Midterm 1 Flashcards

Question

Name the four major theoretical viewpoints about human development and name one major theorist or researcher associated with each.

Answer 1

1. The psychoanalytic viewpoint developed by Sigmund Freud and revised by Erik Erikson and other neo-Freudians 2. The learning perspective developed by such pioneers as Ivan Pavlov, John Watson, B. F. Skinner, and Albert Bandura 3. The cognitive developmental viewpoint associated with Jean Piaget 4. The systems theory approach, exemplified by Urie Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model

Answer 2

Nature–nurture: (from above) Activity–passivity: focuses on the extent to which human beings are active in creating and influencing their own environments and, in the process, in producing their own development, or are passively shaped by forces beyond their control. Continuity–discontinuity: focuses in part on whether the changes people undergo over the life span are gradual or abrupt. Continuity theorists view human development as a process that occurs in small steps, without sudden changes, as when grade school children gradually gain weight from year to year. In contrast, discontinuity theorists tend to picture the course of development as more like a series of stair steps, each of which elevates the individual to a new (and often more advanced) level of functioning. universality–context specificity: the extent to which developmental changes are common to all humans (universal) or are different across cultures, subcultures, task contexts, and individuals (context specific).

Answer 3

1. the course of development as more like a series of stair steps, each of which elevates the individual to a new (and often more advanced) level of functioning. 2. changes that make the individual fundamentally different in some way

Answer 4

In the mature, healthy personality, a dynamic balance operates: The id communicates its basic needs, the ego restrains the impulsive id long enough to find realistic ways to satisfy these needs, and the superego decides whether the ego’s problem-solving strategies are morally acceptable. The ego has to balance the opposing demands of id and superego while taking into account the realities of the person’s environment.

Answer 5

positive reinforcement: desirable event that, when introduced following a behavior, makes that behavior more probable. negative reinforcement: a response is strengthened or made more probable when its consequence is the removal of an unpleasant stimulus from the situation.

Answer 6

The notion in social cognitive theory that the flow of influence between people and their environments is a two-way street; the environment may affect the person, but the person’s characteristics and behavior will also influence the environment. As Bandura sees it, environment does not rule, as it did in Skinner’s thinking: People choose, build, and change their environments; they are not just shaped by them. And people’s personal characteristics and behaviors affect the people around them, just as other people are influencing their personal characteristics and future behaviors. Bandura doubts that there are universal stages of human development. * Learning involves watching a model and, through vicarious reinforcement or punishment, the consequences of the model’s behavior. * Skills, cognitions, and behaviors, including ones that the learner has not been directly reinforced for displaying are learned

Answer 7

the development of thought from infancy to adolescence. four major periods of cognitive development. the mind that “constructs” understanding of the physical world also comes, with age, to understand gender, moral values, emotions, death, and a range of other important aspects of the human experience

Answer 8

Disagreeing with Piaget’s notion of universal stages of cognitive development, Vygotsky maintained that cognitive development is shaped by the sociocultural context in which it occurs and grows out of children’s interactions with members of their culture (Vygotsky, 1962, 1978). Each culture provides its members with certain tools of thought—most notably a language, but also tools such as pencils, art media, mathematical systems, and computers. The ways in which people in a particular culture approach and solve problems are passed from generation to generation through oral and written communication. Hence culture, especially as it is embodied in language, shapes thought. As a result, cognitive development is not the same universally. Whereas Piaget tended to see children as independent explorers, Vygotsky saw them as social beings who develop their minds through their interactions with more knowledgeable members of their culture. *popular in recent years

Answer 9

likens the human mind to a computer with hardware and software and examines the fundamental mental processes, such as attention, memory, decision making, and the like, involved in performing cognitive tasks.

Answer 10

claims that changes over the life span arise from ongoing transactions in which a changing organism and a changing environment affect one another. The individual and the physical and social contexts with which he interacts are inseparable parts of a larger system in which everything affects everything else. Development can take a variety of paths, and some surprising turns, depending on the complex interplay of multiple influences. Nature and nurture cannot be separated easily because they are part of a dynamic system, continually influencing one another, “co-acting” to produce development.

Answer 11

1. microsystem: an immediate physical and social environment in which the person interacts face-to-face with other people and influences and is affected by them. 2. mesosystem: interrelationships between two or more microsystems. 3. exosystem: social settings that individuals do not experience directly but that can still influence their development. 4. macrosystem: the larger cultural or societal context in which the microsystem, mesosystem, and exosystem are embedded. It includes a society’s cultural values, laws, political and economic systems, and institutions.

Answer 12

A distinct phase within a larger sequence of development; a period characterized by a particular set of abilities, motives, behaviors, or emotions that occur together and form a coherent pattern.

Answer 13

The gradual weakening and disappearance of a learned response when it is no longer reinforced. possibly because overimitation has proven adaptive for our species, helping us learn “how we do things” in our culture—helping us acquire the many, often arbitrary, skills, rituals, and rules important in our culture, including new ways of solving problems. Overimitation also helps us fit in.

Answer 14

possibly because overimitation has proven adaptive for our species, helping us learn “how we do things” in our culture—helping us acquire the many, often arbitrary, skills, rituals, and rules important in our culture, including new ways of solving problems. Overimitation also helps us fit in.

Answer 15

the position taken by Piaget and others that humans actively create their own understandings of the world from their experiences, as opposed to being born with innate ideas or being programmed by the environment.

Answer 16

psychosexual stages: Freud’s five stages of development, associated with biological maturation and shifts in the libido: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital. psychosocial stages: Erikson’s eight stages of development (trust, autonomy, initiative, industry, identity, intimacy, generativity, and integrity), emphasizing social influences more and biological urges less than Freud’s psychosexual stages. * Placed less emphasis on sexual urges as the drivers of development and more emphasis on social influences—not just parents but peers, teachers, schools, and the broader culture—claiming that nature and nurture are equally important. * Placed less emphasis on the unconscious, irrational, and selfish id and more on the rational ego and its adaptive powers. * Held a more positive view of human nature, seeing people as active in their development, largely rational, and able to overcome the effects of harmful early experiences. * Put more emphasis on development after adolescence.

Answer 17

There is genetic variation in a species. Genes that aid their bearers in adapting to their environment will be passed to future generations more frequently than genes that do not. This is the key principle of natural selection—the idea that nature “selects,” or allows to survive and reproduce, those members of a species whose genes help them adapt to their environment. Genes that increase the chances of surviving and reproducing will become more common over time because they will be passed to many offspring. Through natural selection, then, the genetic makeup of a species slowly changes—and will continue to change as long as individuals with certain genetic makeups reproduce more frequently than individuals with other genetic makeups. Change can eventually be sufficient to produce a new species.

Answer 18

The idea that nature “selects,” or allows to survive and reproduce, those members of a species whose genes help them adapt to their environment.

Answer 19

Not all human similarity is because of genes, however. Through the process of cultural evolution, we “inherit” from previous generations a characteristically human environment and tried and true ways of adapting to it, invent better ways of adapting and adjusting to changing conditions, and pass on what we learn to the next generation

Answer 20

Through single gene-pair inheritance, each of thousands of human characteristics are influenced by only one pair of genes—one from the mother, one from the father.In sex-linked inheritance, a characteristic is influenced by single genes located on the sex chromosomes rather than on the other 22 pairs of chromosomes. In fact, most important human characteristics are influenced by polygenic inheritance—by multiple pairs of genes, interacting with multiple environmental factors, rather than by a single pair of genes. Examples of polygenic traits include height, weight, intelligence, personality, susceptibility to cancer and depression, and much more.

