Q&A Hero

Q: Provide three examples where a doctor would advise a mother to NOT to breast feed their infants. The three situations when mothers should not breast feed their babies are listed below: When the mother is infected with AIDS or some other infectious disease that can be transmitted through her milk. When the mother has active tuberculosis. When the mother is taking any drug that may not be safe to the infant if it is passed through the mother's milk.

Q: Ursula has just had a baby and is considering bottle feeding her as she plans to return to work very soon. However, she is worried that she will be unable to form a strong attachment with her baby if she does not breast feed her. Based on recent research, what would you, as her doctor, tell her? Many health professionals have argued that breast feeding facilitates the development of an attachment bond between the mother and infant. However, a recent research review found that the positive role of breast feeding on the mother-infant relationship is not supported by research. The review concluded that recommending breast feeding should not be based on its role in improving the mother-infant relationship, but rather on its positive effects on infant and maternal health. So, while it is not necessary that Ursula feed her baby to have a strong bond with her, it is advisable that she do so in view of the many benefits to her and the baby's health.

Q: List five benefits that a child receives from breast feeding. Some of the benefits that a child gains from being breast fed include: 1) Appropriate weight gain 2) Lowered risk of childhood and adult obesity 3) Fewer allergies 4) Lower risk of gastrointestinal infections, lower respiratory tract infections, and lower ear infections 5) Lower risk of asthma 6) Lower incidence of SIDS 7) Lower risk of type 1 diabetes in childhood and type 2 diabetes in adulthood

Q: Ingrid is getting ready to leave the hospital with her newborn and asks her doctor about SIDS. Her pediatrician suggests several things she can do to reduce the likelihood of SIDS in her infant. List five things that Ingrid can do to reduce the likelihood of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Risk factors for SIDS include: 1) Sleeping in prone position (on stomach) 2) Having a sibling who has died of SIDS 3) Sleep apnea 4) Low birth weight 5) African-American and Eskimo ethnicity 6) Low socioeconomic status 7) Passive exposure to cigarette smoke 8) Sleeping in soft bedding 9) Infants with abnormal brain stem functioning involving the neurotransmitter serotonin

Q: How would you connect the concepts of the overproduction of synaptic connections and their subsequent retraction, or pruning, with the nature-versus-nurture issue? Nearly twice as many synaptic connections are made as will ever be used. The connections that are used become strengthened and survive, while the unused ones are replaced by other pathways or disappear. In the language of neuroscience, these connections will be "pruned". For example, the more babies engage in physical activity or use language, the more those pathways will be strengthened. This indicates that while brain development is initially a product of genes (or nature), in time, the environment (or nurture) will also partly determine the course of brain development. Thus, both heredity and environment are thought to influence the timing and course of synaptic overproduction and subsequent retraction.

Q: Briefly explain MEG (magnetoencephalography) and its uses? MEG (magnetoencephalography) are brain imaging machines that are used to assess infants brain activity. MEG maps brain activity by recording magnetic fields produced by electrical currents and is being used to assess such perceptual and cognitive activities as vision, hearing, and language in infants. The infant sits under the machine and when he or she experiences a word, touch, sight, or emotion, the neurons working together in the infants brain generate magnetic fields and MEG pinpoints the location of the fields in the brain.

Q: Briefly explain the cephalocaudal and proximodistal patterns of development. Provide an example of each type of pattern. The cephalocaudal pattern is the sequence in which the greatest growth always occurs at the topthe headwith physical growth in size, weight, and feature differentiation gradually working its way down from top to bottom. Examples for such patterns of development are shoulders and middle trunk. The proximodistal pattern is the sequence in which growth starts at the center of the body and moves toward the extremities. For example, infants control the muscles of their trunk and arms before they control their hands and fingers, and they use their whole hands before they can control several fingers.

Q: Mauricio takes his baby to the doctor for a one-month check-up. His doctor does a test where he presents an object or a sound and checks if baby turns his head towards it. What response is the doctor testing?

Q: Identify the term, according to the ecological view, that refers to opportunities for interaction by objects that fit within our capabilities to perform functional activities. Affordances

Q: Baby Tobias turns his head when his mother strokes his cheek. This reflex is called the _____.

Q: Gustavo believes that motor skills represent solutions to the infant's goals. So when you offer a new toy to a baby, the baby attempts to grab the toy while also balancing itself. This active improvisation and adaptation to achieve one's goal demonstrates that nature, nurture, the infant, and the environment are all working together. Gustavo is a proponent of which theory?

