Topical Approach To Lifespan Development 8th Edition Santrock Solutions Manual 1

Topical Approach to Lifespan Development 8th
Edition Santrock Solutions Manual

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CHAPTER 5: MOTOR, SENSORY, AND PERCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT

Chapter Outline
Please note that much of this information is quoted from the text.
I. MOTOR DEVELOPMENT
A. The Dynamic Systems View
• Historically, researchers assumed that motor milestones in development were the result of an
unfolding genetic plan known as maturation.
• More recently, it is recognized that motor development is not the consequence of nature or
nurture alone.
• Dynamic Systems Theory seeks to explain how motor behaviors are assembled for
perceiving and acting.
• In order to perform an action, several factors come together:
— The development of the nervous system
— The body’s physical properties and movement possibilities
— The goal (behavior or skill)
— The environmental support for the skill
• It is essentially a process of adaptation: Infants adjust their motor patterns to fit a new task by
exploring and selecting various possible configurations.
B. Reflexes
• Reflexes are built-in reactions to stimuli; they govern the newborn’s movements, which are
automatic and beyond the newborn’s control.
• Reflexes allow the infant to adapt to its environment.
• Rooting reflex: When the infant’s cheek is stroked or side of the mouth is touched, the infant
turns its head toward the side that is being touched. This also associated with nursing.
• Sucking reflex: Newborns suck on anything placed in their mouth and is adaptive for
feeding. Most babies engage in nonnutritive sucking until about 1 year of age. Thumb-
sucking is considered a normal activity in infants and young children.
• Moro reflex: The newborn arches its back, flings out its arms and legs, and then returns them
in an embrace-like movement when startled or perceives a feeling of falling. It is thought to
be an evolutionary vestige and disappears at 3 to 4 months.
• Grasping reflex: When something touches the infant’s palm, the infant responds by
grasping tightly. By the third month, the reflex diminishes and the infant shows a more
voluntary reflex.
• Some reflexes like coughing, blinking, and yawning persist throughout life.
C. Gross Motor Skills
▪ Gross motor skills involve large muscle activities, such as moving one’s arms and walking.
▪ Infants must be able to maintain their posture (e.g., control heads, strength and balance in
their legs) before they can demonstrate gross motor skills.
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1. The Development of Posture
• Gross motor skills require, at its foundation, postural control.
• Posture is a dynamic process that is linked with sensory information from proprioceptive
cues in the skin, joints, and muscles, which tell us where we are in space via our
vestibular organs, vision, and hearing.
• Research has found postural skills and manual exploration at 5 months of age is linked to
academic achievement at 14 years of age
2. Learning to Walk
• Locomotion and postural control are closely linked, especially in walking upright.
• The neural pathways that control leg alternation are present at birth, or even prenatally.
• The key skills in learning to walk appear to be stabilizing balance on one leg long enough
to swing the other forward and shifting weight without falling.
• Infants typically take small steps when learning to walk; however, new research indicates
that they occasionally take large steps indicative of increased strength and balance.
• Newly walking infants are unable to judge the safety of slopes.
• Experienced walkers perceptually assess situations—looking, swaying, touching, and
thinking before they move down slopes.
• Parents should realize how accident-prone children are early in locomotion.
3. The First Year: Milestones and Variations
• The accomplishment of gross motor milestones can vary by as much as 2 to 4 months;
however, the sequence of accomplishments remains fairly stable.
⎯ By the first month, infants can life their head from a prone position.
⎯ At about 3 months, infants can hold their chest up and use their arms for support.
⎯ At 3 to 4 months, infants can roll over.
⎯ At 4 to 5 months, infants can support some weight on their legs.
⎯ By 6 months, infants can sit without support.
⎯ By 7 to 8 months, infants can crawl and stand without support.
⎯ At 8 months, infants can pull themselves up to a standing position.
⎯ At 10 to 11 months, they can walk using furniture for support.
⎯ By 12 to 13 months, they can walk without assistance.
4. Development in the Second Year
• The motor accomplishments of the first year bring increasing independence.
• Child development experts believe that motor activity during the second year is vital to
the child’s competent development and that few restrictions, except for safety, should be
placed on their adventures.
• Pediatricians are cautious of infant/toddler exercise classes. It is easy to stretch an
infant/toddler beyond their physical limits without knowing it and the bodies of babies
are not ready to benefit from aerobic exercise.
• Although it was once believed that walking was a function of maturation, it is now
known that practice in the environment is important in learning how to walk.
• During the second year, toddlers become more mobile and independent. Experts believe
that it is vital to the child’s competent development and that few restrictions, except for
safety purposes, should be placed on their motoric adventures.
• Structured and/or aerobic exercises are generally not appropriate for babies, and having
their limbs stretched by someone else often leads to damage to the infant or toddler.
• Cultural variations influence motor development.
• Cultural Variations in Guiding Infants’ Motor Development

