Memory in Infants  How do you study memory in an infant?  By using the orienting response & habituation  Orienting Response = tendency to respond to new stimulation by becoming more alert (shows recognition that stimulus has changed)  Habituation = When stimulus becomes familiar, infant responds less to it (this can be interpreted as demonstrating memory)

Development of Infant Memory  Three sequential phases in development of memory:  Neurons fire when a new stimulus is presented and stops with habituation  Around 3 months infants actively look and search and show recognition for things  Around 8 months infants can remember categories of things such as “fuzzy things” and “toys”

Intellectual Achievements  The Object Concept – learning to think beyond the “here and now.”  Modifying schemas (assimilation) versus creating new schemas (accommodation) – equilibration  Intention and imitation  Learning new behaviors through observation

Cognitive Development in Infancy

Cognitive Development  I. Basics of Piaget  Children ACTIVELY construct their cognitive world  Two processes:  Organization and adaptation  Piaget says we adapt in two ways:  Assimilation  Accommodation

More Basics  Schema 4 forces that shape development for Piaget  Equilibration  Maturation  Active Experience  Social Interaction

Sensorimotor Period  Birth-2 years  No object permanence 1. Exercising Reflexes 0-1 mos. 2. Primary Circular reactions (repetitive actions) 1-4 mos. 3. Secondary Circular Reactions (Actions with people and objects) 4-8 mos. 4. Purposeful Coordination (goal directed actions) 8-12 mos. 5. Tertiary Circular Reactions (experimentation) mos. 6. Mental representation (symbolic representation) mos.

What is Language?  A system of symbols that are used to communicate with others  The Influence of Biology  Evolution  Critical Period (18 mos - puberty)-Genie  LAD (Language Acquisition Device)-Chomsky

Stages of Language Development 1st stage: crying, cooing, gurgling -echoing, labeling from parents 2nd stage: 3-6 month -babbling -universal adaptability/universal linguist 3rd stage: 12 months, 1 -word stage -holophrase hypothesis -overextension/underextension -24 mos, 2- word stage, telegraphic speech

Social and Emotional Development in Infancy  Focus Questions:  How do infants influence caregivers?  Are all infants the same in terms of emotional reactions and personality?  Are mother-infant bonds biological or learned?  What happens when infants are separated from caregivers?  What do “average, normal, and exceptional” mean?

Contextual Model  Family relationships impact members in a reciprocal fashion  Second order effects  Influence father has on mother  Relationship between mother and infant  Effect of child on marital relationship  Economic changes

II. Attachment & Temperament  What is Attachment?  Harry Harlow’s Studies  Differences in Attachment Styles

Separation Anxiety  Ainsworth – strange situation  Setting designed to evaluate the infant’s reaction at being separated from, and later reunited with, a caregiver.  Used to assess infant attachment  Can minimize fear reactions by having many familiar people and objects around

Stranger Anxiety  Unusual prior to 6 months of age  Peaks at about 9 to 15 months  Uneasy or fear response to something that is non-familiar  Incongruity hypothesis – child is developing a familiarity (and sense of predictability) with environment that stranger challenges

Attachment  Mary Ainsworth  Strange Situation

Attachment Styles  At first, 3 Attachment Styles  Secure (60%)  Insecure  anxious-avoidant (20%)  Anxious-ambivalent/resistant (12%)  Then…Disorganized/Disoriented (8%) (Main & Solomon, 1990)

Types of Attachment  Securely attached – use mother as base of exploration – warm contact upon reunion  Insecure-avoidant – display negative behavior at reunion  Insecure-resistant – may appear to want held and then push mother away  Disorganized-disoriented – range of behaviors such as crying and then running from parent

Figure 6.3 Types of infant attachment. Source: Based in part on Ainsworth et al. (1978). Patterns of Attachment. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum; and on M. Main & J. Solomon (1986). Discovery of an insecure, disorganized/disoriented attachment pattern: Procedures, findings, and implications for the classification of behavior. In M. Yogman & T. B. Brazelton, eds., Affective development in infancy. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex.

Temperament  What is temperament?  3 Basic types or clusters

Infant Temperament  Thomas, Chess, and Birch (1970)  Activity level  Rhythmicity  Approach-withdrawal  Adaptability  Sensitivity to stimuli  Intensity of reaction Chess & Thomas, Easy (40%) 2.Difficult (15%) 3.Slow-to-warm-up (10%) 4.Varying Mixtures/Unclassified (35%)

Figure 6.1 Infant temperaments. What sort of infant were you? Ask your mother, your father, a sibling, or someone else who can tell you. Do you see any relationship between who you are now and what you were like as an infant? Source: Based on classifications used by Thomas, Chess, and Birch (1968, 1970, 1981) in the New York Longitudinal Study (NYLS).

Buss & Plomin, Emotionality 2. Sociability 3. Activity Level

Crying  Infants don’t cry because they want to – they cry because they have to  It expresses a need, a fear, a frustration, a relief  Peak period for infant crying is around 6 weeks  Persistent crying is sign of a serious problem

Kinds of Cries  Wolff analyzed tape recording of infant cries  Identified 4 distinct cries  Rhythmic cry – typical cry that seems non-serious  Angry cry – protracted loudness  Pain cry – long wail followed by breath holding  Hunger cry – parents usually readily respond

Smiling and Laughing  Reflex smiling – brainstem response.  Social smiling – in response to auditory and visual stimuli.  Selective social smile – occurs in response to social stimuli with which the child is familiar.