Answer 21

It happens that there is a gene associated with tongue curling; it is a dominant gene, meaning that it will be expressed when paired with a recessive gene, a weaker gene that can be dominated (like one associated with the absence of tongue-curling ability).

Answer 22

In most cases, a zygote with the wrong number of chromosomes is spontaneously aborted; chromosome abnormalities are the main cause of pregnancy loss.

Answer 23

twins: A simple type of twin study to untangle genetic and environmental influences involves determining whether identical twins reared together are more similar to each other in traits of interest than fraternal twins reared together. If genes matter, identical twins should be more similar because they have 100% of their genes in common, whereas fraternal twins share only 50% on average. adopted: Researchers must appreciate that not only the genes of a biological mother but also the prenatal environment she provided influence how an adopted child turns out. Researchers must also be careful to correct for the tendency of adoption agencies to place children in homes similar to those they were adopted from. Finally, researchers must recognize that because adoptive homes are generally above-average environments, adoption studies may underestimate the effects of the full range of environments children can experience. family studies: Researchers are conducting complex family studies that include pairs of siblings who have a variety of different degrees of genetic similarity—for example, identical twins, fraternal twins, full biological siblings, half siblings, and unrelated stepsiblings who live together in stepfamilies.

Answer 24

The percentage of pairs of people studied (for example, pairs of identical twins or adoptive parents and children) in which if one member of a pair displays the trait, the other does too. If concordance rates are higher for more genetically related than for less genetically related pairs of people, the trait is heritable.

Answer 25

Molecular genetics is the analysis of particular genes and their effects (Plomin et al., 2013). It involves identification of specific variants of genes that influence particular traits and comparisons of animals or humans who have these genes with those who do not. It also allows researchers to study the effects of specific genes in combination with the effects of specific environmental influences.

Answer 26

Clearly, correlations are higher when pairs of people are closely related genetically than when they are not and are highest when they are identical twins. Temperament—tendencies to respond in predictable ways, such as sociability and emotional reactivity, that serve as the building blocks of later personality (see Chapter 11). Genes contribute to individual differences in both early temperament and later personality. The temperament of infants is genetically influenced. These identical twins seem like easy babies, eager to socialize.

Answer 27

Passive gene–environment correlations work like this: Because parents provide children with both their genes and a home environment compatible with those genes, the home environments to which children are exposed are correlated with (and are typically likely to reinforce) their genotypes. In evocative gene–environment correlations, a child’s genotype also evokes certain kinds of reactions from other people. The smiley, sociable baby is likely to get more smiles, hugs, and social stimulation—and more opportunities to build social skills—than the wary, shy baby who makes you worry he will howl if you try anything. Through active gene–environment correlations, children’s genotypes influence the kinds of environments they seek. The individual with a genetic predisposition to be extraverted is likely to go to every party in sight, invite friends over, join organizations, collect Facebook friends, and otherwise build a “niche” that is highly socially stimulating and that strengthens social skills. The child with genes for shyness may actively avoid large group activities and instead develop solitary interests.

Answer 28

Epigenetic effects, ways in which environmental factors influence the expression of particular genes in particular cells. Through epigenetic effects, factors such as diet, stress, alcohol and drugs, environmental toxins, and early parental care leave records, chemical codings on top of certain genes that affect whether those genes are turned on or off. Analysis of RNA can now reveal these patterns of gene expression.

Answer 29

New techniques for “editing” the genome and inserting new genes in patients’ bodies promise to revolutionize gene therapy—and raise all kinds of ethical issues and concerns about unintended consequences. To give parents information that might prompt them to abort a fetus that is not of the desired health status or intellect, and to experiment with techniques for altering an individual’s genetic makeup through gene therapy

Answer 30

The genetic endowment that members of a particular species have in common; a contributor to universal species traits and patterns of maturation.

Answer 31

A process in which genetic material is exchanged between pairs of chromosomes during meiosis.

Answer 32

a form of intermediate inheritance in which one allele for a specific trait is not completely expressed over its paired allele. This results in a third phenotype in which the expressed physical trait is a combination of the phenotypes of both alleles.

Answer 33

The moment of fertilization, when a sperm penetrates an ovum, forming a zygote.

Answer 34

The amount of variability in a population on some trait dimension that is attributable to genetic differences among those individuals.

Answer 35

Identical twins -- monozygotic twins who develop from a single zygote that later divides to form two genetically identical individuals. Fraternal twins -- are not identical and who result when a mother releases two ova at roughly the same time and each is fertilized by a different sperm.

Answer 36

genotype: The genetic endowment that an individual inherits. Contrast with phenotype. Phenotype: The way in which a person’s genotype is expressed in observable or measurable characteristics. (what it looks like on the outside)

Answer 37

gene-environment interaction: The effects of our genes depend on what kind of environment we experience, and how we respond to the environment depends on what genes we have. Thus, the genes people have make a difference only when their environment is stressful, and a stressful environment has an effect only on individuals with a genotype that predisposes them to depression. Genes and environment interact. gene-environment correlation: A systematic interrelationship between an individual’s genes and that individual’s environment; ways in which genes influence the kind of home environment provided by parents (passive gene–environment correlation), the social reactions to the individual (evocative gene–environment correlation), and the types of experiences the individual seeks (active gene–environment correlation).

Answer 38

Shared: (the opposite) = same environmental influences Non-shared: if differences in their development are systematically related to differences in their experiences. Since they have identical genes and grew up in similar prenatal and postnatal environments, differences in their behavior or development can be credited to differences in their experiences

Answer 39

a sperm donor, an egg donor, a surrogate mother in whom the fertilized egg is implanted, and a caregiving mother and father.

Answer 40

1. the germinal period: The first trimester begins with the germinal period, which lasts approximately 2 weeks; 2. the embryonic period: The first trimester continues with the embryonic period, which occurs from the third to the eighth week after conception. During this short time, every major organ takes shape. 3. fetal period: The fetal period lasts from the ninth week of pregnancy until birth, which means it encompasses part of the first trimester and all of the middle and last trimesters

Answer 41

a. Embryo elongates, three layers form (ecto, meso, and endoderm) b. Embryo curves, and folds to form neural tube. Heart beats for the first time. c. Ears, mouth, and throat take shape. Heart divides into two regions d. Heart divids into four chambers. Sexual differentiation begins. e. Most structures and organs present. Ovaries and tests are evident. Embryo straightens and looks more human.

Answer 42

Bone tissue emerges, embryo becomes fetus. Head of fetus looks huge. Fetus and open and close mouth and turn head. Fingers and toes formed. Genitalia developeed. Movements increasees a lot. “Breathing” and reflexes. Heartbeat audible with stethoscope. Mother feels movements. Skeleton hardens Fingernails, toenails, hair, teeth buds, eyelashes grow. Brain development is phenomenal Viability - chance of survival outside womb! Fetus gains weight, brain grows, nervous system organized Last 6 weeks of full-term pregnancy weight gain and brain activity. Lungs mature.

