Deck 7: Conceptual Development

Question 1

Sheira, a 2-year-old, is told a story about a girl named Brenda. Brenda is looking for her favourite doll. Although Brenda thinks the doll is under the bed, it really is in the kitchen cabinet. When Sheira is asked where Brenda will look for her doll, Sheira will MOST likely predict that Brenda will look in which location(s)?

A)under the bed
B)in the kitchen cabinet
C)in the garage
D)both under the bed and in the kitchen cabinet

Answer 1

B

Question 2

The research of Krascum and Andrews on children's ability to learn about wugs and gillies demonstrated that giving children the _____ was particularly important.

A)subordinate and superordinate categories of the objects
B)shapes and colours of the objects
C)functions of the objects' features
D)way in which the objects move

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Which statement BEST expresses Piaget's beliefs about infants' spatial representations?

A)Self-locomotion is key to the development of spatial coding.
B)Landmarks are necessary for infants' spatial coding.
C)Infants are able to code space correctly only if they remain in a single location.
D)Infants' ability to reach for objects precedes their development of spatial coding.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Emilio, an 11-month-old infant, is sitting on the floor in a nearly empty room. On each side of him is a television screen. Every 10 seconds, an interesting picture appears on the screen to his right. The screen to his left remains blank. Emilio is then rotated so that the screen that has been showing the interesting pictures is now to his left. Where will Emilio look in anticipation of the interesting picture?

A)directly in front of him
B)to his left
C)to his right
D)behind him

Question 5

Six-month-old infants are NOT able to

A)discriminate between two durations when their ratio is 2:1.
B)detect a repetitive order of events over time.
C)remember the order of events for a substantial period.
D)sense the duration of events.

Question 6

A commonsense level of understanding of other people and oneself is referred to as

A)naïve psychology.
B)basic psychology.
C)an informal theory.
D)a theory of mind.

Question 7

It is NOT true that children can reason about

A)the future before they can reason about the present.
B)the past before they can reason about the future.
C)the present before they can reason about the past.
D)recent past events before they can reason about events that occurred far in the past.

Question 8

A study by Taylor demonstrated that compared with children who do not have imaginary companions, children who do have imaginary companions

A)are more intelligent.
B)are more likely to be depressed or anxious.
C)watch more television.
D)have more advanced theories of mind.

Question 9

On the subject of healing, preschoolers believe that

A)only people, not plants or animals, can heal.
B)living things, not inanimate objects, can heal.
C)living things and inanimate objects can both heal.
D)inanimate objects, not living things, can heal.

Question 10

The Phillips and colleagues study that recorded infants' looking times when they were presented with actors holding stuffed toy kittens was examining infants' understanding of the connection between

A)beliefs and actions.
B)desires and beliefs.
C)abilities and actions.
D)desires and actions.

Question 11

Anna, a 6-month-old infant, is being tickled on the tummy by her grandmother. The grandmother repeatedly tickles Anna twice and then pauses for Anna's giggles. With the tickles, Anna's grandmother says, "Beep, beep." After a minute or so of this, Anna becomes bored and stops giggling. Anna's grandmother then changes the pattern to three tickles and "Beep, beep, beep." Which response to the change in number of tickles is Anna MOST likely to make?

A)Anna remains bored.
B)Anna begins to giggle again.
C)Anna adds two and three and giggles five times.
D)Anna says, "Wow, three tickles!"

Question 12

Empiricists would consider which finding to be evidence for their position on the development of numerical perception?

A)The intraparietal sulcus is deeply involved in representing numerical magnitude.
B)There are large cultural differences in children's numerical understanding.
C)Specific neurons respond most strongly when a particular number of objects is displayed.
D)There is a genetic tendency to learn numerical representations of objects in space.

Question 13

Which statement is NOT one of the counting principles proposed by Gelman and Gallistel?

