Chapter 3: The Nature-Nurture Debate

Question 1

altricial species

Answer 1

in which the young are incapable of moving around their own and are dependent on their parents for food and safety for some period after birth

Question 2

precocial species

Answer 2

in which the young are physically mobile and able from the moment of hatching

Question 3

nativism

Answer 3

view that many skills/ abilities are “native” or hard wired into the brain, the result of genetic inheritance

Question 4

empiricism

Answer 4

view that humans are not born with built-in core knowledge or mental content and that all knowledge results from learning experience

Question 5

cognition

Answer 5

mental activity such as attention, memory, problem-solving, thinking, intelligence

Question 6

chronological age

Answer 6

person’s actual age, as opposed to their mental age

Question 7

standardised test

Answer 7

test of psychological characteristic, such as personality, aptitude, or intelligence that has been standardised on a representative sample of the population

Question 8

g

Answer 8

the term used to denote general intelligence

Question 9

heritability

Answer 9

statistical measure that describes how much of the variation of a trait in a population is due to genetic differences rather than environmental differences in that population

Question 10

genetic determinism

Answer 10

hypothesis that people become who they are as a consequence of their genetic inheritance

Question 11

environmentalism

Answer 11

hypothesis that people become who they are as a consequence of the learning and experiences they have had throughout life

Question 12

familial resemblance

Answer 12

resemblance between relatives whose genetic relationship to each other is known

Question 13

missing heritability

Answer 13

failure to find any of the genes associated with cognitive abilities

Question 14

genotype

Answer 14

individual’s inherited genetic makeup

Question 15

phenotype

Answer 15

interaction of genetic and environmental influences to create an individual’s physical appearance and behaviour

Question 16

Phenylketonuria

Answer 16

rare genetic mutation which, if left untreated, results in severe mental retardation and learning difficulties

Question 17

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

Answer 17

collection of lung disorders such as emphysema and bronchitis and airflow obstruction; people with COPD have difficulty breathing

Question 18

fatty acids

Answer 18

building blocks of the fat in our bodies and in the food we eat

Question 19

environmental drift

Answer 19

changes in developmental functions that result from, and are in the direction of changing environment

Question 20

Flynn effect

Answer 20

increase in the average intelligence quotient (IQ) test scores over generation

Question 21

Raven’s Progressive Matrices (RPM)

Answer 21

culture-free non-verbal intelligence test with items arranged in order of difficulty