85-221: Principles of Child
Development
Fall 2011, Exam #2
ANSWER KEY
TOTAL:
100 points
Section I: Multiple Choice (30
points)
Write the letter of the best
answer on the blank provided on the left. (3 points each)
___ 1.
Which
of the following is NOT an example of a domain-general learning mechanism:
a. Classical conditioning
b. Imitation
c. Habituation
d.
Universal grammar
___ 2.
The
fanning of infants’ toes when their foot is stroked is known as the
a.
Babinski reflex
b. Moro reflex
c. Rooting reflex
d. Ulnar reflex
___ 3.
When
an infant is given particular auditory input and a matching as well as a
non-matching video, she looks at the matching one. The infant is demonstrating:
a.
Intermodal perception
b. Stereopsis
c. Perceptual constancy
d. Auditory localization
___ 4.
Even
neonates are especially attracted to faces. They look longer at:
a. Faces
with the features scrambled than at regular features
b. The
low contrast areas of faces rather than at high contrast areas of faces
c. Monkey
faces than at human faces
d.
Top
heavy stimuli than at bottom heavy stimuli
___ 5.
The
idea that new, more complex forms of behavior emerge as a result of
interactions between simpler behavioral components without any specific
instructions is most consistent with
a. Maturational theory
b.
Dynamic Systems theory
c. Nativism
d. Connectionism
___ 6.
Young infants
perceive speech sounds:
a. Continuously
b. In their native language categorically and those not
in their native language continuously
c. Categorically, perceiving fewer phonemic contrasts than do adults
d. Categorically, perceiving as many phonemic contrasts than do adults
e.
Categorically, perceiving more phonemic contrasts than do adults
___ 7.
Research on
infants’ sensitivity to distributional properties of the speech they hear
demonstrated that infants:
a. Are unable to recognize the syllables that are common
in their native language
b.
Are sensitive to the recurrent patterns of syllables
in their native language
c. Cannot differentiate between all of the phonemes that
sound different to adults
d. Are unaware of the prosody of their native language
___ 8.
The view that
living things have something inside them that makes them what they are is
referred to as:
a. Spiritualism
b. Soulism
c.
Essentialism
d. The life-force principle
___ 9.
Subitizing relies on:
a. Counting
b. Guessing
c.
Perception
d. Addition
___ 10.
Infants generally
categorize objects as belonging to the same category when they have:
a. A superordinate-subordinate relationship
b.
Similar appearances
c. Causal relations
d. Cross-class correspondences
Section
II: Short Answer
(70 points)
11. Suppose
you show an infant the following object and call it a “wug”:
Then
you show that same infant the following three objects. You ask the infant to pick out and give you
another “wug”.
Which object do you expect him to pick (circle one; 2 points), and what
is this tendency termed by researchers (2 points)?:
Why
does an infant choose that object (2 points)?
In addition, provide either an
empiricist or a nativist explanation for this finding (be sure to indicate whether
your explanation is empiricist or nativist; 4 points).
This
question is worth 10 points in
total.
|
+2 |
Should
have circled the circle |
|
+2 |
The
Shape Bias |
|
+2 |
Because
objects are typically generalized by shape |
|
+4 |
Empiricist
explanation: Objects with the same labels tend to have the same shape, so
through statistical observation, objects with the same labels become
generalizable by shape. |
|
+4 |
Natvisit explanation: This bias is
innately specified or comes for free, OR, they use conceptual knowledge to
extend labels to new objects Note: students may receive
credit for either giving an empiricist or nativist explanation. |
12.
Neonates are born with a number of taste, vision, and
smell preferences. List two preferences from any of these domains that are
present at birth.
|
+2 for any of
these: · patterns over plain surfaces, or something over nothing · faces (configurations with more stuff in the top half) · breast milk · sweet flavors · their own language · their mother’s voice |
12. Spoken language carries with it a lot of
variability from speaker to speaker.
