Chapter 6Cognitive Development in Infancy

Caprice Paduano Child Development

Chapter 6 Key Questions 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?

Piaget’s Approach to Cognitive Development Piaget argued that infants do not acquire

knowledge from facts communicated by others, nor through sensation and perception.

Instead, he suggested that knowledge is the product of direct motor behavior.

Key Elements ofPiaget’s Theory Piaget assumed that all children pass through

a series of four universal stages in a fixed order from birth through adolescence: sensorimotor preoperational concrete operational formal operational

Key Elements ofPiaget’s Theory Piaget believed that the basic building blocks

of the way we understand the world are mental structures called schemes, organized patterns of functioning, that adapt and change with mental development.

Key Elements ofPiaget’s Theory Piaget suggested that two principles underlie the growth in children’s schemes: assimilation and accommodation.

Assimilation The process in which people understand an experience in terms of their current stage of cognitive development and way of thinking

Accommodation Changes in existing ways of thinking that occur in response to encounters with new stimuli or events

The Sensorimotor Period: Six Substages of Cognitive Development

Sensorimotor stage (of cognitive development) Piaget’s initial major stage of cognitive development,

which can be broken down into six substages, as summarized in Table 6-1.

Piaget’s Six Substages ofthe Sensorimotor Stage

Substage 1: Simple Reflexes During this time, the various inborn reflexes

are at the center of a baby’s physical and cognitive life, determining the nature of his or her interactions with the world.

At the same time, some of the reflexes begin to accommodate the infant’s experience with the nature of the world.

Substage 2: First Habits and Primary Circular Reactions In this period, infants begin to coordinate what

were separate actions into single, integrated activities.

If an activity engages a baby’s interests, he or she may repeat it over and over, simply for the sake of continuing to experience it.

Substage 3: Secondary Circular Reactions During this period, infants begin to act upon

the outside world. The major difference between primary circular

reactions and secondary circular reactions is whether the infant’s activity is focused on the infant and his or her own body (primary circular reactions), or involves actions relating to the world outside (secondary circular reactions).

Substage 4: Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions Infants begin to employ goal-directed

behavior, in which several schemes are combined and coordinated to generate a single act to solve a problem.

Object permanence The realization that people and objects exist even when they cannot be seen

Substage 5: TertiaryCircular Reactions During this period infants develop what Piaget

labeled tertiary circular reactions, schemes regarding the deliberate variation of actions that bring desirable consequences.

Rather than just repeating enjoyable activities, as they do with secondary circular reactions, infants appear to carry out miniature experiments to observe the consequences.

Substage 6:Beginnings of Thought The major achievement of Substage 6 is the

capacity for mental representation, or symbolic thought.

Mental representation An internal image of a past event or object

Deferred imitation An act in which a person who is no longer present is imitated by children

Appraising Piaget:Support and Challenges Most developmental researchers would

probably agree that in many significant ways, Piaget’s descriptions of how cognitive development proceeds during infancy are quite accurate.

Yet, there is substantial disagreement over the validity of the theory and many of its specific predictions.

Information-Processing Approaches to Cognitive Development

Information-processing approaches The model that seeks to identify the way that individuals take in, use, and store information

Taking this perspective, cognitive growth is characterized by increasing sophistication, speed, and capacity in information processing.

Encoding, Storage, and Retrieval: The Foundations of Information Processing

Information processing has three basic aspects: Encoding is the process by which information is initially

recorded in a form usable to memory. Storage refers to the placement of material into

memory. Retrieval is the process by which material in memory

storage is located, brought into awareness, and used.

Automatization Automatization is the degree to which an activity

requires attention. Infants and children develop an understanding of

concepts, categorizations of objects, events, or people that share common properties.

Automatization Research suggests that infants have an

innate grasp of certain basic mathematical functions and statistical patterns.

This inborn proficiency is likely to form the basis for learning more complex mathematics and statistical relationships later in life.

Memory Capabilitiesin Infancy Memory The process by which information is initially recorded, stored, and retrieved

Infants can distinguish new stimuli from old stimuli, and this implies that some memory of the old must be present.

Researchers generally believe that information is processed similarly throughout the life span, even though the kind of information being processed changes and different parts of the brain may be used.

The Duration of Memories Infantile amnesia The lack of memory for experiences that occurred prior to 3 years of age

Although early research supported the notion of infantile amnesia, the lack of memory for experiences occurring prior to 3 years of age, more recent research shows that infants do retain memories.

The question of how well memories formed during infancy are retained in adulthood remains not fully answered.

The Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory Advances in brain-scan technology, as well as studies

of adults with brain damage, suggest that there are two separate systems involved with long-term memory.

Explicit memory is conscious memory that can be recalled intentionally.

Implicit memory is memory that is recalled unconsciously.

Explicit and implicit memory emerge at different rates and involve different parts of the brain.

Individual Differences in Intelligence: Is One Infant Smarter Than Another?

Although it is clear that different infants show significant variations in their behavior, the issue of just what types of behavior may be related to cognitive ability is complicated.

What Is Infant Intelligence? Educators, psychologists, and other experts

on development have yet to agree upon a general definition of intelligent behavior, even among adults.

However, developmental specialists have devised several approaches (summarized in Table 6-2) to illuminate the nature of individual differences in intelligence during infancy.

Approaches Used to Detect Differences in Intelligence

Developmental Scales Developmental quotient An overall

developmental score that relates to performance in four domains: motor skills, language use, adaptive behavior, and personal–social behavior

Bayley Scales of Infant Development A measure that evaluates an infant’s development from 2 to 42 months (Table 6-3)

Sample Items from the Bayley Scales

Information-Processing Approaches to Individual Differences in Intelligence

Contemporary approaches to infant intelligence suggest that the speed with which infants process information may correlate most strongly with later intelligence.

However, even though there is an association between early information processing capabilities and later measures of IQ, the correlation is only moderate in strength.

Information-Processing Approaches to Individual Differences in Intelligence

Other factors, such as the degree of environmental stimulation, also play a crucial role in helping to determine adult intelligence.

Consequently, we should not assume that intelligence is somehow permanently fixed in infancy.

Assessing Information-Processing Approaches Both Piagetian and information-processing

approaches are critical in providing an account of cognitive development in infancy.

Coupled with advances in the biochemistry of the brain and theories that consider the effects of social factors on learning and cognition, the two help us paint a full picture of cognitive development.

The Fundamentals of Language: From Sounds to Symbols

Language The systematic, meaningful arrangement of symbols, which provides the basis for communication

Language has several formal characteristics that must be mastered as linguistic competence is developed. They include: Phonology Morphemes Semantics

Early Sounds and Communication Prelinguistic communication is communication

through sounds, facial expressions, gestures, imitation, and other nonlinguistic means.

Babbling Making speechlike but meaningless sounds

Babbling typically follows a progression from simple to more complex sounds.

First Words First words generally are spoken somewhere

around the age of 10 to 14 months, but may occur as early as 9 months of age.

Holophrases One-word utterances that stand for a whole phrase, whose meaning depends on the particular context in which they are used

Culture has an effect on the type of first words spoken.

First Words

First Sentences The explosive increase in vocabulary that

comes at around 18 months is accompanied by another accomplishment: the linking together of individual words into sentences that convey a single thought.

Telegraphic speech Speech in which words not critical to the message are left out (Table 6-5)

Children’s Imitation of Sentences

Use of Words and Language Underextension The overly restrictive use of words, common among children just mastering spoken language

Overextension The overly broad use of words, overgeneralizing their meaning

Referential style A style of language use in which language is used primarily to label objects

Expressive style A style of language use in which language is used primarily to express feelings and needs about oneself and others

Learning Theory Approaches: Language as a Learned Skill Learning theory approach The theory that

language acquisition follows the basic laws of reinforcement and conditioning

The learning theory approach doesn’t seem to adequately explain how children acquire the rules of language as readily as they do.

Nativist Approaches: Language as an Innate Skill Difficulties with the learning theory approach

have led to the development of an alternative, championed by the linguist Noam Chomsky and known as the nativist approach.

Nativist approach The theory that a genetically determined, innate mechanism directs language development

Nativist Approaches: Language as an Innate Skill Universal grammar Chomsky’s theory that all

the world’s languages share a similar underlying structure

Language-acquisition device (LAD) A neural system of the brain hypothesized to permit understanding of language

The view that language is an innate ability unique to humans also has its critics.

The Interactionist Approaches

The interactionist perspective suggests that language development is produced through a combination of genetically determined predispositions and environmental circumstances that help teach language.

More likely, different factors play different roles at different times during childhood.

The full explanation for language acquisition, then, remains to be found.

Infant-Directed Speech Infant-directed speech A type of speech

directed toward infants, characterized by short, simple sentences (Table 6-6)

Characterized by short, simple sentences, infant-directed speech plays an important role in infants’ acquisition of language.

Features of Infant-Directed Speech