Infants, Children, and Adolescents Chapter 6 Cognitive Development in Infancy and Childhood This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law: Any public performance or display, including transmission of any image over a network; Preparation of any derivative work, including the extraction, in whole or in part of any images; Any rental, lease, or lending of the program.
Piaget s Cognitive- Developmental Theory The sensorimotor stage spans the first two years of life. Organized ways of making sense of experience, called schemes, change with age. Action-based (motor patterns) at first Later move to a mental (thinking) level
Adaptation Building Schemes Building schemes Assimilation Using current schemes to interpret external world Accommodation Adjusting old schemes and creating new ones to better fit environment Renata Osińska Dreamstime.com
Using Assimilation and Accommodation Equilibrium and Disequilibrium Use assimilation during equilibrium Disequilibrium prompts accommodation Organization Internal rearranging and linking schemes
Sensorimotor Stage Kathleen Van Hoffen Dreamstime.com Birth to 2 years, divided into six substages Building schemes through sensory and motor exploration Circular reactions stumbling upon a new experience caused by the baby s own motor activity
Piaget s Sensorimotor Substages Table 6.1
Goal-directed Intentional Behavior Means end action sequences According to Piaget, develops in Substage 4 Object permanence Babies still make A-not-B search errors. Petro Feketa Dreamstime.com
Object Permanence Renée Baillargeon and her collaborators claim to have found evidence for object permanence in the first few months of life. Some critics question whether babies looking preferences tell us what they really know. Mastery of object permanence is a gradual achievement.
Violation-of-Expectation Method Figure 6.1
Mental Representations Internal, mental depictions of objects, people, events, information Can manipulate with mind Allow deferred imitation and makebelieve play
Deferred Imitation Piaget: Develops at about 18 months Newer research: Present at 6 weeks facial imitation 6 9 months copy actions 14 months imitate rationally 18 months imitate intended, but not completed, actions
Testing Infants for Deferred Imitation Figure 6.2 After researchers performed a novel series of actions with a puppet, this 6-month-old imitated the actions a day later (a) removing the glove; (b) shaking the glove to ring a bell inside. With age, gains in recall are evident in deferred imitation of others behaviors over longer delays.
Baby Learning from TV and Video: Video Deficit Effect 40% of U.S. 3 montholds watch TV regularly; rises to 90% at age 2. Infants initially respond to videos of people as actual people. Toddlers demonstrate video deficit effect poorer performance after a video than a live demonstration. Around age 2½, this effect declines. Videos for teaching 2- year-olds work best when they are rich in social cues.
Evaluation of Sensorimotor Stage Some developments happen when Piaget described: Object search A-not-B search error Make-believe play Many appear to happen sooner than Piaget thought: Object permanence Secondary circular reactions Deferred imitation Problem solving by analogy
Core Knowledge Perspective Infants are born with core knowledge in several domains of thought: Physical knowledge Linguistic knowledge Psychological knowledge Numerical knowledge Findings controversial, but all acknowledge importance of experience
Model of Human Information- Processing System Figure 6.4
Attention During the first year, infants pay attention to novel events. During toddlerhood, children become capable of intentional behavior and sustained attention improves. Yi Jin Dreamstime.com
Memory Operant conditioning research: Infants memories increase dramatically during infancy and toddlerhood. Memories move from highly contextdependent to increasingly context-free. Habituation/recovery research: Infants do not need to be physically active to acquire and retain new information. Infants can engage in recall by end of first year.
Increase in Retention in Two Operant Conditioning Tasks from 2 to 18 Months Figure 6.5
Figure 6.6 Infantile Amnesia Most of us cannot recall events before age 3. May be due to: Immature brain development Memory processing in infants is nonverbal. Lack of focused self-image
Categorization Figure 6.7 By 6 months, infants can categorize based on two features (e.g., shape and color). Earliest categories are perceptual, but by the second half of the first year, more categories are conceptual.