A)Any set of discrete objects or events can be counted.
B)The numbers should always be recited in the same order.
C)Objects must be counted from left to right.
D)The number of objects in the set corresponds to the last number counted.

Question 14

Telling children that _____ is likely to influence the age at which children understand that plants are alive.

A)plants bend towards sunlight
B)plants drink water
C)animals eat plants
D)plants grow

Question 15

Developmental psychologists and other researchers have found that the development of a theory of mind is severely impaired for

A)only children.
B)children with autism spectrum disorder.
C)children with imaginary friends.
D)first-born children.

Question 16

The view that living things have an essence inside them that makes them what they are is referred to as

A)naturism.
B)essentialism.
C)nativism.
D)spiritism.

Question 17

Trisha, who is 3 years old, views an event in which no cause is visible. She is likely to

A)expect that someone tricked her.
B)actively search for the cause.
C)laugh.
D)grasp that something strange has happened.

Question 18

Which category would a young child be MOST likely to learn first?

A)colour
B)blue
C)sky blue
D)dark blue

Question 19

The understanding that each object must be labelled by a single number word represents

A)one-one correspondence.
B)stable order.
C)cardinality.
D)order relevance.

Question 20

Which list is an example of a category hierarchy?

A)people/grown-ups/Mommy
B)men/Daddy/Grandpa
C)people/plants/animals
D)people/Daddy/firemen

Question 21

The study that examined kindergartners' ability to point to various locations in their classroom while imagining a walk from their seat to the teacher's chair demonstrated that kindergarten children

A)are essentially unable to imagine spatial arrangements.
B)have poor recall of their classroom arrangements.
C)can easily imagine spatial arrangements while standing stationary.
D)have mental representations of space that are improved with self-generated motion.

Question 22

Which phrase is NOT a characteristic of naïve psychological concepts?

A)refer to invisible mental states
B)develop early in life
C)linked to each other in cause-effect relations
D)involved in understanding only the self

Question 23

_____ is the realization that all sets of N objects have something in common.

A)Numeric arithmetic
B)Counting
C)Abstraction
D)Numerical equality

Question 24

In the domain of spatial representation and learning, nativists and empiricists agree on which statement?

A)Certain parts of the brain are specialized for coding particular types of spatial information.
B)Children possess an innate module that is specialized for representing and learning about space.
C)Children's experience with vision is essential to development of spatial representations.
D)General information-processing skills are the key to spatial representation.

Question 25

The understanding that any set of discrete objects or events can be counted represents

A)one-one correspondence.
B)stable order.
C)cardinality.
D)abstraction.

Question 26

In the study discussed in the text in which 9- to 11-month-old infants were shown a series of actions and then given opportunities to reproduce the actions, _____ was necessary for the infants to reproduce the actions accurately.

A)a causal relationship amongst the actions
B)prior experience with the objects
C)practice reproducing the actions
D)an opportunity to crawl to the objects on their own

Question 27

The realization that all sets of N object have something in common is called

A)algebraic inequality.
B)numerical equality.
C)subitizing.
D)counting commonality.

Question 28

Children's psychological understanding begins to emerge by about what age?

A)1 year
B)3 years
C)5 years
D)10 years

Question 29

Which category do children usually learn first?

A)superordinate
B)subordinate
C)basic
D)supersubordinate

Question 30

Which category do children generally form last?

A)flower
B)oak
C)tree
D)plant

Question 31

Jenny recently mastered an understanding of the connection between desires and actions. She is likely what age?

A)6 months
B)8 months
C)12 months
D)18 months

Question 32

Which statement does NOT support the claim of nativists that children are born with a "biology module"?

A)Across cultures, children are fascinated by plants and animals.
B)Japanese 5-year-olds are more likely than their Israeli peers to believe that inanimate objects can feel pain.
C)Children throughout the world organize information about living things in very similar manners.
D)Children learn about animals and learn about them much more quickly than about many other aspects of the environment.

Question 33

Which of these describes the purpose of concepts?