Answer 43

Proliferation: of neurons involves their multiplying at a staggering rate during this period; by one estimate, the number of neurons increases by hundreds of thousands every minute throughout all of pregnancy, with a concentrated period of proliferation occurring between 6 and 17 weeks after conception Migration: the neurons move from their place of origin in the center of the brain to particular locations throughout the brain where they will become part of specialized functioning units. Migration is influenced by genetic instructions and by the biochemical environment in which brain cells find themselves. Differentiation: transformation of cells. Neurons may evolve into a particular type or function based on where they land following migration. Alternatively, another theory is that cells may “know” what they are supposed to be and where they are intended to go on their migratory path before reaching their final destination

Answer 44

it is not only the unborn child who may be affected by prenatal environmental factors: The offspring of the unborn child may also be affected. Through epigenetic codings carried on the DNA of the reproductive cells of the developing fetus, a pregnant woman’s health, diet, and environment may adversely affect her future grandchildren. Epigenetics is a critical component in understanding fetal programming. According to research with animals and increasingly humans, prenatal imbalances in nutrition and exposure to environmental toxins may alter molecular pathways in ways leading to disease and health challenges later in life. Adult health and mental health conditions such as obesity, heart disease, and schizophrenia may arise, in part, from the prenatal environment and fetal programming.

Answer 45

Drug: thalidomide: relieved early morning sickness a while ago, but the women gave birth to babies with missing limbs or body parts in the wrong spot based on when she took the medicine. Tobacco: increased miscarriage, prematurity, growth retardation, respiratory problems, cleft lips, CNS impairment, later health problems (ie. inflammatory bowel disease) Alcohol: FAS deformities, irritability, hyperactivity, seizures, termors, low IQ tests, attention deficits, psychiatric disorders. Cocaine: greater reactivity response to stimulation in first year, deficits in information processing, delinquent behavior. Antidepressants: greater risk for heart malformations, neural tube defects, low birth weight, respiratory distress Chemo: miscarriage and malformations Marijuana: low birth weight, premature birth, irritability at birth, deficits in general intelligence

Answer 46

increased miscarriage, prematurity, growth retardation, respiratory problems, cleft lips, CNS impairment, later health problems (ie. inflammatory bowel disease)

Answer 47

There is no level that seems “safe”

Answer 48

Anoxia - oxygen shortage. brain cells die if they are starved of oxygen for more than a few minutes. Severe anoxia can initially cause poor reflexes, seizures, heart rate irregularities, and breathing difficulties. In the long run, severe anoxia can lead to memory impairment or cerebral palsy, a neurological disability primarily associated with difficulty controlling muscle movements; it also increases the risk of learning or intellectual disabilities and speech difficulties

Answer 49

Kenya: fathers stop hunting so he doesn’t get killed by animals. Midwifery: delivers the baby Placenta buried in goat enclosure Baby washed in cold water and given mixture of hot ash and boiled herbs so it will vomit amniotic fluid India: dai assists delivery. Hands on helps push baby out Pushing on the floor In Nambia, women labor by themselves, the woman goes off on our own and expected to labor quietly. Otherwise it’s a sign of weakness. Western: highly medicalized, hooked up to monitors, separated from most family members. But they prevent infant fatalities better.

Answer 50

an episode of clinical depression lasting 2 or more weeks (rather than days) in a woman who has just given birth. children whose mothers experienced postpartum depression may become less securely attached to their mothers during infancy and less responsive during interactions with their mothers at age 5. postnatally depressed mothers show more violent behavior even when researchers control for family characteristics and later episodes of maternal depression. Adolescents whose mothers had been postnatally depressed also show elevated levels of cortisol, which is associated with major depression

Answer 51

Risk: Children who have a higher than normal chance of either short-term or longterm problems because of genetic defects, prenatal hazards, or perinatal damage. Resilience: their ability to rebound from early disadvantages and to respond to environmental influences throughout their lives rather than only during so-called critical periods. Study: studied a group of babies born in 1955 on the island of Kauai in Hawaii. On the basis of this information, each baby was categorized as having been exposed to severe, moderate, mild, or no prenatal or perinatal stress. At ages 1, 2, 10, 18, 32, and 40 years, researchers diligently tracked down their participants and conducted interviews (initially with the mothers and later with the children), administered psychological and cognitive tests, rated the quality of the family environment, and conducted medical examinations. One-third of the children classified as at-risk showed considerable resilience, getting themselves back on a normal course of development.

Answer 52

Two major findings emerge from this research: 1. The effects of prenatal and perinatal complications decrease over time. 2. The outcomes of early risk depend on the quality of the postnatal environment. Two types of protective features: 1. Personal resources: because of their genetic makeup, some children have qualities such as intelligence, sociability, and communication skills that help them choose or create more nurturing and stimulating environments and cope with challenges. parents and other observers noted that these children were agreeable, cheerful, and self-confident as infants, which elicited positive caregiving responses 2. Supportive postnatal environment: receive the social support they need within or outside the family. Most importantly, they are able to find at least one person who loves them unconditionally and with whom they feel secure.

Answer 53

A hollow sphere of about 100 to 150 cells that the zygote forms by rapid cell division as it moves through the fallopian tube.

Answer 54

A point (around the 24th prenatal week) when a fetus may survive outside the uterus if the brain and respiratory system are well enough developed and if excellent medical care is available.

Answer 55

A fatty sheath that insulates neural axons and thereby speeds the transmission of neural impulses.

Answer 56

Any disease, drug, or other environmental agent that can harm a developing fetus.

Answer 57

Sympathetic pregnancy, or the experiencing by fathers of some of the same physiological symptoms their pregnant partners experience (for example, bloating, weight gain, fatigue, insomnia, and nausea).

Answer 58

Critical: A defined period in the development of an organism when it is particularly sensitive to certain environmental influences; outside this period, the same influences will have far less effect. Sensitive: As compared to a critical period, a period of life during which the developing individual is especially susceptible to the effects of experience or has an especially high level of plasticity.

Answer 59

Spina bifida: Condition in which the bottom of the neural tube fails to fully close during prenatal development and part of the spinal cord is not fully encased in the protective covering of the spinal column. Anencephaly: Condition in which the top of the neural tube fails to close and the main portion of the brain above the brain stem fails to develop properly.

Answer 60

Agent that can harm a fetus

Answer 61

lack of oxygen during birth

Answer 62

pregnancy symptoms experienced by fathers

Answer 63

10-point newborn assessment

Answer 64

gene expression modified by environmental events

Answer 65

Endocrine gland that secrete chemicals called hormones directly into the bloodstream. In contrast, children who lack adequate growth hormone are unlikely to exceed 4 feet (or 130 cm) in height as adults if left untreated. Treatment with synthetic growth hormones can lead to near-expected adult height if administered early—well before the start of puberty. Pituitary gland , the so-called master gland located at the base of the brain. Directly controlled by the hypothalamus of the brain, it triggers the release of hormones from all other endocrine glands by sending hormonal messages to those glands. Moreover, the pituitary produces growth hormone, which triggers the production of specialized hormones that directly regulate growth.

Answer 66

The spinal cord and brain.

Answer 67

The peripheral nervous system is subdivided into the somatic nervous system and the autonomic nervous system. The peripheral nervous system is your environmental interface. It is the interface between the internal environment of your mind/brain and body and the external environment around you. It is also the interface of the body with the mind/brain.

