Chapter 5 - Cognitive Development in Infants

The rules that govern _____ describe the sound sequences that can occur in a language.

b. phonics

As he is rolling his truck up and down the sides of the couch, Nezzy points to his truck and says, "My truck." His father responds with, "What's the truck doing?" This is an example of:

b. recasting.

The _____ substage of sensorimotor development occurs between birth and one month of age.

b. simple reflexes

Child-directed speech is the:

b. unique way that parents and others talk to babies.

How many morphemes does the word "marker" have?

c. 2

Andrew, age 8 months, suffered some brain damage at birth. His identical twin, Alex, had no brain damage. Research on habituation would predict that:

c. Andrew will not habituate as well as Alex.

For cognitive change to occur, these two processes must work in concert as the child experiences considerable movement between the states of cognitive equilibrium and disequilibrium.

c. Assimilation and accommodation

Kevin loves to say, "Da, da, da, da" over and over again. This is an example of what type of communication?

c. Babbling

Significant changes during this substage involve the coordination of schemes and intentionality.

c. Coordination of secondary circular reactions

The _____ focuses on the infant's ability to process information in such ways as encoding the attributes of objects, detecting similarities and differences between objects, forming mental representations, and retrieving these representations.

c. Fagan Test of Infant Intelligence

Jim and Joanna are curious to know if their baby will grow up to be a child with high IQ. Which of the following tests measuring infant development is highly correlated with measures of intelligence in older children and would best suit the purpose?

c. Fagan test

47. Which of the following is a key criticism of Jean Piaget's theory of sensorimotor cognitive development?

c. Infants are more competent than Jean Piaget thought.

According to Piaget's concept of the sensorimotor stage development, which of the following statements about the coordination of secondary circular reactions is NOT true?

c. It develops between 12 and 18 months of age.

_____ have many jobs in grammar, such as marking tense and number.

c. Morphemes

In which sensorimotor substage does an infant's action become more object-oriented?

c. Secondary circular reactions

In which substage of sensorimotor development do infants start to repeat actions that bring interesting or pleasurable results?

c. Secondary circular reactions

Which of the following substages of sensorimotor development is characterized by coordination of sensation and action through reflexive behaviors?

c. Simple reflexes

_____ involves the way words are combined to form acceptable phrases and sentences

c. Syntax

Two-year-old Anita has learned the word "dog" to identify the family pet Rover. Now Anita says the word "dog" when she sees any animal. Anita has _____ these animals into her existing scheme.

c. assimilated

Benji starts calling his father "dad", but he also calls all men that he sees "dad." According to Piaget, this error is due to _____.

c. assimilation

When Alice speaks to her six-month old niece, her voice immediately takes on a higher pitch, her speech becomes slower, and she begins using more simplistic words and phrases. This change in Alice's language behavior provides an example of:

c. child-directed speech.

Eleven-month old Jenny uses her toy golf club to bring another toy within reach. According to Piaget's theory of infant development, Jenny is in the _____ substage of the sensorimotor stage.

c. coordination of secondary circular reactions

According to Piaget, the _____ sensorimotor substage marks the starting point for human curiosity and interest in novelty.

c. fifth

Farah shows her baby a colorful block several times. The baby looks carefully at the block, at first, but then turns her attention to a different toy after seeing the block a few times. The baby is showing _____.

c. habituation

As they walk in the park together, Damon's dad points out various objects to him—flowers, birds, butterflies, slides, swings, vehicles, and so on—and helps Damon name each of them. Damon's dad is using _____ to help his son learn language.

c. labeling

A form of communication that is based on a system of symbols is called _____.

c. language

Jean Piaget's concept of grouping isolated behaviors into a higher-order system is called _____.

c. organization

In Baillargeon's view, infants have a pre-adapted, innate bias called the principle of _____ that explains their assumption that objects do not change their properties unless some external factor obviously intervenes.

c. persistence

The sound system of a language is called _____.

c. phonology

Antonio swings his arms while lying in his crib. One of his arms accidentally hits the mobile hanging above him. This causes the mobile to begin to move. Antonio continues to swing his arms but is unable to strike the mobile again. This is an example of a:

c. primary circular reaction.

