1. Infants, Children, and Adolescents
Eighth Edition
Chapter 6
Cognitive Development in Infancy and Childhood

2. Learning Objectives (1 of 3)
6.1 According to Piaget, how do schemes change over the course of development?
6.2 Describe major cognitive attainments of the sensorimotor stage.
6.3 What does follow-up research say about infant cognitive development and the accuracy of Piaget’s sensorimotor stage?
6.4 Describe the information-processing view of cognitive development and the general structure of the information- processing system.

3. Learning Objectives (2 of 3)
6.5 What changes in attention, memory, and categorization take place over the first two years?
6.6 Describe the strengths and limitations of the information-processing approach to early cognitive development.
6.7 How does Vygotsky’s concept of the zone of proximal development expand our understanding of early cognitive development?
6.8 Describe the mental testing approach, the meaning of intelligence test scores, and the extent to which infant tests predict later performance.

4. Learning Objectives (3 of 3)
6.9 Discuss environmental influences on early mental development, including home, child care, and early intervention for at-risk infants and toddlers.
6.10 Describe theories of language development, and indicate the emphasis each places on innate abilities and environmental influences.
6.11 Describe major milestones of language development in the first two years, individual differences, and ways adults can support infants’ and toddlers’ emerging capacities.

5. Piaget’s Cognitive-Developmental Theory
Sensorimotor stage:
Piaget’s first stage
First two years of life
Schemes change with age:
First schemes: sensorimotor action patterns
Later schemes: evidence of thinking before acting

6. Building Schemes Adaptation – Assimilation – Accommodation
Building schemes through direct interaction with environment
– Assimilation
Using current schemes to interpret external world
– Accommodation
Creating new schemes and adjusting old ones to better fit environment

7. Using Assimilation and Accommodation
Equilibrium
Steady state in which children assimilate more than they accommodate
Disequilibrium
State of rapid cognitive change in which children shift from assimilation to accommodation
Organization
Internal linking together of schemes into an interconnected cognitive system

8. Sensorimotor Stage Birth to age 2 years Divided into six substages
Building schemes through sensory and motor exploration
Circular reaction: stumbling onto a new experience caused by the baby’s own motor activity

9. Piaget’s Sensorimotor Substages
Age Range
1. Reflexive schemes
Birth–1 month
2. Primary circular reactions
1–4 months
3. Secondary circular
reactions
4–8 months
4. Coordination of secondary
circular reactions
8–12 months
5. Tertiary circular reactions
12–18 months
6. Mental representation
18 months–2 years

10. Repeating Chance Behaviors
Primary circular reaction:
Simple motor habits centered around infant’s own body
Limited anticipation of events
Secondary circular reaction:
Aimed at repeating interesting events in the surrounding world
Imitation of familiar behaviors

11. Intentional Behavior Substage 4 (8–12 months):
Beginning mastery of object permanence
Substage 5 (12–18 months):
Tertiary circular reaction
Ability to imitate many more behaviors
Substage 6 (18–24 months):
Invisible displacement
Deferred imitation
Make-believe play

12. Violation-of-Expectation Method
Violation-of-expectation research assesses infants’ knowledge, based on their attention to events consistent versus inconsistent with reality.
Violation-of-expectation evidence is controversial:
Some critics believe it indicates only nonconscious awareness of physical events.
Others maintain it reveals only perceptual preference for novelty.

13. Violation-of-Expectation Procedure: Object Permanence
Figure 6.1: Testing young infants for understanding of object permanence using the violation-of-expectation method
Figure 6.1
(Adapted from R. Baillargeon & J. DeVos, 1991, “Object Permanence in Young Infants: Further Evidence,” Child Development, 62, p © 1991, John Wiley and Sons. Adapted with permission of John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

14. Object Permanence
Renée Baillargeon found evidence for object permanence in the first few months of life.
Critics question the significance of babies’ looking preferences.
Mastery of object permanence is a gradual achievement.

