Psych 206 Exam 3 Review Questions

Front 1

malnutrition

Back 1

Nutritional deficiency caused by an
inadequate intake of calories,
protein, vitamins, and minerals.

Front 2

kwashiorkor

Back 2

Disease caused by a lack of protein
in the diet. Children are severely
malnourished, with a swollen belly.

Front 3

synaptic pruning

Back 3

Process in which unused synapses
are lost (pruned).

Front 4

glial cells

Back 4

Specialized cells in the nervous
system that support neurons in
several ways.

Front 5

experience-expectant development

Back 5

Development of universal skills
(such as hand–eye coordination) in
which excess synapses form and are pruned according to experience

Front 6

experience-dependent development

Back 6

Development of specific skills (such as riding a skateboard) in which new synapses form to code
the experience.

Front 7

Most of the children who are seriously malnourished
live in ___________.
a. Africa
b. Asia
c. Latin America
d. the urban sections of the United States

Back 7

Asia

Front 8

Which of the following is happening in the brains of typical 3-year-old children?

They lose fatty glial cells as they learn.
Their axons are losing their myelin sheaths
Neurons are beginning to outnumber glial cells.
They lose more synapses than they gain.

Back 8

They lose more synapses than they gain.

Front 9

Josh gets better grades in spelling and his twin brother gets better grades in reading. These differences in school performance are most likely due to differences in their ___________.
a. experience-expectant form of development. b. experience-dependent form of development.
c. patterns of myelination in the occipital lobes.
d.
growth of glial cells before age 2.

Back 9

experience-dependent form of development.

Front 10

In general, which lobe of the brain shows the earliest maturity?
the frontal lobe
the temporal lobe
the occipital lobe
the parietal lobe

Back 10

the occipital lobe

Front 11

True or False: Kwashiorkor is a disease caused by a chronic lack of protein in the diet.

Back 11

True

Front 12

True or False: Growth and development in the temporal lobes are primary reasons that children become better able to recognize faces and the emotions expressed by faces.

Back 12

False

Front 13

locomotor skills

Back 13

Skills used to move around, such as walking, running, and climbing.

Front 14

palmar grasp

Back 14

An immature grasp, holding the pencil in the palm and moving the whole arm to draw.

Front 15

mature tripod grasp

Back 15

Placing the base of the hand on the writing surface for support, holding the pencil with the index finger and thumb, and moving the wrist along with finer movements in the fingers to guide the pencil more precisely.

Front 16

List the Four Stages of Pencil Grip.

Back 16

(1) Palmar grasp.
(2) Pencil through the fingers.
(3) Fingers and thumb, moving wrist.
(4) Fingers and thumb, moving wrist and fingers.

Front 17

cerebral palsy (CP)

Back 17

A serious disorder caused by damage to one or more areas of the brain that control muscle movement and coordination.

Front 18

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)

Back 18

Federal law requiring that services be provided to assist all children with disabilities.

Front 19

The development of gross-motor skills in early childhood is influenced by __________.
a. genetics
b. instruction and encouragement from adults and other people
c. the types of activities in which the child chooses to engage
d. all of the above

Back 19

all of the above

Front 20

Which statement is most accurate in describing motor development in young children?
a. Children usually learn to coordinate their fingers and hands before they coordinate the use of
their arms.
b. Children usually learn to coordinate their feet and legs before they coordinate their hands and arms.
c. Gross-motor development is usually ahead of fine-motor development.
d. Most children use the tripod grasp before they learn the palmar grasp when using pencils and other writing tools

Back 20

Gross-motor development is usually ahead of fine-motor development.

Front 21

Which of the following is not true about physical activity in early childhood?
a. Young children tend to get more exercise on weekends than on weekdays.
b. Young children get most of their exercise while they play.
c. Young children tend to burn their energy in fast bursts, and they need frequent breaks to rest.
d. Young children spend more time indoors than outside.

Back 21

Young children tend to get more exercise on weekends than on weekdays.

