1. Cognitive Development in Infants
What is cognitive development?
What are some examples of cognitive development?

2. Cognitive Development
Thought process
Remembering
Problem solving
Decision making
Language

3. Sensorimotor Stage Stage 1
Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory

4. Sensorimotor Stage 0-2 years
Children are learning about their world through the use of their senses + motor activities.
Ex: watching an object move + reaching to grasp it.
Which of the senses does a baby use?
What motor action does a baby use ?
Explains why infants & toddlers are hands on
They are always getting into things!

5. Advances in sensorimotor stage
1. babies transition from reflexive behavior to intentional behavior
2. develop object permanence

6. Use the power points to answer the observation questions
6 Substages of Sensorimotor Development
Substage 1: Simple reflexes (0-1 month)
Substage 2: First Habits & Primary Circular Reactions (1-4 months)
Substage 3: Secondary Circular Reactions (4-8 months)
Substage 4: Coordination of Secondary Schemes (8-12 months)
Substage 5: Tertiary Circular Reactions (12-18 months)
Substage 6: Mental Representations (18-24 months)
Use the power points to answer the observation questions

7. Substage 1: Simple reflexes (0-1 month)
Cognitive activity is based on neonatal (newborn) reflexes
Ex: sucking, rooting, grasping, stepping
Babies are learning from these reflexive behaviors
Reflexes are schemes (how we organize, process and interperit information)
Schemes are the building blocks of knowledge
Ex: grasping an object, naming animals, doing algebra, understanding numbers

8. Substage 2:First Habits & primary circular reactions (1-4 months)
Less reflexive & more intentional behavior by the infant
Ex: infant accidentally puts hand in his mouth & starts sucking on it. He enjoys the feeling & starts to intentionally put hand in his mouth repeatedley.
Primary= infant’s own body
Circular=once it’s discovered, it’s repeated

9. Substage 3: Secondary Circular Reactions (4-8 months)
Repetition of movements that occurred by chance
Ex: baby accidentally kicks toy and it light up & makes a sound. Baby enjoys the light & sound so she repeated the action.
Secondary= outside of baby’s body
Circular=once it’s discovered, it’s repeated

10. Substage 4: Coordination of secondary schemes (8-12 months)
Baby has goals in his behavior
He wants to do something
Can coordinate his schemes in order to accomplish his goal
Ex: baby wants a toy. Crawls to the toy, pushes the ball aside, grabs the toy

11. Substage 4: Coordination of secondary schemes (8-12 months) Observation 1 Question 19
Object permanence: objects & people continue to exist even if we can’t see them
Having object permanence= having mental representations
Infants less than 4 months do not look for an object
Infants 4-8 months look briefly to see where object went
8-12 months= put an object under blanket, infant will lift it to find it
A-not-B error

12. Substage 5: Tertiary Circular Reactions (12-18 months)
“little scientists”
Toddlers intentionally try out behaviors to see the effects
Ex: flushing toilet over & over
Ex: using a sponge

13. Substage 6: mental representations (18-24 months)
Toddlers think about the possibilities then select the actions that will get them what they want
Mental representations: having a mental picture in your mind
Deferred imitation: ability to repeat actions observed earlier
Ex: Sydney was observed feeding her baby doll and burping it. She has a baby brother and has seen her mother feed and burp him.
Mental representations can be seen in:
Play
Language: word we use are mental representations of objects,
people, actions, ideas
3. Art

15. Let’s review Piaget’s Sub stages
Stage 1: Sensorimotor
6 sub stages
Let's Watch

16. Piaget & Modern research
Piaget formed his theory by observing his 3 children
Modern research uses innovative statistics, research designs, sample sizes & strategies
Advanced cameras can accurately measure and rewind observations
Evidence of object permanence before 8 months
fMRI can measure brain activity by showing parts of brain that have blood flow as infant is exposed to stimuli

17. Habituation Habituation-Dishabituation Technique
Technique used to test infant perception. Infants are shown a stimulus repeatedly until they respond less (habituate) to it. Then a new stimulus is presented.
Habituation
The tendency of infants to reduce their response to stimuli that are presented repeatedly.
Dishabituation
The recovery or increase in infant’s response when a familiar stimulus is replaced by one that is novel.