Most of young infants' conscious memories appear to be _____ although their implicit memory of perceptual-motor actions can be _____.

c. rather fragile and short-lived; substantial

Kyoko is 13 months old and can understand about 50 words but can say only about 10 words. This demonstrates how Kyoko's _____ vocabulary is more developed than her _____ vocabulary.

c. receptive; spoken

Sarah, age seven months, loves banging repeatedly on a toy that lights up and plays music on impact. Sarah is in Piaget's substage of:

c. secondary circular reaction.

The sentence "The chair told the girl to sit down" is _____ incorrect because we know that chairs cannot talk.

c. semantically

Research by Renée Baillargeon and her colleagues have found that infants as young as three to four months expect objects to be _____ in the sense that other objects cannot move through them, and _____ in the sense that objects continue to exist when they are hidden.

c. substantial; permanent

According to Piaget, a _____ is an internal sensory image or word that represents an event.

c. symbol

"Want ice cream," "Fall down," and "Mommy give cookie" are all examples of:

c. telegraphic speech.

In both the current version of the Gesell test, and the Bayley the subscores obtained from the four or five different categories are combined into an overall score that determines the infants:

c. the developmental quotient (DQ).

The rapid increase in an infant's vocabulary starting at about 18 months of age is called:

c. the vocabulary spurt.

Researchers like Baillargeon, have found that infants' perceptual abilities are highly developed much earlier than Jean Piaget thought. These researchers conclude that infants see objects as bounded, unitary, solid, and separate from their background definitely by _____ of age.

c. three to four months

Using habituation experiments, some researchers have found that infants as young as _____ can group together objects with similar appearances.

c. three to four months

In her book "Growing Up with Language," Naomi Baron provided which of the following suggestions for facilitating language development in toddlers?

a. Remember to listen

... Long before infants speak recognizable words, they produce a number of vocalizations. Describe some of these vocalizations in the order that they appear in infants. Answer: Babies' sounds or vocalizations go through this sequence during the first year:

1) Crying: Babies cry even at birth. Crying can signal distress, but there are different types of cries that signal different things. 2) Cooing: Babies first coo at about 2 to 4 months. These are gurgling sounds that are made in the back of the throat and usually

To explain how children use and adapt their schemes, Piaget offered two concepts: assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation occurs when children use their existing schemes to deal with new information or experiences.

Accommodation occurs when children adjust their schemes to take new information and experiences into account.

This theorist developed a measure to test infant cognitive development designed to distinguish normal babies from abnormal ones. The current version of this theorist's test combines the infant's performance in four domains into an overall score called the developmental quotient.

Answer: Arnold Gesell

It is a special way that children and adults speak to babies. It is characterized by language spoken in a higher pitch than normal, the use of simple words, and the use of simple sentences.

Answer: Child-directed speech

This is Jean Piaget's concept that describes the cognitive conflict that occurs when information in the environment is inconsistent with the child's current schemes. This conflict is the motivation to modify schemes or develop new schemes that are more consistent with the outside world.

Answer: Disequilibrium

Memory without conscious recollection. This includes memories ofof skills and routine procedures (e.g., crawling) that are performed automatically.

Answer: Implicit memory

The ability to produce an endless number of meaningful sentences using a finite set of words and rules.

Answer: Infinite generativity

According to Jean Piaget, this is the sixth and final substage of sensorimotor thought. This substage is apparent in children between about 18 months to 24 months of age. The infant develops the ability to use primitive symbols.

Answer: Internalization of schemes

This theorist developed a well-respected theory of cognitive development. This theorist suggested that development was universal and occurred in a fixed stage-like sequence. He/she proposed that infants were in the stage of "sensorimotor development."

Answer: Jean Piaget

This theorist developed a scale to assess infant behavior and predict later development. The current version has five scales: cognitive, language, motor, socioemotional, and adaptive.

