Chapter 5: Perceptual Development Throughout the Life Span

Question 1

______ is the process of registering stimulation and transmitting that information to cortical brain centers.

Answer 1

sensation

Question 2

_____ is the process of assigning meaning to the sensation.

Answer 2

perception

Question 3

The five sensory perceptual systems, although not fully developed, are all ______ at birth.

Answer 3

functional

Question 4

Perception researchers have discovered that neonates have preferences for what they look at, taste, or _____.

Answer 4

hear

Question 5

These ____ and perceptual abilities have been studied using very creative experimental procedures since a newborn cannot simply tell us what they see.

Answer 5

neonate preferences

Question 6

Many of the neonate preference experiments take advantage of the fact that newborns show a simple form of learning called _____.

Answer 6

habituation

Question 7

_____ is decreasing attention to a familiar stimulus. When newborns, are shown a new picture they look at it and and scan it. However, over time they look away. _____ lets the infant tell us that a stimulus is familiar or old.

Answer 7

habituation

habituation

Question 8

Young infants can also be trained using Skinner’s operant conditioning techniques. An infant can learn to respond a certain way to receive a _______.

Answer 8

reinforcement

Question 9

A researcher can study an infant’s ability to discriminate ______.

Answer 9

different sounds

Question 10

As the newborn receives sensory stimulation, his or her perceptual abilities improve and the neural circuits in the brain centers that control each sensory perceptual function are ______.

Answer 10

strengthened

Question 11

Sensory ____ research with animals indicates that there are sensitive periods for receiving sensory stimulation.. Some chimpanzees raised in the dark have permanently impaired vision due to the degeneration of the optic nerve –the nerve that transmits visual information to the cortical ______.

Answer 11

deprivation

vision center

Question 12

If the sensory deprivation lasts no longer than ____ , the damage is reversible.

Answer 12

seven months

Question 13

Human infants born blind due to _____ sometimes do not fully recover normal visual acuity.

Answer 13

cataracts- clouding on the lens of the eyes)

Question 14

It is important to note that while the perceptual development in each modality will be discussed separately, perception is really ______, that is, the result of coordination and communication among the sensory perceptual systems.

Answer 14

intermodal

Question 15

When we are looking at a scene, we also experience sounds and _____. In turn, the sensory perceptual experiences we have are associated in _____.

Answer 15

smells

memory

Question 16

Meltzer and Borton reported evidence of intermodal perception in ____.

Answer 16

1 month old infants

Question 17

_____ is accomplished after light waves enter the opening of the eye (the pupil) and are reflected by the lens onto the retina in the back of the eye.

Answer 17

vision

Question 18

Visual receptor cells in the retina transmit signals to the vision center in the _____ lobe of the cortex.

Answer 18

occipital

Question 19

Sensitivity to a perceptual stimulus is measured by the ____.

Answer 19

absolute threshold

Question 20

The _____ is the minimal intensity of a stimulus an observer can detect

Answer 20

absolute threshold

Question 21

The newborn’s absolute threhold for vision and hearing is ___ than a normal adult’s, but rapidly decreases. Young infants do not _____ very soft whispers that adults with normal hearing can.

Answer 21

higher

hear

Question 22

At birth, neonates can see although their _____ is poor.

Answer 22

visual acuity

Question 23

_____ is the ability to see fine gratings or details in a visual stimulus.

Answer 23

visual acuity

Question 24

Perfect acuity is quantified as _____.

Answer 24

20/20

Question 25

Newborn visual acuity ranges from about _____ to _____. This means a newborn can see something as clearly at 20 feet as a person with normal vision could see clearly at 600 to 800 feet.

Answer 25

20/400 to 20/800

Question 26

The poor acuity in newborns is because the muscles that control the lens, the part of the eye that has to reflect light onto the retina are ____.

Answer 26

weak

Question 27

Visual acuity improves rapidly over the first ____ of life.

Answer 27

4 months

Question 28

Newborns are also capable of ____ a moving object, although their ____ movements are not very smooth and coordinated. They track by moving their entire head rather than just their eyes.

Answer 28

tracking | tracking

Question 29

By the time infants can crawl, they indicate that they have _____ by refusing to crawl across the deep side of a visual cliff.

Answer 29

depth perception

Question 30

Depth perception involves the interpretation of visual cues in order to determine how ____ the objects are.

Answer 30

far away

Question 31

There is currently a debate as to whether depth perception is an _____ ability or a learned response as a result of experience.

Answer 31

inborn ability

Question 32

Gibson and Walk developed an apparatus they called the _____ that is used to measure depth perception in infants and toddlers.

Answer 32

visual cliff

Question 33

The visual cliff consists of an elevated glass platform divided into two sections. One section has a surface that is textured with a checkerboard pattern of tile, while the other has a ____ surface with a checkerboard pattern several feet below it so it looks like the floor drops off.

Answer 33

clear

Question 34

The age of children who do not cross the visual cliff?

Answer 34

6 months and up Not sure

Question 35

_____ or stability, of the shape, size, brightness, and color of objects in our visual fields. We are able to recognize the same objects at a variety of angles, at various _____, and even under different colored lighting because of ____.

Answer 35

perceptual constancy | perceptual constancies

Question 36

____ constancy is when objects we are familiar with seem to appear the same size despite changes in the distance between us and the objects.

Answer 36

size

Question 37

_____ constancy is when objects appear to be the same shape despite changes in their orientation toward the viewer.

Answer 37

shape

Question 38

______ or ________ constancy is when objects appear to stay the same brightness despite changes tin the amount of light falling on them

Answer 38

brightness or lightness

Question 39

____ constancy is when the hue of an object appears to stay the same despite changes in background lighting.

Answer 39

color

Question 40

Newborns have been shown to have _____ constancy.