Answer 68

The process of myelination—neurons becoming encased in this protective substance that speeds transmission—begins prenatally but continues for many years after birth, proceeding from the spinal cord to the hindbrain, midbrain, and forebrain.

Answer 69

The cephalocaudal principle, according to which growth occurs in a head-to-tail direction. The head is far ahead of the rest of the body during the prenatal period and accounts for about 25% of the newborn’s length and 13% of total body weight. But the head accounts for only 12% of an adult’s height and 2% of an adult’s weight. This proximodistal principle of growth can be seen during the prenatal period, when the chest and internal organs form before the arms, hands, and fingers. During the first year of life, the trunk is rapidly filling out but the arms remain short and stubby until they undergo their own period of rapid development. While infants are growing from the head downward, they are also growing and developing muscles from the center outward to the extremities. The orthogenetic principle is where development starts globally and undifferentiated and moves toward increasing differentiation and hierarchical integration (Werner, 1957). Consider a human who starts as a single, undifferentiated cell at conception. As growth proceeds, that single cell becomes billions of highly specialized cells (neurons, blood cells, liver cells, and so on).

Answer 70

1. Health is a lifelong process. It is influenced by personal choices over the life span and is constantly changing in response to these choices. 2. Health is determined by both genetic and environmental influences. A person’s genetic predispositions interact with their environmental experiences to create adaptive (healthy) outcomes or disruptive (unhealthy) ones. 3. Health—and its study—is multidimensional. Physical, mental, and social functioning are intertwined with one another; changes in one area influence other aspects of self. 4. Changes in health involve both gains and losses; health both improves and declines over the life span in response to many factors. 5/ ealth occurs in a sociohistorical context and can be enhanced or constrained by the social and historical factors that contribute to it. Especially important is socioeconomic status. Lower socioeconomic status is routinely associated with poorer health and well-being and shorter life expectancy.

Answer 71

Synaptogenesis, or growth of synapses, during childhood as well as the synaptic pruning or removal of unnecessary synapses that is also an important component of brain development. Between birth and 7 years of age, there is a tremendous amount of synaptogenesis, or the development of connections between neurons. But between 7 and 15 years of age, there is another process at work: synaptic pruning or elimination of unnecessary or unused connections.

Answer 72

Breathing reflex: Provides oxygen; expels carbon dioxide Eye-blink reflex: Protects eyes from bright light or foreign objects Pupillary reflex: Constriction of pupils to bright light; dilation to dark or dimly lit surroundings; Protects against bright light; adapts visual system to low illumination Rooting reflex: Turning a cheek toward a tactile (touch) stimulus; Orients child to breast or bottle Sucking reflex: Sucking on objects placed (or taken) into mouth; Allows child to take in nutrients Swallowing reflex: Allows child to take in nutrients; protects against choking Primitive Reflexes Babinski reflex: Fanning then curling toes when bottom of foot is stroked Disappears by 12–18 months months Presence at birth and disappearance in first year indicate normal neurological development Grasping reflex: Curling fingers around objects (such as a finger) that touch the baby’s palm; is replaced by a voluntary grasp Moro reflex: Loud noise or sudden change in position of baby’s head will cause baby to throw arms outward, arch back, then bring arms toward each other however, child continues to react to unexpected noises or a loss of bodily support by showing startle reflex Swimming reflex: Infant immersed in water will display active movements of arms and legs and will involuntarily hold breath (thus staying afloat for some time) Stepping reflex: Infants held upright so that their feet touch a flat surface will step as if to walk. Sleeping through the night.

Answer 73

1. Only about 12% of babies in the United States are premature, but complications of premature birth account for 35% of infant deaths. 2. Complications related to labor and delivery account for about one-quarter of deaths, and various types of infections together account for another one-quarter of deaths.

Answer 74

It turns out there is a well-established gender difference in both throwing speed and distance: Girls do, indeed, throw like girls and not like boys (Thomas et al., 2010). A typical 13-year-old girl can throw a ball an average of 38.5 miles per hour, which sounds fast until you learn that the typical 13-year-old boy averages 53.5 miles per hour. Some of this difference seems to be nurture: Boys are given more things to throw, start earlier in sports that involve throwing, and spend more time practicing throwing. But practice and the environment do not explain all of the gender difference in throwing. Boys may also be able to throw faster and farther because of their greater upper body muscle mass and their shoulder width. We should note that girls are somewhat ahead of boys in hopping and tasks that require manual dexterity.

Answer 75

the volume of gray matter increases, peaks, and then decreases throughout the teen years. This pattern is believed to be associated with increased synaptogenesis just before puberty, followed by a period of heightened pruning of synapses. In contrast to this inverted U-pattern, the brain’s “white matter,” consisting of clusters of axons, increases in linear fashion throughout adolescence, a likely result of the steady progression of myelination of axons. One is that the part of the brain involved in regulating self-control has not yet matured. The second thing to consider is that adolescence ushers in a period of increased responsiveness to rewards. Indeed, the reward system of the brain is hyper-responsive: The adolescent brain has greater need for reward, which leads to more reward-seeking behaviors. The neurons serving the frontal lobes are among the last areas of the brain to become myelinated. The frontal lobes are essential to many higher-order mental activities of thinking, planning, and decision making.

Answer 76

don't know.

Answer 77

The growth of synapses, or connections between neurons.

Answer 78

The removal of unnecessary synapses between neurons in response to experience.

Answer 79

the adaptability of an organism to changes in its environment or differences between its various habitats.

Answer 80

a broad band of nerve fibers joining the two hemispheres of the brain.

Answer 81

A stretch of DNA that forms the tip of a chromosome and that shortens after each cell division, serving as an aging clock and timing the death of cells.

Answer 82

The estimate that human cells can double only 50 times, plus or minus 10, and then will die.

Answer 83

Adrenarche: A period of increased production of adrenal hormones, starting around 6–8 years of age, that normally precedes increased production of gonadal hormones associated with puberty. vs. menarche: Female’s first menstrual period. vs. semenarche: A boy’s first ejaculation.

Answer 84

the “master gland” of the body

Answer 85

fanning of toes when bottom of foot is stroked

Answer 86

toxic by-products of metabolism

Answer 87

antioxidant in grapes, red wine and peanuts

Answer 88

Constructivist: They argue that perceptions of the world are constructed over time through learning. Yes, we come equipped at birth with functioning sensory systems, but understanding the input coming in through our senses requires interacting with the environment and figuring out what those sensations mean. They argue that perceptions of the world are constructed over time through learning. Yes, we come equipped at birth with functioning sensory systems, but understanding the input coming in through our senses requires interacting with the environment and figuring out what those sensations mean. Nativists: argue that perception is not created by interpreting external input; instead, innate capabilities and maturational programs are the driving forces in perceptual development. Infants come equipped with basic sensory capabilities, which are further refined according to an innate plan. Nativists would argue that the infant does not need experience to learn how to interpret different retinal images cast by the same object at different distances. The brain automatically understands the meaning of different retinal images created as we move about our world (for example, a small image is automatically “read” by the brain as distant object). Thus, from the nativist perspective, perception is direct—it does not require interpretation based on previous experience

Answer 89

Gibson’s ecological theory: Gibson’s ecological approach also considers the organization of the environment. In particular, Gibson’s theory proposes that information important for perception is readily and directly available in the environment: in the to-be-perceived objects. As we move around in our world, our position relative to all other objects in the environment is constantly changing and altering the flow of information and the images projected to our retina.

