Chapter 6 pp modified i

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Cognitive and Language Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood

Chapter 6Part I


Jean Piaget

• Studied how children become problem solvers beginning in their infancy

• Theorized the differences between how infants and older children think

• His theory is called “Theory of Cognitive Development”


Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage• During the first two years:

• Infant behavior progresses from non-purposeful movements to purposeful experimentation on the properties of objects

• Infants move from narrow and repetitive reflex actions to the use of symbols for representing people and objects

• At 12 to 18 months, the first signs of truly intelligent behavior are seen in planning and trying actions to obtain a goal

• From birth to 2 years, infants learn about the world through their senses and actions


Substage I:Using Reflex Schemes – Birth to 1 month

• Piaget viewed neonatal reflexes as sensorimotor schemas

• Infants assimilate information about the world by using schemas

• Infants accommodate their schemes to fit the demands of new and different situations

• Actions are not purposeful or goal-oriented

• Through applying schemes, infants start learning about the world


Substage II:Exploring Movements of the Body – 1 to 4

months• By two to three months, infants recognize that their actions have

specific effects

• Primary circular reactions• Repetitive actions that are centered on an infant’s own body and

motions

• First occur accidentally, then become purposeful• e.g. thumbsucking


Substage III:Exploring Objects – 4 to 8 months

• Schemes are now coordinated to connect vision and movement and to connect the movement of different body parts

• Secondary circular reactions• Repetitive actions focused on the qualities of objects

• Infants explore objects rather than their own bodies

• Infants enjoy making appealing sights and sounds continue


Substage IV:Active Problem Solving – 8 to 12 months

• First signs of intelligence in the intentional application of schemes to reach a goal

• Infant can become upset if failing at a task

• Objects have form, depth, and solidity

• Object permanence forms


Substage IV:Object Permanence – 8 to 12 months

• The concept that people and objects continue to have an independent existence beyond one’s perception of them

• In Substages I and II (0-4 months) – the infant has no realization of the independent existence of objects; will not search for an unseen toy

• In Substage III (4-8 months) – the infant will search for an object partially in view

• In Substage IV (8-12 months) – the infant is able to actively search for objects that have disappeared; will look in first place an object is hidden


Click the picture to see a video on object permanence


Substage V:Creative Problem Solving (12 to 18 months)

• The infant is able to apply entirely new strategies to solve problems

• Tertiary circular reactions• The infant will systematically modify their behavior in subtle ways

to explore the effects

• The infant is able to search for hidden objects that have been moved several times


Substage VI:Using Symbols to Represent Reality (18 to 24

months) • The beginning of symbolic representation

• The use of mental symbols to represent objects

• Infants• Rely less on motor actions• Can think about the past and future• Think flexibly• Remember actions to use in new situations• Able to imagine actions beforehand and mentally problem solve


Beyond Piaget: Newer Research

• Piaget was an astute observer of child behavior; however, he underestimated the abilities of children

• Many researchers, neo-nativists, now believe some skills are innate• Infants are born with cognitive abilities to understand space,

language and objects

• These “modules” develop rapidly

• The environment triggers their development


Reassessing Object Permanence• Children’s failure to display object permanence may have been an

issue of performance rather than competence

• Infants look more at novel or surprising stimuli

• We can show infants “possible” or “impossible” events and see if their looking patterns change

• So, visual attention can be used to indirectly assess infants’ understanding of objects

• If infants did not have object permanence, they would not be surprised by the “impossible” event



Infant Number Concepts

• Infants have a basic understanding of the concept of number

• Addition and subtraction of objects in “possible” and “impossible” events • Infants looked longer at “impossible” events

• This effect has not been consistently supported which suggests the numerical abilities of young infants are fragile and inconsistent


Perception in Early Cognitive Development

• After about a year, infants begin to name objects and people and recognize how objects are used

• While some researchers believe that concepts arise from perception, others believe that conceptual categorization is a different process that involves higher order thinking and language

• Infants increasingly scrutinize the differences and similarities between objects starting as young as six months


Perception in Early Cognitive Development

• Image schemas are formed, which are primitive notions, based on the visual appearance of objects, that lay a foundation for thinking about them

• By 10 months, infants begin to understand the relationship between objects and show a basic ability to categorize people into groups

• In relational play, children act in ways that demonstrate their understanding of the relationship between two objects


Understanding DifferencesAmong People

• The recognition that different people have different desires takes a few years to develop

• 18-month-old infants will give an adult who indicates they like broccoli a piece of broccoli rather than a cracker

• 14-month-old infants will not


The Social Contextof Cognitive Development

• Lev Vygotsky believed

• Social interactions are essential for learning

• Older children and adults serve as role models for thinking

• Much of learning occurs while interacting with others

• So, the form that learning takes varies with the cultural context


ZPD and Scaffolding

• Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)• The range of learning that a child is capable of with help from more

skilled and experienced partners

• Scaffolding• Caregivers provide structure and support for children’s thinking through

informal teaching methods

• Caregivers help infants interpret solutions through their actions, emotions, and tone of voice

The Zone of Proximal Development

The distance between what a child can do without assistance and what the child can accomplish with assistance

Actual developmental level of child

Actual developmental level of child with assistance from knowledgeable adult or peer

Sc

affo

ldin

g

Scaffolding are the strategies used to help the child through the Zone of Proximal Development


Joint Attention

• A shared focus of attention between two people

• By about six months, infants and their caregivers begin to share and negotiate learning tasks during play

• 10-12 month old infants and their caregivers are well practiced in their routine interactions

• Provides common ground for interpreting and understanding interaction

• Influences cognitive development


Contingency and Association

• Newborns as young as two hours old can be trained through classical conditioning to expect a contingency• E.g., they can be taught that being stroked on the face will lead to

being offered food

• Infants can also learn via operant conditioning• E.g., they can be taught to associate a behavior (sucking) with a

consequence (hearing their mother’s voice)


Habituation and Dishabituation• Infants naturally look at things they find interesting

• Habituation• A decrease in attention to a stimulus that has been presented

repeatedly

• Dishabituation• An increase in attention to a new stimulus after habituation to a

previous stimulus

• When babies habituate and dishabituate, they demonstrate that they make a perceptual distinction between objects


Habituation and Novelty Responses

• Habituation is found early in life

• With age, habituation becomes more rapid as information is processed more efficiently

• By 9 months, infants distinguish between the appearances of men and women

• There are individual differences in habituation speed


Developing Long-Term Memory

• There are marked improvements at • 2-3 months• 6-10 months• 18-20 months

• Improvements are due to• Increased myelination of the neurons• Increased numbers of synapses• Development of frontal cortex• Increased attention span


Repeated Exposure

• Infantile amnesia• Inability to recall events that occurred very early in life

• Young infants need repeated exposure to form lasting memories

• Memory is improved when infants are placed in familiar situations and motivated to perform


Situational Cues

• Infants remember best when the testing conditions are similar to the original learning conditions• Memory is context-bound• Context is identified by situational cues• Therefore, situational cues improve memory

• Deferred imitation• Imitation of an action after a delay• Provides evidence of long-term memory• Develops in first 2 years

• Unusual situations may be used as memory cues


Principles of Infant Memory

• Older infants remember longer than younger infants

• Older infants use a wider range of cues to help them remember than do younger infants

• Forgotten memories can be retrieved through the presentation of reminders

Technology

Chapter 6 pp modified i