The development of intelligence

What is cognition?

Mental abilities such as thinking, memory, categorization, reasoning, problem-solving, and language.

What are the four approaches to intelligence in infancy?

Piagetian, nativist, Vygotskian, and psychometric.

What four themes organize the Piagetian approach?

Objects, space, time, and causality (interdependent).

What is objectification?

Knowledge of self and objects as separate entities persisting across time and space and following causal rules.

What is the first 2 years of Piaget’s theory called?

The sensorimotor period.

What characterizes the sensorimotor period?

Infants’ thinking is reflected and driven by action.

How many stages are in sensorimotor intelligence?

Six stages.

What happens in Stage 1 (Birth–1 Month)?

Reflexes are modified and become adaptive.

What example is given for Stage 1?

Infants adjust sucking depending on the object type.

What happens in Stage 2 (1–4 Months)?

Primary circular reactions and repeated action schemes.

What is an example of Stage 2 behavior?

Infants grasp an object and bring it to their mouth.

What happens in Stage 3 (4–8 Months)?

Secondary circular reactions.

What are secondary circular reactions?

Activating action schemes that produce desired outcomes.

What is an example of Stage 3 behavior?

Shaking a rattle to hear the sound.

What is another example of Stage 3 behavior?

Hitting a ball to see it roll.

What becomes more organized in Stage 3?

Action schemes.

What is object permanence?

Understanding that objects continue to exist when not seen.

According to Piaget, what do infants younger than 8 months lack?

Object permanence.

What phrase describes infants lacking object permanence?

“Out of sight, out of mind.”

What happens in Stage 4 (8–12 Months)?

Coordination of secondary action schemes.

What type of actions appear in Stage 4?

Coordinated, intentional, and goal-directed actions.

What is an example of Stage 4 behavior?

Pushing a hand aside to get a toy underneath.

What understanding is required in Stage 4?

Means-end understanding.

What is the A-not-B error?

Infants continue reaching to the old location (A) after the object is moved to a new location (B).

Around what age do infants usually succeed on the A-not-B task?

Around 12 months.

What happens in Stage 5 (12–18 Months)?

Tertiary circular reactions.

What do tertiary circular reactions involve?

Exploration behaviors.

What does Piaget call the child in Stage 5?

“Child as scientist.”

What is an example of Stage 5 behavior?

Dropping objects from different positions to see what happens.

What is another example of Stage 5 behavior?

Taking things apart and trying to put them back together.

What kind of learning occurs in Stage 5?

Trial-and-error learning.

What happens in Stage 6 (18–24 Months)?

Mental representations and deferred imitation develop.

What are mental representations?

internal cognitive symbols or patterns in the brain that stand for external objects, events, or abstract ideas.

What begins in Stage 6?

Symbolic thought.

What is deferred imitation?

Imitating actions after a delay.

How long can delays last in deferred imitation studies?

Up to months.

What color represented familiar action in the deferred imitation slide?

Green.

How long before had the action sequence been learned in the deferred imitation example?

4 months before.

How do infants’ activities change over the sensorimotor period?

They shift from focusing on their own bodies to the world around them.

How do infants’ goals change over development?

They become more abstract.

How does knowledge representation change over development?

It becomes more enduring.

What type of approach is the Piagetian approach?

Constructivist.

What does the nativist approach argue?

Some kinds (domains) of knowledge are innate.

What is core knowledge?

Knowledge that is evolutionary and genetically determined.

What domains are included in core knowledge?

Objects, number, space, actions, and social partners.

What did newborn number cognition studies show?

Newborns show an abstract number sense.

What preference did newborns show in number cognition studies?

Preference for visual displays matching the number of sounds heard.

What did Kellman & Spelke (1983) study?

Object knowledge and perceptual completion.

What happened with partly occluded objects in 4-month-olds?

They looked longer (dishabituate) at two objects during the test.

What happened with partly occluded objects in newborns?

They looked longer at one object during the test.

What ability is not present at birth according to Kellman & Spelke (1983)?

Perceptual completion of objects.

What did the narrow occluder study show?

4-month-olds looked longer at two objects during the test.

What did the wide occluder study show?

4-month-olds looked longer at one object during the test.

What develops after 4 months according to object knowledge studies?

Ability to represent fully occluded objects.

What did Meltzoff & Moore (1977) study?

Neonatal imitation.

What is an example of neonatal imitation?

Tongue protrusion.

What develops early according to the “like-me” stance?

Ability to imitate familiar facial actions.

Who proposed the “like-me” stance model?

Meltzoff.

How did Piaget view children?

As little scientists learning on their own.

How did Vygotsky view children?

As social beings eager to learn from others.

What types of concepts did Piaget focus on?

Physical, mathematical, and logical concepts.

How did Vygotsky differ from Piaget?

He viewed children as cultural learners.

According to Topal et al. (2008), when did the A-not-B error occur?

In the two social conditions.

What does “human infants are ultra-social” mean?

Human infants are especially strong in social learning.

How do 2-year-olds compare to adult great apes in social tasks?

They outperform adult great apes.

How do 2-year-olds compare to apes in physical tasks?

They perform similarly.

What does the psychometric approach attempt to measure?

Different aspects of infant performance.

What does the psychometric approach track?

Development and individual differences.

What does BSID stand for?

Bayley Scales of Infant Development.

What does BSID measure?

Motor and mental development.

Do BSID scores predict later IQ?

No.

Do BSID scores detect infants at risk of delayed development?

No.

What is habituation/dishabituation?

Habituation to a stimulus followed by recovery of attention.

What does habituation/dishabituation measure?

Speed and amount of information processing.

What correlation exists between habituation and later IQ?

A predictive correlation of r = .37.

What do twin studies compare in intelligence research?

Identical versus fraternal twins.

How does heritability of IQ change with age?

It increases with age.

What is the heritability of IQ in infancy?

0.2.

What is the heritability of IQ in childhood?

0.45.

What is the heritability of IQ in adulthood?

0.7 to 0.8.

What explanation is proposed for increasing IQ heritability with age?

Different genes make people seek environments that reinforce genetic effects.

What was the Romanian Adoptee Study?

A study examining the role of early experience in cognitive development.

What happened when Romanian adoptees entered the UK before 6 months?

They showed remarkable recovery in cognitive development.

What happened when Romanian adoptees entered later?

They showed developmental catch-up but incomplete recovery.

What was the strongest predictor of cognitive status at age 4?

Age of entry into a foster family in the UK.

Were problems confined only to cognitive development in the Romanian Adoptee Study?

No.

What does the summary say intelligence is?

A complex construct made up of several cognitive abilities.

According to the summary, what contributes to intelligent behavior in infancy?

Innate preparedness, learning from experience, and learning from others.

What factors relate to individual differences in intelligence?

Genetic and environmental factors.