Ignoring differences between languages, list two ways that monolingual
speakers might differ from each other (2 point for each way).
This
question is worth 4 points in total.
|
+2
each for any two of these:
|
13. Describe the notion of a
theory of mind module (2 points). Describe a piece of evidence in support of
its existence (3 points) and a piece of evidence that suggests it does not
exist (3 points).
This question is worth 8 points total.
|
+2 |
Theory
of mind module |
Brain
mechanism devoted to understanding others |
|
+3 |
Evidence
in support |
Cross-culturally,
children develop theory of mind around the same age. Autistic
children’s lack of theory of mind which doesn’t seem to be correctable with
experience. |
|
+3 |
Evidence
against |
Preschoolers
with siblings do better at false belief tasks than preschoolers without
siblings (they learn about theory of mind from siblings). Also, children with
better social skills and better conversational skills do better. |
14. Define what the critical period hypothesis concerning
language is and explain three
sources of evidence that have been used to support this hypothesis.
This question is worth 9 points total.
|
+3 |
The critical period
hypothesis states that there is a certain time window that lasts from birth
until sometime between 5 years of age and puberty during which children must
be exposed to a language to acquire it fully. After this period, language
acquisition becomes much more difficult. |
|
+2 each |
Possible sources of evidence: ·
Feral children
such as Genie grew up being exposed to little (if
any) language during this critical period.
They were given extensive training but were never able to acquire
language to the level of a native speaker. ·
Adults who
suffer damage to language areas are less able to recover their language
abilities than children who suffer the same damage, suggesting that there is
an early window of brain plasticity that allows for other areas to take over
as language areas when children suffer damage. ·
Performance of
Chinese and Korean immigrants on tests of English grammar was shown to be
directly related to the year that they immigrated. Those who immigrated
before the age of 7 performed as well as native speakers. Those who
immigrated later could not master grammar to the same level. ·
Hemispheric
localization differences have been shown between people who acquired a second
language when they were 1-3 yrs old and those who acquired it later. People
who acquired the second language early showed left-hemisphere dominance for
language while those that had acquired it later had more bilateral
activation. This suggests that if learned relatively early on, a second
language will be treated as a first language. |
15. Describe the steps you would use to assess the visual
acuity of an infant. (5 points)
This question is worth 5 points total.
|
+5 |
Present infants with
pairs of visual stimuli: on one side a solid gray rectangle and on the other
side a same-sized striped rectangle. Vary how densely placed and thin the stripes
are on the striped rectangle. Measure how long the infant looks at the
striped rectangle and the solid rectangle. Once the infant no longer has a
visual preference for the striped (more complex stimulus) it means that their
visual acuity is not developed enough to discriminate that level of stripe
detail. |
16. Lisa’s locomotion abilities are examined using a very
steep hill. Describe how she will move down the hill (1) when she has just
learned to crawl, (2) after crawling for several weeks, (3) when she has just
learned to walk, (4) after walking for several weeks.
This question is worth 4 points total.
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
|
+1 |
When Lisa has just
learned to crawl she will attempt to crawl head
first down the hill. |
|
+1 |
After a few weeks of
experience with crawling, Lisa will not try to crawl downhill but may use a
different strategy (backing down the hill/sliding on her back/sliding on her
stomach/etc.) |
|
+1 |
When Lisa has just
learned how to walk, she will attempt to walk down the hill even though it is
too steep for her. |
|
+1 |
After having a few
weeks of experience, Lisa will try a different strategy such as sliding,
backing down, etc. |
17. Children learn through imitation, however, they are
not just passive imitators. Describe a piece of evidence that suggest babies
imitate the intention of an action.
This question is worth 4 points total.
|
+4 |
When 18 month old
infants observe an adult trying to carry out an action but not succeeding,
(e.g., trying to pull apart a miniature dumbbell but fail due to repeated
slipping of fingers) infants will imitate the intended action rather than what was actually done. |
18. Children’s early word learning is
facilitated both by their own efforts and by those of their parents. Describe three strategies or constraints that
parents use and three strategies or constraints that children use that make
language acquisition easier.
