3.2.2.5.2 Evidence that non-verbal behaviour is innate Quiz: AQA Psychology, Unit 6

The 20 questions

1. Which group is cited in the specification as evidence that non-verbal behaviour is innate?

   • Adults who have lived in a foreign country for many years and adopted local customs
   • Teenagers who have recently learned a second language and use gestures to help them communicate
   • Neonates, meaning newborn babies, who show non-verbal behaviours soon after birth
   • Children at nursery school who learn to share toys through play with other children

2. Which other group is cited as evidence of innate non-verbal behaviour?

   • Sensory-deprived people, such as those born blind, who still show some non-verbal behaviours
   • Professional actors who train for years to produce emotional expressions on stage in daily life
   • Bilingual speakers who switch between two spoken languages in mid-conversation
   • People who have learned sign language and use facial expressions as part of its grammar

3. Why is the existence of a behaviour in neonates relevant to whether it is innate?

   • Newborns have already learned everything about facial expression by watching their mothers in pregnancy
   • Newborns have had little time to learn from others, so behaviour present at birth is more likely inherited
   • Newborns cannot produce any behaviour, so any behaviour they show must come from outside sources in daily life
   • Newborns are always fully taught by parents in the first hour after birth, so nothing is innate

4. A blind infant smiles when a parent speaks warmly to them. Which conclusion best fits the innate evidence?

   • The smile is random and has no link to what the parent is doing or saying
   • The smile proves the infant can see, so blindness is never present from birth in any child
   • The smile is likely at least partly inherited, since the infant had no visual model to copy
   • The smile is learned from touch alone, since the infant must have copied it through touch

5. What is meant by 'sensory deprived' in the specification's evidence?

   • People who lost their sense of smell after an illness in later adulthood
   • People who have been given too many sensory experiences in childhood, so their senses are overloaded
   • People who have trained their senses in an unusual way, such as musicians with sharp hearing
   • People who have limited or no access to one or more senses, such as sight, from birth or early life

6. Which finding would most strongly support the view that a non-verbal expression is innate?

   • The same expression appearing in people who have never seen others make it and so could not copy it
   • The same expression appearing only after the person has learned the words that describe it
   • The same expression appearing in people who watched their families make it every day at home
   • The same expression appearing only in adults taught it at school as part of a drama course

7. Which of these is a non-verbal behaviour that might be innate?

   • A teenager using a hand sign taught in a specific school club for a particular purpose
   • A baby turning its head towards a sound or a face, which appears soon after birth
   • An adult copying the accent and gestures of a television character from a comedy show
   • A toddler waving goodbye after watching a parent do it many times at home

8. Why might evidence from neonates and sensory-deprived people still not prove a behaviour is entirely innate?

   • Those groups are too rare to be studied, so no evidence from them can ever be used in science
   • Those groups always learn everything they need from birth, so their evidence shows only that learning is complete
   • Those groups never show any non-verbal behaviour, so their evidence is always empty
   • Those groups may have had some learning, so the evidence suggests an innate part without ruling out learning

9. A newborn shows a reflex to grasp a finger placed in its palm. Which description is most accurate?

   • A random movement with no function that disappears within a few hours of being noticed
   • An innate reflex present at birth, without any need for learning or teaching from others
   • A learned habit picked up from watching its parents hold objects in the first few days at home
   • A cultural gesture the baby will learn only after entering nursery school with other children

10. What does 'innate' mean in this context?

    • Acquired only through formal teaching in school, with rules every child must follow
    • Present only in adults who have reached a specific age after many years of social experience
    • Present in every culture in exactly the same form, so it needs no context to be recognised
    • Present from birth or early development, without being acquired through experience or imitation of others

11. A researcher finds a non-verbal behaviour in babies from very different cultures at the same age. Which conclusion is most supported?

    • The behaviour may have an innate basis, since it appears early and across different cultural settings
    • The behaviour is caused by a genetic change that happens only after the first year of life
    • The behaviour must be learned from the same television cartoons that babies in all cultures watch
    • The behaviour has no biological basis, because it occurs only in cultures that share a spoken language

12. Which finding would weaken the claim that a behaviour is innate?

    • The behaviour appears in sensory-deprived people, who had no chance to watch others copy it in daily life
    • The behaviour appears in neonates who have had no contact with anyone for several weeks
    • The behaviour appears in neonates and sensory-deprived people in several countries at the same stage
    • The behaviour is absent in neonates but appears only after a child has watched others do it for months

13. A study finds a gesture appears in both sighted and blind children at a similar age. What is the most cautious interpretation?

    • The gesture may be partly innate, although learning could still affect how it develops
    • The gesture shows that blind children can see, since it appears at the same age as in sighted children
    • The gesture is completely innate and cannot be affected by any learning or experience
    • The gesture is completely learned, because blind children can hear the gesture that sighted children make

14. Which of these is a non-verbal behaviour cited in relation to innate evidence?

    • Facial expressions of emotion, such as smiling or frowning, that appear in neonates and sensory-deprived people
    • Spoken language, which children learn through imitation of adults around them at home
    • Written messages that children send after learning to form letters in their first two school years
    • Regional accents, which children acquire by copying the speech of people they grow up with

15. Explain the link between innate non-verbal behaviour and Darwin's theory.

    • Inborn expressions fit the view that they evolved as useful signals passed on through genes
    • Inborn expressions prove evolution does not apply to humans, since humans learn all their behaviour
    • Inborn expressions have no link to Darwin, since he studied only learned behaviour
    • Inborn expressions show Darwin's theory is wrong, since nothing innate can be shaped by evolution

16. Which observation about neonates would be the strongest evidence for innate non-verbal behaviour?

    • A non-verbal response appearing only in babies who heard the same song many times in their first year
    • A non-verbal response appearing only in babies raised in a single household by the same family
    • A non-verbal response appearing only after a baby has been rocked for several weeks by carers
    • A non-verbal response appearing in the first days of life, reliably present across many newborns

17. What is one limitation of using sensory-deprived people as evidence?

    • They are always older than sighted people, so any comparison is unfair in every case
    • Their experiences are unusual and rare, so findings can be hard to generalise to the wider population
    • They always learn all behaviour through touch, so they cannot be compared with sighted people
    • They can never show any non-verbal behaviour, so they cannot be included in any study of communication

18. A child in a remote area without contact with others shows a facial expression of disgust. Why does this support the innate view?

    • The child shows disgust only because they are ill, so expressions are caused by illness, not genes
    • The child shows disgust only because of the weather, so expressions are caused by the environment
    • The child had little opportunity to copy the expression, so an inherited basis becomes more likely
    • The child has watched many adults in the village show disgust, so the expression must be learned

19. Which feature of neonatal behaviour is most often cited as suggesting innate behaviour?

    • It appears only when the child is watching a screen, showing it results from media exposure
    • It appears in exactly the same form in every neonate, showing it is controlled by parental teaching
    • It appears only after the child has reached adulthood, when the brain is fully developed
    • It appears very early in life, before there has been much time for learning from others

20. Which is the best summary of the evidence for innate non-verbal behaviour?

    • All non-verbal behaviours are innate, and no learning from others can ever change them
    • Some behaviours appear early or in people with limited senses, suggesting an inborn part alongside learning
    • No non-verbal behaviours are innate, since every behaviour must be learned from parents and peers
    • Non-verbal behaviours are innate only in adults, since babies cannot show any before their first birthday

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