Psychology Ch. 7

The years 2 to 6 are often called "the ___ years."

play

X-rays of epiphyses enable doctors to estimate children’s

Skeletal age

Which of the following children is the most likely to get his or her permanent teeth first

Brooke, an obese girl

An estimated 28% of U.S. preschoolers have _____, a figure that raises to 60% by age 18.

Tooth decay

By age 4,

Many parts of the cerebral cortex have overproduced synapses

EEG, NIRS, and fMRI measures of neural activity in various cortical regions reveal

Especially rapid growth from early to middle childhood in areas of the prefrontal lobe

For most children, the left cerebral hemisphere

is especially active between 3 and 6 years and then levels off

In contrast to activity in the left hemisphere, activity in the right hemisphere

increases steadily throughout early and middle childhood

Spatial skills

develop gradually over childhood and adolescence

In western nations, _____ percent of the population is right-handed

90

____ may profoundly affect handedness

prenatal events

Which of the following statements regarding handedness is true?

Left-handedness occurs more frequently mong people with mental retardation and mental illness than in the general population

Research on handedness demonstrates that

most left-handers have no developmental problems

The cerebellum

aids in balance and control of body movement

Fibers linking the ____ to the ____ grow and myelinate from birth through the preschool years, contributing to dramatic gains in motor coordination.

Cerebellum, cerebral cortex

Casey suffered damage to his cerebellum. Casey will most likely display both __________ and __________ deficits.

motor, cognitive

The reticular formation

maintains alertness and consciousness.

An inner-brain structure called the __________ plays a vital role in memory and in images of space that help us find our way.

hippocampus

The __________, located at the base of the brain, plays a critical role by releasing two hormones that induce growth.

pituitary gland

Children who lack __________ reach an average mature height of only 4 to 4½ feet.

growth hormone

Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) prompts the thyroid gland in the neck to release __________, which is necessary for brain development and for growth hormone (GH) to have its full impact on body size.

thyroxine

Priya was born with a deficiency of thyroxine. She did not receive prompt treatment. Priya is most likely

mentally retarded

With the transition to early childhood, many children

become unpredictable, picky eaters.

Which of the following statements is supported by research on nutrition?

Preschoolers compensate for a meal in which they eat little by eating more at a later meal.

Four-year-old Erin is a picky eater. How can Erin’s parents encourage her to eat a new food?

Repeatedly expose her to the new food without any direct pressure to eat it.

By the school years, low-SES U.S. children are, on average, __________ than their economically advantaged counterparts.

½ to 1 inch shorter

Which of the following statements about childhood diseases is true?

Childhood diseases occur earlier in developing countries than in industrialized countries.

Worldwide, _____ percent of deaths of children under age 5 are __________.

98; in developing countries

__________, often caused by unsafe water and contaminated foods, leads to nearly 1 million childhood deaths each year.

Diarrhea

Agata suffered from persistent diarrhea in early childhood. As a result, during her school years, Agata is probably __________ than her agemates who were not stricken with persistent diarrhea.

shorter in height

Developmental impairments and deaths due to diarrhea can be prevented with oral rehydration therapy (ORT), which consists of

a solution of glucose, salt, and water.

Bullous lives in a shantytown. His parents can decrease the risks of persistent diarrhea by

administering oral rehydration therapy (ORT) when he is sick and giving him a regular zinc supplement.

In industrialized nations, childhood diseases have declined dramatically during the past half-century, largely as a result of

widespread immunization of infants and young children.

About 30 percent of U.S. preschoolers

lack essential immunizations.

Which of the following is one reason the United States lags behind Denmark, Norway, Great Britain, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Canada in immunizations?

Many U.S. children do not have access to the health care they need.

__________ are the leading cause of childhood mortality in industrialized nations.

Unintentional injuries

Compared to other industrialized nations, the United States has a high childhood injury rate, largely because of

widespread childhood poverty.

In the United States, __________ is/are the leading cause of death among children more than 1 year old.

motor vehicle collisions

Boys are _____ times more likely to be injured during childhood than girls.

1.5

__________ are strongly associated with childhood injury.

Poverty, single parenthood, and low parental education

Which of the following statements is supported by research on childhood injuries?

U.S. children from advantaged families are at considerably greater risk for injury than children in Western Europe.

Which of the following statements about preventing childhood injuries is true?

Even though they know better, many parents and children behave in ways that compromise safety.

As children’s bodies become more streamlined and less top-heavy,

balance improves greatly.

By age 2 or 3, most children can

use a spoon effectively.

Perhaps the most complex self-help skill of early childhood is

shoe tying

Two-year old Mason placed a crayon on paper and quickly drew a line across the page, explaining, "Car zooms!" Which of the following statements best describes Mason’s drawing progress?

His gestures rather than the resulting scribbles contained the intended representation.