Answer: Nancy Bayley

This linguist proposed that humans are biologically prewired to learn language. He/she proposed that infants are born into the world with a language acquisition device that enables the child to detect certain features and rules of language.

Answer: Noam Chomsky

Nine-month-old Mave is playing with a ball when her brother takes it and hides it behind a pillow. Mave cries and crawls over to the pillow to get the ball. She is demonstrating that she has acquired what Piagetian concept?

Answer: Object permanence

Shelby babbles using the sound "ba, ba, ba", or sometimes "ch, ch, ch." These basic units of sound that our language is composed of are known as _____.

Answer: Phoneme

... List in order Jean Piaget's six substages of the sensorimotor stage of cognitive development.

Answer: Piaget divided the sensorimotor stage into six substages: 1 simple reflexes; 2 first habits and primary circular reactions; 3 secondary circular reactions; 4 coordination of secondary circular reactions; 5 tertiary circular reactions, novelty, and curiosity; and 6 internalization of schemes.

... Define receptive vocabulary and spoken vocabulary. What is the relationship between the two?

Answer: Receptive vocabulary refers to the words that the child understands, whereas spoken vocabulary refers to the words that the child uses. Receptive vocabulary always precedes and exceeds spoken vocabulary.

According to Jean Piaget, these are actions or mental representations that organize knowledge.

Answer: Schemes

Define schemes. What are the processes of accommodation and assimilation? How are they related to schemes?

Answer: Schemes are actions or mental representations that organize knowledge. According to Piaget, as the infant or child seeks to construct an understanding of the world, the developing brain creates schemes.

According to Jean Piaget, this is the first substage of sensorimotor thought. This substage is apparent at birth and lasts approximately one month. Sensation and action are coordinated primarily through reflexive behaviors.

Answer: Simple reflexes

Eighteen-month-old Moira knows that her mother is "mommy", but she now calls all women she meets "mommy." According to Piaget, this illustrates _____.

Answer: assimilation

The Gesell test and the Bayley Scales of Infant Development have low correlations with later measures of IQ.

However, the Fagan test is correlated with measures of intelligence in older children.

repeat something many times for the infant to process information. But, if the stimulation is repeated often, the infant stops responding to the parent.

In parent-infant interaction, it is important for parents to do novel things and to repeat them often until the infant stops responding. The parent stops or changes behaviors when the infant redirects his/her attention

express pleasure during interaction with the caregiver. 3) Babbling:

In the middle of the first year, babies babble—that is, they produce strings of consonant-vowel combinations, such as "ba, ba, ba, ba."

... What is child-directed speech? What are some other strategies adults use to increase infants' acquisition of language? Answer: Child-directed speech is language spoken in a higher pitch and slower pace than normal and uses simple words and sentences.

It has the important function of capturing the infant's attention and maintaining communication. Adults often use strategies other than child-directed speech to enhance the child's acquisition of language, including recasting, expanding, and labeling.

When first born, Monica showed the typical grasping reflex by closing her fingers around anything that brushed against her palm. After a few weeks, she shows this grasping behavior even when nothing touches her palm.

Monica has developed a _____, or a scheme based on a reflex that has become completely separated from its eliciting stimulus. a. habit

Two-year-old Sarai uses the word "doll" to refer to her own Cabbage Patch doll but does not use the word to refer to her sister's Barbie doll. Sarai's error is known as:

a. underextension.

In which of the following substages of sensorimotor development do infants become intrigued by the many properties of objects and by the many things they can make happen to objects?

a. Tertiary circular reactions, novelty, and curiosity

... How is the Fagan Test of Infant Intelligence different from both the Gesell test and the Bayley Scales of Infant Development? Answer: The Gesell test and the Bayley Scales of Infant Development focus on infant behavior and do not specifically test the infant's ability to process information.

The Fagan Test of Infant Intelligence, on the other hand, focuses on the infant's ability to process information in such ways as encoding the attributes of objects, detecting similarities and differences between objects, forming mental representations, and retrieving these representations.

... What is infantile amnesia? What are two explanations given for this phenomenon? Answer: Most adults can remember little if anything from the first three years of their life.

