Chapter 2: Infancy

1. Chapter 2: Infancy Module 2.2 Cognitive Development in Infancy

2. PIAGET’S APPROACH TO COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

3. Key Elements of Piaget’s Theory • Action = Knowledge • Four universal stages in fixed order • Development = physical maturation and exposure to relevant experiences • Schemes adapt and change 107

4. At each stage, child’s mind develops in a new way from simple to complex Organization: tendency to create increasingly complex cognitive structures (system of knowledge; ways of thinking that incorporate more and more accurate images of reality Schemas: organized patterns of behavior that a person uses to think about and act in a situation.

5. What principles underlie this cognitive growth? • Assimilation • Accommodation 108

6. Adaptation: how children handle new information in light of what they already know Assimilation: taking new information and incorporating it into existing cognitive structures (sucking on sippie cup versus breats) Accommodation: adjusting one’s cognitive structures to fit new information (sipping from cup/glass, changes how uses tongue/mouth)

7. Earliest Stage of Cognitive Growth Sensorimotor Period • Invariant order of stages • Individual differences in rate • Transitions include characteristics of both stages 108

8. A Closer Look • Substage 1: Simple Reflexes First month of life • Various various inborn reflexes • At center of a baby’s physical and cognitive life • Determine nature of infant’s interactions with world • At the same time, some of reflexes begin to accommodate the infant’s experiences 109

9. A Closer Look Substage 2: First Habits and Primary Circular Reactions 1 to 4 months of age • Beginning of coordination of what were separate actions into single, integrated activities. • Activities that engage baby’s interests are repeated simply for sake of continuing to experience it • Circular reaction • Primary circular reaction 109

11. A Closer Look Substage 3: Secondary Circular Reactions 4 to 8 months of age • Child begins to act upon outside world • Infants now seek to repeat enjoyable events in their environments that are produced through chance activities • Secondary circular reactions 110

13. A Closer Look Substage 4: Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions 8 months to 12 months • Beginning of goal-directed behavior • Several schemes are combined and coordinated to generate single act to solve problem • Means to attain particular ends and skill in anticipating future circumstances due in part to object permanence 110

14. Come out, come out, wherever you are!

15. Object Permanence 111

16. A Closer Look Substage 5: Tertiary Circular Reactions 12 to 18 months • Development of schemes regarding deliberate variation of actions that bring desirable consequences • Carrying out miniature experiments to observe consequences 110

18. A Closer Look Substage 6: Beginnings of Thought 18 months to 2 years • Capacity for mental representation or symbolic thought • Mental representation • Understanding causality • Ability to pretend • Deferred imitation 111

19. PROS Descriptions of child cognitive development accurate in many ways Piaget was pioneering figure in field of development Children learn by acting on environment Broad outlines of sequence of cognitive development and increasing cognitive accomplishments are generally accurate CONS Substantial disagreement over validity of theory and many of its specific predictions Stage conception questioned Connection between motor development and cognitive development exaggerated Object permanence can occur earlier under certain conditions Onset of age of imitation questioned Cultural variations not considered Assessing Piagetian Theory 111

20. Review and Apply REVIEW • Piaget’s theory of human cognitive development involves a succession of stages through which children progress from birth to adolescence. • As infants move from one stage to another, the way they understand the world changes. 113

21. Review and Apply REVIEW • The sensorimotor stage, from birth to about 2 years, involves a gradual progression through simple reflexes, single coordinated activities, interest in the outside world, purposeful combinations of activities, manipulation of actions to produce desired outcomes, and symbolic thought. The sensorimotor stage has six substages. 113

22. Review and Apply APPLY • Think of a common young children’s toy with which you are familiar. How might its use be affected by the principles of assimilation and accommodation? 113

23. INFORMATION-PROCESSING APPROACHES TO COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

24. What is information-processing? • Identifies the way that individuals take in, store, and use information • Involves quantitative changes in ability to organize and manipulate information • Increases sophistication, speed, and capacity in information processing characterizes cognitive growth • Focuses on types of “mental programs” used when seeking to solve problems 113

25. What are the foundations of the IP approach? Encoding—storage—retrieval 114

26. How does cognition compute? • Encoding • Storage • Retrieval 114

27. What automatic processes are being engaged as you listen to this lecture?

28. Automatization • Degree to which activity requires attention • Helps with initial encounters with stimuli through easy and automatic information processing 114

29. What do you think? Infants cannot remember

30. Memory Capabilities in Infancy Getting a kick out of that! • Kicking research demonstrates increase with age in memory capacities 115

31. How long do memories last? • Researchers disagree on the age from which memories can be retrieved • Early studies infantile amnesia • Myers clear evidence of early memory • Physical trace of a memory in brain appears to be relatively permanent • Memories may not be easily, or accurately, retrieved 115

32. What role does language play in determining the way early memories are recalled?

33. So…do infants remember? • Theoretical possibility for interfered memories to remain intact from a very young • Most cases memories of personal experiences in infancy do not last into adulthood • Memories of personal experience seem not to become accurate before age 18 to 24 months 115

34. Individual Differences in Intelligence Information-Processing Approaches • Infant information-processing speed may correlate most strongly with later intelligence 116

35. What is infant intelligence? 117

36. Do, Re, Me…..Intelligence! Developmental Scales • Gesell: • Developmental quotient • Performance compared at different ages for significant variation from norms of given age • Four domains: motor skills, language use, adaptive behavior, personal-social 117

37. Table 2-7

38. YES Provide a good snapshot of current developmental level Provide objective assessment of behavior relative to norms NO Do not provide good prediction for future development Are developmental scales useful? 117

39. What characterizes a “fast” baby?

40. And so…what does IP research reveal? • Relationship between information processing efficiency and cognitive abilities • Correlate moderately well with later measures of intelligence • More efficient information processing during the 6 months following birth is related to higher intelligence scores between 2 and 12 years of age and other measures of cognitive competence 118

41. PROS Often uses more precise measures of cognitive ability Critical in providing information about infant cognition CONS Precision makes it more difficult to get overall sense of cognitive development Assessing the IP Approach 118

42. From Research to Practice Taking the Einstein Out of Baby Einstein • Kaiser Family Foundation Report • Marketing of educational media for infants is far outpaced by research on its effectiveness • Correlational studies • Company reluctance to test claims 119

43. Beyond (or creating) Teletubbies! What does the research reveal? • Effect on language learning • Infants do not learn language from rote repetition; social interaction and context needed 119

44. What constitutes appropriate use of educational media for infants?

45. Review and Apply REVIEW • Information processing approaches consider quantitative changes in children’s abilities to organize and use information. Cognitive growth is regarded as the increasing sophistication of encoding, storage, and retrieval. • Infants clearly have memory capabilities from a very early age, although the duration and accuracy of such memories are unresolved questions. • Traditional measures of infant intelligence focus on behavioral attainments, which can help identify developmental delays or advances. 120

46. Review and Apply APPLY • What information from this module could you use to refute the claims of books or educational programs that promise to help parents increase their babies’ intelligence or instill advanced intellectual skills in infants? Based on valid research, what approaches would you use for intellectual development of infants? 120

47. THE ROOTS OF LANGUAGE

48. From Sounds to Symbols Fundamentals of Language • Phonology • Morphemes • Semantics • Comprehension and production 120

49. Another Look – Comprehension Precedes Production 122

50. Early Sounds and CommunicationPrelinguistic Communication • Babbling • Universal • Repetition of sounds 121