1. Infant Cognition What do babies know about the world?

2. Piaget’s Theory Jean Piaget (1896-1980) Swiss psychologist Father of modern cognitive developmental psychology

3. Infant Cognition: Piaget’s Claims Out of sight, out of mind –No concept of object permanence Senses are uncoordinated –No intermodal perception

4. Object Permanence Objects continue to exist when they are out of sight

5. 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

6. A-not-B Error Video Clip Malena May 19, 2006 age: 9 months, 27 days

7. 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

8. 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?

9. Baillargeon’s Test of Object Permanence 3.5-month-olds Baillargeon, 1987

10. Baillargeon Video Clip “It’s a Kid’s World” hosted by Alan Alda

11. Amazing Infant Cognition Object Permanence –Baillargeon: rotating screen; two “Minnies” Support / Gravity –Baillargeon: box on platform Physical Causality –Spelke: object contact makes things move

12. 6-month-olds Habituation Event: Physical Causality The Role of Contact

13. Test Events: Impossible Possible Physical Causality The Role of Contact

14. 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

15. Intermodal Perception Integrating information from two or more senses when perceiving an object or event –e.g., the coordination of sight and sound

16. Intermodal Perception Integrating Sight and Sound (Spelke, 1976) Video AVideo B Baby Speaker Peek-a-booPlaying drum Drumbeats Where does baby look?

17. Intermodal Perception Sight 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)

18. 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

19. 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.

20. Summary Knowledge about the physical world appears early and develops rapidly Infant perception and cognition are coordinated and active

22. Piaget’s Stages Sensorimotor (birth - 2 years) Preoperational (2 - 7 years) Concrete Operational (7 - 11 years) Formal Operational (11 years - adult)

23. Limitations of Preoperational Thought Centration Egocentrism Appearance as reality Transductive reasoning

24. Centration Focusing on one aspect of a problem, ignoring other relevant aspects Examples –Conservation –Class inclusion

25. Conservation of Number

26. Conservation of Liquid

27. Class Inclusion Are there more apples or more fruit?

28. Egocentrism Thinking everyone sees things the same way you do Difficulty taking another’s perspective Examples –Three-mountains task –Egocentric speech

29. Three Mountains Task Child is asked to pick the picture that shows what the diorama looks like from the partner’s point of view.

30. 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.”

31. Appearance as Reality Tendency to confuse what something looks like with what it really is Example –Fear of Halloween costumes

32. Appearance as Reality

33. 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.”

34. Strengths of Preoperational Thought Symbolic representation Pretend play