Front 22

Cerebral palsy is __________.
a. a disease
b. curable
c. communicable and can be transferred from person to person
d. a group of disorders caused by damage to the brain

Back 22

a group of disorders caused by damage to the brain

Front 23

True or False: Health officials recommend that young children spend at least one hour each day in structured activities that encourage physical activity.

Back 23

True

Front 24

True or False: In most cases, cerebral palsy is caused by damage that occurs before birth.

Back 24

True

Front 25

child maltreatment

Back 25

A general category including all situations in which parents or other persons in charge of a child’s well-being harm the child or otherwise neglect the child’s needs.

Front 26

physical abuse

Back 26

Abuse that causes physical harm to a child.

Front 27

neglect

Back 27

Failure to provide for a child’s basic physical, educational, or psychological needs.

Front 28

sexual abuse

Back 28

Abuse that includes fondling a child’s genitals or breasts, committing intercourse or other sexual acts with a child, exposing the child to indecent acts, or involving the child in pornography.

Front 29

psychological abuse

Back 29

Abuse that includes verbal put-downs and other behavior that terrorizes, threatens, rejects, or isolates children.

Front 30

compulsive compliance

Back 30

A behavior pattern seen among some physically abused children, marked by ready and quick responses aimed at pleasing adults by complying with their demands and wishes.

Front 31

Between 1 and 4 years of age, the most common cause of death is __________.
a. homicide
b. some type of accident
c. a genetic or prenatal problem
d. an illness, disease, or other type of medical condition

Back 31

an illness, disease, or other type of medical condition

Front 32

What are teachers, nurses, physicians, childcare workers, and other professionals required to do if they suspect that a child has been abused or neglected?
Ignore it; it’s a private family matter.
Interview the child to find out what happened.
Contact the parents to find out what happened.
Report it to police or child protection authorities

Back 32

Report it to police or child protection authorities

Front 33

Who is most likely to physically abuse or neglect a child?
a. fathers
b. mothers
c. childcare workers
d. other relatives who care for children

Back 33

mothers

Front 34

School achievement and social withdrawal tend to be the worst for children who suffer __________.
neglect
physical abuse
sexual abuse
psychological abuse

Back 34

neglect

Front 35

True or False: Physical abuse increases the chances that children will use violence to solve their own problems.

Back 35

True

Front 36

True or False: Children who are neglected tend to become more dependent on their teachers.

Back 36

True

Front 37

7.1 How much do children grow during early childhood, and what are the important issues related to childhood nutrition?

Back 37

At this age, children grow about 2 or 3 inches in height and gain just over 5 pounds, on average, per year. To support healthy growth, children need adequate calories and a balance of proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, and minerals. Malnutrition can result if the diet lacks enough calories or nutrients for proper growth. In developing countries, many millions of children are malnourished.

Front 38

7.2 In what important ways does the brain grow and change during early childhood?

Back 38

Brain weight increases about 10% between the ages of 2 and 4 and again between the ages of 6 and 8. Glial cells are proliferating, and these specialized cells provide structure, hold neurons together, provide nourishment, form myelin, and perform other important functions in the brain. During early childhood, children lose more synapses than they gain in a process called synaptic pruning.

Front 39

7.3 How is brain development influenced by experience and interactions with the environment?

Back 39

Basic human capacities develop via experience-expectant development in which the brain overproduces synapses and then prunes them back using experience and feedback from the environment. The unique skills and knowledge that set each of us apart develop more through experience-dependent development in which new synapses are created to code our experiences.

Front 40

7.4 What are the larger patterns of development that we see in the brain during this age period?

Back 40

Lobes of the cerebral cortex continue to develop as more axons become myelinated. Various skills and abilities emerge and improve as brain development proceeds. Areas in the occipital lobes tend to mature earlier, and areas in the frontal lobes tend to mature later.

Front 41

7.5 What improvements do young children make in the control and coordination of their gross-motor and fine-motor skills?

Back 41

Motor development tends to proceed in a cephalocaudal (head-to-tail) and a proximodistal (inside-out) direction. Children coordinate their arms before their legs, and they learn to control the larger muscles in the arms before the smaller muscles in the hands and fingers. Experience, exercise, and opportunities to practice are all important in facilitating motor development.

