5

Cognitive Development in Infancy

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© 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers

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Piaget’s Views

Recall from Chapter Two

Assimilation

– Process of fusing incoming information to existing schemes to make sense of experiences

Accommodation

– Changing a scheme to incorporate new information

Sensorimotor Intelligence

– Refinement of innate schemes by experiences of the senses and motor actions © 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers

Piaget’s Views

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Primary circular reaction

: simple repetitive actions organized around the infant’s own body

Secondary circular reaction

: baby repeatedly exhibits behavior to produce a desired outcome

Means-end behavior

: purposeful behavior to achieve a goal

Tertiary circular reaction

: experiment with different behaviors to ascertain the outcomes © 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers

Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage

SENSORIMOTOR SUBSTAGE

1. Basic Reflexes 2. Primary Circular Reactions 3. Secondary Circular Reactions 4. Coordination of Secondary Schemes 5. Tertiary Circular Reactions 6. Transition to Symbolic Thought © 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers

AGE

Birth to 1 month 1 to 4 months 4 to 8 months 8 to 12 months 12 to 18 months 18 to 24 months

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Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage

Object Permanence

The realization that objects still exist when hidden from sight – 2 months – rudimentary expectations shown by surprise when an object disappears – 6 – 8 months – looking for a missing object for a brief period of time – 8 – 12 months – reaching for or search for a toy that is completely hidden © 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers

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Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage

Imitation

2 months – can imitate actions they could see themselves make 8 – 12 months – can imitate other people’s facial expressions 1 year – imitation of any action that wasn’t in the child’s repertoire begins 18 months –

deferred imitation

(a child’s imitation of some action at a later time) begins © 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers

Challenges to Piaget’s Views

– – – Piaget underestimated cognitive capacity of infants He may have wrongly equated infant’s lack of physical ability with lack of cognitive understanding Object permanence studies incorporating computer technology suggest it occurs much earlier than Piaget predicted © 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers

Modern Studies of Object Permanence • • Baillargeon – Babies as young as 4 months show clear signs of object permanence Recent theories – Developing object permanence more a process of elaboration than of discovery © 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers

Figure 5.1 Facial Gesture Imitation in Newborns © 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers

Spelke’s Alternative Approach

• Babies have inborn assumptions about objects and their movement •

Violation of expectations method

– Researchers move an object the opposite way from that which the infant comes to expect © 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers

Figure 5.2 Spelke’s Classic Study of Object Perception Figure 5.2

© 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers

Figure 5.3 Baillergeon’s Study of Object Stability Perception © 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers

Figure 5.4 Toddler’s Understanding of Object Movement © 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers

Learning, Categorizing, and Remembering • • • • Learning – Permanent changes in behavior that result from experience Classical conditioning – Learning of emotional responses as early as the first week of life – Stimulus-response connection Operant conditioning – Both sucking responses and head-turning have been increased using reinforcement Learning from models too © 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers

Learning, Categorizing, and Remembering

Schematic Learning

• • The organization of experiences into expectancies or “known” combinations (schemas) Categories – By 7 months infants actively use categories to process information.

– Cannot process levels of categories • Babies respond differently to animals versus furniture but not to dogs versus birds – Hierarchical or superordinate categories appear by age 2 © 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers

Learning, Categorizing, and Remembering

Memory

• • • Carolyn Rovee-Collier’s research Babies as young as 3 months can remember specific objects and their own actions for as long as a week Young infants more cognitively sophisticated than previously assumed © 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers

Figure 5.5 Rovee-Collier’s Study of Infant Memory © 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers

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The Beginnings of Language

The Behaviorist View: B. F. Skinner

Begins with babbling, which parents reinforce Respond to grammatical use of words with reinforcement Withhold reinforcement for nongrammatical words Correct grammar reinforced, becomes more frequent BUT apparently NOT what happens—parents respond to all vocalizations © 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers

The Beginnings of Language

The Nativist View Noam Chomsky

• • Children make rule-governed grammatical errors LAD – Language Acquisition Device – An innate language processor which contains the basic grammatical structure of all human language © 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers

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The Beginnings of Language

The Interactionist View

Infants prepared to pay attention to language Extract general principles of language Language development part of broader process of cognitive development Language is used to express only those meanings the child has already formulated New words learned when they help communicate thoughts and ideas © 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers

Influences on Language Development • Infant Directed Speech – Speech in a higher pitch – Adults repeat often, introduce minor variations, use slightly more elongated sentences – Babies prefer Infant Directed Speech to adult speech – A baby more easily imitates a correct grammatical form “recast” from his own sentences by an adult – Children whose parents talk to them a lot develop richer vocabularies and more complex sentences © 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers

Questions to Ponder

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

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

© 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers

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Early Milestones of Language Development

Birth – 1 month – Crying predominant sound 1 – 2 months – Laughing and cooing sounds (aaaaa) 6 – 7 months – Babbling; repetitive vowel–consonant combinations 9-10 months – Hand gesture-vocalization combinations © 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers

Word Recognition

Receptive language

• • • • The ability to understand words 8 months — begin to store words in memory 9 – 10 months — can understand 20 – 30 words 13 months — 100 words © 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers

The First Words

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Expressive language

The ability to produce words 12-13 months — babies begin to say first words Words learned slowly in context with specific situations and cues © 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers

The First Words

• Holophrases – Combining a single word with gestures to make a complete thought – Used between 12 and 18 months • Naming Explosion – Used between 16 and 24 months – 16 months old – 50 words in vocabulary – 24 months old – 320 words – Vocabulary grows in spurts © 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers

Figure 5.6 Vocabulary Growth in the Second Year © 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers

The First Sentences

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• Sentences appear at 18 – 24 months

Child has a threshold vocabulary of 100 200 words Sentences short, generally 2 or 3 words, and simple – Sometimes called “telegraphic speech.” Create sentences following rules © 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers

Individual Differences in Language Development • 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 © 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers

Individual Differences in Language Development • • 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 – Often advanced in understanding adult language © 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers

Figure 5.7 Variations in the Rate of Language Acquisition © 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers

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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 order © 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers

Measuring Intelligence in Infancy

• • Bailey Scales of Infant Development – Measure sensory and motor skills – Help identify children with serious developmental delays – Not as useful predicting later intelligence Measures of habituation

MIGHT

relate to later measures of intelligence © 2009 Allyn & Bacon Publishers