PSYC 304 Final Exam Questions and Answers Graded A+
What is childhood? Define in terms of physicality and psychologically - Answers Physically:
- Over 18
- Physically immature
Psychologically
- Dependent on adult caregivers
- Fundamentally about learning
True or false: humans have the longest childhood among primates - Answers True
Explain why human childhood is so long - Answers Conflict between large head and narrow hips
- Need a big brain, but need narrow hips to be able to stand upright as a child
- So, brain continues to develop outside of the womb
- During this time a lot of learning and brain development takes place
Name some aspects of childhood that demonstrate that children are adapted to focus on
learning - Answers Curious
Suggestible
Imitate others
Overestimate own abilities
Brains are malleable
Definition of child development - Answers Process of learning of perceptual, cognitive,
emotional and social capabilities that allows an individual to grow from the dependence of
infancy to the independence of adulthood
Explain the preferential looking paradigm - Answers Present baby with 2 stimuli beside each
other
If baby looks longer at one, it means they can distinguish between the two and have a
preference
,Infants prefer to look at familiar or more complex stimuli
Explain the habituation paradigm - Answers Repeatedly present infant with a stimulus until they
habituate to it. Then, present habituated stimulus and new stimulus. If look longer at novel
stimulus, they can tell the difference between the two.
In general, infants show a preference for _____ stimuli - Answers Familiar
Prolonged/ repeated exposure to a stimulus will cause infants to shift their preference to a
______ stimulus - Answers Novel
At birth, infants have _____ visual acuity. How do we know this? - Answers Poor visual acuity.
Prefer to look at patterns with high visual contrast and cannot discriminate between stimuli with
lower contrast sensitivities (ex: stripped paddles with narrow gaps)
At what age do infants develop adult like visual acuity? - Answers 8 months
Improved visual acuity is due to......? - Answers Brain maturation
Colour Perception
At birth:
2 months:
5 months: - Answers Birth: greyscale
2: colour vision appears
5: adult-like colour perception
Improve colour perception is due to ....? - Answers Brain maturation
Visual Scanning
From birth:
4 months:
8 months - Answers Birth: infants scan their visual environment and pause to look at something
(eye movements are jerky, can't follow objects)
4: able to smoothly track moving objects if moving slowly
8: adult like visual scanning
,Improved visual scanning is due to.......? - Answers Brain maturation
Face perception: Infants have a general bias for _______stimuli - Answers Top-heavy
Explain the preferential looking paradigm for face perception - Answers Showed babies:
Regular faces
Upside faces
Scrambled, top-heavy faces
Scrambled, bottom heavy faces
- Results:
Preference for either top-heavy or upright
Improvement in face perception is due to......? - Answers Experience
What is perceptual narrowing? - Answers Tuning of perceptual mechanisms to the specific
sensory inputs that infants encounter in their daily life
Good at distinguishing stimuli we see often, not so good at distinguishing stimuli don't often
How does perceptual narrowing relate to face perception - Answers 6 months (face generalists):
can distinguish between human and monkey faces
9 months (face specialists): become skilled at distinguishing between human faces
Perceptual narrowing is a result of _______? - Answers Synaptic pruning: Elimination of synapses
to increase the efficiency of neural communication
Use it or lose it principle: synapses that are actively used are more likely to be preserved, while
those rarely used are eliminated
Synaptogenesis - Answers Formation of synapses between neurons
Rapid synaptogenesis right after birth
Improvement in perceptual narrowing is due to _______? - Answers Experience
Other-race effect - Answers Recognize faces that belong to one's own racial group easier than
, other racial groups
Other race-effect in:
3 months
9 months - Answers 3 month olds: distinguish between faces of all races (ORE hasn't developed
yet)
9 month olds: can only distinguish between faces of own race
How does ASD affect an infants face perception? - Answers Toddlers with ASD preferred
looking at geometric shapes over pictures of people
Perceptual Constancy - Answers The perception of objects as being constant in size, shape,
colour. etc in spite of physical differences in the retinal image of the object
Explain the habituation paradigm related to perceptual constancy - Answers Repeatedly shown
an infant a small cube from different distances. Then, show a larger cube further away so it
looks the same size on the retina.
Infants looked at the larger cube more, which indicates that they knew it was a different
cube/different size.
Also indicates they saw original cube as constant size
Is perceptual constancy innate? - Answers Yes
Object segregation - Answers The ability to identify that objects are separate from each other
Explain the habituation paradigm related to object segregation - Answers Watched a video of a
rod moving side to side behind a box. Then, shown 2 rods side by side (one is a full rod, one is 2
rods).
Newborns looked at both equally, indicating they didn't understand the rod behind the box was a
single object.
