Developmental Milestones and Theories
(Developmental Milestones and Theories)
PSY 201 Midterm Exam
Question 1
Researchers interested in infant perception of faces have found that
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infants prefer to look at faces over other complex objects.
faces are uniquely interesting to infants.
“when looking at faces, babies have no preference for type of face.”
babies prefer to look at male faces.
babies prefer their mother’s face.
Question 2
Anita’s mother uses the same ice cream scoop to put ice cream into one large bowl and one small bowl. Anita is upset because she thinks her brother’s small bowl holds more ice cream than her large bowl. Anita has not yet acquired
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conservation.
egocentrism.
reflexes.
assimilation.
accommodation.
Question 3
A correlation cannot be used to determine whether
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children who are friendly are also smart.
honesty in school is related to honesty at home.
intelligence is related to friendliness.
honest children have honest parents.
TV violence causes childhood aggression.
Question 4
Bowerman and other constructivist theorists maintain that the important factor in language development is
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built-in biases.
genetically programmed operating principles.
the constraints on language.
the rate of brain cell development.
the child’s construction of language.
Question 5
Research on spatial cognition indicates that
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girls’ play preferences offer them an advantage in spatial cognition.
video games decrease mental rotation abilities.
play hampers the development of spatial skills.
boys score higher than girls on spatial cognition tasks.
it is not influenced by experience.
Question 6
The sequence of pubertal changes begins about _____________________ for boys than for girls.
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one year earlier.
two years later.
two years earlier.
six months earlier.
three years later.
Question 7
A disorder that causes mental retardation that becomes progressively worse as children get older and is also strongly associated with autism is known as ________________.
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Down syndrome.
Klinefelter’s syndrome.
Fragile-X syndrome.
Turner’s syndrome.
Huntington’s disease.
Question 8(Developmental Milestones and Theories)
“A set of ideas that explains other people’s ideas, beliefs, desires, and behavior is a theory of”
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mind.
cognition.
personality.
mentality.
beliefs.
Question 9
Children born to poverty-level parents who were adopted into middle-class families typically have IQs that are
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identical to those of their natural parents.
10 to 15 points higher than their adoptive mothers.
10 to 15 points higher than their birth mothers.
identical to those of their adoptive parents.
not related to either set of parents.
Question 10
Which of the following statements describes Lamar’s genotype?
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He has brown hair.
He is short for his age.
He looks like his father.
He has type AB blood.
He is an overachiever.
Question 11
Frank has an IQ of 97. He would be classified as
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learning disabled.
gifted.
mentally retarded.
average.
superior.
Question 12
All of the following are part of Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory EXCEPT
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zone of proximal development.
operational efficiency.
scaffolding.
naive psychology.
the primitive stage.
Question 13
“Howard Gardner proposes eight separate types of intelligence, including all of the following EXCEPT”
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linguistic.
musical.
componential.
spatial.
interpersonal.
Question 14
“From six months on, babies begin engaging in ________, which is a sound pattern consisting of consonants and vowels.”
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cooing
babbling
gurgling
fussing
crying
Question 15
Research has shown that a newborn can
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“taste sweet and salty, but not sour or bitter.”
clearly see objects up to eight feet away.
recognize objects better than people.
discriminate his/her mother’s voice from other voices.
efficiently track a moving object.
Question 16(Developmental Milestones and Theories)
Watson’s Little Albert experiment demonstrated that
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children automatically fear small animals.
classical conditioning plays a role in the development of emotional responses.
operant conditioning is the only form of learning that works with infants.
conditioned stimuli are naturally occurring events.
unconditional stimuli rarely lead to long term conditioning.
Question 17
Research has shown that ____________________ is more important than family income in determining a child’s IQ.
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sibling’s IQ.
good nutrition.
limited television viewing.
quality of parent-child interactions.
activity level.
Question 18
“Billy Jean is a heavy smoker. Her doctor has warned her that research results indicate that if a mother smokes during pregnancy, the child will have”
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foreshortened or missing limbs.
vaginal cancer.
low birth weight.
learning problems in elementary school.
FAS.
Question 19
Maturation refers to
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genetically programmed sequential patterns of change
growth patterns that are not universal across cultures
growth patterns that are highly influenced by environmental factors such as practice
growth patterns that occur in adulthood only
Question 20
“According to Steiner’s research, children can first respond differentially to sweet, sour, and bitter flavors at”
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birth.
one month.
six months.
nine months.
one year.
Question 21
All of the following are common characteristics of children with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) EXCEPT
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larger than normal size.
smaller brains.
distinct facial features.
heart defects.
physical deformities.
Question 22
The continuity vs. discontinuity issue in development relates to the idea that development
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may occur in stages and sequences
is characterized by critical periods
is characterized by either qualitative or quantitative changes
All of the above
Question 23
“When young children use audible language to help control or monitor their own behavior, they are exhibiting”
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overregularization.
child directed speech.
baby talk.
fast mapping.
private speech.
Question 24(Developmental Milestones and Theories)
A nativism theorist would believe that perceptual abilities are ________; whereas a empiricism theorist would state that perceptual abilities are ________.
Answers:
learned; inborn
inborn; genetic
acquired; learned
genetic; inborn
inborn; learned
Question 25
Renaldo is four years old and is experiencing a neurological growth spurt. What skill will he be attaining?
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evidence of some goal-directed planning
fluency in speaking and understanding language
improvements in eye-hand coordination
improvements in memory function
motor coordination
Question 26
Which of the following do reading experts suggest is critical to success in reading in the early years?