• Mothers in developing countries tend to stimulate their infants’ motor skills more
than mothers in more developed countries.
• When caregivers provide babies with physical guidance or opportunities to exercise,
infants tend to reach motor milestones earlier than infants not provided these
experiences.
• Nonetheless, even when infants’ motor activity is restricted, many infants still reach
the milestones of motor development at a normal age.
5. Childhood
• Hopping, jumping, running back and forth, and other simple movements are common in
3- and 4-year-olds, but by age 5, they are able to run races and climb easily.
• Research indicates that children who are more physically fit have better mastery of motor
skills.
• Coordination and control of movement improves during middle and late childhood.
• Running, climbing, skipping rope, swimming, bicycle riding, and skating are just a few of
the many physical skills elementary school children can master.
• Boys usually outperform girls in gross motor skill activities.
• Children benefit from exercise breaks periodically during the school day on the order of
15 minutes every two hours.
• Participation in sports can be positive but may also have negative consequences for
children because of pressure to win, physical injuries, distraction from academic work,
and unrealistic expectations for success as an athlete.
• Research indicates that children, especially girls, who participate in sports have a higher
quality of life than children who not participate
• There is an increasing concern about concussions when children play football or soccer.
• Applications in Life-Span Development: Parents, Coaches, and Children’s Sports
• It is important for parents to show an interest in their children’s sports participation.
• If children request that their parents not watch them perform, parents should respect
their children’s wishes.
• Parents should compliment their children for their sports performance.
• If parents do not become over-involved, they can help their children build their
physical skills and help them emotionally.
• Parents should monitor their children for stress.
• Parents need to be sensitive to whether the sport in which the child is participating is
the best one for the child.
3. Adolescence and Adulthood
• Gross motor skills typically improve during adolescence.
• Physical performance peaks between 19 and 26 years of age, including athletes.
• The effects of aging eventually result in declines in biological functions (occurs after 30
years of age) and motor skills even in active, biologically healthy individuals.
• In general, older adults show a clear slowing of movement with less flexibility.
• Physical activity can have positive effects on motor skills in older adults.
• Mobility gains are linked to physical activity in older adults.
• Lower levels of adiposity are linked to higher levels of physical activity in older
adults.
D. Fine Motor Skills
▪ Fine motor skills involve movements that are more finely tuned than gross motor skills,
and several milestones are achieved in infancy (grasping, wrist movements, thumb-finger
coordination, etc.).
1. Infancy
• Clifton et al. found that proprioceptive cues (muscle, tendon, joint sense), not sight of the
reaching limb, guide early reaching for 4-month-old infants.
• Infants initially use the palmer grasp, then later develop the pincer grip.
• Experience appears to facilitate fine motor skill development.
2. Childhood and Adolescence
• Fine motor coordination becomes more precise around age 4.
• By age 10 to 12, children begin to show adultlike manipulative skills.
• Increased myelination of the central nervous system is reflected in the improvement of
fine motor skills during middle and late childhood.
• Girls usually outperform boys in fine motor skills.
3. Adult Development
• As dexterity decreases in middle and late adulthood, some fine motor skills may decline.
• There are two explanations for the decrease in motor behavior in older adults:
• Neural noise (an increase in any irregular neural activity)
• Strategy
• Practice and training programs can minimize the declines in motor function that occur
with age.
II. SENSORY AND PERCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT
A. What Are Sensation and Perception?
• Sensation occurs when information interacts with sensory receptors (eyes, ears, tongue,
nostrils, and skin).
• Perception is the interpretation of what is sensed.
B. The Ecological View
• Perception functions to bring the organism in contact with the environment and increase
adaptation.
• All objects have affordances, which are opportunities for interaction offered by objects that
are necessary for performing functional activities.
• Research in Life-Span Development: Studying the Newborn’s Perception
• After years of work, scientists have developed research methods and tools sophisticated
enough to examine the subtle abilities of infants and to interpret their complex actions.
• The visual preference method is one way of studying whether infants can
distinguish one stimulus from another by measuring the length of time they attend to
different stimuli.
• The habituation/dishabituation method is another method used to study an infant’s
ability to distinguish between stimuli.
• The high-amplitude sucking method is used to test an infant’s ability to distinguish
auditory stimuli.
• Most studies of infant eye-tracking use remote optics eye trackers
• Other methods to study infant perception include the orienting response, tracking,
and the startle response.
C. Visual Perception
1. Infancy
a. Visual Acuity
• Newborn’s vision is estimated to be 20/240.
• By 6 months, average vision is 20/40.
• Robert Fantz’s pioneering study of visual perception found that infants look at
different things for different lengths of time.
▪ Infants prefer patterns to solid colors.
b. Color Vision
▪ By 8 weeks, and possibly by even 4 weeks, infants can discriminate some colors. By
4 months of age, they have color preferences that mirror adults.
▪ Changes in vision reflect maturation and experience.
▪ Early experience is also essential for the normal development of binocular vision,
which develops at about 3 to 4 months of age.
c. Perceptual Constancy—sensory stimulation is changing but perception of the physical
world remains constant.
▪ Infants as young as 3 months of age have size constancy (the recognition that objects
maintain their size despite a change in the objects’ retinal image), but it continues to
develop until 10 or 11 years of age.
▪ Infants as young as 3 months have shape constancy (recognition that objects
maintain their shape although their orientation to us may change), but not for
irregularly shaped objects.
▪ Perceptual constancy is important; otherwise infants would think they were seeing
different objects every time they saw an object at a different distance or in a different
orientation.
d. Depth Perception
• Gibson and Walk demonstrated, through the use of the visual cliff, to test at what age
depth perception develops.
• Is depth perception innate? Two- to 4-month-old infants’ heart rate changes when
they are placed directly on the deep side of the visual cliff instead of the shallow side.
• Most 6- to 12-month-old infants avoided crawling across the cliff.
• Stereoacuity (fine-detail depth perception) develops rapidly after 1 year of age.
2. Childhood
▪ Children become better at detecting different hues/colors around 3–4 years.
▪ Many preschool children are farsighted, but most can focus and sustain attention on close
up objects by first grade.
▪ Behaviors that may indicate vision problems include rubbing the eyes, excessive
blinking, squinting, appearing irritable when playing games that require distance vision,
shutting or covering one eye, and tilting the head or thrusting it forward to look at
something.
▪ Visual expectations continue to develop in early childhood.
3. Adulthood
a. Visual Acuity
• Accommodation of the eye is the ability to focus and maintain an image on the
retina, which declines between age 40 to 59 for most people. Middle-aged people
have difficulty viewing close objects and often find their sight improved with bifocal
lens glasses.
• This loss of accommodation is known as presbyopia.
• The eye’s blood supply diminishes in the 50s or 60s.
• The blind spot increases, possibly due to the reduced blood supply.
• The retina may become less sensitive to low levels of illumination in middle
adulthood.
• Night driving becomes more difficult because of a declining dark adaptation and
glare adaptation in late adulthood.
• In extreme old age the declines in sight may be accompanied by degenerative
changes in the retina.
• Older adults show a decline in motion sensitivity.
b. Color Vision
• Yellowing of the lens in older adulthood can limit color vision.
c. Depth Perception
▪ Depth perception declines in late adulthood, at least partially because of a decrease in
contrast sensitivity.
d. Diseases of the Eye
• Cataracts—a thickening of the lens of the eye that causes vision to become cloudy,
opaque, and distorted is more common in older adults. These can be repaired
surgically.
• Glaucoma—a buildup of fluid in the eye because of damage to the optic nerve—is
also more common in older adults and is treated with eye drops. If left untreated, it
can destroy vision totally.
• Macular degeneration is a disease involving deterioration of the retina and is linked
to aging. Because it is difficult to treat, it is a leading cause of blindness in older
adults. If detected early, it can be treated with laser surgery.
D. Hearing
1. The Fetus, Infant, and Child
• DeCasper and Spence’s research showed that fetuses can hear a couple of months before
birth. Two important conclusions from DeCasper and Spence’s research are that:
— Ingenious scientists can assess the development of fetuses.
— Infants’ brains have the ability to learn even before birth.
• Immediately after birth, newborns can hear (their sensory threshold is higher than adults).
• Newborns prefer human speech to other sounds and prefer their mother’s voice to that of
other, unfamiliar women.
• Changes in hearing during infancy are seen in loudness, pitch, and localization.
• About 1 in 1,000 newborns are deaf, so screening is important.
• Many of the hearing impaired children who have early cochlear implant surgery show
good progress with their speech and understanding others’ speech.
• Chronic otitis media can impair language development and socialization.
2. Adolescence
• Hearing in adolescence is usually excellent, but there is special concern for those who
listen to loud music for long periods of time.
• Listening to music at high levels on iPods and MP3 players may contribute to hearing
problems in youth.
• Adolescents are generally aware of the risks of loud music exposure, but express low
personal vulnerability to such experiences.
3. Adulthood and Aging
• Declines begin at around age 40, with sensitivity to high-pitched sound declining first.
• Hearing is not functionally impaired in most people until later adulthood and is usually
due to degeneration of the cochlea.
• Wearing hearing aids or cochlear implants can restore some hearing.
• Use of adult stem cells is being researched as an alternative to cochlear implants.
• Declines in hearing are much greater in adults 75 years of age and older than those under
75.
• There is a significant deterioration in hearing sensitivity across the eighties, although
older adults may not perceive the change.
• Older women are more likely to seek treatment for their hearing problems than are older
men.
• Hearing loss in older adults is linked to increased depression, less activities, and less
participation in social roles.
E. Other Senses
1. Touch and Pain
A. Infancy
• Newborns respond to touch.
• It was once thought that newborns are indifferent to pain; however, research on male
circumcision demonstrates that newborns are sensitive to pain.
2. Adulthood
• Some decline in touch sensitivity has been found in the lower extremities, although this is
not problematic for most people.
• As we age, we become less sensitive to pain, which is helpful for coping with disease and
injury but can be harmful if it masks the signs of injury that need to be treated.
3. Smell
• Newborns can differentiate odors.
• Using facial expressions as an indicator, researchers infer that newborns prefer vanilla
and strawberry smells, but do not like rotten egg or fish smells.
• By 6 days (but not by 2 days), breast-fed babies prefer the smell of their mother’s breast
pad, indicating that this preference requires several days of experience to recognize the
odor.
• A decline to sensitivity to odors may occur as early as the 20s and continues to decline
through each subsequent decade of life.
• Beginning in the 60s, the decrease in sensitivity to smells becomes more noticeable to
most people aged 60.
• The decline in the olfactory system can reduce older adults’ enjoyment of food, life
satisfaction, and ability to detect smoke from a fire.
• A recent study found that although adults’ ability to detect a smell declined as they got
older, the perceived pleasantness of a smell increased in the oldest adults.
4. Taste
• Taste sensitivity is present prior to birth.
• When saccharin was added to amniotic fluid, fetal swallowing increased.
• By 2 hours old, babies make different facial expressions when they taste sweet, sour, and
bitter solutions.
• Declines in taste often begin to occur in the 60s and, combined with the lowered sense of
smell, can affect eating behavior.
F. Intermodal Perception
• Intermodal perception is the ability to relate and integrate information about two or more
sensory modalities.
• Infants as young as 3½ months of age can connect visual and auditory stimuli, although
newborns may have a crude intermodal perceptual ability.
• Newborns are born into the world with some innate abilities to perceive relations among
sensory modalities, but their intermodal abilities improve considerably through experience.
III. Nature/Nurture and Perceptual Development

• It was once believed that perceptual and motor development were isolated from each other.
• Increasingly, it is believed that perceptual-motor development is coupled and unified.
• Babies are continually coordinating their movements with concurrent perceptual information to
learn how to maintain balance, reach for objects, and locomote across various surfaces.
• Declines in perceptual-motor skills in older adulthood can reduce the ability to drive.
Learning Goals
1. Describe how motor skills develop.
▪ What is the dynamic systems view of motor development?
▪ What are reflexes?
▪ What are some reflexes of infants?
▪ What are gross motor skills and how do they develop?
▪ What are fine motor skills?
▪ How do fine motor skills develop?
2. Outline the course of sensory and perceptual development.

