Chapter 5: Cognitive Development in Infancy

Question 1

What is cognitive development?

Answer 1

-changes in thinking that occur over time

Question 2

What are the components of Piaget’s stage theory? Like the rules for the theory. (5)

Answer 2

-qualitative (distinct changes)
-universality (all children go through these)
-invariant (same order for everyone)
-irreversibility (don’t use thinking style from previous stages)
-gradual (change happens slowly, transition period)

Question 3

What two beliefs did Piaget have about his stage theory? (2)

Answer 3

-cognitive development occurs in 4 stages
-children play an active role in their own development (child as a scientist)

Question 4

What is a schema?

Answer 4

-organized patterns of thought or action used to interpret experience

Question 5

What two things did Piaget propose happens as we respond to the world with schemas? (2)

Answer 5

-assimilation
-accomdoation

Question 6

What is assimilation? Use the folder example. (2)

Answer 6

-using pre-existing schemas to make sense of experience, like seeing a wombat and not knowing what it is
-Adding new information to a folder that already exists without changing the structure of the folder.

Question 7

What is accommodation? Folder example? (2)

Answer 7

-changing previous concepts because of new information, creating a new scheme for wombats
-Creating a new folder or restructuring an old folder because the new information doesn’t quite fit.

Question 8

What is equilibration?

Answer 8

-the ongoing process of balancing assimilation and accommodation to create schemes that fit the environment

Question 9

Describe stage 1 in Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. What is it called and what age are infants during this stage? What describes their development? How do they learn? What do they develop? (5)

Answer 9

-sensorimotor period
-birth to 2 years
-move from reflexive beings to active problem solvers
-they learn through their senses and motor actions
-develop object permanence and deferred imitation

Question 10

Describe the 6 substages of the sensorimotor stage. Include what it is called and what age the child is.

Answer 10

-Rudy Please Read Cool Tasty M&Ms
1. Reflexive Schemes: 0-1 month
2. Primary Circular Reactions: 1-4 months
3. Secondary circular reactions (4-8 months)
4. Coordination of secondary themes (8-12 months)
5. Tertiary circular reactions (12-18 months)
6. Mental representations (18-24 months)

Question 11

What is object permanence?

Answer 11

-the understanding that objects exist even when they cannot be seen

Question 12

Describe the characteristics of the substage of sensorimotor development called Reflexive Schemes (0-1 months). (3)

Answer 12

-actions the result of innate reflexes
-out of sight out of mind
-limited imitation

Question 13

Describe the characteristics of the substage of sensorimotor development called Primary circular reactions (1-4 months). (2)

Answer 13

-repetitive schemes
-involve the baby’s own own baby (sucking a thumb)

Question 14

Describe the characteristics of the substage of sensorimotor development called secondary circular reactions (4-8 months).

Answer 14

-trial and error learning with events outside of the baby’s body (kicking a mobile, dropping things on floors)

Question 15

Describe the characteristics of the substage of sensorimotor development called coordination of secondary schemes (8-12 months)

Answer 15

-can coordinate schemes in intentional behaviour (means-ends behaviour, crawling to pick up toy)

Question 16

Describe the characteristics of the substage of sensorimotor development called tertiary circular reactions (12-18 months).

Answer 16

-curiosity and behavioural variation
-trial and error experimentation and problem-solving

Question 17

Describe the characteristics of the substage of sensorimotor development called mental representations (18-24 months).

Answer 17

-development of use of symbols and mental problem-solving

Question 18

What is the A not B error? What does it show? (2)

Answer 18

-where children will look under the wrong blanket after finding the object under blanket A for example
-incomplete object permanence

Question 19

What are alternative explanations for the A not B error?

Answer 19

-infants were reinforced for looking under the A blanket so looked under there again

Question 20

What was the carrot study and what did it show? (2)

Answer 20

-a tall carrot passing through a window and they can’t see it and the baby’s look suprised
-she argued that baby’s did have object permenance

Question 21

What is the violation-of-expectancy method?

Answer 21

-habituate babies to an expected event then show them a change and asses their response

Question 22

What is an object concept?

Answer 22

-infants understanding of the nature of objects and how they behave

Question 23

What are other limitations of Piaget’s theory? Why did he do this? (2)

Answer 23

-people have found imitation can occur much earlier than Piaget suggested, plus he didn’t discuss categorization, memory or language
-Piaget may have wrongly equated the infant’s lack of physical ability with lack of cognitive understanding

Question 24

Discuss schematic learning in infants.

Answer 24

-by 7 months, kids actively use categories to process information, but struggle with hierarchical categorization

Question 25

Discuss memory in infants.

Answer 25

-infant’s memory is strongly linked to context, example of Rovee-Collier’s experiment where they are tied to a mobile and when they kicked the mobile moved and that when a change in the environment occurred the memory went down

Question 26

What do Bayley scales measure?

Answer 26

-many aspects of infant and toddler development

Question 27

Discuss intelligence in infancy and what they say might measure that.

Answer 27

-habituation and how quickly an infant gets bored after looking at something, as it shows the efficiency of the baby’s perceptual/cognitive system

Question 28

What is a behaviourist’s perspective on infants ability to learn language?

Answer 28

-infants learn language through parental/caregiver/teacher reinforcement of word-like sounds and correct grammar

Question 29

What is a nativist’s perspective on infants ability to learn language?

Answer 29

-they have an innate language processor called the language acquisition device which contains the basic grammatical structure of all human language, guides children;s comprehension and production of language

Question 30

What is the interactionist’s perspective on infants ability to learn language?

Answer 30

-infants are biologically prepared to attend to language and social interaction plays a critical role

Question 31

What is infant-directed speech?

Answer 31

-the simplified, high-pitch and often repetitive speech adults use with infants (like how you talk to a cat)

Question 32

What is expansion or recasting?

Answer 32

-elaborating a child’s speech in a grammatically correct way (daddy lunch -> yes daddy is eating his lunch)

Question 33

What are the three language milestones for infants? (3)

Answer 33

-cooing (1-2 months) ooooo
-babbling (6-7 months) baba
-gestural language (9-10 months) often used to communicate demands

Question 34

What is receptive language?

Answer 34

-infants have a higher comprehension of spoken language then they can speak

Question 35

What is expressive language?

Answer 35

-the ability to produce sounds, signs or symbols to communicate meaning

Question 36

What are holophrases? Example? (2)

Answer 36

-combination of gesture/words
-child yells milk and points at fridge

Question 37

What are naming explosion?

Answer 37

-rapid vocabulary growth

Question 38

What is telegraphic speech? Example? (2)

Answer 38

-short 2-3 word sentences
-“Want cookie”