1. Life-Span Development Twelfth Edition
Chapter 5:
Cognitive Development in Infancy
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Cognitive Processes
Piaget proposed that we build mental structures that help us adapt to the world
Adaptation involves adjusting to new environmental demands
Piaget stressed that children actively construct their own cognitive worlds through interaction with the environment
Systematic changes in children’s thinking occur at different points in their development
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Cognitive Processes
Schemes: actions or mental representations that organize knowledge
Behavioral schemes (physical activities) characterize infancy
Consist of simple actions that can be performed on objects
Mental schemes (cognitive activities) develop in childhood
Include strategies and plans for solving problems
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Cognitive Processes
Assimilation: occurs when children use their existing schemes to deal with new information or experiences
Accommodation: occurs when children adjust their schemes to take new information and experiences into account
Organization: the grouping of isolated behaviors and thoughts into a higher-order system
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Cognitive Processes
Equilibration: the mechanism by which children shift from one stage of thought to the next
Disequilibrium: child’s inevitable experience of cognitive conflict
Brought about by inconsistencies in his or her existing schemes
Internal search for equilibrium creates motivation for change
Assimilation and accommodation are used to resolve conflict and bring about a new way of thinking
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Cognitive Processes
According to Piaget, individuals go through four stages of development
Cognition is qualitatively different from one stage to another
Sensorimotor Stage: infant cognitive development lasting from birth to 2 years
Infants understand the world through their sensory experiences
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7. Sensorimotor Substages
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Cognitive Processes
Object Permanence: the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, heard, or touched
Developed by the end of the sensorimotor period
Studied by watching infant’s reaction when an interesting object disappears
Violation of Expectations method suggests that infants understand object permanence earlier than Piaget proposed
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Object Permanence
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Object Permanence
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Cognitive Processes
Evaluating Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage:
Piaget claimed that certain processes are crucial in transitions between stages; data do not always support this
Example: the A-not-B Error
Infant’s perceptual abilities may be much more developed than Piaget thought
Studies by Elizabeth Spelke and others
Piaget was not specific enough about how infants learn about their world
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12. Conditioning and Attention
Infants can learn through classical and operant conditioning
Rovee-Collier (1997) demonstrated that infants can retain conditioning experiences
Attention: the focusing of mental resources on select information
Newborns can detect and fix their attention on contours
4-month-olds can scan more thoroughly and show selective attention
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13. Conditioning and Attention
Infants’ attention is strongly governed by novelty and habituation
Habituation: decreased responsiveness to a stimulus after repeated presentations
Dishabituation: increased responsiveness after a change in stimulation
Habituation is studied to determine the extent to which infants can see, hear, smell, taste, and experience touch
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14. Conditioning and Attention
Joint Attention: individuals focus on the same object or event
Requires an ability to track another’s behavior
One person directs another’s attention
Reciprocal interaction
Joint attention skills emerge by 7 to 8 months but are not frequently observed until the end of the 1st year
Plays a role in language development
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Memory
Memory: retention of information over time
Encoding: the process by which information gets into memory
Implicit memory: memory without conscious recollection
Skills and routine procedures that are performed automatically
Explicit memory: conscious memory of facts and experiences
Occurs in infants after 6 months
Maturation of hippocampus and surrounding cerebral cortex
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Memory
Infantile or childhood amnesia: inability to recall memories of events that occurred before 3 years of age
May be caused by immaturity of prefrontal lobes of the brain
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Memory
Imitation:
Meltzoff: infants’ imitative abilities are biologically based and are characterized by flexibility and adaptability
Deferred Imitation: imitation that occurs after a time delay of hours or days
Piaget: deferred imitation does not occur until about 18 months
Meltzoff: research suggests it can occur as early as 9 months
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18. Concept Formation and Categorization
Categories: groups of objects, events, and characteristics on the basis of common properties
Concepts: ideas about what categories represent
Perceptual categorization: 3-month-olds can group together objects with similar appearances
Conceptual categorization: by 7–9 months, infants form categories that are global in nature
By age two, general concepts become more differentiated
Intense, passionate interest in particular categories is more common in boys than girls
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19. Measures of Infant Development
Individual differences in infant cognitive development are important
Development testing emphasizes “norms”
Infant assessments mostly based on assessment scales and intelligence tests
Gesell Test has four categories of behavior: motor, language, adaptive, and personal–social
Bayley Scales of Infant Development has three components: mental scale, motor scale, and infant behavior profile
Fagan Test of Infant Intelligence focuses on infant’s ability to process information
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20. Predicting Intelligence
Scores on infant tests are not highly correlated with IQ scores in childhood
Components of tests are very different
Exception: Fagan test
Measures of habituation and dishabituation are linked to intelligence in childhood and adolescence
Many important changes in cognitive development take place after infancy
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Language Development
Wild or feral children are raised in isolation and are unable to recapture normal language development despite intensive intervention later
Victor, Wild Boy of Aveyron
Genie: 13-year-old found in 1970 in Los Angeles
Both cases raise questions about biological and environmental determinants of language
Language: a form of communication – whether spoken, written, or signed – that is based on a system of symbols
Infinite Generativity: the ability to produce an endless number of meaningful sentences using a finite set of words and rules
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22. The Rule Systems of Language
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Language Development
Language develops in infants throughout the world along a similar path and sequence
Recognizing language sounds
With age, infants get better at perceiving the sounds in their own language and worse at distinguishing sounds in other languages
Detecting boundaries between words
Occurs by about 8 months
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Language Development
Babbling and other vocalizations
Crying
Cooing
Babbling
Gestures are used by about 8 to 12 months
Pointing, waving “bye-bye”
First words:
Children understand first words earlier than they speak them
On average, a child understands about 50 words at age 13 months but can’t speak 50 words until 18 months
Children typically speak their first word at 10–15 months
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Language Development
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Language Development
Vocabulary spurt begins at approximately 18 months of age
Overextension and underextension of words are common
Overextension: tendency to apply a word to objects that are inappropriate for the word’s meaning
Underextension: tendency to apply a word too narrowly
Two-word utterances occur at about 18–24 months
Telegraphic speech: use of short and precise words without grammatical markers
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27. Language Milestones in Infancy
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Language Development
Biological Influences:
Evolution of nervous system and vocal apparatus
Similarities in language development across the world suggest a biological basis
Particular brain regions used for language:
Broca’s area: language production
Wernicke’s area: language comprehension
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Language Development
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Language Development
Biological Influences (continued):
Language Acquisition Device (LAD; Noam Chomsky): theory that a biological endowment enables children to detect certain features and rules of language
Theoretical concept only
Critics argue that the LAD cannot explain all of language development
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Language Development
Environmental Influences:
Behaviorists claim language is a complex learned skill acquired through responses and reinforcements
Interaction view (Tomasello): children learn language in specific contexts
Children’s vocabulary is linked to family socioeconomic status and the type of talk parents direct toward their children
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Language Development
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Language Development
Child-Directed Speech: language spoken in a higher pitch than normal with simple words and sentences
Captures infant’s attention and maintains communication
Three strategies to enhance child’s acquisition of language:
Recasting: rephrasing something the child has said
Expanding state: repeating what the child has said but in correct structure
Labeling: identifying the names of objects
Children vary in their ability to acquire language
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