▪ What are sensation and perception?
▪ What is the ecological view of perception?
▪ What are some research methods used to study infant perception?
▪ How does vision develop?
▪ How does hearing develop?
▪ How do sensitivity to touch and pain develop?
▪ How does smell develop?
▪ How does taste develop?
▪ What is intermodal perception, and how does it develop?
3. Discuss the connection of perception and action.

▪ How are perception and motor actions coupled in development?
Key Terms
accommodation of the eye intermodal perception

affordances macular degeneration
cataracts Moro reflex
dishabituation perception
dynamic systems theory rooting reflex
ecological view sensation
fine motor skills shape constancy
glaucoma size constancy
grasping reflex sucking reflex
gross motor skills visual preference method
habituation
Key People
Karen Adolph William James

Karlene Ball Scott Johnson
Robert Fantz Rachel Keen
Eleanor Gibson Daphne Maurer
James J. Gibson Esther Thelen
Megan Gunnar Richard Walk
Lecture Suggestions
Lecture Suggestion 1: Reflexes and SIDS
In developed countries, SIDS is the leading cause of death in infants younger than one year. The exact
cause of SIDS is yet unknown. Lewis Lipsitt (2003) suggests that any explanation of SIDS must take into
account the fact that most SIDS deaths occur between 2 and 5 months of age. It appears that some
“protective mechanisms” may exist prior to 2 months that make infants less vulnerable… these
“protective mechanisms” may be reflexes. Specifically, the respiratory occlusion reflex helps prevent
smothering in neonates. As mentioned in the text, reflexes begin to dissipate as learned behaviors replace
the innate responses to stimuli. If infants do not acquire learned behaviors that prevent smothering, they
may be more susceptible when the respiratory occlusion reflex disappears. Thus, the fading of reflexes
may increase vulnerability to SIDS if infants do not acquire behaviors that help them overcome some of
the difficulties from which the innate reflexes protected them.
Source:
Lipsitt, L. P. (2003). Crib death: A biobehavioral phenomenon? Current Directions in Psychological
Science, 12(5), 164–170.
Lecture Suggestion 2: Current Views of Infant Motor Development
This lecture exposes students to the current view of infant motor development. Esther Thelen’s
developmental biodynamic perspective is introduced in the chapter, while this lecture extension describes
one of her research studies (1984; 1987; 1994). This perspective contrasts sharply with the traditional
view of motor development, which views motor development as a maturationally determined stagelike
progression. In contrast, Thelen views motor development and walking, in particular, to be the result of
“self-organization.” That is, systems exhibit complex patterns over time without a genetic blueprint.
Movement develops from the interaction of constraints in the organism and the environment. Thus, the
dynamic interaction of developing neuromuscular pathways and the changing environmental demands
determine when an infant will first walk independently. This new view of motor development emphasizes
the importance of exploration and selection in finding solutions to new task demands. Infants need to
assemble adaptive patterns by modifying their current movement patterns. The task and the challenge of
the context drive change, not prescribed genetic instructions.
The so-called disappearing reflex intrigued Thelen. Newborn infants, when held upright with their feet on
a support surface, perform alternating steplike motions and appear to be walking. This phenomenon is
referred to as the stepping reflex. The intriguing aspect of this is that this ability disappears a few months
later and does not reappear until approximately 12 months of age. Experts assumed that the reflex
disappears because of some genetic maturationally determined switch in the brain. This explanation made
sense because they assumed that motor development was single-causal; however, Thelen and her
colleagues (1984) observed infants kicking their legs and noted that they were actually engaged in the
same movement as the stepping reflex. Thus, the kicking movement was actually the stepping reflex in a
supine position. Interestingly, when they positioned the kicking infant in an upright position, the infant
ceased the motion, yet when they laid the same infant down, the infant resumed the kicking/stepping
movement. They questioned how the maturing brain could inhibit this reflex in one position and not in a
different position.
During the same time period that the stepping reflex is not evident in the upright position (after it
disappears), Thelen noted that infants experience rapid weight gain. The infants were getting heavier but
not necessarily any stronger. She then speculated that the interaction of the heavier legs and the
biomechanically demanding posture of being upright suppressed the stepping reflex. Thelen and her
colleagues ingeniously tested their hypothesis (Thelen, Fisher, & Ridley-Johnson, 1984). They
experimentally manipulated the weight of the infants’ legs by submerging the infants in waist-deep water.
The infants, without the added weight because their legs were submerged in water, could “walk.” The
point to stress is that motor development is not single-causal, but rather a multicausal developmental
phenomenon. (Research Project 2: Replication of Thelen’s Work on Infant Motor Development
complements this lecture suggestion.)
Sources:
Thelen, E. (1994). Motor development: A new synthesis. American Psychologist, 50, 79–95.
Thelen, E., Fisher, D. M., & Ridley-Johnson, R. (1984). The relationship between physical growth and a
newborn reflex. Infant Behavior and Development, 7, 479–493.
Thelen, E., Kelso, J. S., & Fogel, A. (1987). Self-organizing systems and infant motor development.
Developmental Review, 7, 39–65.
Lecture Suggestion 3: Teaching Toddlers to Draw
Should children be taught to draw? Or should they be allowed simply to draw however they wish, letting
their motor, perceptual, and cognitive skills develop and enhance their drawing skills naturally? Tackle
these questions in a lecture that relates fine motor development during toddlerhood to children’s drawing
abilities. Consider inviting a day care or kindergarten teacher to present information on typical
experiences with drawing provided to young children, and have them comment on whether they are
concerned with using training to enhance drawing abilities. You may wish to open your (or your guest’s)
presentation to class discussion.
• Are there reasons why we might want to teach children to draw? Can drawing skills be trained?
• What is the nature of individual differences in drawing skill at these ages? Are these predictive of
later skills?
• Were great painters talented scribblers as toddlers?
You may find that this information is interesting to students. Many suspect that drawing is something
each of us wishes we could do better if we only had the talent, but perhaps early training could enhance
our subsequent artistic skills.
Lecture Suggestion 4: Is Handedness Related to Life Expectancy?
This lecture examines research on life expectancy and handedness. With increasing age, left-handedness
declines (15 percent of 10-year-olds are left-handed compared to less than 1 percent at age 80). Cross-
sectional research has found that left-handers have a shorter life expectancy than right-handers (lefties do
not live as long). Before delving into the research, encourage students to critically analyze from a
methodological perspective some potential problems with using cross-sectional data for this research.
• Coren and Halpern (1991) summarized research in their article, “Left-handedness: A Marker for
Decreased Survival Fitness.” They found that left-handedness is associated with prenatal and
perinatal stressors (e.g., low birth weight, prolonged labor, and anoxia). Alcoholism, allergies,
suicide, and risk of immune disorders are also linked to left-handedness. The question remains as to
why these differences have been found.
• Are lefties inherently weaker? Harris (1993), in a rebuttal to Coren and Halpern’s article, argues that
societal pressure and an environmental bias toward right-handers may unfairly discriminate against
lefties. Lefties may experience more accidents and injuries because they are pressured to use their
right hand, which is not as competent. This reliance on the unpreferred right hand may render both
hands less competent. More accidents may ensue, given this reliance on less proficient maneuvering
in a right-hand world. Harris also notes that young children were historically forced to switch to their
right hand. Thus, cohort effects may weaken the cross-sectional data presented. The greater
acceptance of left-handedness today and the historic pressure to be right-handed may explain the
larger number of lefties in the younger generations.
The entire argument that handedness is related to life expectancy hinges on cross-sectional, rather than
longitudinal, data. It is possible to explain the decrease in the number of lefties among the older cohorts in
that left-handers are discriminated against in a right-handed world, which puts them at risk for accidents
and injuries, and the cohort effect we discussed previously. Do these arguments make sense to your
students? Would these arguments explain all of the problems mentioned in the Coren and Halpern article
(prenatal and perinatal stressors, allergies, immune disorders, etc.)?
Sources:
Coren, S., & Halpern, D. F. (1991). Left-handedness: A marker for decreased survival fitness.
Psychological Bulletin, 109, 90–106.
Harris, L. J. (1993). Do left-handers die sooner than right-handers? Commentary on Coren and Halpern’s
(1991) “Left-handedness: A marker for decreased survival fitness.” Psychological Bulletin, 114, 203–
234.
Lecture Suggestion 5: Color Perception in Infancy
As Santrock mentions in the text, the visual system continues to develop after birth. It appears that
experience is necessary for visual development to progress, and recent research suggests that experience
may be equally important for color perception. In one study, infant monkeys were raised in a room with
only monochromatic illumination for almost a year (Sugita, 2004). These monkeys were able to match
colors after extensive training, but their judgments were significantly different from those of infant
monkeys who were not raised in the same environment. This suggests that early experience is important
in the development of color perception.
Research with human infants suggests that although human newborns (ranging from 1 to 7 days of age)
are able to discriminate between certain colors, their ability to discriminate is vastly different from that of
adults (Adams & Courage, 1998). The excitation purity levels that were necessary for infants to detect a
difference between the colors green, red, and yellow from white were significantly higher than those
necessary for adult perception. This research suggests that neonatal color vision is quite poor.
Sources:
Adams, R. J., & Courage, M. L. (1998). Human newborn color vision: Measurement with chromatic
stimuli varying in excitation purity. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 68, 22–34.
Sugita, Y. (2004). Experience in early infancy is indispensable for color perception. Current Biology,
14(14), 1267–1271.
Lecture Suggestion 6: Nature and Nurture of Senses
Santrock reviews research that suggests that newborn infants can distinguish between certain tastes (as
assessed via facial expressions), and that they prefer sweet tastes. Research further suggests that affinity
for sweet and rejection of bitter tastes may be innate (i.e., nature), whereas responses to odors are more a
function of experience (i.e., “nurture,” Bartoshuk & Beauchamp, 1994).
Other research suggests that responses to salty tastes may rely on experience as well. Specifically,
newborn infants reject saline relative to water more so than do 4–8-month-old infants (Beauchamp,
Cowart, Mennella, & Marsh, 1994). In another study, the same researchers examined infants’ responses
to salted and unsalted formulas and found that younger infants were unresponsive to the salted formula,
whereas older infants rejected this formula. It appears that sensitivity to salty tastes develops (relatively
quickly) after birth.
Sources:
Bartoshuk, L. M., & Beauchamp, G. K. (1994). Chemical senses. Annual Review of Psychology, 45,
419–449.
Beauchamp, G. K., Cowart, B. J., Mennella, J. A., & Marsh, R. R. (1994). Infant salt taste:
Developmental, methodological, and contextual factors. Developmental Psychobiology, 27(6), 353–
365.
Lecture Suggestion 7: Development of Taste Preferences Prenatally
Is it possible that our taste preferences begin to develop even before birth? Research suggests that they
might. One study attempted to study whether taste/odor stimulation prenatally could affect taste
preferences after birth (Smotherman, 1982). Smotherman injected an apple juice solution into the
amniotic fluid of one group of rat pups, a saline solution into the amniotic fluid of a second control group,
and a sham-injection was used for a final control group. After birth, rat pups were allowed to choose
between an apple solution and tap water or a maple solution and tap water. Results indicate that rat pups
that had been exposed to the apple solution in utero showed a preference for the apple solution
postnatally.
Does this research generalize to humans? Mennella and Beauchamp (1997) suggest that exposure to
flavor prenatally and postnatally (through breast milk) may influence later flavor preferences. Of course,
socialization certainly plays a role in taste/flavor preferences postnatally; it is quite interesting that these
preferences can be affected before birth, or even shortly thereafter through human milk.
Sources:
Mennella, J. A., & Beauchamp, G. K. (1997). The ontogeny of human flavor perception. In G. K.
Beauchamp & L. Bartoshuk (Eds.), Tasting and smelling (pp. 199–221). San Diego, CA: USnc.
Smotherman, W. P. (1982). In utero chemosensory experience alters taste preferences and corticosterone
responsiveness. Behavioral & Neural Biology, 36(1), 61–68.
Lecture Suggestion 8: Smoking and Taste
The textbook discusses the normative development of taste over the course of the life span. A discussion
of how taste changes as a function of smoking highlights the dynamic interplay of nature and nurture in
development. Nature determines the developmental “trajectory” for taste; however, this trajectory can
certainly be attenuated by nurture/environment.
Smoking seems to impair sensory experiences, especially the sensation of taste (see de Jong, Mulder,
deGraff, & van Staveren, 1999). The taste of bitter, in particular, seems to be especially affected in
smokers—perhaps more in males than in females (see Yamauchi, Endo, & Yoshimura, 2002). Indeed,
some researchers have actually suggested that a reduced sensitivity to bitter tastes may increase the
likelihood of becoming addicted to nicotine (see Enoch, Harris, & Goldman, 2001). Cigarettes taste
bitter, and it is believed that those individuals who are not averse to the bitter taste of cigarettes may be

