Cognitive Development in Infancy

Chapter 5:

In This Chapter

Cognitive ChangesPiaget’s Views

A quick review Assimilation Accommodation Sensorimotor intelligence

Cognitive ChangesPiaget’s Sensorimotor Stage

Sensorimotor stage Basic reflexes Primary circular reaction Secondary circular reaction Coordination of secondary schemas

(means-end behavior) Tertiary circular reaction Transition to symbolic thought

Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage by Age

Object permanence: Realization that objects still exist when hidden from sight

• 2 months: surprise when an object disappears

• 6–8 months: looking for missing object

• 8–12 months: reaching for or searching for completely hidden toy

Cognitive ChangesPiaget: Object Permanence

Piaget’s Sensorimotor StagePiaget: Imitation

Imitation: Performance of act whose stimulus is observation of act performed by another person

Cognitive ChangesChallenges to Piaget’s Views

Underestimation of infant cognitive capacity

Inaccurate equation of infant’s lack of physical ability with lack of cognitive understanding

Underestimation of object permanence appearance beginning

Cognitive ChangesModern Studies of Object Permanence

Recent theories Developing object permanence a process

of elaboration rather than discovery

Baillargeon Babies as young as 4 months show signs

of object permanence but may be tied to experimental situations

Around 1 year can use sufficiently across situations

Cognitive ChangesSummary of Differences

Piaget’s early research Baby comes with repertoire of sensorimotor

scheme by construction—world understanding via experiences.

Recent research Newborns have considerable awareness of

objects as separate entities that follow certain rules.

Figure 5.1 Facial Gesture Imitation in Newborns

Cognitive ChangesSpelke’s Alternative Approach

Assumption: Babies have inborn assumptions about objects and their movement.

Method: Violation of expectations method Researchers move an object the opposite

way from that which the infant comes to expect.

Let’s look at the next slide for an example.

Figure 5.2 Spelke’s Classic Study of Object Perception

Figure 5.2

Cognitive ChangesBaillargeon’s Alternative Approach

Assumption: Knowledge about objects is not built in, but strategies for learning are innate.

Method: Study of object stability perception Researchers stack smiling-face blocks in

stable and unstable positions.

Let’s look at the next slide for an example.

Figure 5.3 Baillergeon’s Study of Object Stability Perception

Stop and Think!

After reviewing the information we have just covered, how would you explain an infant’s habit of throwing things out of her crib to a parent who viewed it as a misbehavior that needed to be corrected?

Learning, Categorizing, and Remembering

Conditioning and Modeling

Learning: Permanent changes in behavior that result from experience

Learning, Categorizing, and Remembering

Schematic Learning

Schematic learning: Organization of experiences into expectancies or “known” combinations (schemas)

7 months: Infants actively use categories, but not levels, to process information.

2 years: Hierarchical or superordinate categories appear.

What do data from sequential learning studies suggest?

Infancy: respond to superordinate before basic level categories

12 months: understand basic and superordinate categories

2 years: partially understand smaller categories nested in larger categories

5 years: fully understand categories

Learning, Categorizing, and Remembering

Memory

Carolyn Rovee-Collier’s research Babies as young as 3 months old can

remember specific objects and their own actions for as long as a week.

Young infants are more cognitively sophisticated than was previously assumed.

Figure 5.5 Rovee-Collier’s Study of Infant Memory

Learning, Categorizing, and Remembering

What else have we learned about memory?

The Beginnings of LanguageTheoretical Perspectives

Let’s consider each!

The Beginnings of LanguageThe Behaviorist View: B. F. Skinner

Parent-reinforced babbling and grammar use

Correct grammar reinforced, becomes more frequent

Non-grammatical words not reinforced

Is this what you observe when parents interact with very young children?

The Beginnings of LanguageThe Nativist View Noam Chomsky

Grammar rules acquired before exception mastery

Rule-governed errors made (overregulation) Comprehension and production guided by

Language Acquisition Device (LAD)

The Beginnings of LanguageMore about the LAD

Language Acquisition Device Basic grammatical structure for all human

language Tells babies there are 2 types of sounds

(consonants and vowels) Enables infants to divide, analyze, and learn

sounds of the specific language they are learning

The Beginnings of LanguageSlobin

Importance of “soundness” Infants are preprogrammed to attend to

beginnings and endings of sounds and to stressed sounds.

Programming is not attached to verbs or nouns, but to attention to sounds.

The Beginnings of LanguageThe Interactionist View

Four key ideas1. Language follows rules as part of cognition.

2. Language includes internal and external factors.

3. Infants are born with biological preparedness to pay more attention to language than other information.

4. The infant brain has generalized tools used across all cognitive domains—NOT language-specific neurological model.

The Beginnings of LanguageBowerman and Bloom

Language does not initially introduce new meaning, but expresses meaning already formulated, independent of language.

Children attempt to communicate and learn new words when these aid in the communication of thoughts and ideas.

The Beginnings of LanguageInfluences on Language Development

Infant-directed speech Higher pitch Repetitions with variations Infant preferred

Which language theory appears to be right to you? Why?

What are 3 effective strategies parents may use to help stimulate language development in their children?

Questions To PonderQuestions To PonderQuestions To PonderQuestions To Ponder

The Beginnings of LanguageEarly Milestones of Language Development

Word RecognitionReceptive Language

Receptive language: Ability to understand words 8 months: begin to store words in

memory 9–10 months: understands 20–30 words 13 months: 100 words

The Beginnings of LanguageExpressive Language

Expressive language: Ability to produce words

12-13 months: Babies begin to say first words.

Words learned slowly in context with specific situations and cues

The Beginnings of LanguageFirst Words

Now let’s take a look at vocabulary growth during the toddler years.

Figure 5.6 Vocabulary Growth in the Second Year

The Beginnings of LanguageFirst Sentences

Short, simple sentences appear at 18–24 months.

Threshold vocabulary reaches around 100–200 words.

Sentences: Following rules created

The Beginning of LanguageIndividual Differences in Language

Development: Rate

Differences in rate of language development A wide range of normal variations exists in

sentence structures. Most children catch up. Those who don’t catch up have poor

receptive language.

The Beginning of LanguageIndividual Differences in Language

Development: Style

Differences in style

Expressive style Early vocabulary linked to social

relationships rather than objects

Referential style Early vocabulary made up of names of

things or people

Figure 5.7 Variations in the Rate of Language Acquisition

The Beginning of Language Language Development across Cultures

Cooing, babbling, holophrases, and telegraphic speech typically found in all languages

Use of specific word order in early sentences is not the same.

Particular inflections are learned in highly varying and specific orders.

Measuring Intelligence in InfancyWhat Is Intelligence?

Intelligence: Ability to take in information and use it to adapt to environment

Although each infant develops at a different pace, both genetic and environmental factors influence infant intelligence.

So how can infant intelligence be measured?

Measuring Intelligence in Infancy

Bailey Scales of Infant Development

Fagan Test of Infant Intelligence

True or False?

Measures of habituation are related to later measures of intelligence.