Piaget's Approach to Cognitive Development Information Processing Approaches to Cognitive Development The Roots of Language

Key Elements of Piaget's Theory Action = Knowledge Four universal stages in fixed order Development = physical maturation and exposure to relevant experiences Schemes adapt and change Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget

What principles underlie this cognitive growth? Assimilation Accommodation

Earliest Stage of Cognitive Growth Sensorimotor Period –Invariant order of stages –Individual differences in rate –Transitions include characteristics of both stages

A Closer Look Substage 1: Simple Reflexes –First month of life –Various various inborn reflexes At center of a baby's physical and cognitive life Determine nature of infant's interactions with world –At the same time, some reflexes begin to accommodate the infant's experiences

A Closer Look Substage 2: First Habits and Primary Circular Reactions 1 to 4 months of age Beginning of coordination of what were separate actions into single, integrated activities. Activities that engage baby's interests are repeated simply for sake of continuing to experience it –Circular reaction –Primary circular reaction

TRANSITIONS Infants do not suddenly shift from one stage of cognitive development to the next. Instead, Piaget argues that there is a period of transition in which some behaviorreflects one stage, while other behavior reflects the more advanced stage Does this gradualism argue against Piaget's interpretation of stages?

A Closer Look Substage 3: Secondary Circular Reactions 4 to 8 months of age Child begins to act upon outside world Infants now seek to repeat enjoyable events in their environments that are produced through chance activities Secondary circular reactions

A Closer Look Substage 4: Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions 8 months to 12 months Beginning of goal-directed behavior –Several schemes are combined and coordinated to generate single act to solve problem –Means to attain particular ends and skill in anticipating future circumstances due in part to object permanence

Object Permanence Why is the concept of object permanence important?

A Closer Look Substage 5: Tertiary Circular Reactions 12 to 18 months Development of schemes regarding deliberate variation of actions that bring desirable consequences Carrying out miniature experiments to observe consequences

A Closer Look Substage 6: Beginnings of Thought 18 months to 2 years Capacity for mental representation or symbolic thought –Mental representation –Understanding causality –Ability to pretend –Deferred imitation With the attainment of the cognitive skill of deferred imitation, children are able to imitate people and scenes they have witnessed in the past. Please add updated image from page 116. Thanks.

Assessing Piagetian Theory STRENGTHS: Descriptions of child cognitive development accurate in many ways Piaget was pioneering figure in field of development Children learn by acting on environment Broad outlines of sequence of cognitive development and increasing cognitive accomplishments are generally accurate WEAKNESSES: Substantial disagreement over validity of theory and many of its specific predictions Stage conception questioned Connection between motor development and cognitive development exaggerated Object permanence can occur earlier under certain conditions Onset of age of imitation questioned Cultural variations not considered

Piaget's theory of human cognitive development involves a succession of stages through which children progress from birth to adolescence. As infants move from one stage to another, the way they understand the world changes.

The sensorimotor stage, from birth to about 2 years, involves a gradual progression through simple reflexes, single coordinated activities, interest in the outside world, purposeful combinations of activities, manipulation of actions to produce desired outcomes, and symbolic thought. The sensorimotor stage has six substages.

According to Piaget, children can move from one cognitive stage to another only when a child ______________ and is exposed to relative experiences. a. is adequately nourished b. is born with an adequate genetic predisposition for learning c. has remembered his or her goal of learning d. reaches an appropriate level of physical maturation

Infants' schemes for understanding the world usually involve their physical or sensorimotor activities. True False

In general, when it comes to infant cognitive development, it appears that Piaget_________. a. overestimated infants and what they could do b. underestimated infants and what they could do c. was more accurate about adolescent cognitive development d. overestimated the role of culture

Think of a common young children's toy with which you are familiar. How might its use be affected by the principles of assimilation and accommodation?

Information-Processing Approaches to Child Development

What is information-processing? Identifies the way that individuals take in, store, and use information Involves quantitative changes in ability to organize and manipulate information Increases sophistication, speed, and capacity in information processing characterizes cognitive growth Focuses on types of “mental programs” used when seeking to solve problems

Infants learn from adults, not videos. Infants learn vocabulary best in an interactive setting where adults are responding to the sounds the infant is making and when babies choose the object to be labeled. Parents who liked educational DVDs best believed that it improved their child's vocabulary significantly, even though that is not supported by research findings. Why might parents acquire this false belief?