A)help us understand the world
B)tell us how to emotionally react to new experiences
C)provide a basis by which to group together objects
D)serve all of these functions

Question 34

Infants are first able to code space relative to

A)their own immediate position.
B)prominent landmarks.
C)the intersection of a ceiling and a wall or two walls.
D)other nearby people.

Question 35

A structured understanding of how desires, beliefs, perceptions, and emotions influence behaviour is referred to as a theory of

A)mind.
B)behaviour.
C)thought.
D)psychology.

Question 36

Which statement would BEST support nativists' view of causal reasoning?

A)Causal reasoning is evident during the first year.
B)Parents explicitly teach children about causal relations.
C)The development of causal reasoning is delayed in blind children.
D)Children can reason about living things before they can reason about inanimate objects.

Question 37

Which level of category hierarchies do children usually learn FIRST?

A)basic
B)subordinate
C)superordinate
D)supersubordinate

Question 38

When 12-month-olds saw an experimenter look at and demonstrate an interest in one of two toy stuffed kittens, they

A)were surprised when the experimenter then held the other kitten.
B)were not surprised when the experimenter then held the other kitten.
C)were surprised when the experimenter held that kitten.
D)responded similarly no matter which kitten the experimenter held.

Question 39

Isabella, who is 5 years old, observes her little brother counting the nine pennies in front of him. He first lines up all the pennies, and then begins to count them, starting from the middle of the line, proceeding first all the way to the end of the line on the right, and then continuing with the left-most penny and counting to the right, ending on the penny directly to the left of the penny he counted first. He counts "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9" and then says, "I have nine pennies." When Isabella is asked if her brother counted correctly, which response is she MOST likely to make?

A)"Yes, that's the way I would count them.It's right."
B)"That's the right number of pennies, but I would not count them that way."
C)"You shouldn't count that way.That's not the right number of pennies."
D)"That's not the right number of pennies.He only counted the middle penny once."

Question 40

The most specific level within a category hierarchy is called a _____ level.

A)subordinate
B)perceptual
C)basic
D)superordinate

Question 41

The understanding that objects can be counted left to right, right to left, or in any other order represents

A)one-one correspondence.
B)stable order.
C)cardinality.
D)order irrelevance.

Question 42

The ability to precisely and accurately code locations in the absence of straightforward landmarks is

A)fully developed by age 2.
B)fully developed by age 7.
C)fully developed by adulthood.
D)incomplete in some adults.

Question 43

Trains, boats, and buses are members of the same _____ category.

A)causal
B)subordinate
C)superordinate
D)perceptual

Question 44

The development of this spatial skill requires early visual experiences.

A)face perception
B)mental rotation
C)spatial awareness
D)space recognition

Question 45

On false-belief problems, children who do not yet have a complete understanding of the relation between their own beliefs and others' beliefs

A)have difficulty understanding that other people could have false beliefs when they themselves know the truth.
B)have difficulty understanding that other people could know the truth when they themselves have false beliefs.
C)believe that others will not be convinced of the truth.
D)believe that others will be difficult to fool.

Question 46

Tina, a 3-year-old, is shown a Cheerios box and then shown that it contains marbles. If asked what her friend Mark will think upon seeing the box for the first time, Tina will MOST likely say that Mark will think it contains

A)Cheerios.
B)marbles.
C)Raisin Bran.
D)beads.

Question 47

Which category would be considered by researchers to be a child-created basic category that is likely to disappear as the child matures?

A)objects with wheels
B)food
C)objects that make you cool
D)places we go

Question 48

When 3-year-old children are presented with the categories of people, caterpillars, and chimpanzees, and asked which two are most similar, research indicates that they will MOST likely choose

A)people and caterpillars.
B)people and chimpanzees.
C)caterpillars and chimpanzees.
D)any of the three possible pairs with equal likelihood.

