Infant Cognition Interest in infant cognitive abilities NOT new  Piaget’s interest in infant cognition  Importance of motor activity  Internalized sensorimotor schemes  Problems with Piagetian approach to infant cognition

Infant Cognition Infant looking behavior  Robert Fantz and preferential looking  What can fixation paradigms demonstrate?  Discrimination of perceptual characteristics  Extension beyond discrimination?

Infant Cognition Baillargeon, Spelke, and Wasserman (1985) Habituation Display Test Display 1 Test Display 2

Infant Cognition Baillargeon, Spelke, & Wasserman (1985)  Dishabituation to Test Display 2  Impossible event  Violation-of-Expectation paradigm  Ability to examine conceptual knowledge Alternative explanations for the violation-of-expectation paradigm  Haith and Benson (1997)  The problem of rich interpretation  Distinction between impossibility and novelty

Infant Cognition Cashon & Cohen (2000)  Four habituation groups  120 degree rotation, no box  180 degree rotation, no box (replication of Baillargeon et al)  120 degree rotation, box  180 degree rotation, box  Four test displays (same as above)  Results DID NOT replicate Baillargeon et al  Response to novelty of rotation, and novelty of appearance/disappearance of box

Executive Function What is executive function (EF)?  Adaptive, goal-directed behaviors that enable individuals to override more automatic established thoughts and responses  Associated with prefrontal cortex

Executive Function EF Frameworks  EFs as a unitary construct with constituent subprocesses  EFs as dissociable processes  Working memory  Response inhibition

Executive Function What is an EF task?  Mental set shifting  The ability to shift from one mental set to another  Working memory  The amount of information people can keep track of at one time  Inhibition of a prepotent response  The ability to NOT make a previous response

Executive Function Developmental theories of EF  Cognitive complexity and control  Zelazo and colleagues  During development rules become gradually more hierarchically organized  2 yrs children can represent 1 arbitrary rule  3 yrs children can represent a pair of rules  4 years children have higher order rule representation  Response perseveration

Executive Function Developmental theories of EF  Graded representations  Munakata and colleagues  Multiple systems of representations, which are graded (not all or none)  Latent and active representations  Developmental time course of latent and active representations  Response perseveration

Executive Function Developmental theories of EF  Dissociable EFs  Diamond and colleagues  Three separate components  Working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility  Separate developmental paths  Components interact  Response perseveration

Executive Function How do we measure EFs?  Working memory tasks  Simple tasks: Delayed responses  Complex tasks: Invisible displacement  Response inhibition tasks  Simple tasks: Delayed gratification  Complex tasks: Reverse categorization  Set shifting tasks  Simple tasks: A not B task  Complex tasks: Card sorting task