Answer 90

1. Habituation: The same stimulus is repeatedly presented until the infant grows bored with what has become familiar and disengages (e.g., looks away). Researchers can measure how long (e.g., how many trials) until an infant becomes bored. They can also measure how distinct a second, new stimulus needs to be in order to recapture the infant’s attention. 2. Preferential looking: Two stimuli are simultaneously shown to an infant to determine which one they prefer, which is inferred to be the one they look at longer. Adding head-mounted, eye-tracking cameras has allowed researchers to more precisely measure preferential looking. 3. Evoked potentials: Electrical activity in different parts of the brain is measured while the infant watches, listens to, or is otherwise exposed to stimulation. Electrodes are attached to the surface of the skull and a computer records the pattern of electrical activity corresponding to various stimuli. 4. Operant conditioning: Infants are conditioned to reliably respond a certain way to a certain stimulus (e.g., they are rewarded for turning their head every time they hear a sound). Once this response is well-established, the researcher can examine the conditions under which the infants will, or will not, continue to produce the behavior.

Answer 91

(topic comments)

Answer 92

But starting around 2 months, infants no longer focus on some external boundary or contour; instead, they explore the interiors of figures thoroughly (for example, looking at a person’s eyes rather than just at the chin, hairline, and top of the head). It is as though they are no longer content to locate where an object starts and where it ends, as 1-month-olds tend to do; they seem to want to know what it is. During this time, infants also become better at shifting their attention or disengaging from a stimulus. Initially, their gaze seems to become “stuck” on the fixated object, and they have difficulty shifting it to another object

Answer 93

1. patterns that have a large amount of light–dark transition, or contour; they are responsive to sharp boundaries between light and dark areas (Banks & Shannon, 1993; Farroni et al., 2005). The soft pastel colors often presented to young infants may not have enough contrast to be detected by them (Brown & Lindsey, 2009). 2. displays that are dynamic (as opposed to static) or contain movement (Courage et al., 2006; Kavsek & Yonas, 2006). Newborns can and do track a moving target with their eyes, although their tracking at first is imprecise and likely to falter unless the target is moving slowly (Slater et al., 2010b). 3. patterns that are moderately complex: not too simple, which would be boring, and not too complex, which would be overwhelming. Thus, they prefer a clear pattern (for example, a bold checkerboard pattern) to either a blank stimulus or an elaborate one such as a page from the New York Times (Fantz & Fagan, 1975). As infants mature, they prefer more complex stimuli.

Answer 94

An elevated glass platform that creates an illusion of depth and is used to test the depth perception of infants. This cliff consists of an elevated glass platform divided into two sections by a center board. On the “shallow” side a checkerboard pattern is placed directly under the glass. On the “deep” side the pattern is several feet below the glass, creating the illusion of a drop-off or “cliff.” Infants are placed on the center board and coaxed by their mothers to cross both the shallow and the deep sides. babies over the shallow and deep sides of the visual cliff, babies as young as 2 months had a slower heart rate on the deep side than on the shallow side. 2-month-old infants perceive a difference between the deep and the shallow sides of the visual cliff, but they have not yet learned to fear drop-offs. avoidance of drop-offs appears to be learned through crawling—and falling now and then, or at least coming close to it. Features of a cliff provide infants with the necessary information to know how to interact (or not interact) with the cliff. Walking is necessary before they fear the cliff.

Answer 95

As compared to a critical period, a period of life during which the developing individual is especially susceptible to the effects of experience or has an especially high level of plasticity. First, there is the period they call visually driven normal development. This is when expected developmental changes in vision will occur with exposure to “normal” visual input; these changes will not occur if visual input is absent. Second, there is a sensitive period for damage; that is, there is a period when abnormal or absent visual input is likely to lead to permanent deficits in some aspect of vision. Third, there is a sensitive period for recovery when the visual system has the potential to recover from damage

Answer 96

1. From birth to 4 months, infants explore their immediate surroundings, especially their caregivers, by looking and listening, and they learn a bit about objects by mouthing them and watching them move. 2. From 5 to 7 months, once the ability to voluntarily grasp objects has developed, babies pay far closer attention to objects, exploring objects with their eyes as well as with their hands. 3. By 8 or 9 months, after most have begun to crawl, infants extend their explorations into the larger environment and carefully examine the objects they encounter on their journeys, learning all about their properties.

Answer 97

If you examine the progression of these motor skills, you will notice the workings of the cephalocaudal and proximodistal principles of development. Early motor development follows the cephalocaudal principle because the neurons between the brain and the muscles acquire myelin sheaths in a head-to-tail manner. Thus, infants can lift their heads before they can control their trunks enough to sit, and they can sit before they can control their legs to walk. The proximodistal principle of development is also evident in early motor development. Activities involving the trunk are mastered before activities involving the arms and legs, and activities involving the arms and legs are mastered before activities involving the hands and fingers or feet and toes. Therefore, infants can roll over before they can walk or bring their arms together to grasp a bottle. As the nerves and muscles mature downward and outward, infants gradually gain control over the lower and the peripheral parts of their bodies. When this happens, infants are ready for the next step, literally.

Answer 98

1. Pupil: Less responsive to changes in lighting conditions and to dim light = Difficulty reading menus in dimly lit restaurants; trouble with night driving; unable to adjust quickly enough to oncoming lights at night or exiting a movie theatre into daylight 2. Lens: Cataract: Cloudiness of the lens; Presbyopia: Thickening or hardening of the lens; Blurred or distorted vision; Decreased ability to see close objects; need for “reading” glasses 3. Retina: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD): Photoreceptors in the middle of the retina, the macula, deteriorate. Retinitis pigmentosa (RP): Deterioration of light-sensitive cells outside the macula = Loss of central vision, an important contributor to reading, driving, watching TV, and other daily activities Loss of peripheral vision 4. Eyeball: Glaucoma: Increased fluid pressure in the eyeball = Loss of peripheral vision and eventual loss of all vision

Answer 99

both elderly drivers and young drivers have more accidents per mile driven than middle-aged drivers

Answer 100

Ear wax, inner ear changes, degenerations. Makes them have loss of sensitivity to high-frequency or high-pitched sounds. Difficulty hearing a child’s high voice.

Answer 101

In Eleanor and James Gibson’s ecological theory of perception, characteristics of an object that reveal what it has to offer humans and how it might be used by them.

Answer 102

Primary motor stereotypies (also called stereotypic movement disorder), are rhythmic, repetitive, fixed, predictable, purposeful, but purposeless movements that occur in children who are otherwise developing normally.

Answer 103

Sensation: The process by which information is detected by the sensory receptors and transmitted to the brain; the starting point in perception. From birth, infants sense their environment. They detect light, sound, odor-bearing molecules in the air, and other stimuli. Perception: The interpretation of sensory input. they understand the patterns of stimulation coming in from the various sense organs. recognizing what you see, understanding what is said to you, knowing that the odor you have detected is a sizzling steak, and so on. Everything you do—all of your physical and mental actions—depends on your ability to sense and perceive the world around you.