This is called infantile or childhood amnesia. One reason for this phenomenon is that during the early years of life the prefrontal lobes of the brain—which are believed to play an important role in storing memories for events—are immature.

Which is the process by which information gets into memory?

a. Encoding

Which of the following statements regarding first words is NOT correct?

a. Infants recognize their name by age 3 months.

_____ is an area in the left frontal lobe of the brain that is involved in speech production.

a. Broca's area

Mariah has suffered brain damage to the left frontal lobe of her brain. When she tries to speak, she struggles to produce words and is unable to say them correctly. Mariah has damage to:

a. Broca's area.

Three-year-old Jesse used to call all moving vehicles "car." He now accurately categorizes moving vehicles into trucks, cars, motorcycles, and buses. Jesse has _____ to fit new information into his existing scheme.

a. accommodated

Schemes are:

a. actions or mental representations that organize knowledge.

Jean Piaget believed that children:

a. actively construct their own cognitive world.

In considering the big issue of whether nature or nurture plays the more important role in infant development, Elizabeth Spelke endorses a _____ approach, which states that infants are born with domain-specific innate knowledge systems.

a. core knowledge

When children experience cognitive conflict in trying to understand the world, they shift from one stage of thought to the next. For example, experiencing conflict with peers may lead to an attempt to reduce conflict. The mechanism through which this shift occurs is called _____.

a. equilibration

Remembering how to swim is an example of:

a. implicit memory.

Charisma is six months old and can vocalize pleasure and displeasure, search for objects out of reach, and approach a mirror that is placed in front of her. According to the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, Charisma:

a. is developing normally.

Noam Chomsky said that children are born into the world with a _____, a biological endowment that enables the child to detect certain features and rules of language, including phonology, syntax, and semantics.

a. language acquisition device

According to Piaget, solving a puzzle is an example of a:

a. mental scheme.

In the word "falling," both "fall" and "-ing" are considered _____.

a. morphemes

The rules of _____ describe the way meaningful units can be combined in words.

a. morphology

When one uses polite language in formal situations and a personal, informal language in intimate conversations, one is demonstrating the knowledge of _____, or the appropriate use of language in different contexts.

a. pragmatics

Jean Piaget believed that children's thinking in one stage is _____ that in another stage.

a. qualitatively different from

Alice is three weeks old. According to Piaget, Alice is in the substage of _____ and will latch on to and suck anything that is touched to her lips.

a. simple reflexes

Phonology is to _____ as morphology is to _____.

a. sound; meaning

If someone says to you, "Wilfred gave a gift to Marsha," you know who gave the gift and who received it because you understand the _____ of the sentence.

a. syntax

A study of young children living in low-income families found that _____ when predicting the vocabulary development of children.

a. the amount of maternal talk was less important than maternal literary skills

An example of the basic unit of sound in the English language is the sound the letter "m" makes. This sound is called a _____.

b. phoneme

Trenton was playing in the sandbox. He was pouring sand from a short, fat container into a tall, skinny container. When he poured the sand into the tall, skinny container, it looked to him as if it had more sand in it. Trenton could not figure out where the extra sand came from,

and how it got into his container. As Trenton continues to try to solve this puzzle, he will experience considerable movement between states of cognitive _____ and _____ to produce cognitive change. a. equilibrium; disequilibrium

... One recent study revealed that habituation assessed at 3 or 6 months of age was linked to verbal skills and intelligence assessed at 32 months of age. How can parents use the concepts of habituation and dishabituation to better interact with their babies, and maybe, in the process, boost their verbal skills

and intelligence? Answer: Knowing about habituation and dishabituation can help parents interact effectively with infants. Infants respond to changes in stimulation. Wise parents sense when an infant shows an interest and realize that they may have to

According to the Bayley mental scale, a _____ infant should be able to vocalize pleasure and displeasure, persistently search for objects that are just out of immediate reach, and approach a mirror that is placed in front of the infant by the examiner.

b. 6-month-old

_____ occurs when children adjust their schemes to take new information and experiences into account.

b. Accommodation

Which of the following is a requirement of joint attention?

b. An ability to track another's behavior

_____ are cognitive groupings of similar objects, events, people, or ideas.

b. Concepts

Identify the correct sequence of vocalization in infants.

b. Crying, cooing, babbling

Which of the following statements about joint attention is NOT true?

b. Emerging forms of joint attention occur at about 4 to 5 months.

