Chapter 3- Cognitive and language development in infancy Flashcards
What is adaption according to Piaget?
adjusting to new environmental demands
What are schemes according to Piaget?
Actions or mental representations that organize knowledge
What are the 2 types of schemes?
Behavioral schemes (physical activities) and mental schemes (cognitive activities)
What is assimilation?
Fitting information from the environment into your own scheme/mold
What is accommodation?
Changing your mold/scheme to better fit the info from the environment
What is organization in Piaget’s theory?
grouping isolated behaviors and thoughts into a higher-ordered, more smoothly functioning cognitive system
What is disequilibrium?
The conflict that arises when a child is faced with inconsistencies that don’t fit into their pre-existing scheme
What is equilibration?
Fitting the info into the scheme and being satisfied with the understanding
How long does the sensorimotor stage last?
from birth to age 2
Describe the sensorimotor stage
When infants explore using their senses and motor skills
What is the A-not-B error?
When infants look for an object where it was previously hidden, rather than where it’s hidden in the moment
What are some critiques of Piaget’s theory?
Intermodal perception and object permanence develop much earlier than Piaget thought
What is the core knowledge approach?
Theory that infants are born with innate, pre-wired knowledge systems including space, number sense, object permanence, and language
What is attention according to Skinner?
the focusing of mental resources on select info
What is joint-attention and what does it require?
when individuals focus on the same object or event; requires:
1) the ability to track each other’s behavior (like following someone’s gaze)
2) one person directing another’s attention
3) reciprocal interaction
What are concepts? Do infants have them?
Cognitive groupings of similar objects, events, people, or ideas. Infants do have them, but they are more like perceptual categorizations
What is perceptual categorization?
Categorizations based on similar perceptual features of objects (like grouping a cookie and a frisbee together since they are both round)
What is conceptual categorization?
Categorizations based on concepts (grouping a cookie with a brownie instead of a frisbee, because they are both desserts)
What are some milestones in language development in infants?
2-4 months: cooing and vowel sounds
6 months: babbling, consonants, and comprehension of a few words
8-12 months: joint attention, active turn taking, meaningful gestures
12-13 months: babbling sounds like language, increased comprehension, first words
18-24 months: expanded vocab, combining words, 2-word utterance
What is the vocabulary spurt?
the rapid increase in vocabulary that begins around 18 months
What’s the average age to have your first words?
13 months
Give an example of a two-word utterance
“Where ball?” as opposed to “Where is the ball?”
Describe Broca’s area
area of the brain involved with speech production; found in the frontal lobe
Describe Wernicke’s area
area of the brain involved with language comprehension; found in the left hemisphere/ parietal/temporal lobes
What is aphasia?
The loss or impairment of language processing; caused by damage to Broca’s or Wernicke’s area
Describe Chomsky’s language theory
humans are biologically “prewired” to learn language; children are born into the world with a language acquisition device (LAD) that allows the child to understand grammar
What is underextension?
when a word is applied too narrowly (ex. the word “ball” is only applied to big, orange basketballs)
What is overextension
word is applied too broadly (ex. “ball” is anything round)
What are some ways caregivers can support language development?
1) child-directed speech
2) joint attention
3) frequent conversations
4) read a lot and talk about the book after
5) stay within child’s ZPD
What is the interactionist view?
idea that language development isn’t solely dependent on nature or nurture, but a mix of both
