PSYCH 210: Chapter 6: Cognitive Development in Infancy

Schemes

In Piaget’s theory, actions or mental representations that organize knowledge

Assimilation

Piagetian concept involving incorporation of new information into existing schemes

Accommodation

Piagetian concept of adjusting schemes to fit new information and experiences

Organization

Piaget’s concept of grouping isolated behaviors and thoughts into a higher order system, a more smoothly functioning cognitive system

Equilibration

A mechanism that Piaget proposed to explain how children shift from one stage of thought to the next

Sensorimotor stage

The first of Piaget’s stages, which lasts from birth to about 2 years of age, in which infants construct an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences with motoric actions

1.) Simple reflexes (Sensorimotor substage)

Corresponds to the first month after birth

• sensation and action are coordinated and primarily through reflexive behaviors

2.) First habits and primary circular reactions (Sensorimotor substage)

Develops between 1 and 4 months of age

• the infant coordinates sensation and two types of schemes: habits and primary circular reactions

Habits (a scheme)

A scheme based on a reflex that has become completely separated from its eliciting stimulus

• ex- sucking reflex w/out a bottle

Primary circular reaction (a scheme)

A scheme based on the attempt to reproduce an event that initially occurred by chance

• ex- accidentally sucking on a thumb, and then trying to recreate it

3.) Secondary circular reactions (Sensorimotor substage)

Develops between 4 and 8 months of age

• the infant becomes more object-oriented, moving beyond preoccupation with the self

• ex- shaking a rattle by accident, and attempting to recreate it

4.) Coordination of secondary circular reactions (Sensorimotor substage)

Develops between 8 and 12 months of age

• actions become more outwardly directed, and infants coordinate schemes and act with intentionality

• -ex- using a stick to bring a toy closer

5.) Teritary circular of reactions, novelty, and curiosity (Sensorimotor substage)

Develops between 12 and 18 months of age

• infants become intrigued by the many properties of objects and by the many things that they can make happen to objects

• ex- experimenting with objects to find new ways to use them

6.) Internalization of schemes (Sensorimotor substage)

Develops between 18 and 24 months of age

• the infant develops the ability to use primitive symbols

• ex- understanding words, pretending a block is a car

Object permanence

Understanding that objects continue to exist, even when they cannot directly be seen, heard, or touched

A-not-B Error (Sensorimotor stage critique)

This occurs when infants make the mistake of selecting the familiar hiding place (A) rather than the new hiding place (B) of an object as they progress into substage 4 in Piaget’s sensorimotor stage

Core knowledge approach

View that infants are born with domain-specific innate knowledge systems

• ex- space, number sense, object permanence, mortality, and language

Attention

The focusing of mental resources on select information

Orienting/Investigative process

A process infants learn to use that involves directing attention to potentially important locations in the enviornment (the where) and recognizing objects and their features (such as color and form) (the what)

Joint attention

Occurs when individuals focus on the same object or event and are able to track each other’s behavior; one individual directs another’s attention, and reciprocal interaction is present

Memory

A central feature of cognitive development, involving the retention of information over time

Implicit memory

Memory without conscious recollection; involves skills and routine procedures that are automatically performed

Explicit memory

Conscious memory of facts and experiences

Infantile/childhood amnesia

The inability to remember events from early childhood, typically before the age of 3

• potentially b/c the prefrontal lobes of the brain (believed to play an important role in storing memories of events) are immature and not fully developed

Deferred imitation

Imitation that occurs after a delay of hours or days

Concepts

Cognitive groupings of similar objects, events, people, or ideas

Perceptual categorization

Categorizations based on similar perceptual features of objects (ex- size, color, limbs of animals)

Development Quotient (DQ)

An overall score that combines sub scores in motor, language, adaptive, and person-social domains in the Gesell assessment of infants

• commonly used to sort out potentially normal babies from abnormal ones

Bayley Scores of Infant Development

Scales that are widely used assess infant behavior and predict later behavior

• it has five components: cognitive scale, language scale, motor scale, a socio-emotional scale, adaptive scale

Language

A form of communication, whether spoken, written, or signed, that is based on a system of symbols

Infinite generativity

The ability to produce an endless number of meaningful sentences using a finite set of words and rules

• common in all human languages

Phonology

The sound system of the language, including the sounds that are used and how they may be combined (ex- f, b, sh, spr, etc.)

Morphology

Units of meaning involved in word formation (ex- help, sing, -er, -ing, pre-, non-, etc.)

Syntax

The ways word are combined to form acceptable phrases and sentences

• ex- Bob punched Sam. Who did the punching?

Semantics

The meaning of words and sentences

• ex- The bicycle talked the boy into buying a candy bar. Makes sense syntactically, but not semantically

Pragmatics

The appropriate use of language in different contexts

• ex- polite language, using engaging words when telling stories, jokes that are funny, and lies that are convincing

Crying

Babies cry even at birth

• crying can signal distress, and different types of cries signal different things

Cooing

Babies first coo at about 1 to 2 months

• These gurgling sounds are made in the back of the throat and usually express pleasure during interaction with the caregiver

Babbling

In the middle of the first year babies babble, producing strings of consonant-vowel combinations, such as ba ba ba ba

Infancy receptive vocabulary

Words that child understands

Infant spoken vocabulary

Words that child uses

• Reception is far greater than spoken

Telegraphic speech

The use of content words without grammatical markers such as articles, auxiliary verbs, and other connectives

• ex- “Where ball?”, “See doggie.”, “My candy.”

Broca’s area

An area in the brain’s left frontal lobe that is involved in speech production

Wenicke’s area

An area of the brain’s left hemisphere that is involved in language comprehension

Aphasia

A loss or impairment of language processing caused by brain damage in Broca’s area or Wernicke’s area

Language Acquisition Device (LAD)

Noam Chomsky’s term describing a biological endowment that enables the child to detect the features and rules of language, including phonology, syntax, and semantics

Child-directed speech

Language spoken in a higher pitch than normal, with simple words and sentences

• children are more inclined to pay attention when listening to a child directed speech