Answer 104

interpretation of sensory information

Answer 105

detection and transmission of sensory information

Answer 106

retinal cell damage resulting in loss of central vision

Answer 107

hereditary disorder causing loss of peripheral vision

Answer 108

most common age-related hearing loss

Answer 109

Assimilation is the process by which we interpret new experiences in terms of existing schemes or cognitive structures. Thus, if you already have a scheme that mentally represents your knowledge of cats, you may label this new beast “kitty.” Accommodation is the process of modifying existing schemes to better fit new experiences. Perhaps you will need to invent a new name for this animal or ask what it is and revise your concept of four-legged animals accordingly. We are motivated to reduce conflict through what Piaget called equilibration, the process of achieving mental stability where our internal thoughts are consistent with the evidence we are receiving from the external world

Answer 110

1. The sensorimotor stage (birth to roughly 2 years) 2. The preoperational stage (roughly 2–7 years) 3. The concrete operations stage (roughly 7–11 years) 4. The formal operations stage (roughly 11 years and beyond)

Answer 111

His cognitive developmental perspective has been applied to almost every aspect of human development. His theory has undoubtedly stimulated much research in the decades following its creation. Piaget showed us that infants and children are active in their own development Piaget taught us that young people think differently than older people do. The sequence he proposed—sensorimotor to preoperational to concrete operations to formal operations—seems to describe the general course and content of intellectual development for children and adolescents.

Answer 112

Cognitive growth occurs in a sociocultural context and evolves out of the child’s social interactions. Luria found that children growing up in a remote rural village with limited social experiences gave remarkably similar responses, whereas children growing up in a large city gave more distinctly individual answers. Knowledge, then, depends on social experiences.

Answer 113

How do children acquire their society’s mental tools? They acquire them by interacting with parents and other more experienced members of the culture and by adopting their language and knowledge. According to Lev Vygotsky’s theory, cognitive development is shaped by the culture in which children live and the kinds of problem-solving strategies that adults and other knowledgeable guides pass on to them.

Answer 114

The fundamental understanding that objects continue to exist—they are permanent—when they are no longer visible or otherwise detectable to the senses. By 12–18 months of age (substage 5), the infant has overcome the A-not-B error but may continue to have trouble with invisible displacements—as when you hide a toy in your hand, move your hand under a pillow, and then remove your hand, leaving the toy under the pillow.

Answer 115

Symbolic Capacity

Answer 116

1. Perceptual salience. Understanding is driven by how things look rather than derived from logical reasoning. 2. Transductive reasoning. Children combine unrelated facts, often leading them to draw faulty cause–effect conclusions simply because two events occur close together in time or space. 3. Egocentrism. Children have difficulty seeing things from other perspectives and assume that what is in their mind is also what others are thinking.

Answer 117

The concrete operations stage involves mastering the logical operations missing in the preoperational stage—becoming able to perform systematic mental actions on objects, such as adding and subtracting Halloween candies, classifying dinosaurs, or arranging objects from largest to smallest.

Answer 118

Difficulty differentiating one’s own thoughts and feelings from those of other people. The young child’s egocentrism is rooted in ignorance that different people have different perspectives, but the adolescent’s reflects an enhanced ability to reflect about one’s own and others’ thoughts. Elkind identified two types of adolescent egocentrism: the imaginary audience and the personal fable.

Answer 119

A form of problem solving in which a person starts with general or abstract ideas and deduces or traces their specific implications; “if–then” thinking.

Answer 120

To use concrete operations in less familiar areas. Each group of students did well on the problem relevant to that group’s field of expertise. On problems outside their fields, however, about half the students failed.

Answer 121

Understanding that knowledge is relative, not absolute; there are far more shades of gray than there are clear dichotomies of knowledge. Accepting that the world (physical and mental) is filled with contradictions: inconsistent information can exist side by side. Attempting to integrate the contradictions into some larger understanding.

Answer 122

Vygotsky’s term for the difference between what a learner can accomplish independently and what a learner can accomplish with the guidance and encouragement of a more skilled partner.

Answer 123

A process in which children learn by actively participating in culturally relevant activities with the aid and support of their parents and other knowledgeable individuals.

Answer 124

Jerome Bruner’s term for providing structure to a less skilled learner to encourage advancement.

Answer 125

The tendency to view the world from the person’s own perspective and fail to recognize that others may have different points of view.

Answer 126

Proposed stages of cognitive development that lie beyond formal operations.

Answer 127

Centration: The tendency to focus on only one aspect of a problem when two or more aspects are relevant. decentration: The ability to focus on two or more dimensions of a problem at one time.

Answer 128

relativistic thinking: There are multiple ways of viewing a problem and that the solutions people arrive at will depend on their starting assumptions and perspective. vs. dialectical thinking: Detecting paradoxes and inconsistencies among ideas and trying to reconcile them.

Answer 129

understanding that the parts are included in the whole

Answer 130

arrange items mentally along a quantifiable dimension

Answer 131

necessary relations among elements in a series

Answer 132

focus on end states rather than changes

Answer 133

The computer was the model for it; emphasizes the basic mental processes involved in attention, perception, memory, and decision making

Answer 134

1. Sensory register, which ever-so-briefly (less than a second) holds the abundant sensory information—sights, sounds, smells, and more—that swirls around us 2. Short-term memory, which holds a limited amount of information, perhaps only four chunks, for a short period of time 3. Long-term memory, believed to be a relatively permanent and seemingly unlimited store of information

Answer 135

1. ENCODE the information: get it into the system. consolidation, processes that stabilize and organize the information to facilitate long-term storage. These processes include synaptic 2. 1. 1. CONSOLIDATION, which occurs in the minutes or hours after initial learning, and system consolidation, which takes place over a longer period of time. The processes of consolidation are facilitated by sleep and disrupted by stress 3. STORAGE: holding information in a long-term memory store. Memories fade over time unless they are appropriately stored in long-term memory. Research has also made it clear that storing memories is a constructive process and not a static recording of what was encoded. 4. RETRIEVAL: the process of getting information out when it is needed. People say they have successfully remembered something when they can retrieve it from long-term memory. Retrieval can be accomplished in several ways. If you are asked a multiple-choice question about when the Constitution was ratified, you need not actively retrieve the correct date; you merely need to recognize it among the options. This is an example of recognition memory.

Answer 136

Implicit memory:which occurs unintentionally, automatically, and without awareness, Explicit memory: which involves deliberate, effortful recollection of event

Answer 137

Hippocampus: is responsible for consolidation and formation of explicit memories. Amygdala: is involved in forming emotionally charged memories. Basal ganglia: important in the formation of procedural memories Cerebellum: important in the formation of procedural memories

Answer 138

1. Habituation: learning not to respond to a repeated stimulus—might be thought of as learning to be bored by the familiar 2. Operant conditioning: As they age, infants need less “study time” before a stimulus becomes old hat, and they can retain what they have learned for days or even weeks 3. Object search: the A-not-B task. For this task, an infant or toddler is seated at a table that contains two identical cloths, under which a small toy can be hidden 4. Imitation: Researchers can learn something about memory by noting whether or not infants can imitate an action performed by a model.