When __________, preschoolers’ pictures become more comprehensible and detailed.

adults draw with children and point out the resemblances between drawings and objects

Most 3- and 4-year-olds can

use lines to represent the boundaries of objects.

Research conducted on adolescents in the Jimi Valley of Papua New Guinea indicates that

nonrepresentational scribbles and shapes seem to be a universal beginning stage in drawing.

Preschoolers’ first attempts to print often involve writing

their own name.

Which of the following statements about sex differences in motor skills in early childhood is true?

Girls are ahead of boys in fine-motor skills

Which of the following statements is supported by research on individual differences in motor skills?

Children master the motor skills of early childhood during everyday play.

According to Piaget, the most obvious change as children move from the sensorimotor to the preoperational stage is an increase in

representational, or symbolic, activity.

Piaget acknowledged that __________ is our most flexible means of mental representation.

language

Piaget believed that __________ leads to internal images of experience, which children then label with words.

sensorimotor activity

Which of the following statements about the development of make-believe play is true?

Increasingly, preschoolers realize that agents and recipients of pretend actions can be independent of themselves.

Researchers today believe that make-believe play

not only reflects but also contributes to children’s cognitive and social skills.

Preschoolers who __________ are seen as more socially competent by their teachers.

spend more time at sociodramatic play

While playing house, 3-year-old Lindsay uses a straw as a "bottle" to feed her doll. Lindsay has begun to grasp

dual representation.

According to Piaget, the most fundamental deficiency of preoperational thinking is

egocentrism.

Five-year-old Chaim is participating in Piaget’s three-mountains problem. When Chaim is asked to pick the picture that shows what the display looks like from the doll’s perspective, he will most likely select the

picture that shows his own point of view.

Three-year old Abah refuses to leave his stuffed elephant at home. He explains, "She feels scared because she is alone." Abah is using

animistic thinking.

Conservation refers to the

idea that certain physical characteristics of objects remain the same, even when their outward appearance changes.

Four-year-old Jasmine is shown two identical tall glasses of water and agrees that they contain the same amount of liquid. When the liquid is poured into a short, wide container, she says that there is more water in the shorter container because it is "all spread out." Jasmine is demonstrating a lack of understanding of

conservation.

Piaget’s conservation-of-liquid task demonstrates that preoperational children’s thinking is characterized by __________ in that they focus on one aspect of a situation, neglecting other important features.

centration

The most important illogical feature of preoperational thought is its

irreversibility.

Heidi is shown 16 flowers, 4 of which are blue and 12 of which are red. Asked, "Are there more red flowers or flowers?" Heidi, a preoperational child, responds, "More red flowers." This problem demonstrates Heidi’s difficulty with

hierarchical classification.

One reason Piagetian problems do not always elicit responses reflecting preschoolers’ true cognitive abilities is that they contain

unfamiliar elements or too many pieces of information.

Piaget __________ preschoolers’ __________.

overestimated; animistic beliefs

Follow-up research indicates that even though preschoolers have difficulty with Piagetian class inclusion tasks, they

organize their everyday knowledge into nested categories at an early age.

Which of the following statements about children’s questions is true?

The content of children’s questions is related to their cognitive development.

When children ask questions, parents

adjust the complexity of their answers to fit their children’s maturity.

Follow-up research indicates that

Piaget was partly wrong and partly right about young children’s cognitive capacities

Evidence that preschoolers __________ supports the idea that operational thought is not absent at one point in time and present at another.

can be trained to perform well on Piagetian problems

Over time, children rely on increasingly effective __________ to solve problems.

mental approaches

Using __________, children in a Piagetian classroom are encouraged to spontaneously interact with the environment.

discovery learning

In Paul’s preschool classroom, children are encouraged to choose activities from a rich variety of materials designed to promote exploration. This preschool emphasizes the Piagetian principle of

discovery learning

In Jody’s preschool classroom, teachers introduce activities that build on children’s current thinking, challenging their incorrect ways of viewing the world. But they do not try to hasten development by imposing new skills before children indicate interest or readiness. This preschool emphasizes the Piagetian principle of

sensitivity to children’s readiness to learn.

Which of the following educational principles derived from Piaget’s theory continues to have a major impact on classroom practices?

acceptance of individual differences

Piaget called children’s self-directed utterances __________ speech, reflecting his belief that young children have difficulty taking the perspectives of others.

egocentric

Vygotsky saw __________ as the foundation for all higher cognitive processes.

language

Research shows that children more often use private speech when

tasks are appropriately challenging or they are confused about how to proceed.

According to Vygotksy, learning takes place

within the zone of proximal development.

