Intermodal Perception Ability to integrate multiple senses (e.g., seeing and hearing). Improves significantly after 6 months. Perceptual-Motor Couplin

Intermodal Perception

• Ability to integrate multiple senses (e.g., seeing and hearing).

• Improves significantly after 6 months.

Perceptual-Motor Coupling

• Action influences perception, and perception guides action.

• Example: Infants refine movements by interacting with their environment, adjusting their motor skills through experience.

Chapter 5

Key Bullet Points to Remember from Piaget’s Theory and Infant Cognitive Development

1. Piaget’s Theory of Infant Development

• Children actively construct their cognitive worlds by building mental structures.

• Schemes: Mental representations that organize knowledge.

• Assimilation: Using existing schemes for new information.

• Accommodation: Adjusting schemes to fit new information.

• Equilibration: Balancing assimilation and accommodation to transition between cognitive stages.

• Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 years): Infants coordinate sensory experiences with motor actions.

  • Six Substages:

    1. Simple Reflexes (0-1 month) – Reflex-based behaviors.

    2. First Habits & Primary Circular Reactions (1-4 months) – Repeated body movements.

    3. Secondary Circular Reactions (4-8 months) – Actions that produce interesting effects.

    4. Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions (8-12 months) – Intentional actions, object permanence.

    5. Tertiary Circular Reactions (12-18 months) – Experimentation, curiosity.

    6. Internalization of Schemes (18-24 months) – Symbolic thought emerges.

• Object Permanence: Understanding that objects exist even when unseen.

• Criticisms of Piaget: Some abilities develop earlier than Piaget suggested.

2. Learning, Attention, Memory, and Conceptualization

• Operant Conditioning: Infants learn from consequences (e.g., Rovee-Collier’s mobile-kicking experiment).

• Attention: Improves as infants grow, shifting from orienting to sustained attention.

  • Habituation: Decreased response to repeated stimuli.

  • Dishabituation: Renewed interest in a changed stimulus.

  • Joint Attention: Infants focus on an object with another person (important for language learning).

• Memory:

  • Implicit Memory: Unconscious recall (e.g., motor actions).

  • Explicit Memory: Conscious recall develops in the second year.

  • Infantile Amnesia: Inability to remember events before age 3.

• Imitation:

  • Newborns imitate facial expressions (Meltzoff).

  • Deferred Imitation: Occurs after a delay (as early as 9 months).

• Concept Formation & Categorization:

  • Perceptual Categorization (3-4 months): Grouping based on features.

  • Conceptual Categorization (7-9 months): Understanding broader categories (e.g., bird vs. airplane).

3. Language Development

• Language Components:

  • Phonology: Sound system of a language.

  • Morphology: Smallest meaning units (e.g., "dog" vs. "dogs").

  • Syntax: Rules for sentence formation.

  • Semantics: Meaning of words/sentences.

  • Pragmatics: Social rules for language use.

• Milestones:

  • Crying (Birth).

  • Cooing (2-4 months).

  • Babbling (6 months).

  • First word (around 13 months).

  • Vocabulary spurt (around 18 months).

  • Two-word utterances (18-24 months).

• Errors in Early Language:

  • Overextension: Using one word too broadly (e.g., calling all men “dada”).

  • Underextension: Using one word too narrowly.

• Biological Influences:

  • Broca’s Area (Speech production) & Wernicke’s Area (Language comprehension).

  • Chomsky’s LAD (Language Acquisition Device): Innate ability to learn language.

• Environmental Influences:

  • Child-Directed Speech ("Parentese"): High-pitched, slow, exaggerated speech.

  • Joint Attention & Social Interaction: Critical for language learning.

  • Recasting, Expanding, and Labeling: Help infants develop language skills.

  • SES & Language Development: Children from high-SES families tend to have larger vocabularies.

4. Interactionist Perspective

• Language development results from both biological abilities and social interactions.

• Cultural variations influence language learning styles.

These points summarize the key takeaways from Piaget’s theory and research on infant cognitive development. Let me know if you need clarification on any specific concept! 🚀

Summary of Socioemotional Development in Infancy

1. Emotional and Personality Development

• Emotional Development

  • Emotions help infants communicate and organize behavior.

