06-FIRST 2 YEARS
COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENT
Sensorimotor Intelligence
• Learned through the senses
• Circular reaction
• Sensation – perception – cognition cycle around and around
Primary circular reaction
• Stage 1 ( Reflexes)
• Birth – 1yr.
• Responding to own body
• Grasping
• Sucking
• Stepping
• Stage 2 (Habits)
• 1 – 4 Months
• Adapting reflexes to new situations
• (Acquired adaptation)
• E.g. Sucking from mom’s nipple to bottle to pacifier
• A sign baby is thinking
Secondary circular reaction
• Responding to other people & objects
• Stage 3 (Continuing interaction)
• 4 – 8 months
• Making interesting sights last
• Stage 4 ( Starting interaction)
• 8 mos. – 1yr.
• Infant has goals
• Initiates and anticipates
• Initiates
• E.g. Patty-cake
• Anticipates
• E.g. Running from an unwanted bath
• Object permanence
Tertiary circular reaction
• Stage 5 (Acts independently - Experimenting)
• 1 yr. - 18 mos.
• Active experimenting
• “Little scientist”
• Stage 6 (Thought before action)
• 18 mos. – 2yrs.
• Thinks about consequences
• Deferred imitation
Information Processing
Affordance ( opportunities)
• Opportunities to interact with
people and things
• Visual Cliff
• Based on experience
• 6 month will go over cliff
• 10 Month will refuse
Perception
• Movement
• Dynamic Perception
• People preference
• Preference for looking at faces
Memory
• Implicit
• Hidden
• Unconscious habits, emotions procedures
• Early language, smells, places
• Explicit
• Stored in the hippocampus
• Usually verbal
• Recalled on demand
• Words, data, concepts
• Reminders help
Language
Universal sequence
• Reflexes, cooing, babbling, spoken words
• All babies, regardless of native language follow this sequence
• Listening & Responding
• Babbling
• E.g. ma-ma-ma, da-da-da
• Holophrase
• One word = phrase
• E.g. Cookie, Dada!
• Naming explosion
• 1 yr. to 18 months
• Nouns
• Ma-ma, da-da, na-na
• Elimination
• Pee-pee, wee-wee, poo-poo
Theories of Language
• 1. Learning theory
• 2. Social Pragmatic
• 3. Innate
• 4. Hybrid
1. Learning theory
• Based on B.F. Skinner
• Reinforcement
• E.g. Parents talking to children
• Children learn what they hear
2. Social Pragmatic
• Needed for communication
• Parents
• Outside world
3. Innate
• Norm Chomsky
• Children have an inborn ability to learn language
• E.g. Grammar
• Hypothesized a Language Acquisition Device (LAD) in the
brain.
• Enables universal inborn ability to learn language
• Language in general is experience-expectant
• Words are expected by the developing brain
• Specific language is experience-dependent
4. Hybrid
• Combination of the other three
• Multiple cues contribute to learning language