Front 42

7.6 How physically active are most young children, and how much do children differ in their levels of activity?

Back 42

Young children get most of their physical exercise when they play. Children tend to burn their energy in quick bursts of activity, and they need frequent breaks to rest. Officials recommend that children get at least 60 minutes of physical activity each day in structured activities and another 60 minutes in free play. Children vary. Most meet these recommendations, although they tend to be engaged in vigorous activity only a small percentage of the time.

Front 43

7.7 What is cerebral palsy, and what do we know about this con- dition?

Back 43

Cerebral palsy is a serious disorder of motor development caused by damage to the brain during prenatal development, during birth, or by head trauma or brain illnesses that occur during infancy or childhood.

Front 44

7.8 What are the most common causes of death during early childhood, and how can they be prevented

Back 44

Relatively speaking, death rates are low during early child- hood. Among children ages 1 to 4, diseases, illnesses, and accidents are the most common causes of deaths. Auto accidents, drowning, and fires are the top three causes of accidental deaths. Parents and others are responsible for seeing that young children get proper health care and that they are protected as much as possible from accidental injury and death.

Front 45

7.9 What is child maltreatment, and what are the different types?

Back 45

Child maltreatment refers to situations where parents or other persons in charge of a child’s well-being harm or neglect the child. Physical abuse, neglect, sexual abuse, and psychological abuse are the major categories of child maltreatment. In 2007 there were 3.2 million reports of child maltreatment, and about 740,000 cases were verified.

Front 46

7.10 What are the effects of child abuse and neglect?

Back 46

It is impossible to predict or determine the effects for any particular child. For physical abuse, common problems include aggression, hostility, depression, compulsive compliance, language and cognitive delays, and poor school performance. With neglect, delays in language, intelligence, and academic performance are common.

Front 47

preoperational thought

Back 47

Thought characterized by the use of mental representations (symbols) and intuitive thought.

Front 48

operations

Back 48

Logical processes that can be reversed.

Front 49

intuitive thought

Back 49

Thought and logic that is based on a child’s personal experience rather than on a formal system of rules.

Front 50

egocentrism

Back 50

The child’s inability to take another person’s perspective.

Front 51

animism

Back 51

The idea that inanimate objects have conscious life and feelings.

Front 52

artificialism

Back 52

The notion that natural events or objects are under the control of people or of superhuman agents.

Front 53

conservation

Back 53

The understanding that some basic properties of objects remain the same even when a transformation changes the physical appearance.

Front 54

According to Piaget, when children move from Stage 1 to Stage 2 in cognitive development, they begin to rely more on __________ in their thinking.
a. sensorimotor impressions
b. mental representations
c. abstract thought
d. true logic

Back 54

mental representations

Front 55

As children get older, their drawings of people and other objects become more accurate and realistic. According to Piaget, this happens mostly because:
a. their hand-eye coordination is improving.
b. their perceptual systems are getting more accurate.
c. their mental representations are maturing.
d. they are relying more on sensorimotor impressions.

Back 55

their mental representations are maturing.

Front 56

Jimmy watches as you take two identical clay balls and roll one into the shape of a hot dog. You then ask him if both pieces of clay now have the same amount, or if one piece has more clay. Jimmy points to the hot dog
and responds, “This one has more because it is longer.” By focusing his answer on the length of the hot dog, Jimmy is showing an example of __________.
a. reversibility
b. centration
c. egocentrism
d. transitivity

Back 56

centration

Front 57

A 3-year-old thinks that the leaves blowing in a tree are waving “bye-bye.” This is an example of __________.
a. animism
b. artificialism
c. egocentrism
d. reversibility

Back 57

animism

Front 58

True or False: When a child gives the correct answer to conservation problems, it is a sign that the child is now in the stage of preoperational thought.

Back 58

False

Front 59

True or False: Piaget’s theory has motivated educators to emphasize hands-on curricula and active learning in schools.

Back 59

True

Front 60

social speech

Back 60

Speech that we hear as people talk around us or to us.

