6. Cognition in Infant & Toddlers Flashcards
Jean Piaget
Developmental psychologist who researched the origins of knowledge by doing research with children.
- different than contemporaries because viewed intelligence as from the interaction of maturity and experience of the environment, not just the latter
- children are curious; scientists
- experience helps develop knowledge, then with maturation, leads to cognitive development
schemas
psychological structures that organize experience through mental categories and conceptual models of knowledge
- they change with experience and with assimilation + accommodation
assimilation
cognitively incorporating new experiences into exiting schemas
accommodation
cognitive modification of schemas as a result of experience
equilibrium
when assimilation and accommodation are in balance.
disequilibrium
when much more time is spent accommodating than assimilating
- in response, babies reorganize schemas to incorporate new information or experience
revolutionary schema changes
when critical flaws in schemas are encountered, and major schematic changes are required. 3 times: - 2 years - 7 years - 11 years
Piaget’s 4 stage of cognitive development
- sensorimotor
- preoperational
- concrete operational
- formal operational
- - these always happen in sequence
sensorimotor stage
birth to 2 y.
- knowledge of the world is based on senses and motor skills; perceptual and motor skills change rapidly
preoperational thought
2-6 y.
- child learns to use symbols, such as words or numbers, to represent aspects of the world
concrete operational thought
7-11 y.
- child understands and applies logical operations to experiences
formal operational thought
adolescence and beyond
- thinks abstractly
6 substages of the sensorimotor stage
- exercising reflexes
- learning to adapt
- making interesting events
- using means to achieve ends
- experimenting
- mental representation
- exercising reflexes substage
birth-1 mo.
reflexes become more coordinated behavioural schemas - ex. sucking harder
- learning to adapt substage
1-4 mo.
primary circular reaction: creating a pleasing event with the body (self-initiating) - first learned adaptations to the world
- ex. sucking thumb
- making interesting events substage
4-8 mo.
objects become incorporated into circular events.
secondary circular reaction: learning about the sensations and actions associated with objects
- ex. shaking a toy
- Using means to achieve ends
8-12 mo.
- the start of deliberate, intentional behaviour
- ex. moving an obstacle to reach a toy
- Experimenting
12-18 mo.
tertiary circular reaction: repeating old schemas with new objects (e.g. shaking or dropping) to see what happens
- an important extension of stage 4.
- mental representation
18-24 mo.
- the start of make-believe play
- deferred imitation: acting out events or behaviours seen at an earlier time
- the start of an internal, mental representation of the world (beginning of pre-operational thought)
object permanence
understanding that objects continue to exist independently of one’s own actions
- Piaget thought this was a fundamental task of infancy, but others have disagreed
learning the face
happens before learning how the rest of the body’s parts fit together (after age 1)
naive physics
infants develop some reasonably accurate theories of basic object properties early on
- ex. start to learn gravity later in the first year
information processing approach to cognition
- compares humans to computer processing
- mental hardware = mental & neural structures that are built in: sensory memory, working memory, and long-term memory
- mental software = the basis for performing particular mental tasks - ex. reading
sensory memory
raw, unanalyzed information that is only held for a few seconds
working memory
the active, cognitive manipulation of memory (short-term)
long-term memory
limitless, permanent storage of acquired information
procedural memory
how to do things
semantic memory
memory for particular facts
autobiographical or episodic memory
memory for the significant events/experiences of one’s own life.
- can be affected by prematurity and hypoxia (low oxygen)
neo-Piagetian approach
- Case (canadian)
- theory that retains Piagetian stage theory but takes an IP approach to skill development (moving between stages because of advances in IP skills/abilities, not just maturation)
orienting response
a physical reaction to a strong or unfamiliar stimulus (looks, and heart/brain activity change)
habituation
diminished response to a stimulus as it becomes more familiar
dishabituation
happens when the person becomes actively aware of the stimulus again
classical conditioning
a form of learning in which a neutral stimulus becomes associated with another stimulus and comes to elicit a response.
operant conditioning
a form of learning in which the consequences of an action influence the likelihood of that action happening again
imitation
a form of learning in which behaviour is seen and copied
describe memory at 2-3 months (3 points)
- events can be remembered
- over time, the event can not be recalled
- a cue can remind about the event
infantile amnesia
the inability to remember events from early in one’s life
possible explanations for infantile amnesia
- pre-lingual memories might be hard to retrieve language becomes a means of representing the past
- infants/toddlers have not developed an organized sense of self, so they can’t organize memories of life events.