15. Mental Representation
Babies construct mental representations of objects and their whereabouts.
Deferred imitation
requires representation of a model’s past behavior.
is used by toddlers to enrich their range of schemes.
Inferred imitation
requires inferring others’ intentions.
is a cornerstone of social understanding and communication.

16. Problem Solving and Symbolic Understanding
Solving problems by analogy:
Develops at 10–12 months.
Depends on ability to represent a solution mentally and use it in new contexts.
Symbolic understanding:
Displaced reference emerges around 1 year.
Capacity to use language as flexible symbolic tool improves from the end of the second into the third year.

17. Video Deficit Effect
40% of U.S. 3-month-olds and 90% of 2-year-olds watch TV regularly.
Infants initially respond to videos of people as actual people.
Toddlers demonstrate poorer performance after a video than a live demonstration.
Around age 2½, video deficit effect declines.
Videos for teaching toddlers work best when they are rich in social cues.

18. Evaluation of the Sensorimotor Stage
Developments that occur within Piaget’s time frame:
Object search
Mastery of A-not-B search
Make-believe play
Treating pictures and videos symbolically
Attainments that occur sooner than Piaget expected:
Secondary circular reactions
Object permanence
Deferred imitation
Problem solving by analogy
Displaced reference of words

19. Core Knowledge Perspective
Infants are born with innate knowledge system, or core domains of thought:
Physical knowledge
Linguistic knowledge
Psychological knowledge
Numerical knowledge
All acknowledge that experience is essential to extend initial knowledge.

20. Information Processing
Sensory register: sights and sounds are represented directly, stored briefly
Short-term memory store:
Attended-to information is retained briefly and “worked” on.
Working memory: number of items that can be briefly held in mind while engaging in some effort to manipulate them
Long-term memory: permanent knowledge base

21. Managing the Cognitive System’s Activities
Central executive
Directs flow of information
Coordinates incoming information with information already in the system
Selects, applies, and monitors strategies that facilitate memory storage, comprehension, reasoning, and problem solving
Automatic processes
Require no space in working memory
Can be done while focusing on other information

22. Improvements in the Cognitive System During Childhood and Adolescence
Increase in basic capacity of memory stores, especially in working memory
Increase in speed with which information is worked on
Gains in executive function
controlling attention
suppressing impulses
coordinating information in working memory
flexibly directing and monitoring thought and behavior

23. Model of the Human Information-Processing System
Figure 6.4: Model of the human information-processing system
Figure 6.4

24. Attention
Over the first year, infants attend to novel, eye-catching events.
As toddlers become capable of intentional behavior, attraction to novelty declines and sustained attention improves.
Adults can foster sustained attention through joint attention.

25. Memory Operant conditioning research: Habituation research:
Retention increases dramatically during infancy and toddlerhood.
Memories move from highly context-dependent to increasingly context-free.
Habituation research:
Infants do not need to be physically active to acquire and retain new information.
Motor activity does promote learning and memory.
Infants can engage in recall by end of first year.

26. Increase in Retention in Two Operant Conditioning Tasks from 2 to 18 Months
Figure 6.5: Increase in retention in two operant conditioning tasks from 2 to 18 months
Figure 6.5
(From C. Rovee-Collier & R. Barr, 2001, “Infant Learning and Memory,” in G. Bremner & A. Fogel [Eds.], Blackwell Handbook of Infant Development, Oxford, U.K.: Blackwell, p © 2001, 2004 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Reproduced with permission of John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

27. Infantile Amnesia
Inability to retrieve events that occurred before age 3
Possible explanations:
Brain development: role of the hippocampus
Nonverbal nature of memory processing in infants and toddlers
Lack of a clear self-image

28. Categorization
By 6 months, infants can categorize based on two correlated features.
Earliest categories are perceptual.
By second half of first year, more categories are based on clusters of features.
Variations among languages lead to cultural differences in categorization.

29. Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory
Social contexts (interaction with other people) contribute to cognitive development.
Zone of proximal development refers to the range of tasks the child cannot do alone but can do with help of a more skilled partner.
Scaffolding promotes learning at all ages.
Cultural variations in social experiences affect mental strategies.

30. Social Origins of Make-Believe Play
Society provides opportunities for children to represent culturally meaningful activities in play.
Research indicates that make-believe play is the combined result of children’s readiness and social experiences.
Adult participation leads to more complex play and teaches cultural values.

31. Infant and Toddler Intelligence Tests
Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development:
Current edition: Bayley-III
Suitable for children between 1 month and 3½ years
Subtests:
Cognitive Scale
Language Scale
Motor Scale
Two scales that depend on parental report:
Social-Emotional Scale
Adaptive Behavior Scale

32. Normal Distribution of Intelligence Test Scores
Figure 6.9: Normal distribution of intelligence test scores
Figure 6.9

33. HOME Infant–Toddler Subscales
Checklist for gathering information about quality of children’s home lives
Most widely used home environment measure during first three years
Methods: observation and parental interview
Positive relationship to toddlers’ mental test performance
Possible role of gene–environment correlation

34. HOME Infant–Toddler Subscales
Organization of physical environment
Provision of appropriate play materials
Emotional and verbal responsiveness of parent
Parental acceptance of child
Parental involvement with child
Variety in daily stimulation

35. Signs of Developmentally Appropriate Infant and Toddler Child Care
Clean, well-maintained indoor space; fenced outdoor area
Age-appropriate toys and equipment
Caregiver–child ratio no greater than 1 to 3 for infants, 1 to 6 for toddlers
Flexible daily schedule
Warm interactions between adults and children
Adequately trained caregivers
Welcoming relationships with parents
State licensing; voluntary NAEYC or NAFCC accreditation

36. Carolina Abecedarian Project: IQ Score Effects
Figure 6.11: IQ scores of treatment and control children from infancy to 21 years in the Carolina Abecedarian Project
Figure 6.11
(Based on Campbell et al., 2001.)

37. Theories of Language Development
Nativist
(Noam Chomsky)
Innate language acquisition device (LAD)
Interactionist
Interaction between child’s inner capacities and environmental influences
Social-interactionist
Importance of children’s social skills and language experiences

38. Broca’s and Wernicke’s Areas
Broca’s area:
In left frontal lobe of cerebral cortex
Role in grammatical processing and language production
Wernicke’s area:
In left temporal lobe
Role in comprehending word meaning

39. Broca’s and Wernicke’s Areas
Figure 6.12: Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas, in the left hemisphere of the cerebral cortex
Figure 6.12

40. Getting Ready to Talk First speech sounds: Cooing (around 2 months)
Babbling (around 6 months)
Becoming a communicator:
Joint attention (appears 3–4 months, more accurate 10–11 months)
Give-and-take (around 3 months)
Preverbal gestures (around 1 year)

41. Sensitive Period for Language Development
Cochlear implant:
If auditory input is not restored until after age 2, children remain behind in language development.
If implantation occurs after age 4, language delays are severe and persistent.
Sign language:
Deaf infants exposed to sign language from birth babble with their hands.
Deaf infants not exposed to sign language will stop babbling entirely.

42. Starting to Talk First Words
Underextension: applying words too narrowly
Overextension: applying words too broadly
Two-Word Utterance Phase
Steady increase in rate of word learning through preschool years
Telegraphic speech: use of high-content words

43. Comprehension versus Production
At all ages, comprehension develops ahead of production.
Comprehension requires only recognition of word meaning.
Production requires recall of word and the concept it stands for.

44. Individual and Cultural Differences in Language Development
Gender
Temperament
Caregiver–child conversation
Language style:
Referential
Expressive
Language delay

45. Supporting Early Language Development
Infants
Parents should
respond to coos and babbles.
establish and respond to joint attention.
play social games.
Toddlers
play make-believe with toddlers.
have frequent conversations.
read and talk about storybooks together.

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