Chapter 05 — Cognitive development in Infanc

He is a swiss psychologist, meticulously observed his own children to formulate his theory of cognitive development

Jean Piaget

What are the 5 cognitive processes

Schemes

Assimilation

Accommodation

Organization

Equilibration

are actions or mental representations that organize knowledge.

Schemes

For infants, schemes are structured by simple actions like ____

sucking, looking, and grasping.

Older children use more complex schemes like ____

problem-solving strategies

What cognitive processes is this Laurent's thumb sucking (21 days old) and later the coordination of visual and auditory interests (3rdmonth).

Schemes

Occurs when children use existing schemes to incorporate new information

Assimilation

What cognitive processes is this A toddler calling all moving vehicles "cars" based on their existing "car" scheme.

Assimilation

Happens when children adjust their schemes to account for new information and experiences.

Accommodation

What cognitive processes is this the same toddler learning that motorcycles and trucks are not "cars" and refining their scheme.

Accommodation

This is a continuous refinement process.

Organization

the mechanism by which children transition from one stage of thought to the next.

Equilibration

This first cognitive stage lasts from birth to approximately 2 years of age. During this period, infants build an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences with motor actions.

Sensorimotor Stage

What are the substages of Sensorimotor Development?

Simple reflex

First habit & primary circular reaction

Secondary circular reaction

Coordination of secondary circular reaction

Tertiary circular reaction, novelty, curiosity

Internalization of schemes

Coordination of sensation and action mainly through reflexes (e.g., rooting, sucking). Infants begin to initiate actions similar to reflexes even without the direct stimulus.

Simple Reflexes

Simple reflexes month

Birth to 1 month

Reflex-based schemes that are separated from their original stimulus (e.g., sucking even without a bottle).

Habits

Repetitive actions focused on the infant's own body, attempting to reproduce an event that initially happened by chance (e.g., accidental thumb sucking leading to repeated attempts).

Primary Circular Reactions

What month is first habit & primary circular reaction

1-4months

Infants become more object-oriented, repeating actions that produce interesting or pleasurable outcomes in the environment (e.g., shaking a rattle repeatedly). Actions are not yet intentional or goal-directed.

Secondary Circular Reactions

Month of Secondary Circular Reactions

4-8months

Significant advancements in coordinating vision and touch

Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions

Month of Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions

8-12

Infants become intrigued by the properties of objects and actively explore new possibilities with them. They experiment with new behaviors, marking the beginning of human curiosity.

Tertiary Circular Reactions, Novelty, and Curiosity

Month of Tertiary Circular Reactions, Novelty, and Curiosity

12-18months

Infants develop the ability to use primitive symbols. This allows them to think about concrete events without directly acting them out, enabling simple mental manipulation of represented events.

Internalization of Schemes

Month of Internalization of Schemes

18-24 months

the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, heard, or touched.

Object Permanence

Explain the A not B error

Piaget believed this error (infants searching for a hidden object at a familiar location 'A' even after seeing it hidden at a new location 'B') was crucial for substage 4. However, research suggests this error is sensitive to factors like delay and attention, and may reflect memory limitations or the tendency to repeat motor behaviors, rather than a lack of object permanence.

Theorists like Eleanor Gibson and Elizabeth Spelke argue that infants' _______ are more developed earlier than Piaget suggested.

perceptual abilities

Infants' behaviors are influenced by consequences. If a behavior is rewarded, it is likely to recur.

Operant Conditioning

is the focusing of mental resources on select information.

Attention

Dominates in the first year, directing attention to important locations and recognizing objects/features.

Orientating/ investigative process

Allows infants to learn and remember characteristics of familiar stimuli.

Sustained Attention (Focused Attention)

In habituation it ______ responsiveness to a stimulus after repeated presentations.

Decreased

In dishabituation it _____ responsiveness when a new stimulus is introduced.

Increased

When two or more individuals focus on the same object or event.

Joint attention

is the retention of information over time, with attention playing a key role in encoding.

Memory

Memory without conscious recollection, involving automatic skills and procedures (e.g., skills learned through conditioning).

Implicit Memory

Infants as young as ____ show implicit memory.

2-6 months

Conscious remembering of facts and experiences.

Explicit Memory

infants do not show explicit memory until the _____

second half of the first year

Maturation of the hippocampus and surrounding cerebral cortex (especially frontal lobes) from _____ enables explicit memory.

6 to 12 months

occurs because during childhood the ability to form, retain, and retrieve memories of personal events undergoes early, gradual development, followed by an accelerated rate of forgetting in childhood.

Infantile amnesia

_____ can imitate facial expressions within days of birth.

Newborns

_____ are cognitive groupings of similar objects, events, people, or ideas. They are crucial for making generalizations.

Concepts

A system of symbols (spoken, written, or signed) used for communication, with rules for combining them

Language

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

Infinite Generativity

What are the languages rule system

Phonology

Morphology

Syntax

Semantics

Pragmatics

The sound system of a language, including how sounds are used and combined.

Phonology

Units of meaning involved in word formation.

Morphology

The rules for combining words to form acceptable phrases and sentences.

Syntax

The meaning of words and sentences.

Semantics

The appropriate use of language in different contexts

Pragmatics

In what month an infants are "citizens of the world” recognizing sound changes from any language.

Birth to 6months

In what month an infants become "language-specific listeners, " better at perceiving sounds in their native language and losing the ability to distinguish others.

Over the 6months

At birth, signals distress and differentiates over time.

Crying

Around what month do baby cooing & what do they sound when they express pleasure

Around 2-4 months, gurgling sounds

Around what month do baby babbling like consonant-vowel combinations ("ba-ba"). Babbling influences caregiver interaction and predicts first words.

Middle of the first year

Gesture start at ____ (mean 11-12 months), such as showing and pointing.

7-15 months

is an important social aspect of language, promoting language development as caregivers elaborate on what is being pointed to.

Pointing

Infants recognize own name by ____

5 months.

Rapid increase in vocabulary starting around 18 months

Vocabulary Spurt

short, precise words without grammatical markers, e.g.,

"Mommy give ice cream"

telegraphic speech

Adding information to a child's incomplete utterance

Expanding

Naming objects children are interested in

Labeling

Reading books to infants and toddlers positively impacts language and cognitive development, especially when discussions extend the text's meaning.

Shared Reading