What are the foundations of the IP approach? Encoding—storage—retrieval

How does cognition compute? Encoding Storage Retrieval

What automatic processes are being engaged as you listen to this lecture?

Automatization Degree to which activity requires attention Helps with initial encounters with stimuli through easy and automatic information processing

What do you think? Infants cannot remember.

Memory Capabilities in Infancy Getting a kick out of that! Kicking research demonstrates increase with age in memory capacities

Does your family have a special story about your early childhood?

How long do memories last? Researchers disagree on the age from which memories can be retrieved –Early studies  infantile amnesia –Myers  clear evidence of early memory Physical trace of a memory in brain appears to be relatively permanent –Memories may not be easily, or accurately, retrieved

Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory Advances in brain scan technology and studies of adults with brain damage suggest two separate long-term memory systems. Explicit memory Implicit memory Explicit and implicit memories emerge at different rates and involve different parts of the brain.

So…do infants remember?

Individual Differences in Intelligence Information-Processing Approaches Infant information-processing speed may correlate most strongly with later intelligence

What is infant intelligence?

Do, Re, Me…..Intelligence! Developmental Scales Gesell: –Developmental quotient –Performance compared at different ages for significant variation from norms of given age –Four domains: motor skills, language use, adaptive behavior, personal-social

Do, Re, Me…..Intelligence! Developmental Scales Bayley: –Bayley Scales of Infant Development –Developmental Quotient –2 to 42 months –Two areas –(See Table 3-7)

Do, Re, Me…..Intelligence! Visual-recognition memory measurement This approach measures of visual- recognition memory, the memory of and recognition of a stimulus that has been previously seen, also relate to intelligence. The more quickly an infant can retrieve a representation of a stimulus from memory, themore efficient, presumably, is that infant's information processing.

Are developmental scales useful? YES Provide a good snapshot of current developmental level Provide objective assessment of behavior relative to norms NO Do not provide good prediction for future development

What characterizes a “fast” baby?

And so…what does IP research reveal? Relationship between information processing efficiency and cognitive abilities –Correlate moderately well with later measures of intelligence –More efficient information processing during the 6 months following birth is related to higher intelligence scores between 2 and 12 years of age and other measures of cognitive competence

Assessing the IP Approach PROS Often uses more precise measures of cognitive ability Critical in providing information about infant cognition CONS Precision makes it more difficult to get overall sense of cognitive development

Information processing approaches consider quantitative changes in children's abilities to organize and use information. Cognitive growth is regarded as the increasing sophistication of encoding, storage, and retrieval. Infants clearly have memory capabilities from a very early age, although the duration and accuracy of such memories are unresolved questions. Traditional measures of infant intelligence focus on behavioral attainments, which can help identify developmental delays or advances.

The information processing approach to cognitive development emphasizes the increased sophistication, speed, and ______________ associated with cognitive growth. a. capacity b. circular reactions c. categorization d. analysis

What information from this module could you use to refute the claims of books or educational programs that promise to help parents increase their babies' intelligence or instill advanced intellectual skills in infants? Based on valid research, what approaches would you use for intellectual development of infants?

The Roots of Language

From Sounds to Symbols Fundamentals of Language PhonologyMorphemesSemantics Comprehension and production

Another Look – Comprehension Precedes Production

Early Sounds and Communication Prelinguistic Communication Babbling –Universal –Repetition of sounds Although we tend to think of language in terms of the production of words and then groups of words, infants can begin to communicate linguistically well before they sayeir first word.

See what I say…

What comes after “ba-ba-ba-ba”? Progression from simple to complex Exposure to speech sounds of particular language initially do not influence babbling –At 6 months babbling reflects of language of culture –Distinguishable from other language babbling Combinations of sounds and gestures used to communicate

First Words Increase at rapid rate –10 to 14 months = first word –15 months = 10 words –18 months = one-word stage ends –16 to 24 months = language explosion from 50 to 400 words By the age of 2, most children use two-word phrases, such as “ball play.”

