Critical thinking questions

Your answers to these kinds of questions demonstrate an ability to comprehend and apply ideas discussed in this chapter.

1. Discuss medical, ethical, psychological, and personal issues pertinent to the decision to have an abortion.

2. What is a teratogen? Also indicate at least two examples of teratogens and their specific effects.

3. Compare and contrast the risks to expectant mothers who are either teenagers, twenty-something, or thirty-something.

4. Imagine that you are about to give birth. What questions about cesarean sections and the use of drugs during delivery would be important to you? What reasons would lead you to accept or reject a cesarean section and drugs such as tranquilizers, sedatives, and analgesics during delivery?

5. Imagine that you are an expectant parent. What would you do and learn in a parent education class on pregnancy, prenatal development, and the three most common childbirth strategies?

6. Why and how have fathers and siblings become more involved in childbirth? Also discuss the pros and cons of this involvement.

Ex.1. Skim over the text and give your comments on its ideas.

Infants, Adults and Novelty

processing – обработка

encountered through life – с которой встречаешься (сталкиваешься) в течение жизни

researcher – исследователь

conduct – проводить

intelligence – интеллект

ability – способность

argue – утверждать, аргументировать

underscore – подчеркивать, выделять

a means – средство, средства

Infants who are excellent at processing novel information when they are just 6- and 12-months-old are likely to demonstrate excellence in intelligence tests and academic achievements as young adults in their 20's. This is the conclusion of a study directed by Joseph Fagan of Case Western Reserve University in the US with co-investigators Cynthia Holland from Cuyahoga Community College and undergraduate student Karyn Wheeler.

The study, "The prediction, from infancy, of adult IQ and achievement" published in Intelligence, looked at whether intelligent infants become intelligent and highly achieving adults. Fagan's team concluded that the answer is 'yes'.

According to Joseph Fagan, intelligence involves processing novel information and associating this with other information encountered through life, allow an individual's knowledge to grow. The Fagan Test of Infant Intelligence, developed twenty years ago measures infants' responses to pictures of novel objects. An infant pairs two pictures together for a set period of time, observed by a researcher. One of these pictures is then paired with a new image. The researcher again records the time the infant focuses on the new and old images. Normally, infants spend about 60% of the time looking at the new images.

In the study conducted for this paper, Fagan and his colleagues looked again at 61 young adults who had taken the Fagan Test as infants in the first year of their lives. IQ tests taken at the age of 3 were also compared with their scores at 21 years of age.

The researchers were able to show an association with intelligence between an early ability to process information and IQ during young adult years. Infants who were able to process novel information at an early age also showed higher levels of academic achievement later in life. The researchers argued that attention to novelty "tells us that intelligence is continuous from infancy to adulthood" and "underscore the importance of information processing as a means for studying intelligence."

http://www.ACIforEntrepreneurs.com.

Questions:

1. What does The Fagan Test of Infant Intelligence measure?

2. At what age were the tests conducted? How many times?

3. Do intelligent infants become intelligent and highly achieving adults?