This question is worth 6 points total.
Three parental constraints
1).
2).
3).
Three child constraints
1).
2).
3).
|
+1 each |
Possible strategies
that parents use: ·
Placing extra
stress on novel words and putting them at the end of an utterance ·
Using infant
directed speech/motherese which is louder, has
clearer spaces between words, and words are more emphasized. ·
Labeling
objects that the child is attending to ·
Playing naming
games |
|
+1 each |
Possible strategies
that children use: ·
Fast mapping –
attaching a new label to an object that the child does not already know the
label of ·
Whole object
assumption – a label applies to the entire object and not to some part of the
object ·
Mutual
exclusivity assumption – children accept only one label per object ·
Using pragmatic
cues such as the adults’ focus of attention to figure out which object is
being labeled ·
Extending
object labels based on shape for solids and based on texture for non-solids ·
Syntactic
bootstrapping – inferring the meaning of a word based on the structure of the
sentence/grammar ·
Taxonomic
assumption – words refer to kinds of things rather than the one specific
object that is in front of the child at the moment |
19. Dr. Franklin wants to get baby
Matthew to display the rooting reflex every time the light is turned on in the
room. How would she accomplish this using classical conditioning? In your
answer, be sure to identify what the rooting reflex is and to use the
appropriate terminology for all of the components of the procedure.
This question is worth 7 points total.
|
Rooting reflex –
babies turn their heads when their cheeks are stroked |
|
|
+4 |
Initially, cheek
stroking, the unconditioned stimulus (+1) causes the rooting reflex, the
unconditioned response (+1). Dr. Franklin should repeatedly turn on the
light, the conditioned stimulus (+1) right before the unconditioned stimulus
(stroking Matthew’s cheek). Eventually, the reflex will become a conditioned
response – the baby will start turning his head when the light is turned on
(+1). |
20. Provide two examples of how cultural
differences contribute to different schedules of motor development as compared
to babies raised in North America
This question is worth 6 points total.
|
+3 each |
Possible answers: ·
Infants in
China are placed in beds surrounded by thick pillows to keep them from
crawling on the dirty floor. This may delay motor skill development because
the restriction prevents infants from developing appropriate upper body
strength to support themselves. ·
The Ache, a nomadic group in Paraguay carry infants for the first
three years of life out of safety concerns. The children’s motor skill
development may be delayed because they are not developing the muscle
strength necessary to move themselves. ·
In Kenya,
mothers encourage motor development of children by digging holes for them to
sit in with proper back support. This allows them to practice using those
muscles and can advance their motor skills development. ·
Groups in West
Africa and the West Indies practice massage and various exercises with their
infants which accelerates muscle and motor development. |
21. What is one of the effects of parents attempting to
reduce the risk of SIDs on motor development? Describe (1) the strategy that
parents use (1 point), (2) the specific outcome with respect to motor development
(2 points), and (3) how this parental strategy produces this effect (4 points).
22. In 1990, pediatricians noticed that many infants were
crawling much later than previously established national norms. Name the cause
of this delay (2 points), and explain the mechanism by which it delayed the
normal onset of crawling behavior.
This question is worth 7 points total.
|
+1 |
Campaign to get
parents to put their infants to sleep on their backs to reduce the risk of
SIDs |
|
+2 |
Delay in onset of
crawling |
|
+4 |
While infants are on
their backs, they have a great view of the world (1 point), which makes them
less motivated to try to turn over (1 point). Thus, they don’t try to turn
over onto their stomachs where the view is less good (1 point) and don’t get
discover that squirming can help them propel themselves forward, or the arm
strength from pushing themselves up (1 point) |
|
|
Bonus
Question: How many inflatable dinosaurs live in Lucy’s office? This
question is worth 2 points. A) 3 B) 3.5 C) 4 D) 4.5 |