more likely to smoke (and perhaps to smoke heavily) and are therefore more likely to become addicted to
nicotine (Enoch et al., 2001).
Sources:
de Jong, N., Mulder, I., de Graaf, C., & van Staveren, W. (1999). Impaired sensory functioning in elders:
The relation with its potential determinants and nutritional intake. Journals of Gerontology: Series A:
Biological Sciences & Medical Sciences, 54A(8), B324–B331.
Enoch, M., Harris, C., & Goldman, D. (2001). Does a reduced sensitivity to bitter taste increase the risk
of becoming nicotine addicted? Addictive Behaviors, 26(3), 399–404.
Yamauchi, Y., Endo, S., & Yoshimura, I. (2002). A new whole-mouth gustatory test procedure II:
Effects of aging, gender and smoking. Acta Oto-Laryngologica, 122(4, Suppl 546), 49–59.

Classroom Activities
Classroom Activity 1: Assessing Infant Reflexes
This classroom activity gives students experience assessing infant reflexes and further develops their
understanding of infant reflexes. The goal is to assess two infants, one aged 1 to 4 months and the other
infant aged 6 to 12 months. Invite two parents and their infants to class. One of the students often has an
infant in his or her family or knows someone who does; most often a phone call is all it takes to get the
parent to bring the baby to the class. Handout CA 5-1 describes seven infant reflexes and the conditions
that elicit each of the reflexes. For each infant, have the parent perform the stimulation necessary to elicit
the reflexive behavior. Students can note on the handout which of the reflexes are present (P) or absent
(A) for each infant. After performing the demonstration with each infant, they should answer the
following questions:
• How many of the reflexive behaviors were exhibited by the younger infants and by the older infants?
• Which reflexes dropped out early?
• What responses seem to replace each of the reflexive behaviors in the older infants?
• What might be the adaptive value of each reflex in the infant’s repertoire?
Discuss the observation techniques and possible problems with the methods used. Have students discuss
any discrepancies and the reasons why reflexes drop out.
Logistics:
• Materials: Handout CA 5-1 (Assessing Infant Reflexes)
• Group size: Full class
• Approximate time: 10 minutes for the reflex assessment, and 15 minutes for a full class discussion
Classroom Activity 2: Sequence and Trends

in Verbal and Motor Accomplishments
Fernald and Fernald (1990) have developed a class activity that is well liked by students and that provides
a good bridge between the chapters on infancy and early childhood. This activity illustrates several
principles of development, such as the cephalocaudal and proximodistal principles; prompts discussion of
issues, such as the relative roles of maturation and experience in development; and gets students thinking
about how to measure relative degrees of development. The students need to identify the order of
development for a list of motor and verbal abilities.
• Give students a copy of Handout CA 5-2, and have them complete the exercise in small groups. Ask
them to study the list of verbal and motor accomplishments and list the order in which they think each
accomplishment occurs.
• The correct order is as follows:

2 months Turns head to follow moving object
9 months Sits alone for 1 minute; says “da-da”
1 year Walks while holding onto something
1 year 3 months Walks alone; says several words
1 year 6 months Climbs stairs; says many words
2 years Runs; uses simple word combinations
3 years Puts on shoes
4 years Laces shoes
5 years Names penny, nickel, and dime
6 years Describes the difference between a bird and a dog
7 years Tells time to quarter hour
8 years Tells how a baseball and an orange or an airplane and a kite are alike
• Now ask the students to study the order of accomplishments they have identified and describe any
rules or patterns that they think apply to the order. Justify their conclusions with appropriate examples
from the previous list.
• Have students answer the following questions: Which of the above accomplishments do you think
come about chiefly through maturation? Which involve training? Do you see any trends here?
Identify them and justify your conclusions with appropriate examples.
After students have completed their task, you can address the following issues in a class discussion.
Discuss their ideas about what the correct order should be. There is usually agreement on the items that
develop first, with decreasing agreement on later items. Discuss the reasons for this pattern of agreement
and disagreement. How are the cephalocaudal and proximodistal principles illustrated by the order?
Which items appear to develop mainly through maturation and which develop through training? Is there
an age-related pattern?
Logistics:
• Materials: Handout CA 5-2 (Motor and Verbal Abilities Activity)
• Group size: Small group discussion and full class discussion
• Approximate time: Small groups (15 minutes) and full class discussion (20 minutes)
Source:
Fernald, P. S., & Fernald, L. D. (1990). Early motor and verbal development. In V. P. Makosky, C. C.
Sileo, L. G. Whittemore, C. P. Landry, & M. L. Skutley (Eds.). Activities handbook for the teaching
of psychology. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Classroom Activity 3: Determining Infant Age Based on Motor Behavior
The purpose of this activity is to reinforce students’ knowledge of motor milestones in early childhood.
For this activity, it will be necessary for the instructor to create his/her own video of children. The video
should have short displays of child behavior (preferably of children demonstrating obvious motor
developmental milestones such as standing unassisted, lifting the head, rolling over, and so on) in a
random order.
Place students into small groups and have them watch the video. Have each student make individual
observations of child behavior while watching the video. After watching the video and making
notes/recording observations, the students should meet in their groups and discuss their observations.
Each group should decide how old they think each child in the video is based on the descriptions of
behavior that they made (and comparing these descriptions to information in the text).
Groups can then share the ages that they decided upon and provide explanations for why they chose these
ages. The real ages of the children can then be revealed. Students appear to really enjoy watching videos

of “real” children, and this exercise helps to reinforce some of the basic motor milestones that are
associated with various ages in a fun and engaging way.
Classroom Activity 4: Design a Preschool Program
The objective of this activity is for students to use information regarding preschoolers and gross and fine
motor skill development to plan preschool program activities that would facilitate both types of motor
skills development. In small groups, have students determine what activities would be appropriate for 3-
year-olds and for 5-year-olds.
• For gross motor skills, the program might incorporate a game such as follow the leader, in which the
leader ran, skipped, hopped, walked backwards, skipped rope, and performed similar activities for the
legs. For the arms, the program could incorporate throwing a ball, bowling (with a light ball), and
skipping rope.
• Fine motor activity could be promoted by work such as drawing with crayons. You could also
incorporate work with puzzles, cutting and pasting, shaping clay, and playing with small blocks.
Logistics:
• Group size: Small group discussion
• Approximate time: Small groups (15 minutes)
Source:
King, M. B., & Clark, D. E. (1989). Instructor’s manual for Santrock and Yussen’s child development: An
introduction, 4th ed. Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown Communications.
Classroom Activity 5: To Circumcise or Not to Circumcise—

That Is the Cutting Question
This activity affords students an opportunity to debate the controversy of infant circumcision. Students
often have preformed ideas regarding circumcision or neglect to consider the implications of
circumcision. Students usually assume that circumcisions are performed only on male infants. In small
groups, have students identify the advantages and disadvantages of male circumcision and the advantages
and disadvantages of female circumcision. Also, the groups should determine whether they are in favor of
male and female circumcision. Students in the United States are often appalled by the practices of female
circumcision in Africa, yet they fail to reflect on the practice of male circumcision in the United States.
After the discussion, you can tally the groups’ ideas, positions, and the mitigating circumstances for
whether they would encourage the circumcision of male and female infants. Do the students’ decisions
differ based on gender, age, religion, or parenting status? The following ideas will help you get started:
• Current national rates for male circumcision: Australia 15 percent1 Canada 20 percent2 the United
States 60 percent3. In the United States, more than 1.25 million infants are circumcised annually
(3,300 per day, 1 child every 26 seconds).
Advantages of male circumcision:

• Parents can make sure that after-surgery care is properly done to avoid infection.
• Parents can request safe local anesthesia for the baby during the procedure.
• Circumcised males have easier hygiene to practice.
• Circumcised men are less likely to contract cancer of the penis.

Disadvantages of male circumcision:
• Surgery has a little risk, as do all surgeries; after-surgery care is important for avoiding infection.
• Physical trauma occurs because most circumcisions are performed without anesthesia.
• There is no evidence that a circumcised male is less likely to acquire or transmit venereal disease.
• Cancer of the penis is quite rare.
Two interesting films related to female genital mutilation:

• Warrior Marks by Alice Walker: This is a documentary film that follows Alice Walker and Pratibha
Parmar through a journey in Africa and England, where they seek to educate people about the
harmful, sometimes deadly aftereffects of female genital mutilation.
• Rites, a documentary film by the American Anthropological Association (AAA) also outlines the
harmful effects of female genital mutilation.
The term female genital mutilation covers three main varieties of genital mutilation:
1. “Sunna” circumcision: Consists of the removal of the prepuce and/or the tip of the clitoris. Sunna
means “tradition” in Arabic.
2. Clitoridectomy (also referred to as excision): Consists of the removal of the entire clitoris (both
prepuce and glans) and the removal of the adjacent labia.
3. Infibulation: This most extreme form consists of the removal of the clitoris, the adjacent labia
(majora and minora), and the joining of the scraped sides of the vulva across the vagina, where
they are secured with thorns or sewn with catgut or thread. A small opening is kept to allow
passage of urine and menstrual blood. An infibulated woman must be cut open to allow
intercourse on the wedding night and is closed again afterward to secure fidelity to the husband.
Logistics:
• Group size: Small group, then full class
• Approximate time: Small group (15 minutes) and full class discussion (30 minutes)
Sources:
1
Average of state and territory circumcision rates NOCIRC of Australia.
2
Average of provincial circumcision rates compiled from Health & Welfare Canada and Statistics Canada.
3
Average of regional circumcision rates compiled by National Center for Health Statistics.
Denniston, G. C. (1992). Unnecessary circumcision. The female patient, 17.
Romberg, R. (1985). Circumcision: The painful dilemma. South Hadley, MA: Bergin & Garvey
Publishers.
Squires, S. (June 1990). Medinews. Ladies’ Home Journal, 94.
Classroom Activity 6: Evaluating and Designing Infant Toys
This activity reinforces students’ knowledge and understanding of infants’ sensory and perceptual
abilities and provides an opportunity for students to apply this knowledge. For this assignment, students
should be asked to examine toys targeted to infants to see if the toys are appropriate given what we know
about infant motor, sensory, and perceptual abilities. Students should go to the toy section of a store or
review toys online at a URLs such as www.amazon.com. Students should find one toy that they deem to
be “appropriate” for the given age group (i.e., the age group identified by the toy manufacturer) and one
toy that they deem to be “inappropriate.” Students should clearly articulate why they deem the toys to be
appropriate or inappropriate using information from the text on motor, sensory, and perceptual
development/skills.

