Chapter 4: Physical Development in Infancy & toddlerhood

Question 1

What is the cephalocaudal trend?

Answer 1

During the prenatal period, the head develops more rapidly than the lower part of the body

Question 2

What is the proximodistal trend?

Answer 2

growth proceeds from the centre of the body outward.

Question 3

A process that returns neurons that are not needed at the moment to an uncommitted state so they can support future development:

Answer 3

synaptic pruning

Question 4

The young brains rapidly developing organisation, which depends on ordinary experiences - opportunities to explore the environment, interact with people, and hear language and other sounds:

Answer 4

experience-expectant brain growth

Question 5

This type occurs throughout our our lives; it consists of additional growth and refinement of established brain structures as a result of specific learning experiences that vary widely across individuals and cultures:

Answer 5

Experience-dependent brain growth

Question 6

A gradual reduction in the strength of a response due to repetitive stimulation:

Answer 6

habituation

Question 7

By analysing the speech stream for patterns - repeatedly occurring sequences of sounds - they acquire a stock of speech structures for which they will later learn monks, long before they start to talk around age 12 months:

Answer 7

statistical learning capacity

Question 8

Infants actively search for invariant features of the environment - those that remain stable - in a constantly changing perceptual world:

Answer 8

differentiation theory

Question 9

What process makes space for neural fibers and synapses?

Answer 9

programmed cell death

Question 10

Neurons that are seldom stimulated lose their synapses in a process called?

Answer 10

synaptic pruning