infant cognition what do babies know about the world?
TRANSCRIPT
Infant Cognition
What do babies know about the world?
Piaget’s Theory
Jean Piaget (1896-1980)
Swiss psychologist
Father of modern cognitive developmental psychology
Infant Cognition: Piaget’s Claims
• Out of sight, out of mind– No concept of object permanence
• Senses are uncoordinated– No intermodal perception
Object Permanence
• Objects continue to exist when they are out of sight
Piagetian Search Tasks
Show infants a toy, and as they reach for it, hide the toy under a cloth
0 - 8 months: No search
8 - 12 months: A-not-B error
12 - 18 months: Invisible displacement
18 - 24 months: Object permanence
A-not-B Error Video Clip
Malena
May 19, 2006
age: 9 months, 27 days
Why do babies make the A-not-B error?
• Poor memory– Task is easier if locations are very distinct
• Can’t resist the first location– Reach to A even when object is visible at B– Babies look to B first, but reach to A
Tests of Object Permanence:Eliminating the need for a motor response
• Present infants with an event that violates object permanence
• Are babies surprised by such an event?
Baillargeon’s Test of Object Permanence
3.5-month-olds
Baillargeon, 1987
Baillargeon Video Clip
“It’s a Kid’s World”hosted by Alan Alda
Amazing Infant Cognition
• Object Permanence– Baillargeon: rotating screen; two “Minnies”
• Support / Gravity– Baillargeon: box on platform
• Physical Causality– Spelke: object contact makes things move
6-month-olds
Habituation Event:
Physical CausalityThe Role of Contact
Test Events:
Impossible
Possible
Physical CausalityThe Role of Contact
Physical CausalityThe Role of Contact
If infants understand contact as a mechanism for cause and effect, they should look longer at (dishabituate to) the ________________ event.
Results:
6-month-olds look longer at impossible event.
impossible
Intermodal Perception
• Integrating information from two or more senses when perceiving an object or event
– e.g., the coordination of sight and sound
Intermodal Perception Integrating Sight and Sound
(Spelke, 1976)
Video A Video B
Baby
Speaker
Peek-a-boo Playing drum
Drumbeats
Where does baby look?
Intermodal PerceptionSight and Sound: Findings
• 4-month-olds can integrate sight and sound
• Wide range of phenomena– Emotion (facial expressions with voice)
– Gender (male voice with male face)
– Speech sounds (vowel sounds with mouth movements)
– Speech synchrony (soundtrack with mouth movements)
– Number (items in a display with number of drumbeats)
Intermodal Perception Integrating Sight and Touch
(Meltzoff & Borton, 1979)
1-month-olds can integrate sight and touch
(newborns can do it: Kaye & Bower, 1994)
Infants suck bumpy or smooth pacifier for 90 seconds (without seeing it).
Then they see pictures of two spheres: bumpy & smooth
Intermodal Perception Integrating Sight and Proprioception
(Meltzoff & Moore, 1977, 1989, 1994)
Imitation at birth: Newborns can make their own facial expressions match those of another person.
Summary
• Knowledge about the physical world appears early and develops rapidly
• Infant perception and cognition are coordinated and active
Piaget’s Stages
• Sensorimotor (birth - 2 years)
• Preoperational (2 - 7 years)
• Concrete Operational (7 - 11 years)
• Formal Operational (11 years - adult)
Limitations of Preoperational Thought
• Centration
• Egocentrism
• Appearance as reality
• Transductive reasoning
Centration
• Focusing on one aspect of a problem, ignoring other relevant aspects
• Examples– Conservation– Class inclusion
Conservation of Number
Conservation of Liquid
Class Inclusion
Are there more apples or more fruit?
Egocentrism
• Thinking everyone sees things the same way you do
• Difficulty taking another’s perspective
• Examples– Three-mountains task– Egocentric speech
Three Mountains Task
Child is asked to pick the picture that shows what the diorama looks like from the partner’s point of view.
Egocentric Speech
• Child and partner - separated by a barrier - have identical sets of cards
• Child has to describe one card to the partner
“It’s the dinosaur!”
“The one with a tail.”
Appearance as Reality
• Tendency to confuse what something looks like with what it really is
• Example– Fear of Halloween costumes
Appearance as Reality
Transductive Reasoning
• Reasoning from one particular to another
• Indifference to cause-and-effect relations
• Example– Unconventional connections
“I haven’t had a nap, so it isn’t afternoon.”
Strengths of Preoperational Thought
• Symbolic representation
• Pretend play