Exam 2 Flashcards
What is a synapse?
A “connection between neurons”
What is pruning? When/how does it occur?
“the process of eliminating unused synapses.”
Unused connections die off
Whose brain is more resilient in the face of insult (e.g., malnutrition, head
injury), infants or adults? Why?
Infants.
They have more unused synapses than adults.
How do synaptogenesis and pruning help explain how infants within more
enriched homes might develop better cognitive skills later?
In impoverished homes more synapses maybe unused on average and
therefore die away.
What is myelination? What nerves myelinate first/earlier?
“a process in neuronal development in which sheaths made of a
substance called myelin gradually cover individual axons and electrically
insulate them from one another to improve the conductivity of the nerve”
follows cephalocaudal and proximodistal development. Parts of brain
related to head movement myelinate sooner than those related to lower
limbs.
How much television does the American Academy of Pediatrics suggest
children under the age of two watch per week? Describe Dimitri Christakis’
study that this recommendation is based on.
None. Children who watched excessive television in the first three years
more likely to have ADHD in elementary years.
Who is more likely to intervene to make their 1-year-old have predictable
sleep patterns, American or European parents?
American.
Within the first three months of life, does prompt attention to a crying baby
lead to more or less crying by the baby later?
Less.
What is colic? What causes it?
Intense crying for 3 or more hours/day for no apparent reason. Don’t know
why it happens. Usually disappears spontaneously at 3-4 months.
Describe the difference between fine and gross motor skills. Do boys and
girls acquire these equally quickly early in life?
Fine: use of hands. Bones in wrist appear earlier for girls, giving them an
advantage in fine motor skills.
Gross: movement, such as crawling. Boys more physically active and
acquire gross motor skills more quickly than girls.
Describe Wayne Dennis’ study of infants in Iranian orphanages.
Babies placed on backs in cribs learned to walk more slowly than those in
less restrictive settings.
Which do most developmental psychologists suggest is healthier for
newborns, breast feeding or bottle feeding? Why?
Breast feeding.
Meets nutritional needs. Contributes to more rapid weight and size gain.
Infant less likely to have diarrhea, gastroenteritis, bronchitis, ear
infections, colic, and to die
Breast milk also better at supporting immune system functioning
Maybe protects from overweight in later years.
What are some reasons some mothers cannot breast feed?
Insufficient milk supply, medical conditions that require medication, viruses
(e.g., HIV)
What’s the world’s leading cause of death for children under the age of 5?
Macronutrient malnutrition (i.e., too few calories)
What do most nutritional problems in industrialized countries involve?
Micronutrient malnutrition (i.e., not enough vitamins and minerals)
Describe the rates of immunization in 1992 vs. 1999. What accounts for
the differences?
1992: 55% had full set (i.e., three injections for hepatitis, four for
diphtheria/tetanus/pertussis, three for influenza, three for polio, one for
measles/rubella, one for varicella zoster virus)
1999: 90%
intensive government media campaign
How does the U.S. infant mortality rate compare to other industrialized
countries? What accounts for these deaths?
Higher than most others.
2/3rds die in the first month due to congenital anomalies or low birth
weight
After the first month of life, what causes the death of most infants?
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. “a phenomenon in which an apparently
healthy infant dies suddenly and unexpectedly.”
What does the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend to help
prevent SIDS?
Infants sleep on their backs. After publicized, 12% drop in SIDS.
Based on the studies presented in the book, what types of
problems/issues does SIDS seem related to?
Respiratory issues. Risk factors: more common in winter when babies
more likely to have viral infections that cause breathing difficulties, infants
with sleep apnea, moms who smoke prenatally
What racial/ethnic groups have the highest rates of SIDS in America? Why
doesn’t poverty seem to account for this? What does the book’s authors
suggest might account for this?
African American, Native American, Native Hawaiian American.
Because Hispanics almost as likely to be poor, but their SIDS rates are
lower.
Lower rates of alcohol and tobacco use among women born outside of
U.S. may account for this.
Prenatal care. 70% of Native American women and 75% of African
American women receive prenatal care in the first month of pregnancy.
85% of White and 87% of Chinese American do.
Which sense seems most well developed at birth?
Touch. Many reflexes dependent on touch
Describe habituation and dishabituation. How do researchers use these
to assess perceptual acuity?
Habituation: “a decline in attention that occurs because a stimulus has
become familiar.”
Dishabituation: “responding to a somewhat familiar stimulus as if it were
new.”