Vygotsky s Sociocultural Theory Social contexts (other people) contribute to cognitive development. Zone of Proximal Development tasks child cannot do alone but can learn to do with help Scaffolding promotes learning at all ages. Cultural variations affect mental strategies taught and learned.
Social Origins of Make-Believe Play Monkey Business Images Dreamstime.com Society provides children with opportunities to represent culturally meaningful activities in play. Research indicates that makebelieve play is a result of readiness and experiences. Adult participation leads to more complex play and teaches cultural values.
Infant Intelligence Tests Bayley Scales of Infant Development Suitable for children between 1 month and 3½ years The Bayley-III The Cognitive Scale The Language Scale The Motor Scale The Social-Emotional Scale* The Adaptive Behavior Scale* * Rely on parental report
Normal Distribution of Intelligence Test Scores Figure 6.9
HOME Infant Toddler Subscales Source: Bradley, 1994; Bradley et al., 2001.
High-Quality HOME Environment Checklist for gathering information about the quality of children s home lives through observation and parental interview Measured during first three years Extent to which parents talk with children especially important Predicts language, IQ, and academic achievement Genetic environmental correlation?
Elements of Developmentally Appropriate Child Care Responsive, interactive, well-trained caregivers Clean, safe, uncrowded indoor spaces Appropriate toys, stored within reach Safe equipment Low teacher-child ratios Flexible daily schedule Warm atmosphere Parents welcome anytime Accredited
IQ Improvement from Early Intervention Programs Figure 6.10 IQ scores of treatment and control children from infancy to 21 years in the Carolina Abecedarian Project. At 1 year, treatment children outperformed controls, an advantage consistently maintained through age 21. The IQ scores of both groups declined gradually during childhood and adolescence a trend probably due to the damaging impact of poverty on mental development. (Adapted from Campbell et al., 2001.)
Three Theories of Language Development Behaviorist (B. F. Skinner) Nativist (Noam Chomsky) Interactionist Learned through operant conditioning (reinforcement) and imitation Inborn language acquisition device (LAD) biologically prepares infants to learn rules of language. Inner capacities and environment work together; social context is important.
Broca s and Wernicke s Areas in the Left Hemisphere of the Cerebral Cortex Figure 6.11 Broca s Area Supports grammatical processing and language production Wernicke s Area Plays role in comprehending word meaning
Recent Developments in the Interactionist Perspective Recent ideas about language development emphasize interactions between inner capacities and environmental influences. Two theories: Information-processing perspective Social interaction
Milestones of Language Development During the First Two Years Table 6.3
Hupeng Dreamstime.com Getting Ready to Talk First speech sounds Cooing Babbling Becoming a communicator Joint attention Give-and-take Preverbal gestures
Sensitive Period for Language Development A deaf-born 5-month-old given a cochlear implant showed typical infant babbling and resembled her hearing agemates in language development at 3 to 4 years. If hearing 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.
Starting to Talk First Words Underextension Overextension Two-Word Utterances Most children show a steady, continuous increase in the rate of word learning through the preschool years. Telegraphic speech Ajphotos Dreamstime.com
Comprehension versus Production Toddlers comprehension of the spoken language increases dramatically over the second year. Quick comprehension frees space in working memory for picking up new words and for the more demanding task of using them to communicate.
Individual and Cultural Differences in Language Development Gender Temperament Environment SES Child-directed speech Language style Referential Expressive Language delay Gilbert Agao Dreamstime.com
Supporting Early Language Development Infants Toddlers Respond to coos and babbles. Establish and respond to joint attention. Play social games. Play make-believe together. Have frequent conversations. Read to toddlers often and talk about the books.
Parent Child Interaction: Impact on Language and Cognitive Development of Deaf Children About 2 to 3 of every 1,000 infants in the United States are born deaf. Ninety percent have hearing parents who are not fluent in sign language. Often delayed in development of language and make-believe play and have deficient social skills Intervention within the first year of life can have a positive impact on language, cognitive, and social outcomes.