In which of the following substages of sensorimotor development does the infant's main focus remain on his/her own body?

b. First habits and primary circular reactions

Josh is three months old. He is in which of Jean Piaget's substages of sensorimotor development?

b. First habits and primary circular reactions

_____ provides a measure of an infant's maturity and well-being.

b. Habituation

_____ involves the retention of information over time.

b. Memory

Consider the sentence: "The boy the ball with a hit bat." Which of the following rule systems of language does the sentence violate?

b. Syntax

According to Jean Piaget's theory of infant development, what makes one stage more advanced than another?

b. The child understands the world in a new way

Alejandro is 3 years old. He is now able to sort his blocks by their color. Alejandro has developed:

b. a new mental scheme.

A loss or impairment of language ability caused by brain injury is called _____.

b. aphasia

Research suggests that infants appear to understand the physical law of gravity:

b. around 6 to 8 months of age.

Baby Elise has developed a sucking scheme. She knows that to get food, she must suck on her mother's breast. Now her mother has begun to introduce solid foods with a spoon. Melissa immediately sucks on the spoon. This is an example of _____.

b. assimilation

The focusing of mental resources on select information is called _____.

b. attention

At birth, infants communicate through _____.

b. crying

A newborn baby widens her eyes after her mother widens her eyes and mouth and smiles at the baby. Meltzoff would say that this baby is:

b. engaging in true imitation.

Rebecca says, "Milk spill." Her grandfather replies, "Yes, the milk spilled on the floor." This is an example of:

b. expanding.

June knows the names of all the states that comprise the United States. The names of the states are a part of June's _____ memory.

b. explicit

When Abraham describes to his friend what he did last summer on vacation, he is relying on his _____ memory.

b. explicit

Most researchers find that babies do not show _____ until the second half of the first year.

b. explicit memory

From about 6 to 12 months of age, the maturation of the _____ and the surrounding cerebral cortex, especially the frontal lobes, makes explicit memory possible.

b. hippocampus

Juno is riding a bike. Riding a bike requires Juno to use her memories of skills and routine procedures that are performed automatically, referred to as her _____ memory.

b. implicit

Renee remembers very little about the first three years of her life. Psychologists find this normal and call it:

b. infantile amnesia.

Maya, age 11 months, points to her cup when she wants some water to drink. Maya's behavior:

b. is considered appropriate for her age.

When two individuals focus on the same object or event, it constitutes:

b. joint attention.

A _____ is a minimal unit of meaning; it is a word or a part of a word that cannot be broken into smaller meaningful parts.

b. morpheme

The understanding that objects and events continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, heard, or touched is called:

b. object permanence.

A _____ is the basic unit of sound in a language

b. phoneme

Many experts believe that humans acquired language about _____ years ago.

d. 100,000

According to the Bayley mental scale, by _____ of age, the infant should be able to inhibit behavior when commanded to do so, imitate words the examiner says, and respond to simple requests.

d. 12 months

This type of error occurs when infants make the mistake of selecting a familiar hiding place rather than a new hiding place as they progress into substage 4 in Piaget's sensorimotor stage.

d. A-not-B error

The current version of this widely used assessment method of infant development has five scales: cognitive, language, motor, socioemotional, and adaptive.

d. Bayley Scales of Infant Development

Which substage of sensorimotor development is characterized by coordination of vision and touch, i.e., hand-eye coordination?

d. Coordination of secondary circular reactions

In which sensorimotor substage does an infant develop the ability to use primitive symbols?

d. Internalization of schemes

Peter shouts and uses vulgar language when speaking to his teacher. Which of the following rule systems of language is Peter disregarding?

d. Pragmatics

Which of the following is NOT one of the five rules of language?

