The First Two Years: Cognitive Development

Question 1

What is Sensorimotor intelligence?

Answer 1

Piagets term for the way infants think by using their senses and motor skills during the first period of cognitive development

Question 2

What are the four stages of development?

Answer 2

Sensorimotor birth
Pre-operational
Concrete operational
Formal operational

Question 3

Sensorimotor Stage

Answer 3

Age: Birth to 2 years
building schemes through sensory and motor exploration
Learn through Circular Reactions

Question 4

Circular Reactions

Answer 4

Learning a new experience accidentally due to motor activity and repeating it over and over again

Question 5

Piaget’s Sensorimotor Substages

Answer 5

1. Reflexive schemes
2. Primary circular reactions
3. Secondary circular reactions
4. Coordination of secondary circular reactions
5. Tertiary circular reactions
6. Mental representation

Question 6

Reflexive schemes

Answer 6

(birth to 1 month)→ newborn responds to external stimulation with innate reflex actions: sucking, grasping, looking, listening. For example, if you brush a baby’s mouth or cheek with your finger it will suck reflexively.

Question 7

Primary circular reactions

Answer 7

(1-4 months)→ the first adaptations achieved: accommodation and coordination of reflexes. Examples; sucks on a pacifier differently from a nipple; grab a bottle and drink from it.

Question 8

Secondary circular reactions

Answer 8

(4-8 months) → pay attention longer to interesting things: respond to people and objects. For example; clap when mum sings a song

Question 9

Coordination of secondary circular reactions

Answer 9

(8-12 months) → new adaptations and anticipations: these become more voluntary and deliberate in responding to people and objects. Example: take the mother’s hand to clap her hands and induce her to sing a song

Question 10

Tertiary circular reactions

Answer 10

(12-18 months)→ experimentation and creativity direct the actions of the “little scientist“. Example: throwing a teddy bear into the toilet and flush it.

Question 11

Mental representation

Answer 11

(18-24 months)→ New means thanks to mental combinations: think before acting, which allows the child to achieve a goal without relying on trial and error. For example; before flushing the toilet, the kid remembers that the previous time she overflowed it her mother had been very angry, and she thinks twice before doing it.

Question 12

What is object permanence?

Answer 12

Realizing the object continues to exist when it is no longer in sight

Question 13

Violation of expectation method

Answer 13

The violation of expectation technique is based on the idea that infants will show surprise when witnessing an impossible event.

Question 14

Information processing theory

Answer 14

The information processing theory is based on the idea that humans actively process the information they receive from their senses, like a computer does

Question 15

Visual Cliff

Answer 15

Experimental apparatus that gives the illusion of a sudden drop-off between one horizontal surface and another

Question 16

Memories
First week

Answer 16

Recognition of caregivers by face, voice, and smell

Question 17

Memories
at what month does a baby develop motor memories?

Answer 17

3 months

Question 18

at what month does a baby develop more complex memories like copying others?

Answer 18

9 months

Question 19

Implicit memory

Answer 19

Information that you remember unconsciously and effortlessly
begins at 3 months
stable by 9 months

Question 20

Explicit memory

Answer 20

Explicit memory requires you to consciously recall information.
takes longer to emerge

Question 21

when can a baby start to transfer learning from objects and experiences and remember patterns?

Answer 21

one years old

Question 22

Instrumental learning

Answer 22

a type of learning in which behaviors are strengthened or weakened by their consequences

Question 23

How does language develop in the first two years?

Answer 23

1. language learning
2. Preference for speech sounds
3. able to distinguish sounds and gestures in own language

Question 24

when do babies Language learn via organization and hearing; may be innate

Answer 24

before birth

Question 25

when do babies have a preference for speech sounds and mother’s language; gradual selective listening

Answer 25

Newborn

Question 26

when are babies able to distinguish sounds and gestures in own language?

Answer 26

Around 6 months

Question 27

Early stages of language involve communication through…

Answer 27

noises, gestures, and facial expressions

Question 28

Who is Piaget

Answer 28

Piaget is a biologist who tested his own children using the scientific method. He developed The developmental theory of knowledge

Question 29

what is a schema?

Answer 29

Schemas are the basic building blocks of knowledge that enable us to form a mental representation of the world.

a cohesive, repeatable action sequence possessing component actions that are tightly interconnected and governed by a core meaning.

Question 30

Cognitive equilibrium

Answer 30

a state in which the person is NOT confused because he can use his existing mental processes to understand his current experiences and ideas

Question 31

Assimilation

Answer 31

New experiences are reinterpreted so that they make sense, fit with, or are assimilated (adapted or integrated) with respect to previous ideas. Existing schemas are used to understand a new situation

Question 32

Accommodation

Answer 32

Old ideas or previous ideas are restructured so that they are included or accommodated to new experiences.

Question 33

language acquisition device (LAD)

Answer 33

Chomsky hypothesized that children are born with a brain structure he called a language acquisition device (LAD), which allows children, as their brains develop, to derive the rules of grammar quickly and effectively from the speech they hear every day.

Question 34

Naming Explosion

Answer 34

A sudden increase in an infant’s vocabulary, especially in the number of nouns, that begins at about 18 months of age.