Answer 40

size

Question 41

Studies of color perception using the habituation paradigm report that very young infants see color and have a mature ability to perceive color by ____ months of age.

Answer 41

two to three

Question 42

Newborns and infants have visual preferences. They prefer to look at faces and other visual stimuli that have contour, contrast, ______ and movement. Some two day old infants are even capable of discriminating their mother's face from a ______ face.

Answer 42

complexity | stranger's

Question 43

______ old infants will show surprise when shown a face with jumbled parts.

Answer 43

six and seven months

Question 44

Young infants show ________. They will scan the borders and edges of objects in a visual stimulus while older infants will scan the _____.

Answer 44

selective looking | edges

Question 45

This difference may be due to the fact that young infants are still learning to ______ objects in a scene which older infants can accomplish very quickly. The older infant has more time to scan inside the contours of an object for details.

Answer 45

pick out

Question 46

Infants can hear prior to ____. There are many sounds in the womb including the sound of their mother's voice.

Answer 46

birth

Question 47

Shortly after birth, newborn infants are capable of discriminating between sounds of different duration, loudness, and ____.

Answer 47

pitch

Question 48

Newborns also appear to prefer the sound of a human voice to other sounds and prefer to hear complex sounds over _____.

Answer 48

pure tones

Question 49

Young infants will listen longer to the sound of a person speaking than _____.

Answer 49

non speech sounds

Question 50

At birth, infants will suck more on a nipple in order to hear their mother's voice compared to a ______ voice, and to hear their native language as compared to a foreign language.

Answer 50

stranger's

Question 51

By ___ months of age, infants can discriminate between any two basic sounds, called phonemes, used in all the world's language.

Answer 51

6 months

Question 52

By six months they can make discriminations between phonemes that older children and adults can _____.

Answer 52

no longer make

Question 53

Psycholinguists and psychologists who study language argue that humans are _____ prepared to acquire a language.

Answer 53

innately

Question 54

The sense of smell is _____ in a newborn.

Answer 54

well developed

Question 55

The fetus is exposed to many odors as well as sounds in the _____.

Answer 55

womb

Question 56

By ____ of age, infants can smell the difference between their mother and a stranger.

Answer 56

6 weeks

Question 57

Infant's ability to discriminate tastes has been studied by observing changes in infant's facial expressions after different ___ are placed on the tongue.

Answer 57

flavored liquids

Question 58

Infants respond differently to the four basic tastes (sweet, sour, salty, and _____), and they show a clear preference for sweet flavored liquids.

Answer 58

bitter

Question 59

There is evidence that ___ has a soothing affect on newborns, particularly if the infant is experiencing pain.

Answer 59

sugar water

Question 60

Infants are very response to _____.

Answer 60

touch

Question 61

_____ is one of the best developed senses at birth and the earliest sensory perceptual systems to develop prenatally.

Answer 61

touch

Question 62

Some research has shown that female infants may be more ____ to touch than males.

Answer 62

sensitive

Question 63

____ infants, that is wrapping them tightly in cloth, has a soothing affect on infants perhaps because of the stimulating affect is has on the sense of touch.

Answer 63

swaddling

Question 64

Gentle ____ has also been found to improve the development of premature infants.

Answer 64

massaging

Question 65

At birth, infants are also highly sensitive to ____ and are sensitive to warm and cold temperatures.

Answer 65

pain

Question 66

Most perceptual development in childhood and adolescence is really a matter of the development of _____.

Answer 66

attention

Question 67

As children age they acquire more control of ____.

Answer 67

perception

Question 68

_____ is the process of focusing on particular aspects of the sensory world.

Answer 68

attention

Question 69

Between _____ and ____ years of age, visual search of a stimulus becomes more controlled and systematic.

Answer 69

4 and 10 years old

Question 70

______ increase from 18 minutes in two to three year olds to more than an hour in six year olds.

Answer 70

attention spans

Question 71

Learning to read requires these _______ and is probably the most significant perceptual challenge for children.

Answer 71

attentional capacities

Question 72

Absolute thresholds for sensory stimuli rise with ____ in adulthood.

Answer 72

age

Question 73

Adults gradually lose some sensitivity for sights, sounds, flavors, and _____.

Answer 73

odors

Question 74

There is a slowing of the processing of sensory _____. For example, older adults may have trouble understanding rapid speech.

Answer 74

stimulation

Question 75

There are changes that occur to the eye associated with ______.

Answer 75

aging

Question 76

The lens of the eye gradually loses _____ and therefore cannot change its shape to reflect light as well as it did at an earlier age.

Answer 76

flexibility

Question 77

The lens of the ye also can develop deposits called ______, which can be surgically removed but will lead to blindness if left uncorrected.

Answer 77

cataracts

Question 78

____ appears more frequently in people over the age of 50 years old. It is a build up of pressure from excess fluid inside the eyeball.

Answer 78

glaucoma

Question 79

If left untreated, ____ causes blindness, but it can be detected early during routing eye examinations.

Answer 79

glaucoma

Question 80

All the vision changes that come with aging cause adults to see more _____, have less sensitivity under dim lighting conditions, and have difficulty with near vision.

Answer 80

glare

Question 81

Aging adults that have difficulty with near vision and is called _______. It is present in most people after the mid to later 40s.

Answer 81

presbyopia

Question 82

_____ is corrected with lenses that help focus images from near objects onto the retina.

Answer 82

presbyopia

Question 83

Distance vision also shows a steady decline in old age after peaking in the ____ and staying steady in middle age.

Answer 83

20s

Question 84

Older adults perform more poorly on test of selection attention and visual search compared with ____.

Answer 84

younger adults

Question 85

Changes in hearing with age are caused by changes in the ____.

Answer 85

inner ear