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picture books
silent reading
phonological awareness
workbooks
spelling lessons
Question 27
“When Bette saw a skunk for the first time and asked why the kitty had a big stripe, her mother explained that the animal was a skunk. Now Bette recognizes skunks are different from cats. Bette has used”
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integration.
accommodation.
discrimination.
assimilation.
organization.
Question 28
Bandura added all of the following concepts to traditional learning theory EXCEPT
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abstract modeling.
observational learning.
classical conditioning.
emphasis on cognitive elements.
intrinsic reinforcements.
Question 29
The Apgar scoring system is used to evaluate an infant’s
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status immediately after birth and then again five minutes later.
weight at birth and at one week after birth.
social responses at one day and one week after birth.
“strength of crying, blood pressure, and birth-weight immediately after birth.”
readiness to be taken home.
Question 30
“When a baby understands that her bottle still exists even when she throws it down and it disappears under the sofa, she is demonstrating”
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size constancy.
shape constancy.
object identity.
object permanence.
object constancy.
Question 31
How does Erikson’s psychoanalytic theory differ from that of Freud?
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It is described as psychosexual.
It focuses on psychosocial stages influenced by common cultural demands.
“It is based on libidial energy and incorporates the concepts of id, ego, and superego.”
It includes both a phallic and genital stage.
It states that a child’s success depends on interaction with people and objects.
Question 32(Developmental Milestones and Theories)
Maria’s baby has just started to see colors. Her baby is how old?
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12 months
9 months
6 months
3 months
1 month
Question 33
“In comparison to adult auditory processes, newborns”
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hear nearly as well in the range of pitch and loudness of the human voice.
have poorer hearing at some pitches but the same hearing at all loudness levels.
have more acuity with high-pitched sounds.
have better auditory acuity at all pitches and loudness levels.
have less acuity at all pitches and loudness levels.
Question 34
Piaget believed that cognitive development is
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characterized by great irregularities.
shaped by the environment.
“an active process of exploration, manipulation, and examination.”
random and unpredictable.
based on personality factors.
Question 35
It is most accurate to describe the genetic material in the nucleus of the cell as
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“DNA, which contains chromosomes and genes.”
“chromosomes composed of DNA, which has segments called genes.”
“genes, which contain DNA and are found on chromosomes.”
“separate bodies called genes, chromosomes, and DNA.”
46 genes made up of DNA.
Question 36
“In research on infant perception, a common research strategy presents an infant with some stimulus until s/he stops responding to it. Then a new stimulus that differs from the first in some specific respect (e.g., color) is presented to see if the infant now responds. This strategy involves the use of what basic process?”
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preference
scanning
constancy
dishabituation
conditioning
Question 37
Current evidence suggests that full (adult-level) visual acuity is reached by what age?
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6 months
2 years
3-4 years
10-11 years
puberty
Question 38
Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of development
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emphasizes conscious drives rather than unconscious drives
proposes that the superego is the part of the personality that operates under the pleasure principle.
is characterized by psychosexual stages including the oral, anal, phallic,latency, and genital stages
proposes that defense mechanisms are the result of conscious efforts to resolve conflict.
Question 39
The great majority of neurons are apparently formed
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by two years after birth.
at birth.
in the third trimester of pregnancy.
between 10 and 18 weeks into gestation.
at conception.
Question 40(Developmental Milestones and Theories)
“According to Piaget, assimilation involves”
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changing a scheme as a result of new information taken in.
deriving generalizable schemes from specific experiences.
being shaped by the environment.
taking in an event or experience and making it part of a scheme.
an inborn need to put things in order.
Question 41
Which of the following statements describes the person’s phenotype?
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Maria’s 23rd chromosome pair is XX.
Mark’s blood type is AO.
Jill is a carrier of cystic fibrosis.
Larry has brown hair.
Mel has Trisomy 21.
Question 42
Fenson’s research on language indicates that children s first words appear by the age of
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5 months.
7 months.
9 months.
11 months.
12-13 months.
Question 43
Studies of a wide variety of language communities have revealed that
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Asian children skip the prelinguistic phase.
Western children tend to use language before they understand it.
the prelinguistic phase is identical in all language communities.
there is no set pattern for language development.
all language development is genetically programmed.
Question 44″Piaget’s four stages, in order, are”
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“sensorimotor, preoperational, formal operational, concrete operational.”
“preoperational, sensorimotor, concrete operational, formal operational.”
“preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational, sensorimotor.”
“sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational.”
“formal operational, concrete operational, preoperational, sensorimotor.”
Question 45
“Intelligence tests were intended to measure ________, while achievement tests were designed to measure ________.”
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competence; performance
knowledge; aptitude
performance; competence
aptitude; competence
competence; knowledge
Question 46
What part of the brain becomes the focus of developmental processes during the 10-to-12-year-old neurological growth spurt?
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medulla
midbrain
frontal lobes
parietal lobes
Brainstem
Question 47
Whether a child’s development is controlled by innate factors or environmental influences is referred to as
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continuity vs. discontinuity
nature vs. nurture
maturation vs. genetics
idealism vs. rationalism
Question 48(Developmental Milestones and Theories)
The ecological perspective in developmental psychology
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uses evolutionary theory to explain inborn patterns of behaviors.
emphasizes teaching children about protection of the natural environment.
looks at the context in which the child grows up.
applies theories of animal behavior to understanding human behavior.
was first suggested by Hall.
Question 49
Which theorist is most strongly associated with nativist theories of language?
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Skinner
Freud
Chomsky
Piaget
Vygotsky
Question 50
“Babies vary in the way they react to new things, in their typical moods, in their rate of activity, in the regularity of their daily rhythms, etc. These variations usually go by the name of”
Answers:
temperament.
states.
habituation.
instincts.
conditioning.