioning B) classical conditioning C) a novelty preference D) habituation