d. Reciprocity

_____ refers to the meaning of words and sentences.

d. Semantics

Sixteen-month old Akel plays endlessly with his ball, rolling it, throwing it, using it to knock over other toys, standing on it, and trying to ride on it. Which of Jean Piaget's substages is Akel probably in?

d. Tertiary circular reactions

As an infant, Mary suffered damage to _____ of the brain causing her to have poor comprehension. Also, her speech is fluent, but incomprehensible.

d. Wernicke's area

_____ is an area in the left temporal lobe of the brain that is involved with the comprehension of speech.

d. Wernicke's area

According to Piaget, physical activities such as sucking, grasping, and walking are examples of:

d. behavioral schemes.

The interactionist view of language development emphasizes that:

d. both biology and experience contribute to language development.

Baby Luis is interacting with grandma and makes gurgling sounds in the back of his throat to express his pleasure. This demonstrates _____.

d. cooing

Mandy sees a little girl in the grocery store throwing a screaming tantrum to get a toy. The next week at the mall, Mandy begins screaming and crying to get some candy. Mandy is showing:

d. deferred imitation.

Mathias is given the Bayley Scales of Infant Development and does very well on it. A high score on the Bayley mental scale:

d. does not indicate that Mathias will have high IQ scores later in childhood.

Someone with a vocabulary of only 200 words can recombine the words in different ways to say thousands of different things. This aspect of language is referred to as:

d. infinite generativity.

Kuhel is a behaviorist. In regards to language development he is most likely to believe that language is:

d. learned through reinforcement.

The word "toy" is an example of a _____.

d. morpheme

Heather is shown a teddy bear. The teddy bear is then hidden from her. Heather searches for the teddy bear. This shows that Heather has developed a sense of _____.

d. object permanence

Attention in the first year of life is dominated by a(n) _____ process which involves directing attention to potentially important locations in the environment, that is, "where," and recognizing objects and their features, that is, "what."

d. orienting/investigative

Two-year-old Max says the word "bunny" for a large hamster and a white rat. Max's error is known as:

d. overextension.

Jean Mandler argues that early categorizations are best described as _____ categorization. That is, the categorizations are based on similar features of objects such as size, color, and movement, as well as parts of objects, such as legs or for animals.

d. perceptual

Piaget divided the sensorimotor stage of development into _____ substages.

d. six

The sensorimotor stage of development lasts from birth until about:

d. two years of age.

... Jean Piaget observes that at 1 year, 2 months, his daughter "Jacqueline holds in her hands an object which is new to her: a round, flat box which she turns all over, shakes, [and] rubs against the bassinet. . . . She lets it go and tries to pick it up. But she only succeeds in touching it with her index

finger, without grasping it. She nevertheless makes an attempt and presses on the edge. The box then tilts up and falls again." Jacqueline shows an interest in this result and studies the fallen box. Which of Piaget's six substages of sensorimotor development does this behavior reflect?

... Distinguish between explicit memory and implicit memory. Answer: Implicit memory refers to memory without conscious recollection—memories of skills and routine procedures that are performed automatically. A child riding a bike draws on his/her implicit

memory every time she performs the task. In contrast, explicit memory refers to the conscious memory of facts and experiences. One's memories of the last vacation taken and the ability to recall the names of previous U.S. Presidents are examples of explicit memory.

Answer: Jacqueline's behavior is characteristic of Piaget's tertiary circular reactions, novelty, and curiosity stage, which is the fifth sensorimotor substage. It develops between 12 and 18 months of age. In this substage, infants become intrigued by the many properties of objects and by the many things

that they can make happen to objects. Tertiary circular reactions are schemes in which the infant purposely explores new possibilities with objects, continually doing new things to them and exploring the results. Piaget says that this stage marks the starting point for human curiosity and interest

A developmental psychologist studying infants' understanding of object permanence uses a method where infants see an event happen as it would normally occur; then, the event is changed, often in a

way that creates a physically impossible event, with the result that the infants look longer at the changed event indicating that he/she is surprised by it. Which method is being adopted here? a. Violation of expectations