4 months old looked at the broken one more, indicating it was novel (the knew rod behind the
box was one complete rod)
What is childhood? Define in terms of physicality and psychologically - Answers Physically:
- Over 18
- Physically immature
Psychologically
- Dependent on adult caregivers
- Fundamentally about learning
True or false: humans have the longest childhood among primates - Answers True
Explain why human childhood is so long - Answers Conflict between large head and narrow hips
- Need a big brain, but need narrow hips to be able to stand upright as a child
- So, brain continues to develop outside of the womb
- During this time a lot of learning and brain development takes place
Name some aspects of childhood that demonstrate that children are adapted to focus on
learning - Answers Curious
Suggestible
Imitate others
Overestimate own abilities
Brains are malleable
Definition of child development - Answers Process of learning of perceptual, cognitive,
emotional and social capabilities that allows an individual to grow from the dependence of
infancy to the independence of adulthood
Explain the preferential looking paradigm - Answers Present baby with 2 stimuli beside each
other
If baby looks longer at one, it means they can distinguish between the two and have a
preference
,Infants prefer to look at familiar or more complex stimuli
Explain the habituation paradigm - Answers Repeatedly present infant with a stimulus until they
habituate to it. Then, present habituated stimulus and new stimulus. If look longer at novel
stimulus, they can tell the difference between the two.
In general, infants show a preference for _____ stimuli - Answers Familiar
Prolonged/ repeated exposure to a stimulus will cause infants to shift their preference to a
______ stimulus - Answers Novel
At birth, infants have _____ visual acuity. How do we know this? - Answers Poor visual acuity.
Prefer to look at patterns with high visual contrast and cannot discriminate between stimuli with
lower contrast sensitivities (ex: stripped paddles with narrow gaps)
At what age do infants develop adult like visual acuity? - Answers 8 months
Improved visual acuity is due to......? - Answers Brain maturation
Colour Perception
At birth:
2 months:
5 months: - Answers Birth: greyscale
2: colour vision appears
5: adult-like colour perception
Improve colour perception is due to ....? - Answers Brain maturation
Visual Scanning
From birth:
4 months:
8 months - Answers Birth: infants scan their visual environment and pause to look at something
(eye movements are jerky, can't follow objects)
4: able to smoothly track moving objects if moving slowly
8: adult like visual scanning
,Improved visual scanning is due to.......? - Answers Brain maturation
Face perception: Infants have a general bias for _______stimuli - Answers Top-heavy
Explain the preferential looking paradigm for face perception - Answers Showed babies:
Regular faces
Upside faces
Scrambled, top-heavy faces
Scrambled, bottom heavy faces
- Results:
Preference for either top-heavy or upright
Improvement in face perception is due to......? - Answers Experience
What is perceptual narrowing? - Answers Tuning of perceptual mechanisms to the specific
sensory inputs that infants encounter in their daily life
Good at distinguishing stimuli we see often, not so good at distinguishing stimuli don't often
How does perceptual narrowing relate to face perception - Answers 6 months (face generalists):
can distinguish between human and monkey faces
9 months (face specialists): become skilled at distinguishing between human faces
Perceptual narrowing is a result of _______? - Answers Synaptic pruning: Elimination of synapses
to increase the efficiency of neural communication
Use it or lose it principle: synapses that are actively used are more likely to be preserved, while
those rarely used are eliminated
Synaptogenesis - Answers Formation of synapses between neurons
Rapid synaptogenesis right after birth
Improvement in perceptual narrowing is due to _______? - Answers Experience
Other-race effect - Answers Recognize faces that belong to one's own racial group easier than
, other racial groups
Other race-effect in:
3 months
9 months - Answers 3 month olds: distinguish between faces of all races (ORE hasn't developed
yet)
9 month olds: can only distinguish between faces of own race
How does ASD affect an infants face perception? - Answers Toddlers with ASD preferred
looking at geometric shapes over pictures of people
Perceptual Constancy - Answers The perception of objects as being constant in size, shape,
colour. etc in spite of physical differences in the retinal image of the object
Explain the habituation paradigm related to perceptual constancy - Answers Repeatedly shown
an infant a small cube from different distances. Then, show a larger cube further away so it
looks the same size on the retina.
Infants looked at the larger cube more, which indicates that they knew it was a different
cube/different size.
Also indicates they saw original cube as constant size
Is perceptual constancy innate? - Answers Yes
Object segregation - Answers The ability to identify that objects are separate from each other
Explain the habituation paradigm related to object segregation - Answers Watched a video of a
rod moving side to side behind a box. Then, shown 2 rods side by side (one is a full rod, one is 2
rods).
Newborns looked at both equally, indicating they didn't understand the rod behind the box was a
single object.
4 months old looked at the broken one more, indicating it was novel (the knew rod behind the
box was one complete rod)
