Chapter 3

Question 1

Birthweight _______ by 4 months and _______ by a year

Answer 1

Doubles; triples

Question 2

Most 24-month-olds weigh about __ pounds

Answer 2

28

Question 3

Norm

Answer 3

An average, or standard, calculated from many individuals within a specific group or population.

Question 4

Percentile

Answer 4

A point on a ranking scale of 0 to 100. The 50th percentile is the midpoint; half of the people in the population being studied rank higher and half rank lower.

Question 5

failure to thrive

Answer 5

If an infant’s percentile rank falls too low

Question 6

Newborns sleep about ______ hours a day. Every week brings a few more waking minutes. By 12 months, the norm is ______ hours a day.

Answer 6

15 to 17; 12 to 13

Question 7

T/F: we know the reason why there are differences in sleep between cultures

Answer 7

False, we don’t know the cause for differences in sleep between cultures

Question 8

Co-sleeping

Answer 8

A custom in which parents and their children (usually infants) sleep together in the same room.

Question 9

Bed-sharing

Answer 9

When two or more people sleep in the same bed

Question 10

Sudden infant death syndrome

Answer 10

A situation in which a seemingly healthy infant, usually between 2 and 6 months old, suddenly stops breathing and dies unexpectedly while asleep.

Question 11

What did a detailed study in Texas find out about sudden infant death syndrome?

Answer 11

half of all infants who died suddenly and unexpectedly were bed-sharing at the time

Question 12

Head-sparing

Answer 12

A biological mechanism that protects the brain when malnutrition disrupts body growth. The brain is the last part of the body to be damaged by malnutrition.

Question 13

Neurons

Answer 13

One of billions of nerve cells in the central nervous system, especially in the brain.

Question 14

Axons

Answer 14

A fiber that extends from a neuron and transmits electrochemical impulses from that neuron to the dendrites of other neurons.

Question 15

Dendrites

Answer 15

A fiber that extends from a neuron and receives electrochemical impulses transmitted from other neurons via their axons.

Question 16

Synapses

Answer 16

The intersection between the axon of one neuron and the dendrites of other neurons.

Question 17

Nerutransmitters

Answer 17

A brain chemical that carries information from the axon of a sending neuron to the dendrites of a receiving neuron.

Question 18

Cortex

Answer 18

The outer layers of the brain in humans and other mammals. Most thinking, feeling, and sensing involves the cortex.

Question 19

Occipital lobe

Answer 19

Back of the brain, where vision is located

Question 20

Temporal lobes

Answer 20

Sides of the brain, for hearing

Question 21

Parietal lobe

Answer 21

The top of the brain, includes smell, touch, and spatial understanding

Question 22

Frontal lobe

Answer 22

The front of the brain, enables people to plan, imagine, coordinate, decide, and create

Question 23

Prefrontal cortex

Answer 23

The area of the cortex at the very front of the brain that specializes in anticipation, planning, and impulse control.

Question 24

Limbic system

Answer 24

The parts of the brain that interact to produce emotions, including the amygdala, the hypothalamus, and the hippocampus. Many other parts of the brain also are involved with emotions.

Question 25

Amygdala

Answer 25

A tiny brain structure that registers emotions, particularly fear and anxiety.

Question 26

Hippocampus

Answer 26

A brain structure that is a central processor of memory, especially memory for locations.

Question 27

Hypothalamus

Answer 27

A brain area that responds to the amygdala and the hippocampus to produce hormones that activate other parts of the brain and body.

Question 28

Cortisol

Answer 28

The primary stress hormone; fluctuations in the body’s cortisol level affect human emotions.

Question 29

Pituitary

Answer 29

A gland in the brain that responds to a signal from the hypothalamus by producing many hormones, including those that regulate growth and that control other glands, among them the adrenal and sex glands.

Question 30

Transient exuberance

Answer 30

The great but temporary increase in the number of dendrites that develop in an infant’s brain during the first two years of life.

