What does an infant feel and perceive? Infant Abilities and Perceptions What does an infant feel and perceive? William James : “booming, buzzing confusion.” ??

Infant Abilities immature visual system can detect movement and large objects Other senses function well on day 1 will orient to sounds turn away from unpleasant odors prefer sweet to sour tastes Born with a number of reflex behaviors

Methods for Studying Infants Infant reflexes provide insight into their mental life gaze duration related to visual perception head turning related to auditory attention sucking, reaching, kicking can be used to measure interest

Infant Perception Not just a blur or a buzz In first week will recognize their mother’s smell will show preference for novel stimuli gaze at face-like pattern rather than similar non face-like pattern

Infant Perception How does knowledge of physical laws arise? Research on infant selective attention habituation; measure gaze duration physically impossible events: infants notice at 3-4 months rudimentary arithmetic around 5 months (Wynn, 1992) Depth perception- visual cliff

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development Jean Piaget (1896-1980) “children are active thinkers, constantly trying to construct more advanced understandings of the world”

Stages and Schemas Schemas: frameworks; help organize knowledge; structures of “understandings”: Assimilation - new information or experience is fit it into existing schema Accommodation - existing schemas are changed or new schemas are created to fit new information operations: reversible actions

Sensorimotor Stage (birth - 2) Information gained through senses and motor actions child perceives and manipulates but does not reason Object permanence is acquired

Preoperational Stage (2-7 years) Emergence of symbolic thought video: symbolic hiding place Lack the concept of conservation operates on appearance rather than principles

Adult Conservation problem Jar1: 200 red jelly beans Jar2: 200 black jelly beans scoop holds exactly 15 beans take 1 scoop out of red jar, put in black jar mix up black and red beans in jar take 1 scoop out of (mostly) black Jar2, put in Jar1 How does number of black beans in Jar1 compare to number of red beans in Jar2

Concrete Operational Stage (7-12years) Understanding of mental operations leading to increasingly logical thought Inability to reason abstractly or hypothetically

Formal Operational Stage (12 - adult) Hypothetico-deductive reasoning think theoretically, apply principles to hypothetical cases

Critique of Piaget’s Theory Underestimates children’s abilities Overestimates age differences in thinking Vagueness about the process of change Underestimates the role of the social environment

Information-Processing Perspective mind as system, like computer, for analyzing information Developmental improvements reflect increased capacity of working memory faster speed of processing new algorithims (methods) more stored knowledge

Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Perspective interaction with the social world as cause of development (zone of proximal development) language : foundation for social interaction and thought (dialogue for critical thinking) Piaget - interaction with the physical world language was a byproduct of thought

Language development Evidence of prenatal speech detection: Mothers read “Cat in the Hat” aloud each day of last 6 weeks of pregnancy by changing suckling pattern (IBI), 2 days old infants could change story played over earphones (IBI had to increase in some, decrease in others) infants changed pattern so that they could hear “Cat in the hat” (this worked for other stories, too…)

Language Development MONTH Speech Characteristic 2 Cooing vowel sounds 4 Babbling consonant/vowel 10 Babbling native language sounds 12 One-word stage 24 Two-word stage 24 + Sentences

Supports for Language Development Chomsky’s language-acquisition device (LAD) - innate foundations for grammar and learning unique rules of a language critical period Language-acquisition support system - aspects of the social world that help infants acquire language (e.g., parentese)