Front 61

private speech

Back 61

Speech that children say aloud to themselves; later internalized to form inner speech and mental activity.

Front 62

internalization

Back 62

The process of taking external speech and making it internal and mental.

Front 63

mediation

Back 63

The process adults and more skilled peers use to introduce concepts and cognitive structures to less skilled children.

Front 64

zone of proximal development (ZPD)

Back 64

The distance between the current maximum independent performance level of the child and the tasks the child can perform if guided by adults or more capable peers.

Front 65

scaffolding

Back 65

Support given to a child as he or she develops a new mental function or learns to perform a particular task.

Front 66

collaborative learning

Back 66

Process where children work together to help one another solve problems, share their knowledge and skills, and discuss their strategies and knowledge.

Front 67

According to Vygotsky, children’s thought structures develop from:
a. the language they hear around them.
b. their attempts to modify their own internal schemes.
c. their own experimentation with characteristics in the environment.
d. the biological maturation of their nervous systems.

Back 67

the language they hear around them.

Front 68

When Jeremy was doing his math homework, he could be heard mumbling aloud: “I carry the 6, so that makes this 6 plus 3 equals 9.” According to Vygotsky, Jeremy just gave us an example of __________.
a. social speech
b. private speech
c. inner speech
d. internalized speech

Back 68

private speech

Front 69

According to Vygotsky’s theory, it is best if teachers design educational programs that work:
a. just below a child’s zone of proximal development.
b. just above a child’s zone of proximal development.
c. within a child’s zone of proximal development.
d. against a child’s zone of proximal development.

Back 69

within a child’s zone of proximal development.

Front 70

In contrast to Piaget, Vygotsky placed a greater emphasis on the role of __________ in children’s cognitive development.
a. math and logic
b. biology and genetics
c. social interaction and language
d. the child’s own subjective interpretation

Back 70

social interaction and language

Front 71

True or False: In Vygotsky’s theory, the purpose of mediation is to prevent children from internalizing new concepts.

Back 71

False

Front 72

True or False: In Vygotsky’s theory, scaffolds are the support structures that adults and other people provide to help a child learn a difficult task.

Back 72

True

Front 73

processing capacity

Back 73

The amount of information a person can remember or think about at one time.

Front 74

processing efficiency

Back 74

The speed and accuracy with which a person can process information.

Front 75

automaticity

Back 75

The ability to carry out a process with little or no conscious effort, leaving more cognitive capacity to carry out other tasks.

Front 76

attention

Back 76

The ability to focus on a particular stimulus without becoming distracted by other stimuli.

Front 77

metacognition

Back 77

The understanding or knowledge that people have about their own thought processes.

Front 78

theory of mind

Back 78

An integrated understanding of what the mind is, how it works, and why it works that way.

Front 79

mirror neurons

Back 79

Neurons that fire when an individual produces an action and when the individual observes someone else making the action; the neurons “mirror” the behavior of someone else.

Front 80

The term processing capacity refers to:
a. the child’s ability to understand math concepts.
b. the amount of space a child has for storing information from the past.
c. the amount of information a child can remember or think about at one time.
d. the number of items that a child forgets in a given problem.

Back 80

amount of information a child can remember or think about at one time.

Front 81

2. What does the term metacognition refer to?
a. how people store and retrieve memories
b. thought processes that are unconscious
c. knowledge of one’s own thought and memory processes
d. the type of cognition used by younger children before they learn more mature forms of thinking

Back 81

knowledge of one’s own thought and memory processes

Front 82

Renaldo pretends to play with a magic sword. He knows that the “magic” is really just pretend in his own head and that his toy sword is not really magic. Renaldo’s understanding of the difference between pretend and reality is an example of his _________.
a. cognitive strategies
b. task knowledge
c. attentional skill
d. theory of mind

Back 82

theory of mind

Front 83

True or False: Processing capacity increases with age, but processing efficiency remains the same.

Back 83

False

Front 84

True or False: Three-year-old children are good at distinguishing appearance from reality

Back 84

False

Front 85

overregularization

Back 85

Incorrect application of the linguistic rules for producing past tenses and plurals, resulting in incorrect forms of irregular words such as goed or deers.

