Chapter 5: Cognitive Development in Infancy Flashcards
What is cognitive development?
-changes in thinking that occur over time
What are the components of Piaget’s stage theory? Like the rules for the theory. (5)
-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)
What two beliefs did Piaget have about his stage theory? (2)
-cognitive development occurs in 4 stages
-children play an active role in their own development (child as a scientist)
What is a schema?
-organized patterns of thought or action used to interpret experience
What two things did Piaget propose happens as we respond to the world with schemas? (2)
-assimilation
-accomdoation
What is assimilation? Use the folder example. (2)
-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.
What is accommodation? Folder example? (2)
-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.
What is equilibration?
-the ongoing process of balancing assimilation and accommodation to create schemes that fit the environment
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)
-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
Describe the 6 substages of the sensorimotor stage. Include what it is called and what age the child is.
-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)
What is object permanence?
-the understanding that objects exist even when they cannot be seen
Describe the characteristics of the substage of sensorimotor development called Reflexive Schemes (0-1 months). (3)
-actions the result of innate reflexes
-out of sight out of mind
-limited imitation
Describe the characteristics of the substage of sensorimotor development called Primary circular reactions (1-4 months). (2)
-repetitive schemes
-involve the baby’s own own baby (sucking a thumb)
Describe the characteristics of the substage of sensorimotor development called secondary circular reactions (4-8 months).
-trial and error learning with events outside of the baby’s body (kicking a mobile, dropping things on floors)
Describe the characteristics of the substage of sensorimotor development called coordination of secondary schemes (8-12 months)
-can coordinate schemes in intentional behaviour (means-ends behaviour, crawling to pick up toy)
Describe the characteristics of the substage of sensorimotor development called tertiary circular reactions (12-18 months).
-curiosity and behavioural variation
-trial and error experimentation and problem-solving
Describe the characteristics of the substage of sensorimotor development called mental representations (18-24 months).
-development of use of symbols and mental problem-solving
What is the A not B error? What does it show? (2)
-where children will look under the wrong blanket after finding the object under blanket A for example
-incomplete object permanence
What are alternative explanations for the A not B error?
-infants were reinforced for looking under the A blanket so looked under there again
What was the carrot study and what did it show? (2)
-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
What is the violation-of-expectancy method?
-habituate babies to an expected event then show them a change and asses their response
What is an object concept?
-infants understanding of the nature of objects and how they behave
What are other limitations of Piaget’s theory? Why did he do this? (2)
-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
Discuss schematic learning in infants.
-by 7 months, kids actively use categories to process information, but struggle with hierarchical categorization
Discuss memory in infants.
-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
What do Bayley scales measure?
-many aspects of infant and toddler development
Discuss intelligence in infancy and what they say might measure that.
-habituation and how quickly an infant gets bored after looking at something, as it shows the efficiency of the baby’s perceptual/cognitive system
What is a behaviourist’s perspective on infants ability to learn language?
-infants learn language through parental/caregiver/teacher reinforcement of word-like sounds and correct grammar
What is a nativist’s perspective on infants ability to learn language?
-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
What is the interactionist’s perspective on infants ability to learn language?
-infants are biologically prepared to attend to language and social interaction plays a critical role
What is infant-directed speech?
-the simplified, high-pitch and often repetitive speech adults use with infants (like how you talk to a cat)
What is expansion or recasting?
-elaborating a child’s speech in a grammatically correct way (daddy lunch -> yes daddy is eating his lunch)
What are the three language milestones for infants? (3)
-cooing (1-2 months) ooooo
-babbling (6-7 months) baba
-gestural language (9-10 months) often used to communicate demands
What is receptive language?
-infants have a higher comprehension of spoken language then they can speak
What is expressive language?
-the ability to produce sounds, signs or symbols to communicate meaning
What are holophrases? Example? (2)
-combination of gesture/words
-child yells milk and points at fridge
What are naming explosion?
-rapid vocabulary growth
What is telegraphic speech? Example? (2)
-short 2-3 word sentences
-“Want cookie”
