1. Child Development, 3/e by Robert Feldman
Chapter 6
Cognitive Development in Infancy
Created by Barbara H. Bratsch

2. What are the fundamental features of Piaget’s theories of cognitive development?
How do infants process information?
How is infant intelligence measured?
By what processes do children learn to use language?
How do children influence adults’ language?

3. Jean Piaget (1896-1980) Action = Knowledge
Knowledge is the product of direct motor behavior
Stage approach to development – four distinct stages- sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational. These stages occur from birth to adolescence and a combination of physical development and relevant experience are necessary to move from one stage to another

4. Sensorimotor Stage Substage 1: Simple Reflexes birth to 1 month
Reflexes at the center of cognitive life
Substage 2: First habits and Primary circular reactions
1-4 months
Coordinate separate actions into single,
integrated actions
Substage 3: Secondary circular reactions
4-8 months
Begin to act on outside world
Substage 4: Coordination of secondary circular reactions
8-12 months
Calculated approaches. Object permanence begins
Substage 5: Tertiary circular reactions
12-18 months
Carry out miniature experiments to observe consequences
Substage 6: Beginnings of thought
18-24 months
Capacity for mental representation or symbolic thought. Imagine where objects might be that they cannot see.

5. Transitions

6. Piaget Concepts
Circular Reaction – an activity that permits the construction of positive schemes through the repetition of a chance motor event
Primary – schemes reflecting an infant’s repetition of interesting or enjoyable activities just for the enjoyment of doing them
Secondary – schemes regarding repeated actions that bring about a desirable consequence
Tertiary – schemes regarding the deliberate variation of actions that bring desirable consequences
Goal-directed behavior – several schemes are combined and coordinated to generate a single act to solve a problem
Mental representation – internal image of a past object or event
Deferred imitation – when a person who is no longer present is imitated, eg pretend to drive when mom not there driving
Object permanence – realization that people and objects exist even when they cannot be seen

7. Piaget Concepts

8. Criticism of Piaget’s Theory
Waves, not stages – Robert Siegler (1995) suggested development in waves, or ebb and flow, vs. stages
Motor development may not be the only basis – Piaget was not familiar with sensory and perceptual systems
Object permanence may occur earlier – motor skills or memory deficits may not allow that concept to develop earlier
Fixed pattern – infants may be able to imitate facial expressions earlier than Piaget proposed

9. Information Processing Approaches
Information is encoded, stored and retrieved much like a computer

10. Memory in Infants
Memory, the process by which information is initially recorded, stored and retrieved, is certainly in the realm of infants. Infant memory capabilities increase with age.
Infantile amnesia is a lack of memory for experience that occurred before 3 years old
Early memories appear to be implicit. Explicit memory emerges by the second half of the first year.

11. Intelligence in Infants
Determining what is meant by intelligence in infants represents a major challenge for developmentalists.
Developmental quotient (DQ) is an overall developmental score that relates to performance in 4 domains:
Motor skills- balance and sitting
Language use
Adaptive behavior – alertness and exploration
Personal and social skills – feeding and dressing
Bayley Scales of Infant Development – used on 2 to 42 month old children and focuses on mental abilities: senses, perception, memory, learning, problem solving, language and motor skills: fine and gross motor skills

12. Information Processing and Infants
Visual recognition memory – the memory and recognition of a stimulus that has been previously seen
Cross-modal transference – the ability to identify, using another sense, a stimulus that has previously only been experienced through one sense. For example, a baby recognizes a tool by sight that she only touched before
When this occurs in an infant at one year old, these skills are associated with intelligence scores years later
Piaget focused on qualitative changes and growth in spurts, whereas information processing looks at quantitative changes, a much more gradual approach

13. Language and Infants
Language is a systematic, meaningful arrangement of symbols that provides a basis for communication
Phonology refers to basic sounds of language
Morpheme is the smallest language unit that has meaning
Semantics are rules that govern meaning of words and sentences

14. Language and Infants
Prelinguistic communication refers to communication through sounds, facial expressions, gestures, imitation, and other nonlinguistic means
Babbling refers to making speechlike but meaningful sounds
Holophrases are one-word utterances that stand for a whole phrase, whose meaning depends on the context used
Telegraphic speech is speech in which words not critical to meaning are left out
Underextension – overly restrictive use of words, common among children just mastering spoken language
Overextension – overly broad use of words, overgeneralizing their meaning
Referential style – speaking style in which language is used primarily to label objects
Expressive style- speaking style in which language is primarily used to express feelings and needs about oneself and others

15. Learning Theory Approach vs. Nativist Approach
Learning theory says that language acquisition follows the basic laws of reinforcement and conditioning
Nativist approach states a genetically determined, innate mechanism directs language development