Finally, students should choose an age group and then design a toy that would promote motor, sensory,
and perceptual development. Students should explain why and how their toy will facilitate skills in these
areas. This activity could be used in class (as an individual assignment or a group assignment) or as an
out-of-class assignment.
Classroom Activity 7: Assessing Infant Abilities
This activity exposes students to an infant and allows them to observe an assessment of an infant’s
abilities. Invite a parent and his or her infant to class. One of the students often has an infant in his or her
family or knows someone who does; most often a phone call is all it takes to get the parent to bring the
baby to the class. It is important to demonstrate various infant assessment instruments or scales to the
students before the infant is brought into the class. Consider covering the Apgar, the Brazelton Neonatal
Assessment Scale, and the Denver Developmental Screening Test. If your Psychology Department,
Educational Psychology Department, or library does not have a copy of the screening devices, a local
pediatrician may be convinced to part with a copy of what they use and to offer some quick instructions
on how to use it. Another option is to invite a local pediatrician to come to the class and give the
screening.
The students’ task will be to determine the infant’s age and developmental scores. It is best if each student
gets a copy of the screening devices ahead of time. During the class period, run the infant through some
of the components of each of the screening devices. It would probably be best if you conducted the
behavioral tests, but only at the direction of the students. The infant will experience less stress if you
minimize the number of individuals manipulating him or her. The infant, if awake, will tolerate between
10 and 20 minutes of manipulation before deciding that he or she is too young to be in college. After the
infant leaves or refuses to play anymore, have students try to determine what the baby’s scores would be
on the various measures and to give their best guess about the specific age of the infant. Ask the parent to
reveal the infant’s actual age and, if known, the baby’s latest developmental scores. If the infant is
unresponsive during the class period, allow the students to ask the parent questions regarding the infant
(e.g., Can he or she differentiate the infant’s cries?).
Logistics:
• Materials: One or more of the following assessment instruments (Apgar, Brazelton Neonatal
Assessment Scale, and Denver Developmental Screening Test). Copies of the screening devices for
students.
• Group size: Full class
• Approximate time: 20 minutes to review assessment devices, 10 to 20 minutes for the assessment, and
30 minutes for a full class discussion

Discussion Board Prompts
For each chapter, a few discussion board prompts are provided. Some of these prompts may be
controversial, but all should encourage the student to further process course material. Although these
are intended for online discussions, they could easily be used for an in-class discussion.
1. In the text it says “that children benefit from exercise breaks periodically during the school day
on the order of 15 minutes every two hours.” Should teachers be required to give these 15 minute
breaks if it enhances academic performance and attention? Given how much material is crammed
into the school day, are these breaks realistic?
2. Which of the do’s and don’ts of how parents and coaches approach children’s sports have you
encountered?
3. The text discusses that adolescents typically are aware of the dangers of loud music, but feel that
they will not fall victim to hearing loss. Given the danger of listening to iPods and MP3 players
at loud volumes for extended periods of time, should they come with warning labels highlighting
the potential for hearing loss? Why or why not?

Classroom Discussion Questions
These questions can be utilized in the classroom with a partner or small group. They can be used as
an introduction to the topic or as questions to start class discussions.
1. Discuss with a small group if you played a sport in elementary, middle or high school. What was
your experience like? Was it positive or negative? Why? What were your coaches like? How
did your parent figure response to you playing sports? Is there a difference between your
experience and your classmates?
2. With a partner, create a list of fine and gross motor activities preschool children are learning to do
and what they have mastered before the age of 6.

Journal Entry
For each chapter, a journal entry is suggested that encourages each student to apply that chapter’s
material to his or her own development.
Journal entry prompt: Where are you in your motor and sensory development? Have you peaked in your
gross motor skill and fine motor skill ability? If not, how many years do you have until this peak? How
will your senses be changing over the years?

Personal Applications
Personal Application 1: Tag, You’re It!
This exercise asks students to recall the physical elements of their childhood. Young children are
extremely active, both with regards to gross motor activities (running, jumping, climbing) and fine motor
activities (coloring, cutting, manipulating blocks). These activities are both the result of, and the driving
force behind, further physical development and agility—and children love them!
• Instructions for Students: Recall your favorite early childhood activities. Did you prefer gross motor–
oriented activities, or fine motor–oriented activities? How did you spend most of your time? Do you
remember any activity that you wanted to be able to participate in but you weren’t physically
coordinated enough to perform? Can you recall a time of triumph, when you accomplished a
particular feat for the first time?
• Use in the Classroom: Show a video or bring in some toddlers and/or preschool-age children and
supply them with a variety of toys and manipulatives and possible climbing opportunities (such as a
chair or step stool). Have students observe what activities children choose to engage in. Attempt to
have children engage in activities that are too motorically advanced and watch what happens. Discuss
the in-class goings-on with regard to motor development.
Personal Application 2: For Lefties Only
This exercise enables students who are left-handed to explore their experiences in a world dominated by
right-handedness. Left-handedness has been viewed as problematic in the past; so much so that children
were often forced to use their right hands, despite their difficulty in doing so. Left-handed individuals also
have to function in a world that is oriented to those who are right-dominant. Given there appears to be a
dominant brain hemisphere link to handedness, that’s a lot to ask!
• Instructions for Students: For those of you who are lefties, write about your experiences as such. Was
your handedness met with any resistance when you were a child—by either your parents or your
teachers? Did you struggle to cut with scissors for right-handed children? How did you feel (and still
feel) writing on desks for right-handed individuals? Have you benefited in any way from your
different handedness—in sports or particular artistic creativity?
• Use in the Classroom: Have your lefty students share their personal experiences with their minority
handedness status with the rest of the class. Discuss the possible implications for development, and
have students create ideas for studying the relationship between handedness and brain hemisphere
dominance.
Personal Application 3: If I Could Read Your Mind
This exercise gets students thinking more in-depth about infant sensory experiences and the research
methods used to study them. Until quite recently, babies have been believed to experience the world in
limited ways. This belief most likely resulted because people relied only on what they could see babies do
overtly. Some amazing developments have been made with regard to assessing the early experiences of
infants, and we now know that even in utero, babies are capable of sensing and encoding sensory
information.

• Instructions for Students: Read through your text and familiarize yourself with infants’ sensory
functioning and the studies psychologists have done to learn more about this amazing area. Choose a
behavior you would like to explore with an infant, and write up how you would go about studying it.
Use a journal article format to write up your proposal, beginning with the behavior of interest, why
it’s of interest, and your methodology. Base your results section on what you expect you might find,
and conclude with any questions you may have that would lead to additional scientific investigation.
Personal Application 4: Seasonings… and Taste…
This exercise is intended to get students thinking more about the sensation of taste and the implications of
decrements in this sensation with age. Research suggests that the diets of individuals in late adulthood
may be less nutritious at least partially because of the decrease in their sense of taste and smell (see
Schiffman & Warwick, 1989). Individuals in late adulthood may begin to use excessive spices to enhance
the flavor of their food to improve their ability to taste. It may, therefore, be difficult to keep individuals
in late adulthood on low-sodium diets if they are using salt as a means to improve flavor. In this activity,
students will be asked to reflect on their own use of seasonings and the use of other adults that they know
to see if the use of flavorings is truly in an attempt to improve flavor and one’s ability to taste, or due to
habit.
• Instructions for Students: Think about your use of seasonings (e.g., salt, pepper, garlic). Do you
taste your food prior to the use of seasonings or after you’ve tasted the food? Do you use spices when
cooking? Why? When you're eating “seasoned” food, can you taste the seasonings? Do the
seasonings overwhelm your ability to taste the actual food? Why do you use seasonings? Now think
about other adults that you know—preferably adults in late adulthood. Answer the previous questions
with respect to them.
Source:
Schiffman, S. S., & Warwick, Z. S. (1989). Use of flavor-amplified food to improve nutritional status in
elderly persons. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 561, 267–276.

Research Projects
Research Project 1: Replication of Thelen’s Work
on Infant Motor Development
This research project helps students understand the complex nature of the development of infant motor
skills, especially the development of walking, and gives them practice replicating a research study. The
Lecture Suggestion regarding Thelen’s perspective on infant motor development will provide relevant
background knowledge. This project requires approval by the school’s human subjects review board and
the parent’s informed consent.
First, have students read the Thelen, Fisher, and Ridley-Johnson (1984) article. They should also write a
summary of the introduction section and specify the hypotheses. Second, have students in groups of two
to four people replicate the procedure in this study. Given that two separate manipulations were
conducted in the Thelen et al. study, have half of the students manipulate the leg mass by adding small
weights to the infant’s legs. The other half of the class can manipulate the effects of leg mass by
submerging the infant’s legs in water. Third, students should write up their results and relate their results
to the hypotheses. If the results are not consistent with Thelen et al.’s, have the students explain why they
think the results were inconsistent. Finally, students should present their findings to the class. See
Handout RP 5-1. Tell students to follow these guidelines:
1. Summarize the introduction section of the Thelen et al. (1984) article.