describe cultural differences in infantile amnesia
- more collective cultures have longer period of infantile amnesia (vs. cultures that emphasized individuality)
- cultures that emphasize elaborative memory talk have a shorter period of infantile amnesia
at what age can infants distinguish different numbers of object (e.g. 2 from 3)
5 months
egocentric frame of reference
thinking of objects’ position solely in terms of their proximity to one’s self
objective frame of reference
thinking of objects’ position relative to the position of other objects
phonemes
unique sounds joined to create words
- different languages use different phonemes
when do babies start to distinguish phonemes
1 mo
at what age do babies become attuned to their language?
1 yr
- lose the ability to recognize phonemes from other languages
at what age can babies distinguish words?
7-8 mo.
at what age can babies look at the correct parent when hearing “mommy”/”daddy”
6 mo.
- pay attention to the syllable stress pattern and syllables that often occur together
infant-directed speech
speaking slowly with exaggerated changes of pitch and loudness when speaking to babies
- a.k.a. motherese
cooing
long strings of vowel sounds
- 2 mo.
babbling
speech-like sound with no meaning
- 5-6 months, then expanding
intonation
a pattern of rising/falling pitch similar to the pattern in normal conversation (language-specific)
- 7 mo.
- link between perception and production of speech
first words (and gestures)
around 1 yr.
ability to produce sounds + ability to perceive speech sounds
- often repeated consonant-vowel combos (extension of babbling)
naming explosion
a period of rapid language learning at about 18 mo.
- 10+/week
fast mapping
the ability of children to rapidly connect new words to their referents
how do parents help word mapping
- by naming an object the toddler is interested in
- and indicating that they’re referring to the object (e.g. looking at it)
simple rules children use for fast mapping
- if it’s an unfamiliar word, it’s mapped to an object that doesn’t have a name
- a name refers to a whole
- a new name denotes a subcategory of an existing name
- proper noun is when only one object gets the same name consistently
- sentence cues
- if you don’t know the word, use something similar that you do know
underextension
when a word is defined too narrowly
overextension
when a word is defined too broadly
referential style
initial tendency to learn words for objects, people, actions
expressive style
initial tendency to learn primarily social phrases rather than objects
sensation
detecting external events by sense organs and turning those stimuli into neural signals
perception
attending to, organizing, and interpreting stimuli that we sense
visual acuity
the smallest pattern that can be dependably distinguished
visual cliff
a glass covered platform on which a pattern appears
directly under the glass on one side, and several feet below the glass on the other side
reinforcement
the consequence of the behaviour increases the
likelihood that the behaviour will occur again
punishment
the consequence of the behaviour decreases the
likelihood that the behaviour will occur again
Both reinforcement and punishment can be positive or negative:
positive (+) a stimulus is added (positive does not mean good)
negative (-) a stimulus is removed (negative does not mean bad)
observational learning
involves changes in behaviour that result from watching others
model (in observational learning)
the person/animal who first displays the behaviour
orienting response
a physical reaction to a strong or unfamiliar stimulus
Language
A form of communication that involves the use of spoken, written, or gestural symbols that are combined in a rule-based form.
Language differs from communication:
- symbolic
- structured and meaningful
- shows displacement
- generativity
Biological basis for unique language abilities of humans:
- unique vocal apparatus
- genes specifically devoted to language have been identified
- areas of brain specifically devoted to language
receptive language
ability to understand messages through listening or reading
expressive language
ability to produce or generate meaningful messages through speech, sign language, or writing
holophrase
single word used to represent a whole sentence
telegraphic speech
two-word phrases that strip away connecting words, such as “the” and “and”
overregularization
applying grammatical rules even to words that are the exception to the rule
triarchic theory of intelligence
a theory that divides intelligence into three distinct types: analytical, practical, and creative
anthropometrics
methods of measuring physical and mental variations in humans
mental age
average intellectual ability score for children of a specific age
Stanford-Binet test
intended to measure innate levels of intelligence
IQ
calculated by taking a child’s mental age, dividing it by chronological age, multiplied by 100
deviation IQ
compares a child’s test score with the average score for children of the same age
- requires establishment of the “norm”
Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development
- cognitive scale - attention, exploration, matching
- language scale - understanding and use of language
- motor scale - fine and gross motor skills
developmental quotient (DQ)
in assessments of infant development, the overall score indicating developmental progress (median = 100)
