PSY 250 Exam 2

• Growth from center of the body outward

  proximodistal growth
• Head develops more rapidly than lower part of body

  cephalocaudal growth
• What is the best estimate of a child's physical maturity?

  skeletal age
• A return to genetically determined growth once conditions improve

  catch-up growth
• When an infant's weight is below age-related growth norms

  weight faltering
• What is better: breastmilk or formula

  breastmilk
• Energy needs are double that of an adult for infants
• How long should the mother breastfeed for?

  WHO - 2 years; U.S. - 1st 6 months
• What does lead do the brain?

  Causing swelling as a neurotoxin
• What effect does lead have on human behavior?

  Causes antisocial behavior and impacts cognitive development
• Some countries value an interdependent infant that prefers co-sleeping, while America values an independent self
• Nerve cells that store and transmit information

  neurons
• tiny gaps where fibers from different neurons come close together

  synapses
• when neurons that are unstimulated lose their synapses

  synaptic pruning
• cells responsible for myelination; make up half of the brain's volume

  glial cells
• chemical messages that are sent by neurons across synapses

  neurotransmitters
• What are the six processes of brain development?

  1. Neurogenesis
  2. Cell migration
  3. Differentiation, including synaptogenesis
  4. Cell death and synaptic pruning
  5. Myelination
  6. Lateralization
• Coating of neural fibers with an insulating sheath called myelin

  myelination
• The specialization of the two hemispheres in the brain

  lateralization
• Growth and development of nervous tissue

  neurogenesis
• Movement of cells from one part of the body to another

  cell migration
• Formation of synapses between neurons

  synaptogenesis
• Is lateralization adaptive?

  Yes
• Cells that fire together...

  wire together
• Is brain development bidirectional?

  yes
• Part of the brain responsible for thoughts


  prefrontal cortex
• Largest part of the brain, made up of two hemispheres

  cerebral cortex
• What is the left hemisphere of the cerebral cortex responsible for?

  Verbal abilities and logic
• What is the right hemisphere of the cerebral cortex responsible for?


  spatial abilities and negative emotions
• What is the concept that states that experiences sculpts the brain?

  brain plasticity
• When the brain is more plastic, the infant has...

  a higher capacity for learning
• What physical activity assists brain plasticity?

  exercise
• Infants who do not have experiences that shape brain plasticity are affected in all domains of development
• When healthy brain regions take over the functions of damaged areas

  crowding effect
• What is the time called when normal rearing experiences must occur for an infant to have a natural development?

  Sensitive period
• Changes in behavior as a result of experience

  learning
• when a neutral stimulus is paired with a stimulus that leads to a response

  classical conditioning
• Before an infant can learn, an unconditioned stimulus must consistently produce an unconditioned response
• To produce learning, a neutral stimulus is presented just before or at the same time as the unconditioned stimulus
• If learning has occurred, the neutral stimulus is now associated with the unconditioned stimulus in a conditioned response. This makes the neutral stimulus a conditioned stimulus.