Question 49

The study that compared the spatial skills of aboriginal children growing up in the Australian desert with those of their White peers growing up in Australian cities demonstrated that

A)the lack of pressure exerted by parents of White children to develop spatial skills enabled children to gain greater insight into spatial orientations.
B)the lack of humanmade landmarks, such as street signs, in the desert resulted in poor spatial ability in aboriginal children.
C)familiarity of context, not the importance of spatial ability in everyday life, was associated with the memory for spatial location.
D)the importance of spatial ability in aboriginal culture resulted in better memory for spatial location in aboriginal children regardless of context.

Question 50

By the age of _____ years, the majority of children understand that human beings are animals that are similar in many ways to other animals.

A)4
B)6
C)8
D)10

Question 51

The existence of a TOMM is advocated by

A)nativists.
B)empiricists.
C)neurologists.
D)nurturists.

Question 52

Which group lists the three objects in subordinate/basic/superordinate order?

A)flower/daisy/plant
B)hammer/screwdriver/tool
C)sedan/car/vehicle
D)food/fruit/apple

Question 53

_____ is NOT amongst the psychological concepts that emerge at the end of the first year and the beginning of the second.

A)Understanding of intention
B)Understanding of other's emotions
C)Joint attention
D)Understanding of other's beliefs

Question 54

Research has suggested that pretend play and sociodramatic play

A)cause children to experience setbacks in psychological understanding.
B)reflect children's most basic level of psychological understanding.
C)are correlated with higher levels of social understanding.
D)increase children's egocentrism.

Question 55

Wayne is using a _____. This is an example of an object substitution.

A)scale model of a room to show where a toy is hidden in a larger room
B)toy backhoe, rather than a toy dump truck, to haul blocks
C)play stove to cook pretend broccoli cheese soup
D)a bowl as a magician's hat

Question 56

Trevor, a 2-year-old who loves the colour red, is told a story about a boy named Andy. In the story, Andy loves the colour blue. When Trevor is asked to choose the colour crayon that Andy would likely choose when drawing a picture, Trevor will MOST likely

A)select red because it is his favourite colour.
B)select blue because it is Andy's favourite colour.
C)select yellow in an attempt to find a compromise.
D)choose randomly between red and blue.

Question 57

The spatial thought of 3-month-old infants can be based on

A)vision.
B)hearing.
C)either vision or hearing.
D)neither vision nor hearing.

Question 58

On the subject of growth, preschoolers believe that

A)living things can only grow larger.
B)living things can grow both larger and smaller.
C)animals but not plants can grow larger.
D)inanimate things can grow in the same manner as living things.

Question 59

Many erroneously believe that spatial thinking is related to only

A)vision.
B)hearing.
C)touch.
D)taste.

Question 60

The finding that babies smile less at rabbits than they do at people indicates that they

A)can distinguish between animals and inanimate objects.
B)can differentiate between people and other animals.
C)know that animals and humans both belong to the category of living things.
D)have all of these skills.

Question 61

Young children have difficulty understanding that plants are alive because children equate being alive with

A)being able to move.
B)breathing.
C)being able to dance.
D)having fur.

Question 62

The understanding that the number of objects in the set corresponds to the last number stated represents

A)one-one correspondence.
B)stable order.
C)cardinality.
D)order relevance.

Question 63

Monique regularly fails at false-belief problems. This means that she likely does NOT understand

A)the relation between beliefs and actions.
B)how other people's desires can be different from their own.
C)the difference between what is true and what is false.
D)that others can hold an incorrect belief when they themselves know the truth.

Question 64

Which pair would Iris, a 6-month-old infant, be MOST likely to place in the same category?

A)elephant and fish
B)chandelier and chair
C)towel and rug
D)baby and caterpillar

Question 65

Which level of category hierarchies is the MOST specific?

A)basic
B)subordinate
C)superordinate
D)supersubordinate

Question 66

Which statement is NOT an argument used by nativists to support the idea that people have a biology module?

