1. Chapter Five

2. Cognitive Development – Jean Piaget Piaget hypothesized that cognitive processes develop in an orderly, sequence of stages Cognitive development – way of perceiving and mentally representing the world Schemes – children’s concepts of the world Assimilation – absorbing new events into existing schemes Accommodation – modification of existing schemes when assimilation does not allow the child to make sense of novel events

3. Sensorimotor Stage Refers to first 2 years of life First sub stage first month after birth; dominated by assimilation of sources of stimulation into inborn reflexes such as grasping, visual tracking, crying, sucking, and turning of head to a sound Second sub stage called primary circular reactions lasts from 1 to 4 months of age; characterized by beginnings of the ability to coordinate various sensorimotor schemes Second sub stage includes primary circular reactions – focus on the infant’s own body rather than on external environment

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5. Sensorimotor Stage Continued Third sub stage 4 to 8 months called secondary circular reactions – includes repeated patterns of activity which are repeated due to effect on the environment; focus shifts from to objects and environmental events Fourth sub stage infants demonstrate goal-directed behavior; imitate gestures and sounds previously ignored Fifth sub stage infants 12 to 18 months engage in tertiary circular reactions – purposeful adaptations of established schemes to specific situations

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7. Sensorimotor Stage Continued Sixth sub stage – 18 to 24 months of age; transition between sensorimotor stage and the development of symbolic thought; external exploration replaced by mental exploration; use imitation to symbolize or stand for a plan of action Object permanence – recognition that an object or person continues to exist when out of sight; mastery at approximately six months of age; tied to development of working memory

9. Evaluation of Piaget Provided comprehensive model of infant cognition Pattern and sequence observed cross-culturally Cognitive development not tied to discrete stages Emphasis on maturation with exclusion of adult and peer influences on cognitive development Underestimation of infants’ competence

10. Information Processing Infants’ tools for processing include memory and imitation Memory improves between 2 and 6 months of age Older infants more capable of encoding than younger ones Infant memory can be improved if infants receive a reminder Deferred imitation – imitation of actions after a time delay occurs as early as 6 months; imitation of neonates likely reflexive

12. Individual Differences in Intelligence among Infants Understanding of infants’ intelligence based on scales of infant development Bayley Scales of Infant Development – consists of 178 mental-scale items and 111 motor-scale items; mental-scale assesses verbal, perceptual, learning and memory, and problem-solving skills; motor assesses gross and fine motor skills; behavior rating scale based on examiner observation of the child during the test also used Screening used to identify handicaps

14. Instability of Intelligence Scores Attained in Infancy Scores obtained during first year of life correlated moderately with scores obtained a year later Bayley scales and socioeconomic status were able to predict cognitive development among LBW children from 18 months to 4 years Bayley and other scales do not predict school grades or IQ Bayley scales best at identifying gross lags in development and relative strengths and weaknesses

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16. Use of Visual Recognition Memory Visual recognition memory – ability to discriminate previously seen objects from novel objects; procedure based on habituation Children with greater visual recognition memory attained higher IQ scores Individual differences in capacity for visual recognition memory are stable Capacity for visual recognition memory increases over first year after birth Studies on visual recognition memory and later IQ scores show good predictive validity for broad cognitive abilities throughout childhood

17. Language Development Children develop language according to an invariant sequence of steps Language begins with prelinguistic vocalizations (babbling, cooing) Cooing – infants use tongues, vowel-like sounds; appears to be linked to pleasure Babbling – combination of consonants and vowels Echolalia – infants repeat syllables Intonation – use of patterns that rise and fall; resembles adult speech

19. Development of Vocabulary Receptive vocabulary – words child understands Expressive vocabulary – words child can use Infants understand more vocabulary than they can use Children learn 10–30 words after first word is spoken within 3 or 4 months 18 month old vocabulary may be 50 words; 22 month old vocabulary may be 300 words General nominals – similar to nouns; includes names of classes of objects Specific nominals – proper nouns

20. Referential and Expressive Styles in Language Development Referential language style – children use language to label objects in their environments Expressive language style – children use language to engage in social interactions; use more pronouns and words used in social routines Overextension – children extend the meaning of one word to refer to things and actions for which they do not have words; as vocabulary grows overextension gradually pulled back to proper references

21. Development of Sentences Telegraphic speech – brief expressions that have meanings of sentences Mean length of utterance (MLU) – average number of morphemes that communicators use in their sentences Morphemes – smallest units of meaning in a language; eg. Walked is two morphemes; walk = verb; ed = past tense suffix MLU patterns of growth are similar for each child with swift upward movement, broken by intermittent and brief regressions

23. Development of Sentences Continued Holophrases – single words that are used to express complex meanings; eg. “There goes Mama” Telegraphic speech – two word sentences; eg. “That ball”; words is and a are implied Syntax – organization of words in sentences

24. Theories of Language Development Nurture view – a child learns the language that the family speaks Imitation – language is learned due to modeling the parent’s phrases, sentences and nonverbal communication Reinforcement – children learn language due to the social cues of smiling, stroking, and talking back to them

25. Theories of Language Development con’ t Extinction – foreign sounds drop out due to the lack of reinforcement Shaping – reinforcing children’s utterances as they approximate actual words; reinforcement may be sel ective Nature – children have inborn tendency in the form of neurological “prewiring” to learn language

26. Theories of Language Development Continued Psycholinguistic theory – language acquisition involves interaction between environmental influences; innate tendency labeled language acquisition device (LAD); inborn tendency supported by studies of deaf children and in the language development among all languages

27. Theories of Language Development Continued Surface and deep structure – on the surface languages differ in vocabulary and grammar; however languages share “universal grammar” allowing for transforming ideas into sentences Chomsky maintains children are genetically prewired to attend to language and deduce the rules for constructing sentences from ideas

28. Brain Structures Involved in Language Biological structures of LAD based in left hemisphere of the cerebral cortex for nearly all right-handed people and for 2 out of 3 left-handed Damage to Broca’s or Wernicke’s area called aphasia – disruption in the ability to understand or produce language; located left hemisphere

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30. Brain Structures involved in Language con’t Broca’s aphasia – can understand but not reproduce speech well Wernicke’s aphasia – can speak freely with proper syntax, have trouble understanding speech and finding the words to express themselves

31. Sensitive Periods Language learning most efficient beginning at 18 to 24 months (sensitive period) During this period neural development provides plasticity of the brain Damage to the brain easier to heal the younger the child Social contacts important in the development of language Malnutrition and abuse can contribute to poor language learning and ability

32. Motherese Motherese – baby talk, child-directed speech; grandparents, fathers, siblings and older children use it when talking to infants Motherese found in Arabic, English, Comanche, Italian, French, German, Xhosa, Japanese, and Mandarin Chinese Marked by slow speaking, higher pitch, pauses, brief sentences, simple grammar, key words stated using higher and louder voice, morpheme y used, sentences stated with minor variations, reduplication, concrete vocabulary, objects over described, and parents speak for the children

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