  • Primary emotions (joy, sadness, anger, fear, etc.) emerge early, while self-conscious emotions (guilt, pride, shame) develop later.

  • Crying is a major communication tool with three types: basic, anger, and pain cries.

  • Smiling includes reflexive (involuntary) and social (response to stimuli) smiles.

  • Fear emerges at 6 months, increasing in intensity until about 12 months.

  • Stranger anxiety (fear of unfamiliar people) and separation protest (distress when separated from caregivers) develop in infancy.

• Temperament

  • Chess & Thomas’ classification:

    • Easy child: Positive mood, regular routines, adaptable.

    • Difficult child: Cries frequently, irregular routines, resists change.

    • Slow-to-warm-up child: Low activity level, somewhat negative, low intensity of mood.

  • Kagan’s inhibition model: Shy vs. sociable infants.

  • Rothbart & Bates' model:

    • Extraversion/surgency (outgoing, happy).

    • Negative affectivity (prone to distress, fearful).

    • Effortful control (self-regulation, attention control).

  • Goodness of fit: Match between a child’s temperament and environment affects adjustment.

• Personality Development

  • Erikson’s Stages:

    • Trust vs. Mistrust (0-1 year): Secure care leads to trust; inconsistent care leads to mistrust.

    • Autonomy vs. Shame/Doubt (1-3 years): Encouragement leads to independence; overprotection/criticism leads to doubt.

  • Self-Recognition: Around 18 months, infants recognize themselves in mirrors.

2. Social Orientation, Understanding, and Attachment

• Social Orientation

  • Infants prefer human faces and voices early on.

  • Face-to-face play starts at 2-3 months, increasing social interactions.

  • Locomotion (crawling, walking) expands an infant’s ability to interact with the world.

  • Social referencing (reading emotional cues in others) develops in the second year.

• Attachment Development (Bowlby’s 4 Phases)

  • 0-2 months: Infants instinctively attach to any human.

  • 2-7 months: Attachment becomes focused on one caregiver.

  • 7-24 months: Specific attachments form, infants seek comfort from caregivers.

  • 24+ months: Children become aware of others' feelings and goals.

• Ainsworth’s Strange Situation & Attachment Styles

  • Secure attachment: Infant explores but returns to caregiver for comfort.

  • Insecure avoidant: Infant avoids caregiver, shows little distress when they leave.

  • Insecure resistant: Infant clings but resists closeness, shows distress when caregiver leaves.

  • Insecure disorganized: Infant is confused, fearful, and inconsistent in behavior.

• Developmental Cascade Model

  • Secure attachment in infancy correlates with better emotional regulation and school readiness later in life.

  • Factors like family stress and caregiving consistency influence long-term outcomes.

• Neuroscience of Attachment

  • Oxytocin and dopamine play a key role in mother-infant bonding.

  • Brain regions involved: Prefrontal cortex, amygdala, hypothalamus, nucleus accumbens.

3. Social Contexts of Infant Development

• The Family System

  • Parenting is influenced by marital relationships and infant temperament.

  • Reciprocal socialization: Parents and infants influence each other.

  • Scaffolding: Parents provide structured support, helping infants learn new skills.

• Parental Guidance & Behavior Management

  • Childproofing the environment prevents unsafe interactions.

  • Disciplinary strategies: Redirecting attention, reasoning, ignoring, and time-outs are common.

  • Parents often expect too much self-regulation from young children.

• Maternal vs. Paternal Caregiving

  • Mothers are primary caregivers (feeding, changing).

  • Fathers often engage in physical and play-based interactions.

  • Increased father involvement has positive outcomes on infant development.

• Child Care & Its Effects

  • Many U.S. infants experience multiple caregivers due to parental work schedules.

  • High-quality child care includes responsive caregivers, safe environments, and age-appropriate activities.

  • NICHD Study Findings:

    • Low-quality child care can negatively impact development.

    • Extensive time in child care (30+ hours per week) can lead to more impulsivity and risk-taking behaviors.

    • Parental sensitivity remains the strongest predictor of a child’s development.