Q: Identify the condition that occurs when infants stop breathing, usually during the night, and die suddenly without an apparent cause.

Q: Identify the part of the neuron that carries signals away from the cell body. Axon

Q: Your ability to see faces and patterns with the right hemisphere of the brain and understand language with the left hemisphere is due to _____. lateralization

Q: Identify the lobe in the cerebral cortex that is responsible for voluntary movement and thinking.

Q: Identify the nerve cell that handles information processing in the brain.

Q: Identify the sequence in which the earliest growth always occurs at the topthe headwith physical growth in size, weight, and feature differentiation gradually working from top to bottom.

Q: Identify the theorists who are renowned for using the "visual cliff" to study the vision of infants.

Q: Identify the theorist who developed and used the "looking chamber" to study the vision of infants in the early 1960s. Robert Fantz

Q: Identify the theorist who believed that infants assemble motor skills for perceiving and acting. He/she proposed the dynamic systems theory to explain these findings.

Q: Identify the researcher that carefully observed and documented the development of motor skills in the 1930s. Based on this work, he/she concluded that motor development is entirely due to maturation.

Q: Which of the following statements about perceptual-motor coupling in infants is TRUE? A. Perception and motor activity occur separately in infants. B. Infants coordinate their movements with perceptual information involving people. C. The concept of perceptual-motor coupling does not develop until the ages of 2 to 3. D.

Q: _____ perception involves integrating information from two or more sensory modalities. A. Extramodal B. Intermodal C. Intramodal D.

Q: The experience of our world as a smooth, unitary episode is made possible by intermodal: A. reflection. B. perception. C. sensation. D.

Q: Sensitivity to taste: A. is present even before birth. B. develops two days after birth. C. is not seen in newborns. D.

Q: Baby Kendra, who is 6 days old, is presented with two breast pads. One comes from her mother, and the other has not been used. Which one will Kendra probably prefer? A. Kendra will probably not show any preference. B. Kendra will prefer her mother's breast pad. C. Kendra will prefer the clean breast pad. D.

Q: Winnie is considering the use of anesthesia during the circumcision of her newborn son. She wants to know if newborns can feel pain. What would you tell her? A. Yes; recent research indicates that infants can feel pain. B. No; infants cannot feel pain. C. Maybe; research on the matter is inconclusive as of now. D.

Q: Amanda is 6 days old. Which of the following statements is TRUE about Amanda's hearing? A. Amanda is more sensitive to the pitch of a sound than an adult. B. Amanda is able to hear low-pitched sounds better than high-pitched sounds. C. Amanda is able to hear high-pitched sounds better than low-pitched sounds. D.

Q: Which of the following statements is TRUE about perception in infants? A. Infants are not able to perceive the localization of a sound. B. Newborns cannot hear soft sounds quite as well as adults can. C. Infants are very sensitive to the pitch of a sound. D.

Q: In the visual cliff experiment by Eleanor Gibson and Richard Walk, most babies encouraged to crawl onto the deep side of the visual cliff would: A. crawl onto the cliff side. B. not crawl onto the cliff side. C. crawl onto the cliff side only when their mothers called them. D.

Q: The "visual cliff" experiment was used to measure: A. size constancy. B. shape constancy. C. visual acuity. D.

Q: Amber knows that a dinner plate is the same object whether it is flat on the table or standing in the dish drainer. Amber has developed: A. size constancy. B. depth perception. C. shape constancy. D.

Q: _____ is the recognition that an object remains the same even though the retinal image of the object changes as you move toward or away from the object. A. Shape constancy B. Perceptual disparity C. Size constancy D.

Q: The two types of perceptual constancy are: A. size constancy and shape constancy. B. shape constancy and color constancy. C. color constancy and speed constancy. D.

Q: When you see an airplane flying away from you, it appears to get smaller. However, you know that it stays the same size. The difference between your sensation and your perception of the plane illustrates the concept of: A. perceptual constancy. B. sensory confusion. C. sensory consistency. D.

Q: Perceptual constancy is reflected when: A. sensory stimulation remains constant, but perception of the world changes. B. sensory stimulation changes, but perception of the physical world remains constant. C. constant sensory stimulation receives a constant perceptual response. D.

Q: Which of the following statements is TRUE about an infant's color vision? A. It usually mirrors that of an adult at birth. B. Its development is independent of the experience of an infant. C. Its development, in part, reflects maturation. D.