Answer 139

1. Changes in basic capacities. Older children have higher-powered “hardware” than younger children do; neural advances in their brains have contributed to more working-memory space for manipulating information and an ability to process information faster. 2. Changes in memory strategies. Older children have better “software”; they have learned and consistently use effective methods for putting information into long-term memory and retrieving it when they need it. 3. Increased knowledge of memory. Older children know more about memory (for example, how long they must study to learn things thoroughly, which kinds of memory tasks take more effort, and which strategies best fit each task). 4. Increased knowledge of the world. Older children know more than younger children about the world in general. This knowledge, or expertise, makes material to be learned more familiar, and familiar material is easier to learn and remember than unfamiliar material.

Answer 140

1. Changes in basic capacities. Older children have higher-powered “hardware” than younger children do; neural advances in their brains have contributed to more working-memory space for manipulating information and an ability to process information faster. 2. Changes in memory strategies. Older children have better “software”; they have learned and consistently use effective methods for putting information into long-term memory and retrieving it when they need it. 3. Increased knowledge of memory. Older children know more about memory (for example, how long they must study to learn things thoroughly, which kinds of memory tasks take more effort, and which strategies best fit each task). 4. Increased knowledge of the world. Older children know more than younger children about the world in general. This knowledge, or expertise, makes material to be learned more familiar, and familiar material is easier to learn and remember than unfamiliar material.

Answer 141

1. Note taking 2. Concentrate on learning relevant material and ignore irrelevant material 3. underlining

Answer 142

1. Space in working memory. One explanation of childhood amnesia is that infants and toddlers may not have enough space in working memory to hold the multiple pieces of information about actor, action, and setting needed to encode and consolidate a coherent memory of an event. 2. Space in working memory. One explanation of childhood amnesia is that infants and toddlers may not have enough space in working memory to hold the multiple pieces of information about actor, action, and setting needed to encode and consolidate a coherent memory of an event. 3. Level of sociocultural support. Although toddlers may have limited verbal skills, their parents presumably do not. There are large individual differences in toddler–parent “conversations” about past events ( 4. Sense of self. We need to consider that infants and toddlers lack a strong sense of self and as a result may not have the necessary ‘pages’ on which they can write memories of personally experienced events 5. Verbatim versus gist storage. Some researchers have tried to explain childhood amnesia in terms of fuzzy-trace theory (Brainerd & Reyna, 2014; 2015). According to this explanation, children store verbatim and general accounts of an event separately. 6. Neurogenesis. Finally, some intriguing research with mice suggests that neurogenesis, the birth of new cells, in the hippocampus early in life ‘refreshes’ our memory store

Answer 143

1. Sleep well; consolidation occurs during sleep 2. Healthy eating for your brain 3. Exercise - physical fitness and activity

Answer 144

1. Pay attention: focus on what you need to learn Organize and make connections to existing knowledge. Organizational scheme must make sense to the learner. 2. Use strategies that enrich and elaborate the new material. Thinking of similarities and differences between the new and old material. 3. Customize your learning strategies to optimize your learning style 4. Overlearn new material. Don’t just study to recall it for a short period, otherwise you’ll forget it. Overlearn the material.

Answer 145

* the expert not only knows and remembers more but also thinks more effectively than individuals who lack expertise. * Having a lot of interest in a subject helps your knowledge base; it allows experts to hold and manipulate more information in short-term memory than nonexperts * experts are able to use their elaborately organized and complete knowledge bases to solve problems effectively and efficiently * experts do not need to think much; they are like experienced drivers who can put themselves on “autopilot” and carry out well-learned routines quickly and accurately

Answer 146

Personal significance: Most people believe that the personal significance of an event affects our memory for the event—that events of great importance to the self will be remembered better than less important events. As it turns out, the personal significance of an event, as rated at the time the event occurs, has little effect on one’s ability to later recall the event. Distinctiveness (uniqueness): The more unique an event is, the more likely it is to be recalled later on, and to be recalled as a distinct event with relevant details. Common events and experiences are often recalled, if at all, as multiple events lumped together as one Emotional intensity: Events associated with either highly negative or highly positive emotions are recalled better than events that were experienced in the context of more neutral emotions. This enhanced memory for emotion-arousing events occurs even though the emotion associated with the event tends to dissipate with time, especially if it is a negative emotion. It is likely that strong emotions activate the body’s arousal system and the neural components associated with arousal enhance encoding and consolidation of events. (scanned with MRIs) Life phase: people recall more information from the life phase of their teens and 20s than from any other time except the near present. These events form one’s cultural life script, those stories of our lives that we tell over and over again. Research shows that there may be other “bumps” in memory across the life span that are influenced by what particular cultures prescribe as important life events

Answer 147

Most of the research is based on cross-sectional studies that compare age groups, which suggests that the age differences detected could be related to factors other than age. (If needed, you can refresh your memory of the strengths and weaknesses of cross-sectional designs by referring back to Chapter 1.) Declines, when observed, typically do not become noticeable until we hit our 70s. Difficulties in remembering affect elderly people more noticeably as they continue to age and are most severe among the oldest elderly people. Not all older people experience these difficulties. Not all kinds of memory tasks cause older people difficulty.

Answer 148

Selective compensation: The concept that older people cope with aging through a strategy that involves focusing on the skills most needed, practicing those skills, and developing ways to avoid the need for declining skills. Three processes are: selection, optimization, and compensation. If cognitive resources are limited, you have to be selective. Partners who are elderly tend to offload tasks / skills that they have not selected to keep due to limited brain resources. It helps to take advantage of their relative strength in implicit memory.

Answer 149

memory about how to do something (we just do it without thinking about it!)

Answer 150

Processes that direct and monitor the selection, organization, manipulation, and interpretation of information in the information-processing system, including executive functions.

Answer 151

A person’s knowledge about memory and about monitoring and regulating memory processes.

Answer 152

Memory of everyday events that the individual has experienced.

Answer 153

Retrograde: Loss of memory for information and events occurring prior to the incident that caused the amnesia. Contrast with anterograde amnesia. Anterograde: no longer able to form new memories

Answer 154

Gist: it is easier to remember the gist of an event (for example, recall of the general points covered in a biology lecture) than Verbatim: the details of a memory

Answer 155

unintentional automatic memory

Answer 156

deliberate effortful recollection of events

Answer 157

memory for general facts

Answer 158

memory for specific experiences

Answer 159

meaningful linking of items to be learned

Answer 160

described three memory stores

Answer 161

fuzzy-trace theory

Answer 162

autobiographical memory

Answer 163

Intellegence: a trait or a set of traits that characterizes some people to a greater extent than others. Goals: to identify these traits precisely and to measure them so that differences among individuals can be described.

Answer 164

Rejects IQ score. Asks “How are you smart?” Identifying people’s strengths and weaknessses across range of mental faculties. 8 or 9 intellectual abilities: 1. Intrapersonal - understanding yourself and what you feel and want 2. Spatial - visualizing the world in 3d 3. Naturalist - understanding living things and reading nature 4. Musical - discerning sound 5.logical/mathematical - quantifying things, making hypotheses 6. Existential - tackling the questions of why we live and die 7. Interpersonal - sensing people’s feelings and motives 8.Bodily kinesthetic - coordinating mind and body 9. Linguistic - finding the right words to express what you mean

Answer 165

1. Emphasizes three aspects of intelligent behavior: practical component: emphasizing the effect of context on what is intelligent; 2. creative component: centering on coping with both novel and familiar problems; and an 3. analytic component: focused on the cognitive processes used to solve a problem. Fourth element: successful intelligence: establish and achieve reasonable goals consistent with your skills, optimize strengths and weaknesses, adapt to environment, and use all three above components of intelligence

Answer 166

It turns out that IQ scores and creativity scores do not correlate very well because they measure two different types of thinking. IQ tests measure convergent thinking, which involves “converging” on the best answer to a problem. If we could typecast someone as a convergent thinker, it would be the person who wants to know the correct answer to a problem. In contrast, creativity involves divergent thinking, or coming up with a variety of ideas or solutions to a problem when there is no single correct answer.

