CLEP Human Growth And Development Free Test Practice Questions

1. Which of the following is not true regarding teratogens?

(a) Exposure to a teratogen is more likely to cause harm in the first trimester.
(b) Any teratogen has to cross the placental barrier to cause harm to the baby.
(c) It is possible for the mother's diet to constitute a teratogen to the embryo.
(d) A mother's drug use, including drinking and smoking, can be teratogenic.
(e) Exposure to X-rays and maternal stress can both be teratogenic to a baby.

2. Which of the following is incorrect regarding perinatal conditions?

(a) Severe anoxia in the baby during birth can result in mental retardation.
(b) Mucous buildup in the baby's throat can result in oxygen deprivation.
(c) A kink in the umbilical cord can deprive the baby of oxygen at birth.
(d) The Apgar scale is generally given when the infant is three days old.
(e) Drugs given to the mother for pain can slow labor and harm the baby.

3. Shirley tells her doctor that she is worried because her baby, Alvin, who is 5 months old, cannot sit up by himself. Which response by the doctor would be most correct?

(a) The doctor tells Shirley that she wants to run some tests on the baby's motor development.
(b) The doctor tells Shirley that Alvin should be crawling by this age, but not sitting alone.
(c) The doctor tells Shirley that babies sit unsupported by 6-7 months, and that Alvin is normal.
(d) The doctor tells Shirley that there is no given age before 1 year that he should be sitting up.
(e) The doctor tells Shirley that all babies are different and not to worry about this milestone.

4. Which of these is correct regarding physical growth in humans?

(a) The body functions at its peak in adolescence and starts to decline in early adulthood.
(b) The maximum life span for humans is limited due to the process of biological aging.
(c) The maximum life span for humans is considered to be equivalent to life expectancy.
(d) The causes of biological aging in humans are generally agreed on by most scientists.
(e) Climacteric, which is associated with lower hormone levels, affects women only.

5. Which of these has research found to be true regarding the timing of the growth spurt in adolescent boys and girls?

(a) Boys and girls who mature early tend to enjoy the best psychosocial outcomes.
(b) Boys and girls who mature later tend to enjoy the best psychosocial outcomes.
(c) Boys who mature late and girls who mature early tend to fare better psychosocially.
(d) Boys and girls have no different psychosocial effects from early or late maturation.
(e) Boys who mature early and girls who mature later tend to do best psychosocially.

6. Which of the following is true regarding sensitive periods in perceptual development?

(a) Researchers have found that in animals, there are certain time periods that are sensitive for receiving sensory stimuli.
(b) Research has not uncovered any particular sensitive periods for the reception of sensory stimulation in animals.
(c) Research with chimpanzees found that raising baby chimps in the dark does not result in visual impairment.
(d) Research with chimpanzees found that raising baby chimps in the dark causes irreversible damage to the optic nerve.
(e) None of these statements is correct regarding research findings about perceptual development in animals.

7. Which of the following is correct about the vision of newborn infants?

(a) At birth, newborns are not really able to see anything for several days.
(b) When babies are born, their visual acuity is 20/20, the same as an adult's.
(c) Newborn visual acuity is usually in a range between 20/200 and 20/300.
(d) Babies are born being able to see, but their visual acuity is rather poor.
(e) The visual acuity of newborns improves rapidly in the next six months.

8. Which is true regarding sensory deprivation in humans?

(a) Babies with congenital cataracts will always recover normal vision.
(b) Babies with congenital cataracts will never recover normal vision.
(c) Babies with congenital cataracts may or may not recover normal vision.
(d) Babies are never found to be born with cataracts on their lenses.
(e) No data exist regarding whether cataracts permanently affect babies' vision.

9. Which of the following is not correct regarding habituation?

(a) Habituation is considered a simplified type of learning.
(b) Habituation is found to exist only in newborn infants.
(c) Habituation can show whether a stimulus is novel or familiar.
(d) Habituation is reduced attention to a familiar stimulus.
(e) Habituation has been found to exist in newborn infants.

10. When do babies typically first display depth perception?

(a) When they can sit up without support
(b) When they can roll over
(c) When they can stand
(d) When they can crawl
(e) When they can walk