When building a block tower with his young daughter, Samuel adjusts the support offered to his daughter to fit her current level of performance. Samuel is engaging in

scaffolding

In Jean’s preschool classroom, teachers guide children’s learning, tailoring their interventions to each child’s zone of proximal development. This classroom emphasizes the Vygotskian principle of

assisted discovery

In Yvonne’s preschool classroom, children of varying abilities work in groups, teaching and helping one another. This classroom emphasizes the Vygotskian principle of

peer collaboration

Vygotsky saw __________ play as the ideal social context for fostering cognitive development in early childhood.

make-believe

Ignacio lives in a remote Mayan village in Yucatan, Mexico. Ignacio does not rely on conversation and play to teach his children. Which of the following is the most likely reason for this?

Ignacio’s children spend their day in contact with adult work and start to assume mature responsibilities in early childhood.

Itzel, a Yucatec Mayan preschooler, is hungry. She is most likely to

decide for herself when and how much to eat.

Compared to their Western agemates, Yucatec Mayan preschoolers

seldom ask others for something interesting to do.

__________ refers to shared endeavors between more expert and less expert participants, without specifying the precise features of communication.

Guided participation

With regard to information processing, preschoolers

become more aware of their own mental life.

Compared with school-age children, preschoolers

spend shorter times involved in tasks and are easily distracted.

A major reason that sustained attention improves in the preschool years is

a steady gain in children’s ability to inhibit impulses and keep their mind on a competing goal.

Which of the following statements about preschoolers’ ability to generate and follow a plan is true?

When parents encourage planning in everyday activities, they help children plan more effectively.

Dr. Frolicker shows a group of 4-year-olds a set of 10 items on a tray. She then mixes them up with some unfamiliar items, and asks the children to point to the ones in the original set. Dr. Frolicker is testing

recognition memory.

Even preschoolers with good language skills recall poorly because

they are not skilled at using memory strategies.

Three-year-old Maya is asked to describe what happens at preschool. This task requires Maya to use

scripts

Over spring vacation, Gerald goes to Disney World with his family. When he returns to school, Gerald excitedly tells his teacher about the trip. Gerald’s representation of this personally meaningful, one-time event is known as

an autobiographical memory.

With regard to questions used to elicit children’s autobiographical narratives, preschoolers who experience the __________ style recall __________ information about past events.

elaborative; more

Metacognition involves

thinking about thought

Eighteen-month-old Gabriella witnesses her mother finding a Duplo block in its labeled canister. When her mother isn’t looking, Gabriella watches as her father moves the block to an unmarked canister. When her mother again searches for the block in the original canister, Gabriella helps her locate the block in the unmarked canister. This indicates that Gabriella may have an implicit grasp of

false-belief

Children who spontaneously use, or who are trained to use, mental-state words in conversation are especially likely to pass __________ tasks.

false-belief

Children with autism

have narrow and overly intense interests.

Mounting evidence reveals that children with autism have

a deficient theory of mind.

Zachary, age 3, has autism. Zachary probably __________ often __________ than typically developing agemates

less; establishes joint attention

Children’s active efforts to construct literacy knowledge through informal experiences are called

emergent literacy

__________ is the ability to reflect on and manipulate the sound structure of spoken language.

Phonological awareness

Three-year-old J.T. understands that 3 is more than 2, and 2 is more than 1. J.T. has a grasp of

ordinality

Mastery of __________ increases the efficiency of children’s counting.

cardinality

Dr. Wizda is assessing the home life of a preschool child using the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME). She observes the parent converse with the child four times during the visit. On which subscale should Dr. Wizda record this observation?

language stimulation

Pramada attends a child-care program that stresses formal academic training. As a result, Pramada is more likely to __________ than peers who attend a child-centered program.

display a decrease in motivation and emotional well-being

A central component of Montessori education is

child-chosen activities.

One reason that gains in IQ and achievement test scores from attending Head Start quickly dissolve is that many of the children

enter low-quality public schools.

Which of the following statements is supported by research on child care?

Good child care enhances cognitive, language, and social development.

Preschool viewing of educational television programming like Sesame Street is associated with

getting higher grades, reading more books, and placing more value on achievement in high school.

Dan and Steven are considering getting their 4-year-old son a computer. Which of the following statements can you share with them to best help them understand the value of computers in early childhood?

Combining everyday and computer experiences with math manipulatives is especially effective in promoting math concepts and skills.

Between ages 2 and 6, most children acquire about _____ new words each __________.

5; day

Research shows that children can connect new words with their underlying concepts after only a brief encounter, a process called

fast-mapping

Which of the following statements about strategies for early word learning is true?

Preschoolers figure out many word meanings by observing how words are used in the structure of sentences.

Two-year-old Aidan says, "We saw two deers." Aidan is demonstrating

overregularization.

The ability to engage in effective and appropriate communication is called

pragmatics

During a conversation, 4-year-old Maleeka will

adjust her speech to fit the age, sex, and social status of her listener.

Adults often provide indirect feedback about grammar by using __________, which restructures inaccurate speech into correct form.

a recast

Expansions

elaborate on children’s speech, increasing its complexity.