Question 31

exuberant overproduction of cells and connections followed by a several yearlong ______ of pathways by massive elimination

Answer 31

sculpting

Question 32

Experience-expectant growth

Answer 32

Brain functions that require certain basic common experiences (which an infant can be expected to have) in order to develop normally.

Question 33

Experience-dependent growth

Answer 33

Brain functions that depend on particular, variable experiences and therefore may or may not develop in a particular infant.

Question 34

T/F: babies need stimulation

Answer 34

True

Question 35

Shaken baby syndrome

Answer 35

A life-threatening injury that occurs when an infant is forcefully shaken back and forth, a motion that ruptures blood vessels in the brain and breaks neural connections.

Question 36

Hearing develops during the _____ trimester of pregnancy, as the fetus hears the mother’s heartbeat, digestion, and voice.

Answer 36

Last

Question 37

T/F: vision is immature at birth

Answer 37

True

Question 38

Binocular vision

Answer 38

The ability to focus the two eyes in a coordinated manner in order to see one image.

Question 39

How do babies appreciate what their mothers eat?

Answer 39

prenatally through amniotic fluid, then through breast milk, and finally through smells and spoonfuls of the family dinner.

Question 40

Motor skills

Answer 40

The learned abilities to move some part of the body, in actions ranging from a large leap to a flicker of the eyelid. (The word motor here refers to movement of muscles.)

Question 41

Gross motor skills

Answer 41

Physical abilities involving large body movements, such as walking and jumping. (The word gross here means “big.”)

Question 42

cephalocaudal

Answer 42

Head-down

Question 43

proximodistal

Answer 43

Center-out

Question 44

Fine motor skills

Answer 44

Physical abilities involving small body movements, especially of the hands and fingers, such as drawing and picking up a coin. (The word fine here means “small.”)

Question 45

T/F: some cultures discourage walking

Answer 45

True

Question 46

When is, and isn’t, an infant’s low height or weight percentile a problem?

Answer 46

It is not a problem if weight and height gain is steady, i.e., if a low percentile continues to be low for that age but is not declining. It becomes a problem if the percentile is very low, such as 5 percent, and the infant appears malnourished.

Question 47

What is the difference between experience-expectant and experience-dependent growth?

Answer 47

Expectant experiences are universal, needed for normal development; dependent experiences vary by family and culture, shaping infants to function in their community.

Question 48

What are the reasons for and against bed-sharing?

Answer 48

The reasons for it are closer parent-infant bonds, and less awakening for either parent or baby. The reasons against it is the risk of suffocation, if a parent, pillow, or blanket accidentally impedes breathing of the baby.

Question 49

How can pruning increase brain potential?

Answer 49

When unused connections disappear, that allows more room for needed new connections.

Question 50

What is the difference between experience-expectant and experience-dependent growth?

Answer 50

Expectant experiences are universal, needed for normal development; dependent experiences vary by family and culture, shaping infants to function in their community.

Question 51

How does vision change over the first year?

Answer 51

Vision is very poor at birth but matures rapidly as infants develop the ability to focus, to use both eyes together, to follow moving objects, to see color.

Question 52

When and why is it important to understand how well an infant hears?

Answer 52

Ideally hearing losses are recognized at birth, as well as later in infancy, because hearing is essential for learning spoken language.

Question 53

How are taste, smell, and pain affected by the social context?

Answer 53

All the senses are present at birth, but experience refines and adjusts them. For example, infants develop appreciation for whatever tastes they encounter, via milk and then foods.

Question 54

Why and when do babies crawl and walk?

Answer 54

Infants seek to move as well and soon as they can in order to explore their environment. Crawling typically becomes possible at about & months, walking at a year.

Question 55

Which fine motor skills develop in infancy?

Answer 55

Mouth skills are usually first, as infants refine sucking and spitting up. Hand and finger skills develop over the early years, from grasping with the whole hand (by 6 months) to using the fingers (about a year).