Front 86

social rules of discourse

Back 86

Conventions that speakers of a language follow when having a conversation.

Front 87

Fast-mapping and syntactical bootstrapping are two ways that children learn _______.
new grammar rules
new vocabulary words
new rules of social discourse
subtractive bilingualism

Back 87

new vocabulary words

Front 88

A child says, “Mommy goed to the store.” The child’s incorrect use of the -ed suffix in the word goed is an example of _______.
a. overregularization
b. overextension
c. fast-mapping
d. syntactical bootstrapping

Back 88

overregularization

Front 89

Which of the following social rules of discourse do children typically learn first?
a. turn taking
b. answer obviousness
c. say something relevant to the topic
d. don’t repeat something already said

Back 89

turn taking

Front 90

Project Head Start

Back 90

Federally funded, comprehensive program designed to improve academic achievement and opportunity for young children.

Front 91

Abecedarian Project

Back 91

Project designed to assess the impact of full-time, high-quality intervention beginning in infancy; served primarily African American children living in poverty.

Front 92

High/Scope Perry Preschool Program

Back 92

Program offering high-quality partial-day intervention during the school year for young African American children living in poverty.

Front 93

Which of the following is true about early childhood education programs such as Head Start, High/Scope Perry Preschool, and the Abecedarian Project?
a. These programs are not cost effective.
b. These programs regularly produce permanent gains in IQ scores.
c. These programs produce improved academic progress and graduation rates.
d. These programs have little effect on social measures such as arrest records or employment.

Back 93

These programs produce improved academic progress and graduation rates

Front 94

According to a national survey of kindergarten teachers, what percentage of their students were fully ready for kindergarten?
a. 65%
b. 75%
c. 85%
d. 95%

Back 94

65%

Front 95

3. When it comes to gauging a child’s readiness for kindergarten, which characteristic is emphasized more by parents than by teachers?
enthusiasm
social skills
physical health
academic knowledge

Back 95

academic knowledge

Front 96

True or False: Research shows that the Early Head Start Program that enrolls infants and toddlers is less effective than the regular Head Start Program.

Back 96

False

Front 97

True or False: Research suggests that it is best to “redshirt” children who do not seem to be socially and cognitively ready for kindergarten

Back 97

False

Front 98

8.1. What evidence of Stage 2 thinking do we see in children’s language, art, and play?

Back 98

In the preoperational thought stage (2 through 7 years), chil- dren can form internal mental representations. Children practice using symbols in their language (via their ability to let a word stand for an object in the environment), art (by letting marks on a paper represent people and things), and play (by using one object to stand for another).

Front 99

8.2 What is intuitive thinking and what are some examples of this?

Back 99

Intuitive thinking is thinking that is based more on personal experience than on objective logic. Egocentrism, animism, and artificialism are all indications that the young child is basing her thoughts on what things appear to be rather than on a logical understanding of what they really are.

Front 100

8.3 What do Piaget’s conservation problems tell us about children’s thinking?

Back 100

Children fail conservation problems because they center their thoughts on only one part of the problem, they focus on the static endpoints of the problem, and their cognitive schemes are not reversible (not yet operational).

Front 101

8.4 How has Piaget’s theory influenced how teachers and others think about children’s learning?

Back 101

Piaget’s notion of the child as an active and curious organism has led to the design of interactive and hands-on curricula in schools and early childhood settings. His stage ideas have shaped guidelines for when to introduce different topics in schools. Educators have also used Piaget’s ideas about schemes, assimilation, accommodation, disequilibrium, and reflective abstraction as they design and implement instruction.

Front 102

8.5 How does Vygotsky’s own cultural background relate to the emphasis on culture and social interaction in his theory?

Back 102

Vygotsky experienced a rich cultural history, rapid cultural changes, and individualized tutoring. He came to believe that the broader culture determines the cognitive skills one must learn to be successful in a specific context, but that the way one learns these skills is through interpersonal interac- tion. Vygotsky proposed that children learn primarily by adopting the cognitive structures embedded in the language and the larger culture around them.