Q: Sheena would like to hang a picture above her baby's crib. Which of the following is likely to attract the most attention from the infant? A. A bright red circle B. A drawing of a normal face C. A drawing of a scrambled face D.

Q: The technique of _____ consists of eye movements that follow a moving object and can be used to evaluate an infant's early visual ability. A. orienting B. spotting C. visual preference D.

Q: A technique that can be used to determine if an infant can see or hear is the _____ response, which involves turning one's head toward a sight or sound. A. orienting B. stimulus C. tracking D.

Q: Which of the following methods is often used by researchers to assess an infant's attention to sound? A. Orienting response and tracking B. High-amplitude sucking C. Habituation and dishabituation D.

Q: Baby Max watches his mother jingle her keys in front of him. After several minutes, he looks away no longer interested. This would indicate that he is habituated to it and is showing a(n) _____ to the stimulus after repeated presentations of the stimulus. A. decreased responsiveness B. increased familiarity C. increased interest D.

Q: Baby Jane, three days old, is shown four drawings: a bright blue square, a white oval, a yellow circle, and a drawing of a face. According to Fantz' research, which drawing would she probably prefer to look at? A. The white oval B. The face C. The blue square D.

Q: Fantz' research methodstudying whether infants can distinguish one stimulus from another by measuring the length of time they attend to different stimuliis referred to as the: A. habituation and dishabituation method. B. orienting response and tracking method. C. visual preference method. D.

Q: The newborn's vision is estimated to be _____ on the well-known Snellen chart used for eye examinations. A. 20/20 B. 20/40 C. 20/80 D.

Q: In the Gibsons' view, objects have _____, which are opportunities for interaction offered by objects that fit within our capabilities to perform activities. A. allowances B. aptitudes C. abilities D.

Q: Your professor says that our perception brings us into contact with the environment in order to interact with and adapt to it. This indicates that he holds a(n) _____ view on perceptual development. A. ethological B. ecological C. evolutionary D.

Q: The theorists who developed the ecological view of perceptual development in infancy are: A. Arnold Gesell and Jean Piaget. B. Virginia Satir and Jay Haley. C. Eleanor and James Gibson. D.

Q: Fantz believes that we directly perceive information that exists in the world around us and that perception is designed for action. He most likely holds a(n) _____ perspective. A. ethological B. ecological C. evolutionary D.

Q: The interpretation of sensory information is called _____. A. sensation B. reception C. perception D.

Q: _____ occurs when information interacts with sensory receptorsthe eyes, ears, tongue, nostrils, and skin. A. Sensation B. Perception C. Reception D.

Q: In the "sticky mittens" research project, it was found that: A. the infants in the mitten group developed grasping skills earlier. B. the infants in the group without mittens developed grasping skills faster. C. both groups developed grasping skills at the same pace. D.

Q: Four-month-old infants rely greatly on _____ to determine how they will grip an object; 8-month-olds are more likely to use _____ as a guide. A. touch; vision B. their caregivers; their own experiences C. vision; touch D.

Q: Jake, age 11 months, is able to pick up cereal and bits of fruit off the tray of his high chair by grasping them with his thumb and forefinger. Jake has developed the: A. palmer grasp. B. pincer grip. C. Moro reflex. D.

Q: Six-month-old Carson grabs for a toy using his whole hand. He is demonstrating a: A. palmer grasp. B. pincer grip. C. Moro reflex. D.

Q: Reaching in four-month-old infants is guided by: A. keeping their limbs in sight. B. touch. C. cues from muscles, tendons, and joints. D.

Q: When four-year old Melanie ties shoelaces on her own and skillfully uses fork and spoon, she is demonstrating her: A. rooting reflex. B. fine motor skills. C. Moro reflex. D.

Q: Nadine's doctor is assessing her fine motor skills. This means that her doctor is going to look at her ability to: A. coordinate large muscle activity like walking. B. maintain fine balance on a beam. C. perform finely tuned movements like using a pencil. D.

Q: Caleb is 14 months old. Which of the following activities would you expect that Caleb might be able to do? A. Climb up steps using his hands and legs B. Stand and throw a ball C. Run D.

Q: _____ is a dynamic process that is linked with sensory information in the skin, joints, and muscles, which tell us where we are in space; in vestibular organs in the inner ear that regulate balance and equilibrium; and in vision and hearing. A. Posture B. Cognitive development C. Alignment D.

Q: What is the foundation needed for gross motor skills to develop? A. A developed muscular system B. Cognitive skills C. Postural control D.

