COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN INFANCY Chapter 6 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN INFANCY © 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Cognitive Development Jean Piaget Technology Tip: Have students learn about the life and works of Piaget on the Jean Piaget Society website. URL: http://www.piaget.org

Cognitive Processes Adaptation - adjusting to new environments Mental structures help us adapt Children actively construct their own cognitive worlds Schemes: Organized patterns of information. Assimilation: Fitting new information into existing schemes Accommodation: Adjusting schemes to fit new information and experiences

Sensorimotor Stage First stage (Birth-2) Infants construct understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences with motor responses Six substages focus on: Simple reflexes First habits and Primary circular reactions Secondary circular reactions Coordination of secondary circular reactions Tertiary circular reactions (Novelty and curiosity) Internalization of schemes (Thought)

Substages of the Sensorimotor Stage Simple Reflexes Birth to 1 month Modify reflexes based on experience Primary Circular Reactions 1 to 4 months Primary = focus on infant’s own body Circular = repeated behaviors Secondary Circular Reactions 4 to 8 months Secondary = focus on objects or environmental events Track moving objects until they disappear from view

Substages of the Sensorimotor Stage Coordination of Secondary Reactions 8 to 12 months Coordinate schemes to attain specific goals Begin to imitate others Tertiary Circular Reactions 12 to 18 months Deliberate trial and error behaviors Internalization of Schemes/Thought 18 to 24 months External exploration is replaced by mental exploration Teaching Tip: Have students develop a set of tasks that can be administered to infants of different ages. Based on Piaget’s stages, how do they think each age group will perform?

Sensorimotor Stage Object permanence: Understanding that objects continue to exist, even when they cannot directly be seen, heard, or touched Neonates show no response to objects not within their immediate grasp 2 month - show surprise when a screen is lifted after an object was placed behind a screen and now is not there Child makes no effort to search for the missing object 6 month - try to retrieve a preferred object partially hidden 8- to 12-month - try to retrieve objects completely hidden More recent research – object permanence in some form as early as 2½ - 3½ months

Evaluating Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage New way of looking at infants Piaget’s views need modification; his explanations of cause are debated Object permanence occurs earlier Gain many skills earlier than Piaget expected

Ideas stemming from Piaget’s work Nature vs. Nuture Core knowledge approach: View that infants are born with domain-specific innate knowledge systems (Spelke, 1991, 2000, 2011). Infants have “soft biases to perceive and attend to different aspects of the environment” (Johnston, 2008).

Conditioning Consequences of behavior produce Classical conditioning - Pairing of new stimulus to conditioned response Operant conditioning - Consequences of behavior affect probability of that behavior reoccurring

Attention Focusing of mental resources on select information Habituation - Decreased responsiveness to stimulus after repeated presentations Dishabituation - Habituated response recovered after a change in stimulation Joint attention: Occurs when individuals focus on the same object or event and are able to track each other’s behavior One individual directs another’s attention, and reciprocal interaction is present

Memory Memory: A central feature of cognitive development, involving the retention of information over time. Implicit memory: Memory without conscious recollection; involves skills and routine procedures that are automatically performed. Explicit memory: Conscious memory of facts and experiences

Memory Memory Neonates show memory for previously exposed stimuli By 12 months dramatic improvement in encoding and retrieval Rovee-Collier (1993) studies of infant memory Given a reminder (priming), improves memory Teaching Tip: In groups, have students design tasks that would test an infant’s memory. If possible, have them try out their tasks and see if their predictions match the results.

Figure 6. 4 Investigating Infant Memory Figure 6.4 Investigating Infant Memory. In this technique, developed by Carolyn Rovee-Collier, the infant’s ankle is connected to a mobile by a ribbon. Infants quickly learn to kick to make the mobile move. Two and 3-month-olds remember how to perform this feat after a delay of a few days. If given a reminder of simply viewing the mobile, their memory lasts for 2 to 4 weeks.

Use of Conditioning Conditioning techniques are used to study processes like memory Consequences of behavior produce Classical conditioning - Pairing of new stimulus to conditioned response Operant conditioning - Consequences of behavior affect probability of that behavior reoccurring

Imitation Meltzoff (2007, 2011)– Infant can imitate facial expression within a few days after birth; others disagree Deferred imitation: Imitation that occurs after a delay of hours or days May aid in attachment Mirror Neurons

Concept Formation and Categorization Concepts: Ideas on what categories represent Conceptual categories - Perceptual variability found in 7- to 9-month-old infants These categories help us organize our knowledge.

Language Development

Defining Language Language Infinite generativity Form of communication (verbal, written, gestures) based on system of symbols; highly organized Infinite generativity Ability to produce endless number of meaningful sentences using finite set of words and rules

Language’s Rule Systems Five systems of rules Phonology Morphology Syntax Semantics Pragmatics

How Language Develops Recognizing language sounds Babbling and vocalizations Crying - Present at birth, signals distress Cooing - Begins about 1 to 2 months Babbling - Occurs in first year, strings of consonant-vowel combinations Gestures: Begins about 8 to 12 months

How Language Develops First words Infants understand about 50 words at 13 months (receptive vocabulary) Overextension and underextension of words Telegraphic speech

Biological and Environmental Influences Evolution of CNS and vocal apparatus Human language about 100,000 years old Children’s language acquisition similar all over the world (biological basis)

Biological and Environmental Influences Broca’s area: Left frontal lobe, produces words Wernicke’s area: Left hemisphere, involved in language comprehension Language acquisition device (LAD): Noam Chomsky’s term.

FIGURE 6.15 - BROCA’S AREA AND WERNICKE’S AREA

Biological and Environmental Influences Behaviorists: language is complex, learned Behaviorists’ view cannot explain novelty, learning of a native language syntax without reinforcements Motherese (Child-Directed Speech) Recasting, Expanding, Labeling Research Environment influences language skills Importance of social context: ‘Wild Boy of Aveyron’

AN INTERACTIONIST VIEW Biology and sociocultural experiences contribute to language development Parents and teachers construct language acquisition support system Children acquire native language without explicit teaching