CLEP Human Growth And Development Practice Question Answer Key

Answer (a) is correct. Exposure to teratogens is less likely to harm the baby if it occurs during the first (a) or third trimester. The second trimester (the embryonic stage) is the time when teratogens are the most potentially harmful, so much so that this time in prenatal development is considered a critical period. It is true that any teratogen must be able to cross the placental barrier to harm the embryo or fetus (b). It is also true that maternal diet (c) can become a teratogen depending on what the mother ingests. Use of drugs, including alcohol and nicotine (d), can be teratogenic to the baby. And exposure to the radiation of X-rays, as well as maternal stress (e), can both be teratogenic. With stress, long-term increased production of adrenalin can result in stunted growth of the fetus, low birth weight, and complications during birth.
Answer (d) is correct. The Apgar scale (d) is normally given to assess the baby's condition immediately following birth and again within five minutes. Anoxia (a), or oxygen deprivation, can cause mental retardation in the baby if it is severe and/or prolonged enough. Babies can suffer from anoxia due to a buildup of mucus in their throats (b). They can also be deprived of oxygen if the umbilicus is blocked in any way (c). Pain medications given to the mother during labor and delivery (e) can often slow down the birth and can also cause harm to the baby.
Answer (c) is correct. Regarding gross motor development in babies, the norm for sitting up unsupported is 6-7 months of age, so at only 5 months it is normal for Alvin not to be able to do this yet (c). Therefore, there is no reason for the doctor to run tests on this baby (a). The developmental norm for crawling in babies is 8-10 months, so Alvin would not be expected to crawl at 5 months (b), let alone sit up by himself. It is not true that there is no given age before 1 year for Alvin to achieve this development (d); the norm is around 6-7 months. While the doctor would be right to tell Shirley not to worry, it would not be as accurate to tell her simply that all babies are different (though true) without also informing her that Alvin has not yet reached the average age when babies can sit up without support. Telling her of the norm (c) would more likely put her mind at ease since Alvin is only 5 months old. It would give her more information for the future.
Answer (b) is correct. The fact that humans do not live forever is considered to be the result of biological aging (b), which appears to be inevitable. The body functions at its peak during early adulthood, not adolescence (a), and begins to decline gradually after early adulthood. The maximum life span is the longest any human might live to be, and it is not the same as life expectancy (c), which is the average age that members of a given birth cohort (i.e., generation or age group) are expected to live. Scientists do not agree about the causes of biological aging (d); there are many different theories of aging. The climacteric, though more pronounced in women when they reach menopause, does not affect only women (e); the male climacteric is less blatant and more gradual compared to the female climacteric, but it does occur, and it is also associated with decreasing levels of sex hormones.
Answer (e) is correct. Research finds that boys who mature early and girls who mature later tend to have the best psychosocial effects (e). Boys who mature late and girls who mature early tend to have poorer psychosocial outcomes rather than better ones (c). It is not true that there is no difference in psychosocial outcomes (d) related to the timing of the adolescent growth spurt. And boys and girls do not experience the same psychosocial effects according to their times of maturation; whether it is late or early, the two sexes are not the same in this regard (a), (b).
Answer (a) is correct. It is true that research with animals has found that there are certain sensitive periods in development for the reception of sensory stimuli (a). Therefore, (b) is incorrect that no sensitive periods were observed. Researchers have found that some baby chimps raised in the dark did indeed suffer from permanently impaired vision, so (c) is incorrect by saying that they did not. While some chimps suffered permanent visual impairment, researchers have also discovered that if sensory deprivation was for less than seven months, the damage could be reversed, so (d) is incorrect in saying that the damage is irreversible. Since (a) is correct, (e) is incorrect that none of these statements is true.
Answer (d) is correct. Babies are born able to see, but their vision is poor compared to an adult's (d) due to weak musculature controlling the lens. Therefore, babies are not born unable to see (a). In addition, it also follows that newborn vision is not 20/20-the same as an adult (with perfect vision) (b)-since newborn vision is poor. The visual acuity of a newborn typically falls in a range from 20/400 to 20/800, rather than from 20/200 to 20/300 (c). While newborns can see but have poor visual acuity, this improves rapidly over the next four months, not six (e).
Answer (c) is correct. Babies born with cataracts may recover normal vision, but some do not fully recover it (c). Therefore, it is not true that such babies always recover normal vision (a), or that they never do (b). It is not true that babies are never born with cataracts (d). Data do exist that some babies have congenital cataracts, and that sometimes they will not fully recover normal vision, so (e) is incorrect.
Answer (b) is correct. It is not true that habituation only occurs in newborn infants (b); it is a process that occurs throughout human life. For example, adults will initially notice the flickering of a light, or the low hum of a machine, but if such a stimulus persists long enough, they will become used to it and will stop noticing it, or will not notice it as much as they did at first. Habituation is considered a simplified type of learning (a). Scientists use the process of habituation to determine whether a stimulus is novel or familiar to a newborn by observing the newborn's response to the stimulus (c). Reduced attention to a familiar stimulus (d) is a definition of habituation. Habituation is observed to occur in newborns (e) as well as in children and adults.
Answer (d) is correct. Based on Gibson and Walk's visual cliff experiments, babies show that they have depth perception once they are able to crawl (d) by refusing to crawl off what appears to be the edge of a cliff. It has not yet been possible to observe whether babies have depth perception when they can sit up (a) or roll over (b), since they are not yet able to do anything that would indicate whether they could perceive depths or not. The abilities to stand (c) and walk (e) develop later than the ability to crawl, so these are not correct.

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