A)During earlier periods of our evolution, it was crucial for human survival that children learn quickly about animals and plants.
B)Children throughout the world are fascinated by plants and animals, and learn about them quickly and easily.
C)Children throughout the world organize information about plants and animals in very similar ways.
D)Children during the preschool years tend to believe that plants are not alive.

Question 67

_____ appears to be a major factor in infants' development of a sense of space independent of their own location.

A)Direct instruction from adults
B)The experience of being carried around complex rooms
C)Self-locomotion
D)The ability to sit up

Question 68

Nativists differ from empiricists in that nativists believe that children are born with

A)the ability to remember.
B)a sense of the concept of time.
C)the ability to form associations.
D)a sense of the concept of vehicle.

Question 69

Which statement BEST characterizes the findings of cross-cultural research on children's understanding of false beliefs?

A)The pattern of development is very consistent across cultures.
B)Children in Western cultures develop the understanding earlier than do children in Eastern cultures.
C)Children in Western cultures develop the understanding later than do children in Eastern cultures.
D)Children in developed countries develop the understanding earlier than do children in developing countries.

Question 70

Daniel, who is 5 years old, and his brother James, who is 3 years old, watch a magic show. Which reaction would NOT be expected?

A)James actively tries to figure out how the magician does his tricks.
B)Daniel is fascinated by the lack of an obvious causal mechanism.
C)James does not find the magic tricks very interesting.
D)Daniel believes that the magical effects have no cause.

Question 71

Which statement supports the claim that children are born with a "theory of mind module"?

A)Certain areas of the brain of children with autism spectrum disorder appear to be atypically sized.
B)Preschoolers with older siblings do better on false-belief tasks than do those without older siblings.
C)General information-processing skills are essential for understanding that other people might have different knowledge than the children themselves possess.
D)Children with autism spectrum disorder tend to have fewer interactions with other people than do others.

Question 72

Jerome is now 2 years old. This means that his understanding of the connection between people's _____ and actions is likely established.

A)beliefs
B)desires
C)abilities
D)goals

Question 73

Amanda has autism spectrum disorder. She is NOT likely to have trouble with

A)showing concern for people when they are distressed.
B)interacting with other people.
C)false-belief problems.
D)spending time by herself.

Question 74

Research demonstrating infants' habituation to a constant pattern was concerned with their knowledge of

A)future events timing.
B)temporal order.
C)event duration.
D)event duration ratios.

Question 75

Which statement about the development of children's ability to categorize objects based on appearance is TRUE?

A)The ability to categorize objects by shape develops at approximately 12 months of age.
B)Twelve-month-olds often categorize objects largely by specific parts of an object, rather than based on the object as a whole.
C)The ability to categorize objects based on overall shape develops at approximately 3 years of age.
D)The ability to categorize objects based on shape and size is fully developed by 18 months of age.

Question 76

A hypothesized brain mechanism devoted to understanding other human beings is referred to as

A)a theory of mind module.
B)naïve psychology.
C)perceptual categorization.
D)a false-belief problem.

Question 77

When surgery has restored sight to people who were born either blind or with severely impaired vision, they are unable to use visual information to represent space as well as those who never experienced impaired vision. This finding lends support to the role that _____ plays in spatial abilities.

A)vision
B)hearing
C)touch
D)taste

Question 78

Wesley and his mother are focusing intentionally on the same reference. What is occurring?

A)understanding intention
B)a sense of self
C)joint attention
D)intersubjectivity

Question 79

Which research finding would be MOST consistent with a nativist perspective on children's development of the understanding of space?

A)Spatial information is processed in a part of the brain that is separate from the parts of the brain that process other information.
B)Arm movement is necessary for infants' initial concepts of space.
C)Language shapes spatial development.
D)Infants exposed to different cultural practices develop spatial understanding at different rates.

Question 80

Which concept is NOT at the centre of naïve psychology?

A)actions
B)appearances
C)desires
D)beliefs