Front 103

8.6 What role does language play in cognitive development?

Back 103

As adults and others speak, children adopt their social speech and transform it into their own private speech. Children then internalize their private speech to form internal thought structures.

Front 104

8.7 According to Vygotsky’s theory, how can adults facilitate children’s development?

Back 104

Interpersonal interactions with adults (or more-skilled peers) mediate the cognitive structures created in the larger culture. Mediation is the process of introducing concepts, knowl- edge, skills, and strategies to the child; without appropriate mediation, cognitive development will not be supported.

Front 105

8.8 What is the zone of proximal development, and why is it important for understanding cognitive development?

Back 105

The zone of proximal development (ZPD) represents those tasks that the child can perform with mediation or support from more skilled mentors. If instruction is to be effective, it must take place within the individual child’s ZPD.

Front 106

8.9 How do scaffolding and collaborative learning contribute to cognitive development?

Back 106

Adults and others mediate cognitive structures for children, often providing scaffolds or supports as children attempt more difficult tasks. Scaffolding and collaborative learning enable the child to work within the ZPD, above what could be accomplished initially and helping to further the development of partially mastered knowledge and skills.

Front 107

8.10 What is the information-processing approach?

Back 107

The information-processing approach views thinking as the processing of information. From this approach, it is assumed that humans manipulate symbols and that processing capacity is limited.

Front 108

8.11 How do processing capacity, processing efficiency, and attention change with development?

Back 108

Measures of processing capacity show consistent and regular increases throughout childhood and into early adulthood. Children use progressively less of their limited operating space as they become faster at processing information, which frees up some of the operating space for other things, thus increasing their processing efficiency. Older children are better able to maintain their attentional focus and ignore distracting information.

Front 109

8.12 What is metacognition, and how does it relate to children’s theory of mind?

Back 109

Metacognition is the understanding or knowledge that people have about their own thought processes and memory. To be able to hold a mature theory of mind (an integrated framework of concepts about the mind, how it works, and why it works that way), one must be able to engage in metacognitive reflection and understand their own thought processes.

Front 110

8.13 How much growth in vocabulary do we see during early childhood?

Back 110

Children’s dramatic vocabulary increase is accomplished through fast-mapping, imitation, syntactical bootstrapping, and by parental shaping. Increased brain myelination also plays an important role in word learning.

Front 111

8.14 What changes occur during early childhood in grammar and social rules of language use?

Back 111

Children learn grammar rules gradually. They learn rules for forming plurals and past tenses that are sometimes overregu- larized. Through parental modeling and social interactions, children begin to learn social rules of discourse that help them communicate effectively with other people.

Front 112

8.15 What are the advantages and disadvantages to learning two languages at the same time? Are bilingual children at a disadvantage?

Back 112

Children may develop additive or subtractive bilingualism, and may develop it successively or sequentially. Code switching often appears in the early stages of learning two languages, but its frequency decreases by the early preschool years. Bilingualism may slow the rate of language acquisition, but it may have cognitive benefits by encouraging greater reflection about language.

Front 113

8.16 What effects can early intervention programs have with children who are at risk for developmental problems?

Back 113

Programs such as Project Head Start, Early Head Start, the Abecedarian Project, and the High/Scope Perry Preschool Program were all created to help disadvantaged children succeed in school. Results vary, but the effects generally indicate improved rates of academic success, fewer school dropouts, and improved life conditions indicated by other measures.

Front 114

8.17 How do we know when children are ready to start kindergarten?

Back 114

Self-control of cognitive processes such as resisting tempta- tions and distractions, working memory, and cognitive flexi- bility seem to be better predictors of later school success than specific math or reading skills or overall IQ. It does not seem to be helpful to hold younger children back before starting them in kindergarten; focus should be placed on preparing schools to educate all children.

Front 115

self

Back 115

The characteristics, emotions, and beliefs people have about themselves, including an understanding that people are unique individuals.

Front 116

I-self

Back 116

The conscious awareness that you exist as a separate and unique person and that you can affect others.

Front 117

me-self

Back 117

What you know about yourself and how you describe yourself.