Answer 167

They are based on a large group of children, and they do not necessarily mean that the IQs of individual children will remain stable over the years. As it turns out, many children show sizable ups and downs in their IQ scores over the course of childhood. Patterns of change differ considerably from child to child, as though each were on a private developmental trajectory. within a group, children’s rankings (high or low) in comparison with peers stay stable from one point to another during the childhood years. Remember, however, that this relates to performance on IQ tests rather than underlying intellectual competence. IQ scores are influenced not only by people’s intelligence but also by their motivation, testing procedures and conditions, and many other factors that we will discuss in this chapter.

Answer 168

1. Speed of habituation - the degree to which they prefer novel stimulus 2. Preference for novelty The “smart” infant is the speedy information processor—the infant who quickly becomes bored by the same old thing, seeks novel experiences, and soaks up information rapidly. the extent to which the young infant processes information quickly can predict the extent to which he will learn quickly and solve problems efficiently later in childhood.

Answer 169

The rise in average IQ scores over the 20th century. In the United States, the increase has amounted to about 3 IQ points per decade. 1. Many researchers argue that increases of this size cannot be caused by genetic evolution and therefore must have environmental causes. For one thing, children today are better educated than earlier generations; 85% today complete high school, compared with just 5% in 1895 2. improved economic conditions have brought improved nutrition and living conditions over the course of the 20th century, and this has contributed to the rise in intellectual functioning 3. People in countries where rates of infectious diseases are high have, on average, lower IQ scores than those in countries where rates of infectious diseases are low. The researchers believe that infectious diseases, especially parasitic diseases that cause diarrhea in infants and children, divert energy from the brain and rob the brain of needed nutrients.

Answer 170

Intelligence is more stable during adolescence. A longitudinal study showed that there were stronger correlations of IQ within the childhood ages (stable). However, many children show ups and downs in IQ and many factors are involved (including motivation during test taking, etc.)

Answer 171

A comprehensive sequential study directed by K. Warner Schaie (2012) provides some evidence regarding the pattern of changes in IQ. They were given a revised test of primary mental abilities that yielded scores for five separate mental abilities: verbal meaning, spatial ability, reasoning, numerical ability, and word fluency. Seven years later, as many of them as could be found were retested. a. when a person was born has at least as much influence on intellectual functioning as age does.recently born cohorts (the youngest people in the study were born in 1973) tended to outperform earlier generations (the oldest were born in 1889) on most tests. b. patterns of aging differ for different abilities (Figure 9.8). Fluid intelligence (those abilities requiring active thinking and reasoning applied to novel problems, as measured by tests such as the primary mental abilities tests of reasoning and space) usually declines earlier and more steeply than crystallized intelligence (those abilities involving the use of knowledge acquired through experience, such as in answering the verbal meaning test used by Schaie). Consistently, adults lose some of their ability to grapple with new problems starting in middle age, but their crystallized general knowledge and vocabulary stay steady throughout middle and older adulthood.

Answer 172

1. Poor health (cardiovascular or chronic illness) 2. Diseases (and drugs used to treat) 3. Unstimulating lifestyle, disengaged from life (use it or lose it!)

Answer 173

Neuroplasticity: restructuring of the brain in response to training or experience, among older adults. Research was about restoring lost ability and reasoning and measuring intelligence. You don’t use it, you lose it! Another study: Their activities draw upon memory, literacy, and problem-solving skills. Many intellectual skills decline in later life because they are not used—and that these skills can be revived with a little coaching and practice.

Answer 174

Wisdom: A combination of rich factual knowledge about life and procedural knowledge such as strategies for giving advice and handling conflicts. Attributes: knowledge of life, prosocial values, self-understanding, acknowledgment of uncertainty, emotional homeostasis [balance], tolerance, openness, spirituality, and sense of humor

Answer 175

``` Bias: IQ tests may be more appropriate for children from white middle-class backgrounds than for those from other subcultural groups. African american dialects, hispanic spanish speakers, etc. Minority groups don’t have as much exposure to culture reflected in tests. Motivation: not motivated to do their best in testing because they're anxious or resist being judged by examiner with a different background. Stereotype threat. Genetic factors: most psychologists do not think the evidence that heredity contributes to within-group differences says much about the reasons for between-group differences. even though genes partially explain individual differences in IQ within African American and European American groups, the average difference between the racial groups may still reflect nothing more than differences in the environments they typically experience. Environmental differences: Many of the intellectual and academic differences attributed to race or ethnicity probably reflect racial and ethnic differences in socioeconomic status instead. The major message of this research is that children, whatever their racial background, perform better on IQ tests when they grow up in intellectually stimulating environments with involved, responsive parents and are exposed to the “culture of the tests and the schools” Reducing poverty and offering more early developmental programs to offset the costs of impoverished home environments would go a long way toward eliminating racial differences in intellectual performance. ```

Answer 176

The phenomenon in which extraordinary talent in a particular area is displayed by a person who is otherwise mentally retarded.

Answer 177

The notion that impoverished environments inhibit intellectual growth and that these inhibiting effects accumulate over time.

Answer 178

A rapid decline in intellectual abilities that people within a few years of dying often experience.

Answer 179

A combination of rich factual knowledge about life and procedural knowledge such as strategies for giving advice and handling conflicts.

Answer 180

An individual’s fear of being judged to have the qualities associated with negative stereotypes of his or her social group.

Answer 181

A measure of intellectual development that reflects the level of age-graded problems that a child is able to solve; the age at which a child functions intellectually.

Answer 182

a number expressing the development of a child determined by dividing the age of the group into which test scores place the child by the child's chronological age and multiplying by 100 —abbreviation DQ.

Answer 183

A numerical measure of a person’s performance on an intelligence test relative to the performance of other examinees of the same age, typically with a score of 100 defined as average.

Answer 184

Fluid: Aspects of intelligence that involve actively thinking and reasoning to solve novel problems. Contrast with crystallized intelligence. Crystalized: Those aspects of intellectual functioning that involve using knowledge acquired through experience. Contrast with fluid intelligence.

Answer 185

Convergent: Thinking that involves “converging” on the one best answer to a problem; what IQ tests measure. Contrast with divergent thinking. Divergent: Thinking that requires coming up with a variety of ideas or solutions to a problem when there is no one right answer. Contrast with convergent thinking.

Answer 186

rapid decline in intellectual abilities preceding death

Answer 187

hypothesis over time negative environments may lower IQ

Answer 188

theory of multiple intelligences

Answer 189

WPPSI-III, WISC-IV, WAIS-IV (preschool and childhood Intelligence tests)

Answer 190

theory of successful intelligence

Midterm 1 Flashcards

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