2. Identify the hypotheses of the study.
3. Describe the study’s procedures and explain if your procedures differ from Thelen et al.’s procedures.
4. Summarize the results of your study.
5. Discuss how your results compare to Thelen et al.’s results. Discuss any discrepancies.
Discuss whether the students had to modify the procedures. Did they obtain the same findings? If not,
why?
Source:
Research Project 2: Relations Between Infant Size and Age of Walking
A study by Esther Thelen (see Thelen, Fisher, & Ridley-Johnson, 2002) suggests that although there was
no difference in the stepping reflex as a function of infant size at 2 weeks of age, infants did step less at 4
weeks if they had gained weight. Another study found that infants stepped less when weights were
attached to their legs.
For this project, students can be sent out to observe infants and/or to interview parents to see if students
can find evidence suggesting that there is some type of relationship between infant size and age of
walking. If there are opportunities for students to observe actual infant behavior (e.g., if there is a child
care center associated with the college, if there are child care centers in the area that have relationships
with the college, and so on), this method is, of course, preferred because it can reinforce knowledge and
understanding of research methodology (e.g., research design, interrater reliability, operational
definitions, and so on). However, if students do not have access to completing naturalistic observations

of infants, then students can interview parents to gather retrospective accounts of infant size and age of
walking to see if they can find evidence of a relationship between these two variables.
Students can report their findings in a written report or orally in class.
Source:
newborn reflex. Infant Behavior & Development, 25(1), 72–85.
Research Project 3: Maternal Diet and Development of Taste Preferences
This research project coincides with Lecture Suggestion 7. The lecture suggestion provides information
suggesting that maternal diet prenatally and postnatally (if she breast-feeds) may contribute to the
development of taste preference in infants. In this research project, students are asked to interview
mothers to see whether the students can validate the literature.
Students should be asked to interview mothers (although it would be interesting for the students to
interview their own mothers, they might get better data if they interview mothers with infants/toddlers
because these mothers may remember more about their diet prenatally and while nursing) about their diet
while pregnant and nursing (if they chose to breast-feed) and their older infants’/young toddlers’ taste
preferences. Did their infants prefer foods that they ate while pregnant/nursing?
Students can share their findings with the rest of the class and brainstorm about why their findings
supported or disconfirmed (whichever may be the case) the existing literature. Class discussions can then
review some principles of research methodology.
Research Project 4: Seasonings… and Taste…
This research project coincides with Personal Application 4. It is intended to get students to identify why
people use seasonings with their food and whether the use of seasonings increases with age… as the sense
of taste declines.
Students should be asked to interview friends and family members regarding their use of seasonings. Try
to gather information from individuals in all stages of adulthood. Record the individuals’ responses to the
following questions:
1. Why do you use seasonings on your food? All of your food or just some things?
2. Do you taste your food prior to the use of seasonings or after you’ve tasted the food?
3. Do you use spices when cooking? Why?
4. When you're eating “seasoned” food, can you taste the seasonings?
5. Do the seasonings overwhelm your ability to taste the actual food?
6. What seasonings do you use most often? How often would you say that you use these seasoning
and in what amount (e.g., 1 tsp., ¼ tsp., and so on)?
Have students review their findings and determine if they see any trends in use of seasonings. Perhaps
different families use seasonings in a particular way (suggesting that their use may be a habit); perhaps
the individuals in late adulthood use more seasonings than the individuals in early adulthood, and so on.
Students could be asked to report their findings orally in class or in a written report.
Research Project 5: Critical Thinking and Validation of Research Reports

The purpose of this research project is to highlight that students should be skeptical of “popular press”
and nonempirical sources of information. Although the popular media often reports research and does so
appropriately, it is possible for reporters to misinterpret research results and thus report inaccurate
information. It is always the best practice to use the popular media as a source of information, but to
research and validate the information in the empirical literature.
As an exercise in critical thinking and the validation of research reports, you could have students form
small groups (3–4 students), and ask them to review “research results” presented on the Internet. You
could either have students find their own research reports to validate, or you could assign research reports
to them. Further, you could have each group investigate separate research reports, or the same one and
then compare their findings.
For example, one Web page suggests that the decrease in the sensation of taste that is seen in late
adulthood is not due to the process of aging, rather, it is due to the use of drugs (Mercola, n.d.). It is
suggested that taste is altered with the use of certain drugs (e.g., antibiotics, chemotherapy drugs,
antidepressants), and that it is these drugs that affect taste in late adulthood. Students could be asked to
review the information on this Web page and validate its accuracy using the empirical literature (in this
case, the medical literature may be more appropriate). Students can then report their findings to the class
as a whole.
Source:
Mercola, J. (n.d.). Drugs NOT aging causes diminished ability to taste in elderly. Retrieved November
5, 2003, from http://www.mercola.com/2000/apr/2/drugs_and_taste_elderly.htm

Film and Video List
The following films and videos supplement the content of Chapter 5. Please note that some of the video
descriptions are quoted from the publisher’s/distributor’s description.
Evolution, Environment, and Growth (Insight Media, 30 minutes). The relation between central nervous
system development and motor development from infancy to childhood is examined. The interaction
between motor development and social development is explored as well.
Infants: Cognitive Development (Insight Media, 2010, 29 minutes). This DVD traces cognitive
development from simple reflexes to the beginnings of thought. It traces the progression of infant
communication and shows how adults can foster cognitive development.
Infancy: Landmarks of Development (Magna Systems, 22 minutes). There are four foci of this video: (1)
physical and motor development, (2) principles of development, (3) factors that influence development,
and (4) regulation of basic processes.
Infant Milestones: An Overview (Insight Media, 2012, 28 minutes).This program examines the rapid
physical changes that occur in the first year of life. It looks at brain development and explores
sensorimotor development.
Motor Development (Films for the Humanities and Sciences, 1992, 25 minutes). Abnormal motor
development in special-needs children requires specific skills for caregivers. This program presents
positioning and handling techniques for both the hypertonic profile child, one who is easily
overstimulated and has stiffening of the limbs, and the hypotonic profile child, who has flaccid muscle
tone and decreased movement. Positions are discussed for sleeping, handling, and playing to encourage
the development of basic motor skills.
Mystery of the Senses (Insight Media, 1995, 5 volumes, 60 minutes each). This series covers the five
senses, dealing with neural pathways, visual images, dreams, taste mechanism, touch and infant growth,
development of perfume scents, and use of sound.
Perception (Films for the Humanities and Sciences, 1999, 53 minutes). In this program, mothers and
fathers and a wide range of specialists provide insights into the stages of perception experienced in the
first three years of life. Topics related to the perception process include parental roles in child-raising, the
daily interactions that mold the physiology of the infant brain, the effect of a child’s sex on parental
expectations and societal acceptance, and enculturation through naming and ceremonies.
Perception: The Theories (Films for the Humanities and Sciences, 1998, 45 minutes). Can perception be
explained in terms of sensation? In this program, the senses, including proprioception, are described; the
structuralist, gestalt, constructivist, and direct perception theories are critically analyzed, focusing on both
their strengths and weaknesses; and perceptual models such as those of Ulric Neisser and David Marr are
presented. Many examples of the perceptual theories are provided. In addition, the roles of Wundt,
Wertheimer, Gregory, and Gibson are discussed, along with key perceptual concepts such as Weber’s
Law, the Principle of Pragnaz, and the Laws of Proximity, Closure, and Continuity.
Sensation and Perception (Insight Media, 2001, 30 minutes). This video illustrates how information
about the world is gathered by sensory receptors and transmitted and interpreted by the brain. It considers
visual, chemical, and tactile receptors and examines how the brain transforms these sensations into
perceptions.
Sensation, Perception, and the Aging Process (Insight Media, 2006, 24 segments,30 minutes each). In
this lecture series, Professor Francis B. Colavita of the University of Pittsburg explores the relationships
among sensation, perception, and behavior and illustrates the ways in which the human sensory systems
change in response to such factors as aging, injury, and life experience.

Web Site Suggestions
Audio-Visual Integration: http://mindbrain.ucdavis.edu/labs/Miller
Children and Sports: http://life.familyeducation.com/sports/behavior/29512.html
National Center for Hearing Assessment and Management: http://www.infanthearing.org/
National Eye Institute: http://www.nei.nih.gov/
Perception and Action http://panda.cogsci.rpi.edu/resources/papers/Fajen2008_PMC.pdf
Perceptual-Motor Coupling Deficits in Children with Down Syndrome: http://www.down-

syndrome.org/reports/308/
Femalre Cicumcision: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1497147/
Sensory System: http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/introb.html#se
Sports for Kids (for the physically or mentally challenged): http://www.sportsforkids.org/
Sports Science: http://www.sportsci.org/
Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families: www.zerotothree.org

Resources Available Within Connect
Listed below is a sampling of the resources available with this chapter within McGraw-Hill Education’s
digital learning platform, Connect.
Chapter Activity Titles Activity Type Learning Objective
5 Sucking Reflex at 2 Weeks Video Describe how motor skills develop.
5 Startle Reflex at 2 Weeks Video Describe how motor skills develop.