Describe Eleanor Gibson and Richard Walk’s (1960) “visual cliff” and what
it helped researchers find about infant depth perception.
Square box with red and white checkerboard pattern. Plexiglass across
top. Half-way across box, checkerboard pattern drops a foot. When 6
month olds got to this mid-way point, most stopped. Could perceive the
difference.
What faces do babies prefer to look at?
Mom’s face and attractive faces.
Infants can detect all speech sounds until about what age? What happens
at this point? Is this reversible?
Six months. If sound hasn’t been used in their native language, ability to
discriminate it from others disappears. Vowel discrimination disappears at
6 months and consonant at 12 months.
Yes, it’s reversible. Neuroimaging studies find that children who receive
instruction in new language show more flexibility in these neural networks.
Are younger or older infants more able to tell the difference between lemurs?
How do experimenters know?
Younger. When the older babies were shown the new face, they acted as if they
had already seen it. When the younger babies were shown the new face, they
recognized it as a new face and were interested in it.
How many more synapses does a baby have compared to an adult?
About one and a half times.
Why are younger babies able to tell the differences between lemur faces?
The large number of synapses in their brain.
What happens to synapses that the babies do not use?
Pruning. They die off while the ones being used flourish.
What are some benefits of breastfeeding for the mother?
Reducing breast cancer and protecting against osteoporosis
What are some benefits of breastfeeding for the baby?
Enhancing the immune system and nourishing the brain and body
What ethnicity has the lowest rates of breastfeeding? Why?
African-American. Bottle feeding is a culturally based parenting practice for them.
What percentage of American babies are breastfed?
50%.
Do Americans breastfeed more or less than women in other countries?
Much less
What is optimal nutrition for a newborn?
Breast milk exclusively for the first 6 months then with complementary foods until one
year.
What does Dr. Sinha say that neuroscientists would say happens if a blind
human eye is fixed after four or five years of age?
Chances of being able to see are slim.
What does Dr. Sinha’s research suggest about a critical stage for eye
development?
His kids were able to develop sight after many years of blindness (he
didn’t say how many years, though)
What is a baby’s vision at birth like?
Legally blind
What is the visually tracking of a child with autism like?
No anticipation of ball. Always follows the ball. Seems ability to
track motion diminished.
Describe the purpose and procedure of the Visual Cliff experiment.
It is an experiment designed to test nonverbal cues from mothers and babies.
The visual cliff itself is a table with a checkered pattern on the top half and the
pattern then drops down for the second half creating a visual cliff. There is a solid
surface covering the entire top of the table. There is a toy at the other end of the
table. The babies will try to reach the toy depending on their mother’s facial
responses.
What happened when the mother gave a “fear face” or scared reaction?
When the mother gave a scared reaction to the baby crossing the “cliff” the baby
was less likely to cross it to reach the toy.
What happened when the mother gave a smile or an expression of
encouragement?
When the mother gave a smile, the baby was more likely to cross the visual cliff
to reach the toy.
What do babies typically do when they see something ambiguous?
Babies will generally look to a significant other or caregiver (e.g. mother, father,
grandparents) to see what to do or how to react.
When does the brain grow to its full size? When does most of that growth occur?
Within the first 3 years. Within the first 6 months.
How are new synaptic connections made?
The brain develops in response to experience and stimulation. When a baby learns a
new skill or knowledge, a new synaptic connection is made.
What did Georgette Mulheir find/experience when she first visited orphanages? Why did
the infants and children act that way?
The babies were lying on their backs just staring into space. They were silent and not
moving around much. The infants and children had no experience of crying leading to a
response from others, so they learned to stop crying.
What types of behaviors can extreme lack of stimulation lead to?
Self-stimulating behaviors such as hand flapping, rocking back and forth, or aggression.
Is it possible for children adopted from orphanages to develop normally?
Yes, if adopted into a loving environment.
What does sensorimotor intelligence refer to?
Schemes related to looking, listening, sucking, and grasping.
Describe the circular reactions.
Primary: repetitive actions organized around the infant’s body
Secondary: more aware of events outside body and tries to make them
recur
Tertiary: infant tries new ways of playing with or manipulating objects.
According to Piaget, when are infants first able to use symbols?
18-24 months
What is object permanence? When does it develop?
“the understanding that objects continue to exist when they can’t be seen”
even at 2 months, some evidence of it. If you place a screen in front of an
object, remove the object, and then remove the screen, 2 month olds will
show surprise at this impossible event.
What is a delay in object permanence associated with later?
A diagnosis of mental retardation