Q: _____ motor skills are skills that involve large-muscle activities, such as moving one's arms and walking. A. Fine B. Gross C. Learned D.

Q: Which of the following statements about reflexes is true? A. Reflexive behavior is identical among babies. B. Some reflexes persist through life. C. All reflexes have survival value today. D.

Q: Whenever baby Beth hears a loud noise, she responds with a _____ reflex, where she arches her back, throws back her head, flings out her arms and legs, and then rapidly closes her arms and legs. A. Moro B. rooting C. grasping D.

Q: When Martha wants to feed her newborn son, she gently brushes her nipple against his cheek and, in a _____ reflex, he turns his head toward the side that was touched and immediately latches on to her breast. A. Moro B. sucking C. rooting D.

Q: _____ are built-in reactions to stimuli; they govern the newborn's movements, which are automatic and beyond the newborn's control. A. Instincts B. Reflexes C. Impulses D.

Q: Kyle and Amy want their baby to walk early, so they take the baby's favorite toy and place it where the child cannot reach it from a crawling position. Kyle and Amy believe that this will motivate the baby to stand upright to retrieve the toy and will, thus, result in him walking sooner. Their belief is most consistent with the _____ systems view of development. A. maturational B. evolutionary C. static D.

Q: The view of development that sees motor skills developing as a solution to an infant's problems is known as the _____ systems theory. A. dynamic B. maturational C. static D.

Q: Developmentalist Arnold Gesell proposed that motor development comes about through: A. repeated experiences. B. the unfolding of a genetic plan. C. positive reinforcement. D.

Q: The developmentalist who believed that motor skills development comes about through maturation is: A. Dr. Konrad Lorenz. B. Dr. Benjamin Spock. C. Dr. T. Berry Brazelton. D.

Q: Some people take Baruti's swollen belly to be a sign that he is well-fed and healthy. However, he suffers from a condition that causes his abdomen and feet to swell with water. Baruti's thin, brittle, and colorless hair; swollen feet and stomach; and listless behavior are all tell-tale signs that he suffers from: A. Kwashiorkor. B. Marasmus. C. Binswanger's disorder. D.

Q: Shalinis doctor is concerned that she might have _____, a life-threatening condition caused by severe protein-calorie deficiency, or malnutrition, that has resulted in a wasting away of her body tissues in her first year. She is now grossly underweight and her muscles have atrophied. A. kwashiorkor B. marasmus C. Binswanger's disorder D.

Q: Children with _____ sometimes appear to be well fed even though they are not because the disease can cause the child's abdomen and feet to swell with water. A. marasmus B. yellow fever C. kwashiorkor D.

Q: Pedro is 2 years of age. His parents take him to the doctor because he has swelling in his feet and abdomen, and has brittle hair. His doctor tells his parents that he has a condition known as _____, which is caused by severe protein deficiency. A. yellow fever B. beriberi C. jaundice D.

Q: Yasmine was born in Honduras, and has a medical condition that causes her vital organs to collect the nutrients that are present and deprive other parts of the body of them. This condition, known as _____, often has the telltale sign of a greatly expanded abdomen. A. beriberi B. kwashiorkor C. marasmus D.

Q: Marasmus and kwashiorkor are two life-threatening conditions that can result from: A. genetic abnormalities. B. allergic reactions to milk. C. malnutrition. D.

Q: In which of the following circumstances should the mother NOT breast feed her baby? A. If she has AIDS B. If she is suffering from postpartum depression C. If the baby has low birth weight D.

Q: In which of the following circumstances is it recommended that a mother NOT breast feed? A. If the mother plans to return to full-time work soon B. If the mother has active tuberculosis C. If the mothers age is 40 or older D.

Q: Donna's doctor recommends that she breast feed her newborn. Research conclusively indicates that breast-feeding has several positive outcomes for the mother, including a: A. speedy return to pre-pregnancy weight. B. reduced risk of osteoporosis. C. reduction in the incidence of ovarian cancer. D.

Q: Briefly describe postpartum depression. What are some of the symptoms that distinguish it from a more typical case of baby blues? Based on the text and class, what would you consider the two effective treatment methods for postpartum depression? After giving birth, some women have such strong feelings of sadness, anxiety, or despair that they have trouble coping with daily tasks in the postpartum period. This emotional state is termed as postpartum depression. Several antidepressant drugs are effective in treating postpartum depression and appear to be safe for breast feeding women. Psychotherapy, especially cognitive therapy, is effective in easing postpartum depression for many women. Also, engaging in regular exercise may help in treating postpartum depression.