Infant and Child Psychology Exam 2- Chapter 6

What are the three classic approaches to cognitive development?

1. Behaviorist

2. Psychometric

3. Piagetian

Behaviorist Approach

1. Classical Conditioning

2. Operant conditioning

3. Infant Memory

Classical Conditioning

pairing two stimulus to ilicit a response

ex: pavlovs dogs- bell and food = salivate to eventually bell = salivate

Operant Conditioning

Reinforcement or punishment to increase or decrease behaviors - determines memory

ex: mobile ribbon experiment

Research Applications to infant memory

mobile ribbon experiment where some environment or scent acts as contextual memory and long-term memory, where the string that moves the mobile reinforces kicking. Children could remember after an extended period of time at a young age to kick to move the mobile.

Why is there infantile amnesia?

long term memory after age 2-3 is encoded in language

Psychometric approach

1. Baylay scales of infant development

2. HOME test

Baylay scales of infant development

ages 3 ½ measures cognitive, mental and motor skills and behavior

HOME test

Home Observation Mental Enviornment : how is home life enriching childhood development (books and toys)

Piagetian Approach

• qualitative description of what a baby can and cannot do

1. sensorimotor stage

2. object permanance

3. understanding of scale

Sensorimotor stage

0-2 years

a. circular reaction: child learns to reproduce a pleasural action discovered by accident (Simple —> sophisticated)

Stages of Circular Reaction

1. Primary: a simple repetitive act based on the baby’s own body, e.g. thumb sucking

2. secondary: results go beyond their body e.g. toy or person (cooing for attention)

3. tertiary: vary original action e.g. stepping on duck for noise —> squeezing duck for noise

Object Permanance

understanding that when a person or object is out of sight, it still exists

e.g. peek-a-boo is most enjoyable when the child is beginning to understand object permanence

• A not B error: when moving a toy under a cloth A, then moving to cloth B in front of the child, the child looks under cloth A.

Understanding of scale

e.g. a child trying to sleep in a doll bed

evaluating piagets sensorimotor stages

all three of piagets children were used as his subjects and they followed the same timeline, but ages are off (kids can learn at much younger ages than he tested)

information processing approach

break down info into smaller pieces

how to predict IQ

we can predict IQ through attention processing speed, memory and representational competence (anticipating future events)

habituation

a specific type of learning in which repeated exposure to a stimulus results in a reduced response ( till baby is bored) IQ predictor

violation of expectation

that process by which baby shows surprise when an event violates expectations like object permanance, causality (one event causes another) and numbers (babies can do basic addition and subtraction)

e.g. minnie dolls disappearing and reappearing

cognitive neruoscience approach

implicit: kicking as innate

explicit: evolve with time, toys and playing

Social- Contextual approach

babies learn through guided participation

Early vocalizations

crying: first form of communication

cooing: vowel sounds + laughing

Babbling: pair consonants and vowel sounds (DADADA)

Imitation: intentionally imitate words you say but don’t associate as person or thing

Gestuers

nonverbal action used to communicate

1. pointing: something they want or to pay attention

2. conventional gestures: waving nodding yes and no

3. representational gesture: arms up to be picked up

4. symbolic gesture: gesture that describes specific things e.g sign language

Linguistic

speech: the use of spoken language to convey meaning

first words

10-14 months has meaning not perfect (BaBa = bottle)

holophrase: one word for a whole concept e.g. Bye Bye

first sentences

2 words (noun + verb)

18-24 months

• telegraphic speech, short and to the point

Syntax in language

adding grammar rules

• smart errors: overgeneralize gramatical rules (calling mice mouses)

Theories of language acquisition

1. learning theory

2. Nativism

3. interaction

Learning Theory

learning and repeating through reinforcement

influences on language development

1. Brain development

2. social development

3. child directed speech

Brain development

brain development maps out and correlates to language

Social Development

respond to human interaction through responsive sensitive and warmth ( not human)

Child- Directed Speech

automatic special way of talking to children (higher pitch, simple words, and repetitive)