Ch 4. Physical Development in Infancy

Question 1

Cephalocaudal Pattern

Answer 1

Developmental sequence in which the earliest growth always occurs at the top—the head—with physical growth in size, weight, and feature differentiation gradually working from top to bottom.

Question 2

Proximodistal Pattern

Answer 2

Developmental sequence in which growth starts at the center of the body and moves toward the extremities.

Question 3

Frontal Lobe Purpose

Answer 3

Voluntary movement, thinking, personality, and intentionality or purpose.

Question 4

Occipital Lobe

Answer 4

Vision

Question 5

Temporal Lobe

Answer 5

An active role in hearing, language processing, and memory.

Question 6

Parietal Lobe

Answer 6

Registering spatial location, attention, and motor control.

Question 7

Lateralization

Answer 7

Specialization of function in one hemisphere of the cerebral cortex or the other.

Question 8

Axon

Answer 8

Carries signals away from cell body

Question 9

Dendrites

Answer 9

Carry signal towards cell body

Question 10

Myelin Sheath

Answer 10

A layer of fat that encases axons, insulating them and lets electric signals travel faster along them.

Question 11

Synapse

Answer 11

Tiny gap between neurons’ fibers

Question 12

Myelination

Answer 12

The process of encasing axons with fat. Begins prenatally and goes until adolescence.

Question 13

The Neuroconstructivist View

Answer 13

Perspective holding that biological processes and environmental conditions influence the brain’s development; the brain has plasticity and is context dependent; and development of the brain and cognitive development are closely linked.

Question 14

The Neuroheredity View

Answer 14

Whatever brain your heredity had dealt you, you were essentially stuck with. (Outdated and made up.)

Question 15

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)

Answer 15

A condition that occurs when an infant stops breathing, usually during the night, and suddenly dies without an apparent cause.

Question 16

Marasmus

Answer 16

A wasting away of body tissues in the infant’s first year, caused by severe protein-calorie deficiency.

Question 17

Kwashiorkor

Answer 17

A condition caused by severe protein deficiency in which the child’s abdomen and feet become swollen with water; usually appears between 1 and 3 years of age.

Question 18

Dynamics System Theory

Answer 18

The perspective on motor development that seeks to explain how motor behaviors are assembled for perceiving and acting.

Question 19

Reflexes

Answer 19

Built-in reactions to stimuli that govern the newborn’s movements, which are automatic and beyond the newborn’s control.

Question 20

Rooting Reflex

Answer 20

A newborn’s built-in reaction that occurs when the infant’s cheek is stroked or the side of the mouth is touched. In response, the infant turns his or her head toward the side that was touched, in an apparent effort to find something to suck.

Question 21

Sucking Reflex

Answer 21

A newborn’s built-in reaction to automatically suck an object placed in its mouth. The sucking reflex enables the infant to get nourishment before he or she has associated a nipple with food and also serves as a self-soothing or self-regulating mechanism.

Question 22

Moro Reflex

Answer 22

A neonatal startle response that occurs in reaction to a sudden, intense noise or movement. When startled, the newborn arches its back, throws its head back, and flings out its arms and legs. Then the newborn rapidly pulls its arms and legs close to the center of the body.

Question 23

Grasping Reflex

Answer 23

A neonatal reflex that occurs when something touches the infant’s palms. The infant responds by grasping tightly.

Question 24

Gross Motor Skills

Answer 24

Motor skills that involve large-muscle activities, such as walking.

Question 25

Fine Motor Skills

Answer 25

Motor skills that involve more finely tuned movements, such as finger dexterity.

Question 26

Sensation

Answer 26

The product of the interaction between information and the sensory receptors—the eyes, ears, tongue, nostrils, and skin

Question 27

Perception

Answer 27

The interpretation of what is sensed.

Question 28

Ecological View

Answer 28

The view that perception functions to bring organisms in contact with the environment and to increase adaptation

Question 29

Affordances

Answer 29

Opportunities for interaction offered by objects that fit within our capabilities to perform functional activities.

Question 30

Visual Preference Method

Answer 30

A method used to determine whether infants can distinguish one stimulus from another by measuring the length of time they attend to different stimuli.

Question 31

Habituation

Answer 31

Decreased responsiveness to a stimulus after repeated presentations of the stimulus.

Question 32

Dishabituation

Answer 32

Recovery of a habituated response after a change in stimulation.

Question 33

Size Constancy

Answer 33

The recognition that an object remains the same even though the retinal image of the object changes as you move toward or away from the object.

Question 34

Shape Constancy

Answer 34

The recognition that an object’s shape remains the same even though its orientation to us changes.

Question 35

Intermodal Perception

Answer 35

The ability to relate and integrate information from two or more sensory modalities, such as vision and hearing.

Question 36

Esther Thelen

Answer 36

Proposed Dynamic Systems Theory.

Question 37

Karen Adolph

Answer 37

Investigated how experienced and inexperienced crawling infants and walking infants go down steep slopes.

Question 38

Rachel Keen

Answer 38

Studied infants in regard to tool use.

Question 39

Eleanor and James Gibson

Answer 39

Created the ecological view.

Question 40

Robert Fantz

Answer 40

Created an Infant “looking chamber” using visual preference method. Determined Infants look at different things for longer based on age.