Instructor name Class Title, Term/Semester, Year Institution © 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Introductory Psychology Concepts Infancy

© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 2 Infancy: The Beginning of Human Life Because infants cannot describe their experiences, psychologists must find clever ways to take advantage of responses that infants can make, such as sucking and moving their eyes, to draw inferences about their capabilities and preferences. Introductory Psychology Concepts: Infancy Can the fetus learn? Twice a day, during the last 6 weeks of pregnancy, mothers in one study read aloud the same passage from Dr.Seuss’s The Cat in the Hat. Two or 3 days after birth, infants were able to turn on a recording of their mother reading either the Cat in the Hat, or an unfamiliar rhyme by sucking on a sensor-equipped nipple at different rates. Compared with infants in a control condition, these newborns more often altered their sucking rate in whichever direction (faster or slower) selected the familiar rhyme.

© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 3 Physical Development: Reflexes, Movement Although at birth an infant can make only jerky, limited voluntary movements, during the first year of life the ability to move independently grows enormously. Introductory Psychology Concepts: Infancy 3.3 months: grasping rattle 5.9 months: sitting without support 7.2 months: standing while holding on 8.2 months: grasping with thumb and finger 11.5 months: standing alone well 12.3 months: walking well 14.8 months: building tower of two cubes 16.6 months: walking up steps 23.8 months: jumping in place 3.2 months: rolling over

© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 4 Physical Development: Vision A infant’s vision is initially limited to following objects with their eyes without being able to see details, but by the end of their first year they can see clearly. Introductory Psychology Concepts: Infancy Seeing through an infant’s eyes. These three images approximate the visual acuity of an infant at 1 month, 3 months, and 12 months of age. (a)(b)(C)

© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 5 Physical Development: Senses Newborns’ facial responses tell us that they have a reasonably well-developed sense of taste. Newborns respond to touch and distinguish different odors. Hearing is fairly well-developed, newborns prefer human voices to other sounds and can distinguish their mother’s voice from that of a female stranger. (DeRegnier et al., 2002) Introductory Psychology Concepts: Infancy

© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 6 Introductory Psychology Concepts: Infancy Cognitive Development: Piaget’s Stages Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1926, 1977) spent over 50 years exploring how a child’s thought processes develop. Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development StageAge (Years)Major Characteristics Sensorimotor Preoperational Concrete operational Formal operational Birth to 2 2 to 7 7 to on Infant understands world through sensory and motor experiences Achieves object permanence Exhibits emergence of symbolic thought Child uses symbolic thinking in the form of words and images to represent objects and experiences Symbolic thinking enables child to engage in pretend play Thinking displays egocentrism, irreversibility, and centration Child can think logically about concrete events Grasps concepts of conservation and serial ordering Adolescent can think more logically, abstractly, and flexibly Can form hypotheses and systematically test them

© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 7 Cognitive Development: Piaget’s Stages First stage: Sensorimotor, 0-2 years Cognitive: Motor Skills: Reflexive and Voluntary, enables infants to explore the new world around them. Object Permanence: Ability to form cognitive representation that objects exist even when they are out of sight. Introductory Psychology Concepts: Infancy

© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 8 Cognitive Development: Piaget’s Stages First stage: Sensorimotor, 0-2 years Emotional and Social: Neonates: Only capable of surprise, pleasure, and distress. Infancy: Introduces further emotions of anger, shyness, and fear. At 9 months: An infant will become anxious when separated from their caregiver. By 2 years: Infants can display emotions of guilt or being ashamed. Introductory Psychology Concepts: Infancy

© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 9 Introductory Psychology Concepts: Infancy Cognitive Development: Vygotsky’s Theory According to Russian developmental psychologist Lev Vygotsky, the culture in which we are raised significantly affects our cognitive development. Cognitive development occurs as a consequence of social interactions in which children work with others to jointly solve problems. Children’s cognitive abilities increase when they encounter information that falls within their zone of proximal development (ZPD).

© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 10 Cognitive Development: Vygotsky’s Theory ZPD is the level at which a child can almost, but not fully, comprehend or perform a task on his or her own. When children receive information that falls within the ZPD, they can increase understanding or master a new task. Introductory Psychology Concepts: Infancy Although the performances of the two children initially working at a task without aid are similar, the second child benefits more from aid and thus has a larger zone of proximal development. Child AChild B UnaidedAidedUnaidedAided ZPD Performance

© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 11 Stages of Language Development Infants learn language early on through reinforcement and imitation from their parents or care givers. By the end of two years, infants are displaying Telegraphic Speech (vocabulary approximately 300), but sentence structure is limited; “Milk all gone”, or “Daddy silly”. Introductory Psychology Concepts: Infancy