Chapter 6 – Cognition in Infants and Toddlers

Question 1

Piaget’s Theory

Answer 1

Intelligent behaviour occurs as a child tries to adapt to the environment

Interaction between maturation and environment

Child as a scientist
- Create theories
- Adapt over time with
experience

Question 2

Piaget’s Theory - Schemas

Answer 2

Psychological structures that organize experience through mental categories and conceptual models of knowledge.

Question 3

Piaget’s Theory - Assimilation

Answer 3

New experiences are fit into existing schemas

• E.g., grasping a favourite
  toy
• Grasping also works for a
  blanket

Question 4

Piaget’s Theory- Accommodation

Answer 4

Schemas are modified based on experience
- Changes previously held
understandings

Question 5

Piaget’s Theory Stages

Answer 5

Sensorimotor,
Birth to 2 years,
Infant’s knowledge of the world is based on senses and motor skills

Preoperational Thought,
2 to 6 years,
Child learns how to use symbols, such as words and numbers, to represent aspects of the world

Concrete Operational Thought,
7 to 11 years,
Child understands and applies logical operations to experiences

Formal Operational Thought,
Adolescence and beyond,
Adolescent or adult thinks abstractly

Question 6

Sensorimotor Stage

Answer 6

Exercising reflexes (birth – 1 month)

Learning to adapt (1 – 4 months)

Making interesting events (4 – 8 months)

Using means to achieve ends (8 – 12 months)

Experimenting (12 -18 months)

Mental representation (18 – 24 months)

Question 7

Evaluation of Piaget’s Theory

Answer 7

Accurate:
* Assimilation
* Accommodation
* Equilibration

Inaccurate:
* Object Permanence

Question 8

Information Processing

Answer 8

Mental Hardware
- Inborn
- Structures

Mental Software
- Programs
- Help perform specific tasks

Sensory memory
Long-term memory
Working memory

1. Understand
2. Search memory
3. Compare
4. Respond

Question 9

Learning

Answer 9

1. Orienting response
2. Habituation
3. Dishabituation

Conditioning
- Classical
- Operant

Imitation:
- Learning by observing others

Question 10

Understanding the world - Number sense

Answer 10

Quantity discrimination

Question 11

Understanding the world - Egocentric frame of reference

Answer 11

See the world from their own eyes

Question 12

Understanding the world - Individual differences

Answer 12

Focus on sensory skills

Habituation & dishabituation are predictive

Culturally influenced

Question 13

Perceiving Speech - Phonemes

Answer 13

Basic building blocks of language

Unique sounds joined to create words

Question 14

Perceiving Speech - Morphemes

Answer 14

Smallest units of meaning in a language

One or more phonemes

Question 15

Perceiving Speech - Infant directed speech

Answer 15

Slow
Exaggerated pitch and volume

Stressed syllables

Question 16

Producing Speech

Answer 16

Cooing
Babbling
Intonation

Question 17

Exponential Growth in Words

Answer 17

Learn that words represent objects, being, and are symbols or representations

15 months: 2 or 3 words /week

18 months:
- Naming explosion: learn many new words much fast than previously
- Fast mapping: the rapid ability of children to connect new words to their referents

Question 18

Strategies Used in Language Development

Answer 18

Mutual exclusivity
- Teddy bears example from the text

Whole-object assumption

Subcategories
- A new name for an object that already has a name is a subcategory

Individual names
- When a label is repeatedly given to one object within an identified group, it is assumed that is the object’s name

Question 19

Common Errors in Language

Answer 19

Over-extension
- eg. calling anything furry with 4 legs a “dog”

Under-extension
- defining a word too narrowly
- eg. thinking “house” only refers to their home