Lifting the Head at 10 Weeks-
5 1 Video Describe how motor skills develop.
Lifting the Head at 10 Weeks-
5 2 Video Describe how motor skills develop.
5 Early Gross Motor Ability-2 Video Describe how motor skills develop.
5 Walking with Support Video Describe how motor skills develop.
5 Early Steps Video Describe how motor skills develop.

Gross Motor Ability at One
5 Year Video Describe how motor skills develop.
Gross Motor Development in

5 the First Year Video Describe how motor skills develop.
5 Copying Shapes at Age 3-1 Video Describe how motor skills develop.
5 Copying Shapes at Age 3-2 Video Describe how motor skills develop.
5 Fine Motor Skills at Age 3 Video Describe how motor skills develop.
5 Fine Motor Skills at Age 4 Video Describe how motor skills develop.
Advanced Fine Motor Skills at
5 Age 5 Video Describe how motor skills develop.
Visual and Auditory Tracking Outline the course of sensory and
5 at 3 Weeks Video perceptual development.
Visual and Auditory Tracking Outline the course of sensory and
5 at 10 Weeks Video perceptual development.
Outline the course of sensory and
5 Infant Perception Video perceptual development.
Visual System Development Interactive Outline the course of sensory and
5 in Infants Activity perceptual development.

Handout CA 5-1
Assessing Infant Reflexes
In this exercise, you will gain experience assessing infant abilities and further develop your understanding of infant
reflexes. The goal is to assess two infants, one aged 1 to 4 months and the other aged 6 to 12 months. For each
infant, perform the stimulation necessary to elicit the reflexive behavior. Note which of the reflexes are present (P)
or absent (A) for each infant. After performing the demonstration with each infant, you should answer the questions
that follow.
Infant 1 Infant 2
Reflex Stimulation and reflex Sex __ Age __ Sex __ Age __
Placing Backs of infant’s feet are

drawn against a flat surface
edge: Baby withdraws foot. P/A P/A
Walking Hold baby under arms with

bare feet touching flat surface:
Baby makes steplike motions
that appear like coordinated walking. P/A P/A
Darwinian Stroke palm of infant’s hand:

(grasping) Baby makes strong fist; if both
fists are closed around a stick,
the infant could be raised to
standing position. P/A P/A
Tonic neck Baby is laid down on back:

Infant turns head to one side and
extends arms and legs on preferred
side and flexes opposite limbs. P/A P/A
Moro (startle) Make a sudden, loud noise near

infant: Infant extends legs, arms,
and fingers, arches back, and
draws back head. P/A P/A
Babinski Stroke sole of baby’s foot: Infant’s

toes fan out and foot twists in. P/A P/A
Rooting Stroke baby’s cheek with one’s

finger: Baby’s head turns, mouth
opens, and sucking movements begin. P/A P/A
• How many of the reflexive behaviors were exhibited by the younger infant? By the older infant?
• Which reflexes dropped out early?
• What responses seem to replace each of the reflexive behaviors in the older infant?
• What might be the adaptive value of each reflex in the infant’s repertoire?

Handout CA 5-2
Motor and Verbal Abilities Activity
1. Study the list of verbal and motor accomplishments given below, and list the order in which you think
each accomplishment occurs:
Order of Development Motor and Verbal Ability

________ Walks alone; says several words
________ Describes the difference between a bird and a dog
________ Turns head to follow moving object
________ Names penny, nickel, and dime
________ Climbs stairs; says many words
________ Laces shoes
________ Sits alone for 1 minute; says “da-da”
________ Tells how a baseball and an orange or an airplane and a kite are alike
________ Puts on shoes
________ Tells time to quarter hour
________ Runs; uses simple word combinations
________ Walks while holding on to something
2. Study the order of accomplishments that you have identified. Describe any rules or patterns that you
think apply to the order. Justify your conclusions with appropriate examples from the list.
3. Which of the accomplishments do you think come about chiefly through maturation? Which involve
training? Do you see any trends here? Identify the trends and justify your conclusions with appropriate
examples.

Handout RP 5-1
Replication of Thelen’s Work on Infant Motor Development
This research project helps you better understand the complex nature of the development of infant motor
skills, especially the development of walking, and gives you practice replicating a research study. In order
to proceed, you will need to clear this project through the human subjects review board at your school and
get a signed informed consent form from the baby’s parents.
You will first write a summary of the Thelen, Fisher, and Ridley-Johnson (1984) article. Then you should
attempt to replicate the procedure in this study. Half of the class will manipulate the infant’s leg mass by
adding small weights to the infant’s legs. The other half of the class will manipulate the effects of leg
mass by submerging the infant’s legs in water. You will then write up your results and relate the results to
the proposed hypotheses. If the results are not consistent with Thelen et al.’s, you should explain why you
think the results were inconsistent. Follow these guidelines:
1. Summarize the introduction section of the Thelen et al. (1984) article.

2. Identify the hypotheses of the study.
3. Describe the study’s procedures and explain if your procedures differ from Thelen et al.’s procedures.
4. Summarize the results of your study.
5. Discuss how your results compare to Thelen et al.’s results. Discuss any discrepancies.
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Topical Approach to Lifespan Development 8th

Edition Santrock Solutions Manual

CHAPTER 5: MOTOR, SENSORY, AND PERCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT

Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All 1 rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution

Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All 2 rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution

III. Nature/Nurture and Perceptual Development

2. Outline the course of sensory and perceptual development.

3. Discuss the connection of perception and action.

accommodation of the eye intermodal perception

Karen Adolph William James

Lecture Suggestion 2: Current Views of Infant Motor Development

Lecture Suggestion 3: Teaching Toddlers to Draw

Lecture Suggestion 4: Is Handedness Related to Life Expectancy?

Lecture Suggestion 5: Color Perception in Infancy

Lecture Suggestion 6: Nature and Nurture of Senses

Lecture Suggestion 7: Development of Taste Preferences Prenatally

Lecture Suggestion 8: Smoking and Taste

Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All 5 rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution

Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All 6 rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution

Classroom Activity 2: Sequence and Trends

• The correct order is as follows:

Classroom Activity 3: Determining Infant Age Based on Motor Behavior

Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All 8 rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution

Classroom Activity 4: Design a Preschool Program

Classroom Activity 5: To Circumcise or Not to Circumcise—

Advantages of male circumcision:

Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All 9 rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution

Two interesting films related to female genital mutilation:

Classroom Activity 6: Evaluating and Designing Infant Toys

Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All 10 rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution

Classroom Activity 7: Assessing Infant Abilities

Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All 11 rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution

Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All 12 rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution

Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All 13 rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution

Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All 14 rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution

Personal Application 2: For Lefties Only

Personal Application 3: If I Could Read Your Mind

Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All 15 rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution

Personal Application 4: Seasonings… and Taste…

Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All 16 rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution

1. Summarize the introduction section of the Thelen et al. (1984) article.

Research Project 2: Relations Between Infant Size and Age of Walking

Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All 17 rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution

Students can report their findings in a written report or orally in class.

Research Project 3: Maternal Diet and Development of Taste Preferences

Research Project 4: Seasonings… and Taste…

Research Project 5: Critical Thinking and Validation of Research Reports

Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All 18 rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution

Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All 19 rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution

Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All 21 rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution

Children and Sports: http://life.familyeducation.com/sports/behavior/29512.html

National Center for Hearing Assessment and Management: http://www.infanthearing.org/

National Eye Institute: http://www.nei.nih.gov/

Perception and Action http://panda.cogsci.rpi.edu/resources/papers/Fajen2008_PMC.pdf

Perceptual-Motor Coupling Deficits in Children with Down Syndrome: http://www.down-

Femalre Cicumcision: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1497147/

Sensory System: http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/introb.html#se

Sports for Kids (for the physically or mentally challenged): http://www.sportsforkids.org/

Sports Science: http://www.sportsci.org/

Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All 22 rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution

Chapter Activity Titles Activity Type Learning Objective

5 Sucking Reflex at 2 Weeks Video Describe how motor skills develop.

5 Startle Reflex at 2 Weeks Video Describe how motor skills develop.