Week 3 - Infants (B) - Cognitive Development Flashcards
mental structure
in Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, the cognitive systems that organise thinking into coherent patterns so that all thinking takes place on the same level of cognitive functioning
cognitive-developmental approach
focus on how cognitive abilities change with age in stage sequence of development, pioneered by Piaget and since taken up by other researchers
maturation
concept that an innate, biologically based program is the driving force behind development
schemes
cognitive structures for processing, organising and interpreting information
assimilation
cognitive process of altering new information to fit an existing scheme
accommodation
cognitive process of changing a scheme to adapt to new information
4 Stages of cognitive development (Piaget)
0-2 Sensorimotor
2-7 Preoperational
7-11 Concrete operations
11-15 Formal operations
Sensorimotor (age + def + stages)
0-2 Capable of coordinating the activities of the senses with motor activities
- Simple reflexes (0-1 months)
- First habits and primary circular reactions (1-4 months)
- Secondary circular reactions (4-8 months)
4, Coordination of secondary schemes (8-12)
Preoperational (age+ def)
2-7 Capable of symbolic representation, such as in language, but with limited ability to use mental operations
Concrete operations (age+ def)
7-11 Capable of using mental operations, but only in concrete, immediate experience; difficulty thinking hypothetically
Formal operations (age + def)
11-15 Capable of thinking logically and abstractly; capable of formulating hypotheses and testing them systematically; thinking is more complex; can think about thinking (metacognition)
object permanence
This is the awareness that objects (including people) continue to exist even when we are not in direct sensory or motor contact with them.
A-not-B error
The infants were used to finding the object under blanket A, so they continued to look under blanket A, not blanket B, even after they had seen the object hidden under blanket B.
‘violation of expectations method’
This method is based on the assumption that infants will look longer at an event that has violated their expectations, and if they look longer at an event violating the rule of object permanence this indicates some understanding of object permanence, without requiring any motor movements.
information-processing approach
approach to understanding cognitive functioning that focuses on cognitive processes that exist at all ages, rather than on viewing cognitive developing in terms of discontinuous stages
habituation
gradual decrease in attention to a stimulus after repeated presentations
dishabituation
following habituation, the revival of attention when a new stimulus is presented
Rates of habituation
neonates - several minutes
4-5 months old - 10 seconds
7 - 8 months old - only a few seconds
Rates of habituation
neonates - several minutes
4-5 months old - 10 seconds
7 - 8 months old - only a few seconds
Joint attention
In the second half of the first year, infants’ patterns of attention become increasingly social. They direct their attention not just to whatever sensations are most stimulating, but also to what the people around them are attending to, engaging in joint attention.
distinction between recognition memory and recall memory
“The infants recognised this clue and began kicking again to make the mobile move, up to a month later, even though they had been unable to recall the memory before being prompted.”
From infancy onwards, recognition memory comes easier to us than recall memory
Bayley Scales of Infant Development
Developmental quotient - Gesell (4 subscales and def)
Obsolete tool in assessments of infant development, the overall score indicating developmental progress
Subscales:
Motor skills (such as sitting)
Language use
Adaptive behaviour (such as exploring a new object)
personal-social behaviour (such as using a spoon)
Bayley Scales of Infant Development (age of use, and 3 scales)
Widely used assessment of infant development from ages 3 months to 3½ years
Cognitive Scale
Language Scale
Motor Scale
Language developmental milestones
2 months Cooing
4-10 months Babbling
8-10 months First gestures (‘bye-bye’)
10-12 months Comprehension of words and simple sentences
12 months First spoken word
babbling
Repetitive consonant–vowel combinations such as ‘ba-ba-ba’ or ‘do-do-do-do’
Japanese infants recognize ___ at 6 months but don’t at 12 months
‘r’ vs ‘l’ distinction
infant-directed (ID) speech
special form of speech that adults in many cultures direct towards infants, in which the pitch of the voice becomes higher than in normal speech, the intonation is exaggerated and words and phrases are repeated.
infants show a preference for it by the time they are 4 months old
