Download STUDY SUGGESTIONS These are just guidelines! Anything from

STUDY SUGGESTIONS
These are just guidelines! Anything from the book or lectures is fair game so these are just ideas to
help direct you:0)
General Study Tips:
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Practice MC questions from the book and book study guide or online. Good way to test your
knowledge from various question perspectives.
Talk through your notes from class. Not all information was from your text, what additional info did you
get from lecture.
If you’ve missed classes, get notes from a classmate (recommended in syllabus!)
For slides not directly covered in class, take notes on the slide from text material.
Write your own examples as often as possible (better remembered!)
Some possible SHORT ANSWER QUESTION IDEAS: (will have 5 short answers on test)
Discuss perceptual abilities in newborns and infants—preferences for visual, auditory, taste/smell senses?
Give examples
Describe the 3 types of gene-environment interaction we discussed in class and in the text:
Passive, evocative, active and give examples How do genes contribute in each and how does the
environment play a role in reinforcing genetic predisposition in each?
As a child’s overall size increases, different parts of the body grow at different rates. Discuss the two growth
patterns (cephalocaudal and proximodistal) that describe these changes with examples of motor development
to illustrate each.
Describe brain growth after birth (neurons, synapses, pruning, myelination). Also, contrast experience
dependent vs. experience-expectant brain growth: Are fancy toys necessary for proper brain development?
Why or why not?
Describe the development of voluntary reaching and grasping, and explain why they are important for cognitive
development. Give examples of the different stages of reaching and what the grasps are called..
Explain dominant and recessive inheritance. What is necessary for each type of inheritance. Give an example
of each (using a Punnett square if you wish).
MC QUESTION MATERIAL (again, just guidelines, anything in book/class is fair)
Chapter 4 Physical Development
Changes in body size and muscle-fat ratio; changes in body proportions
Bone growth and epiphyses
Course of brain development (connections, pruning, myelination, lateralization, plasticity)
What do sensitive periods relate to?
Types of feeding
Effects on emotional well-being
Classical vs operant conditioning in infancy (make up own examples!)
Habituation/novelty preference paradigms: how do these work and what do they show about infant’s learning
and preferences?
Imitative abilities—when can they do these? How do they tie in to social learning theory
Sequence of motor development-what would happen if a physical trait didn’t develop?
Perceptual abilities and development (what do infants prefer; what is visual cliff?, what can they perceive)
What is meant by intermodal perception?
Chapter 3: pregnancy, birth and the newborn
Describe the 3 stages of labor and what happens in each. How might length of labor differ for a first born after
later borns?
What is the difference between a baby being small-for-date versus premature?
Describe the different states of arousal in a newborn and the relative amount of time spent in each. What
regulates the sleep-wake cycle in the newborn period?
Name some of the newborn reflexes and what the response of the baby is. What function does each serve?
Why might newborns “come equipped” with these?
What are some risks preterm and low birth weight infants have?
What is the APGAR and why/when is it used?
Examples of teratogens and their effects; when are they most detrimental?
Factors that go into a high infant mortality rate in the U.S.
Prenatal stages and main thing happening in each
Process of conception; what’s being released, where, cell division; terms (like blastocyst, embryo, zygote,
trophoblast, inner cell mass, etc)
Chapter 2 genetics and environment
Difference between canalization and reaction range
Passive, evocative and active Gene-environment correlations: how do genes play a role in each? How is the
environment involved in reinforcing these genetic predispositions? Give an example of each
Heritability vs. shared/unshared environmental influences
Characteristics of individualistic vs collectivist cultures
How do poverty and affluence affect child development?
Types of chromosomal abnormalities, mutations, imprinting
How do MZ and DZ twins or adoption studies help us understand genetic contributions to behavior?
Sex cells, genes, mitosis, karyotypes, preimplantation genetic diagnosis, etc
Chapter 1 theories/history
Cross sectional vs longitudinal designs: pros and cons of each
Correlational vs experimental studies
Common research methods (observations, surveys, case studies, clinical interviews, etc)
Theorists and their views: psychoanalytic (Freud/Erikson), social learning, behaviorist, ethology; sociocultural,
ecological systems, information processing; cognitive developmental--- what do they believe about
development, who are main people associated with the different theories
What helps account for resilience in a child
Continuity vs discontinuity; nature vs nurture