Cognitive Development in Infancy Flashcards
Piaget
theory of cognitive development, unifies biology and experience
adaptation
adjusting to new environmental demands
schemes
actions or mental representations that organize knowledge
assimilation
children use their existing schemes to deal with new info or experiences, like incorporating “bike” and “motorcycle” into the category of “car” heard from a caregiver
accommodation
children adjust their schemes to take new info and experiences into account, like removing “bike” and “motorcycle” from the category of “car”
organization
grouping of isolated behaviors and thoughts into a higher-order system to make sense of the world
disequilibrium
cognitive conflict when counterexamples to existing schemes present themselves, necessitating assimilation or accommodation
equilibrium
mechanism by which children shift from one stage of thought to the next, maintaining balance of understanding through assimilation and accommodation
sensorimotor stage
birth to about 2 years old
substages of sensorimotor stage
1-Simple reflexes-1 month
sensation and action coordinated primarily through
reflexive behaviors such as rooting and sucking
2-First habits & primary circular reactions-1-4 months
infant coordinates sensation & 2 types of schemes
3-Secondary circular reactions-4-8 months
more object-oriented, moves beyond preoccupation with
self, imitates simple actions but only those s/he is
already able to produce
4-coordination of secondary circular reactions-8-12 mo.
hand-eye coordination, actions become more outward
directed, coordinate schemes and intentionality
5-tertiary circular reactions, novelty, and curiosity-12-18
mo.
6-internalization of schemes-18-24 months
ability to use primitive symbols
habit
scheme based on a reflex that has become completely separated from its eliciting stimulus, like sucking even when no bottle is present
circular reaction
repetitive action
primary circular reaction
scheme based on the attempt to reproduce an event that initially occurred by chance
secondary circular reaction
scheme that is not intentional or goal-directed, but is repeated because of consequences, like shaking a rattle because of fascination
coordination of secondary circular reaction
infants coordinate schemes with intentional action, like manipulating a stick in order to bring a desired toy within reach
tertiary circular reactions
schemes in which infant purposely explores new possibilities with objects, continually doing new things to them and exploring the results
primitive symbol
internalized sensory image or word that represents an event, so that the infant can think about concrete events w/out directly acting them out or perceiving them
object permanence
understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, heard, or touched, achieved by the end of the sensorimotor period
the A-not-B error
when a toy is hidden at A and later at B, the child still looks for the toy at location A, not consistent and sensitive to the delay between hidings
core knowledge approach
Spelke, infants are born with domain-specific innate knowledge systems involving space, number sense, object permanence, and language
attention
focusing of mental resources on select info, improving cognitive processing, happens by 4 months old
orienting/investigative process
directing attention to potentially important locations in the environment (where) and recognizing objects and their features (what)
sustained attention
focused attention, new stimuli elicits orienting response followed by sustained attention
habituation
decreased responsiveness to a stimulus after repeated presentations of the stimulus
dishabituation
increase in responsiveness after a change in stimulation
joint attention
individuals focus on the same object or event, requires the ability to track another person’s behavior (like following a gaze), one person’s directing another’s attention, and reciprocal interaction
memory
retention of info over time, as a part of encoding
encoding
process by which info gets into memory
implicit memory
memory without conscious recollection, such as memory of skills and routine procedures performed automatically
explicit memory
conscious memory of facts and experiences
infantile/childhood amnesia
inability to remember events that happened before 3 years of age
deferred imitation
infant copies someone but after a delay of hours or days, having retained that memory to repeat it
categories
group objects, events, and characteristics on the basis of common properties
concepts
ideas about what categories represent
perceptual categorization
based on similar perceptual features of objects (such as size, color, and movement) as well as parts of objects (such as legs for animals)
conceptual categorization
the ability (beginning at 7-9 months) to categorize things correctly even though they share similar features, such as birds being animals and airplanes being vehicles
Gesell
developed a test that helped sort out babies with normal functioning from ones with abnormal functioning; test has 4 categories of behavior: motor, language, adaptive, and personal-social; DQ combines subscores into an overall score
developmental quotient
DQ, Gesell test, combines subscores of motor, language, adaptive, and personal-social into one score
Bayley Scales of Infant Development III
Bayley, assesses infant behavior and predicts later development; has 5 subscales: cognitive, language, motor (these 3 directly w/ infant), socioemotional, and adaptive (these 2 thru parent questionnaire)
Fagan Test of Infant Intelligence
focuses on the infant’s ability to process info by encoding an object’s attributes, detecting similarities & differences, forming & retrieving mental representations, only infant test to correlate with later IQ scores
language
form of communication based on a system of symbols, all languages share the characteristics of infinite generativity and organizational rules
infinite generativity
ability to produce an endless number of meaningful sentences using a finite set of words and rules
phonology
sound system of a language, including sounds that are used and how they may be combined
morphology
units of meaning involved in word formation
syntax
the way words are combined to form acceptable phrases and sentences
semantics
meaning of words and sentences
pragmatics
appropriate use of language in different contexts
infant communication milestones
crying-birth cooing-2-4 months recognizing own name-5 months-7 months babbling-6 months gesturing, esp. pointing-8-12 months first words-18 months
vocabulary spurt
rapid increase in vocabulary beginning around 18 months old
overextension
tendency to apply a word to inappropriate objects
underextension
tendency to apply a word too narrowly, when the child fails to use a word to name a relevant event or object
telegraphic language
use of short and precise words without grammatical markers such as articles, auxiliary verbs, and other connectives: “want ball”
Broca’s area
left frontal lobe of brain involved in producing words, damage will result in difficulty producing words correctly
Wernicke’s area
left hemisphere region involved in language comprehension, damage will result in poor comprehension and often fluent but incomprehensible speech
aphasia
damage to Broca’s or Wernicke’s area that produces a loss or impairment of language processing
Chomsky
humans are biologically prewired to learn language at a certain time and in a certain way through a LAD (supported by evidence: uniformity of language milestones across languages and cultures, children create language even w/out well-formed input, biological substrates of language
language acquisition device
LAD, Chomsky, biological endowment enabling a child to detect phonology, syntax, and semantics
Tomasello
interaction view of language, emphasizes that children learn language in specific contexts, through joint attention with caregivers (like a dad reading a book to his son)
child-directed speech
language spoken at a higher pitch than normal with simple words and sentences
recasting
rephrasing something the child has said, turning it into a question or restating the child’s immature utterance in the form of a fully grammatical sentence
expanding
restating, in a linguistically sophisticated form, what a child has said
labeling
identifying names of objects
interactionist view of language acquisition
incorporates both biological predispositions and environmental contributions for how language is acquired