First Sentences First sentences created around 8 to 12 months after first words Indicate understanding of labels and relationships between these Often observations rather than demands Use order similar to adult speech with missing words –Telegraphic speech (See table 3-8)

Other Early Language Characteristics Underextensions Overextensions

Speaking in style and stylish speaking Referential styleExpressive style Can you think of an example of each?

How does proficiency in language occur?

Origins of Language Development Learning Theory Approaches: Language as a Learned Skill Language acquisition follows the basic laws of reinforcement and conditioning Through the process of shaping, language becomes more and more similar to adult speech

Counter-Arguments to Learning Theory Approach Does not adequately explain how children readily learn rules of language Does not account for how children move beyond specific heard utterances to produce novel phrases, sentences and constructions Does not explain how young children can apply linguistic rules to nonsense words

Origins of Language Development Nativist Approaches: Language as an Innate Skill Genetically determined, innate mechanism that directs the development of language Children are born with innate capacity to use language, which emerges, more or less automatically, due to maturation. –Chomsky's universal grammar and LAD

Assessing Chomsky's Approach STRENGTHS Specific gene related to speech production identified Language processing in infant brain structures similar to those in adult speech processing WEAKNESSES Uniqueness of speech countered by primate researchers Even with genetic priming, language use still requires significant social experience to be used effectively

Origins of Language Development Interactionist Approaches: Language as Social Device Specific course of language development is determined by the language to which children are exposed and reinforcement they receive for using language in particular ways Social factors are key to development

Infant-Directed Speech Style of verbal communication directed toward infants Short, simple sentences Higher pitch, increased range, varied intonation Repetition of words and restricted topics Sometimes amusing sounds that are not even words, Little formal structure, similar to telegraphic speech

Infant-directed speech, which is common across cultures, includes the use of short, simple sentences and is spoken in a pitch that is higher than that used with older children and adults.

Let's Pretend Turn to a classmate. One of you is a 8-month-old infant; the other is a parent. As the parent, ask your “infant” classmate: “Would you like a cookie?”

How does this speech change? Infant-directed speech changes as children become older –Around the end of the first year, takes on more adult-like qualities –Sentences become longer and more complex, although individual words are still spoken slowly and deliberately –Pitch used to focus attention on important words

Does Cootsy-Coo Work? Infant-directed speech plays an important role in infants' acquisition of language –Occurs all over the world, though there are cultural variations –Preferred by newborns –Babies who are exposed to a infant-directed speech early in life seem to begin to use words and exhibit other forms of linguistic competence earlier

Do people everywhere say “ba-ba-boo” to their infants? Words differ but ways spoken are similar Basic similarities across cultures and in some facets of language specific to particular types of interactions Quantity of speech differ by cultures

What, then, do these similarities in infant- directed speech mean?

Based upon findings of developmental researchers, infant cognitive development may be promoted by: Providing infants the opportunity to explore the world Being responsive to infants on both a verbal and a nonverbal level Asking questions, listening to their responses, and providing further communication Reading to infants Keeping in mind that you don't have to be with an infant 24 hours a day Not pushing infants and not expecting too much too soon

Before they speak, infants understand many adult utterances and engage in several forms of prelinguistic communication. Children typically produce their first words between 10 and 14 months, and rapidly increase their vocabularies from that point on, especially during a spurt at about 18 months.

Learning theorists believe that basic learning processes account for language development, whereas nativists like Noam Chomsky and his followers argue that humans have an innate language capacity. The interactionists suggest that language is a consequence of both environmental and innate factors.

Like other 2-year-olds, Mason can say “Doggie bye, bye” and “Milk gone.” These two- word phrases are examples of ______________ speech. a. holophrastic b. telegraphic c. interpretive d. active

One theory, the ______________ approach, suggests that a genetically determined, innate mechanism directs language development. a. nativist b. universal c. learning theory d. evolutionary

Whenever 9-month-old Ana's mother talks to her, she uses short, simple sentences, repetitive words, and higher pitches. This shift in language is consistent with the use of ______________ speech. a. infant-directed b. telegraphic c. nativist d. interactionist

What are some ways in which children's linguistic development reflects their acquisition of new ways of interpreting and dealing with their world?