Chapter 3- Cognitive and language development in infancy

Question 1

What is adaption according to Piaget?

Answer 1

adjusting to new environmental demands

Question 2

What are schemes according to Piaget?

Answer 2

Actions or mental representations that organize knowledge

Question 3

What are the 2 types of schemes?

Answer 3

Behavioral schemes (physical activities) and mental schemes (cognitive activities)

Question 4

What is assimilation?

Answer 4

Fitting information from the environment into your own scheme/mold

Question 5

What is accommodation?

Answer 5

Changing your mold/scheme to better fit the info from the environment

Question 6

What is organization in Piaget’s theory?

Answer 6

grouping isolated behaviors and thoughts into a higher-ordered, more smoothly functioning cognitive system

Question 7

What is disequilibrium?

Answer 7

The conflict that arises when a child is faced with inconsistencies that don’t fit into their pre-existing scheme

Question 8

What is equilibration?

Answer 8

Fitting the info into the scheme and being satisfied with the understanding

Question 9

How long does the sensorimotor stage last?

Answer 9

from birth to age 2

Question 10

Describe the sensorimotor stage

Answer 10

When infants explore using their senses and motor skills

Question 11

What is the A-not-B error?

Answer 11

When infants look for an object where it was previously hidden, rather than where it’s hidden in the moment

Question 12

What are some critiques of Piaget’s theory?

Answer 12

Intermodal perception and object permanence develop much earlier than Piaget thought

Question 13

What is the core knowledge approach?

Answer 13

Theory that infants are born with innate, pre-wired knowledge systems including space, number sense, object permanence, and language

Question 14

What is attention according to Skinner?

Answer 14

the focusing of mental resources on select info

Question 15

What is joint-attention and what does it require?

Answer 15

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

Question 16

What are concepts? Do infants have them?

Answer 16

Cognitive groupings of similar objects, events, people, or ideas. Infants do have them, but they are more like perceptual categorizations

Question 17

What is perceptual categorization?

Answer 17

Categorizations based on similar perceptual features of objects (like grouping a cookie and a frisbee together since they are both round)

Question 18

What is conceptual categorization?

Answer 18

Categorizations based on concepts (grouping a cookie with a brownie instead of a frisbee, because they are both desserts)

Question 19

What are some milestones in language development in infants?

Answer 19

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

Question 20

What is the vocabulary spurt?

Answer 20

the rapid increase in vocabulary that begins around 18 months

Question 21

What’s the average age to have your first words?

Answer 21

13 months

Question 22

Give an example of a two-word utterance

Answer 22

“Where ball?” as opposed to “Where is the ball?”

Question 23

Describe Broca’s area

Answer 23

area of the brain involved with speech production; found in the frontal lobe

Question 24

Describe Wernicke’s area

Answer 24

area of the brain involved with language comprehension; found in the left hemisphere/ parietal/temporal lobes

Question 25

What is aphasia?

Answer 25

The loss or impairment of language processing; caused by damage to Broca’s or Wernicke’s area

Question 26

Describe Chomsky’s language theory

Answer 26

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

Question 27

What is underextension?

Answer 27

when a word is applied too narrowly (ex. the word “ball” is only applied to big, orange basketballs)

Question 28

What is overextension

Answer 28

word is applied too broadly (ex. “ball” is anything round)

Question 29

What are some ways caregivers can support language development?

Answer 29

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

Question 30

What is the interactionist view?

Answer 30

idea that language development isn’t solely dependent on nature or nurture, but a mix of both