Chapter 6: Cognition in Infants and Toddlers 6.1 Piaget’s Theory 6.2 Information Processing 6.3 Language

6.1 Piaget’s Theory Basic Principles of Piaget’s Theory Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage Evaluating Piaget’s Account of Sensorimotor Thought The Child as Theorist

Basic Principles of Piaget’s Theory Schemes: organize experience Assimilation: incorporate new experiences into existing schemes Accommodation: change schemes based on experience Equilibration: reorganize schemes to return to state of equilibrium 6.1 Piaget’s Theory

Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage From birth to 2 years Begins with reflex action and ends with use of symbols Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Circular Reactions are repetitive acts that help the infant learn about the world 6.1 Piaget’s Theory

Evaluating Piaget’s Account of Sensorimotor Thought Other researchers have found alternative explanations for performance on Piagetian tasks Object permanence may occur at a younger age than Piaget thought 6.1 Piaget’s Theory

“Impossible” Event

The Child as Theorist Young children develop theories that organize knowledge about properties of objects and living things By 6 months, know that 1st object striking 2nd object will cause 2nd to move Toddlers understand different properties of animate and inanimate objects 6.1 Piaget’s Theory

Colliding Cylinders Familiarization: Medium cylinder collides with bug Test with Large Cylinder: Large cylinder collides with bug Test with Small Cylinder: Small cylinder collides with bug

Results of Colliding Cylinder Experiment

6.2 Information Processing Basic Features of the Information- Processing Approach Learning Memory Understanding the World Individual Differences in Ability

Basic Features of the Information-Processing…. People and computers are both symbol processors Hardware: sensory, working, and long-term memory Software is task specific 6.2 Information Processing

Components of Mental Hardware

Learning Habituation: diminished responding to a stimulus as it becomes familiar Classical conditioning: neutral stimulus elicits a response that was originally produced by another stimulus Operant conditioning: focus on consequences and reoccurrence of behavior 6.2 Information Processing

Memory Babies remember, forget, and can be prompted to recall forgotten material Infantile amnesia: inability to remember events from early in life (can be explained by development of language and sense of self) 6.2 Memory

Understanding the World Infants distinguish quantities because small quantities may be perceptually obvious Infants have an egocentric frame of reference but will develop and objective frame of reference later 6.2 Information Processing

Test of Quantity

Individual Differences in Ability Individual differences are measured in mental tests for infants and toddlers Scores from infant intelligence tests are not related to later IQ scores Habituation in infants is a better predictor of later IQ 6.2 Information Processing

6.3 Language Perceiving Speech First Steps to Speaking First Words Fast Mapping Meanings to Words Styles of Learning Language

Perceiving Speech Phonemes are sounds that are the building blocks of language. Young babies can hear phonemes, even those not in their language. Infant directed speech may help children learn language. 6.3 Language

Infant Listening to Phonemes

First Steps to Speaking 2 months--cooing 5 or 6 months--babbling 7 or 8 months--babbling includes intonation Deaf children “babble” in sign language 6.3 Language

First Words Infants understand that words are symbols First words include people, animals, food, and toys Gestures are symbols that children start to use around the time they begin to talk 6.3 Language

Fast Mapping Meaning to Words Children learn words too rapidly to be starting from scratch on each one Joint attention, simple rules, and sentence cues help children learn word meanings Underextensions and overextensions are 2 common errors 6.3 Language

Boz Blocks

Styles of Learning Language Referential style: vocabularies consist mainly of words that name objects, persons, or actions Expressive style: vocabularies include many social phrases that are used as a single word (e.g., “go-away,” “I-want- it”) 6.3 Language