Chapter 6 Cognition
Piaget’s Theory and Infancy Piaget’s theory: described the child as actively
constructing and building knowledge (schemes) through the processes of assimilation
and accommodation to achieve equilibrium in understanding.
Piaget believed that cognitive development results from maturational factors an d
environmental experiences.
four stages through which all children progress in an invariable order. The first stage,
the sensorimotor stage (birth to two years), is characterized by the child’s actions on
the environment. The child undergoes three major achievements during this initial
stage (which contains six substages). The first accomplishment involves a progression
from actions that are reflexive to more goal-directed actions called means-end
behavior
A second accomplishment involves the child’s gradual changing focus from the self
to a greater orientation to the external world. Of importance is the attainment of the
object concept, or object permanence.
Possession of the object concept (or object permanence) is necessary for the
development of deferred imitation, the ability to imitate a model who is no longer
present, and marks the end of the sensorimotor stage and the beginning of the
preoperational stage. Critics of Piaget’s theory suggest that children demonstrate
object permanence much earlier than Piaget thought.
Concepts The child’s use of concepts, or the way in which the child organizes
information on the basis of some general or abstract principle, increases the efficiency
of cognitive processing.
Classification classes can be based on perceptual groupings (objects that look alike),
thematic relations (objects that function together or complement one another), or
taxonomic groupings (based on some abstract principle). Children’s earliest
classifications (before about nine to twelve months) appear to be largely perceptually
based. This reliance on shared perceptual features decreases with age, particularly as
children begin to understand hierarchical relations among objects that are perceptually
dissimilar. Initial groupings of objects tend to occur at a basic level: objects go
together when they look alike or are used in similar ways.
Numerical concepts-- newborns and very young infants may be able to detect
differences between small numbers of objects.
Memory types of memory.
Recognition memory requires participants to indicate somehow that they have
experienced a stimulus before. Recall memory participants must reproduce
previously presented stimuli. Explicit memory refers to a recollection of a past event
or experience. Explicit memory is a conscious process and can be demonstrated via
either recognition or recall. Implicit Memory refers to non-conscious recollections of
how to do something behaviorally.
The lack of language presents difficulties in obtaining research evidence regarding
infants’ memory. Researchers have utilized two techniques, habituation and operant
conditioning to measure recognition memory. Fagan’s paired-comparison procedure
using human faces demonstrates that infants retain information about previously
viewed faces for surprisingly long periods of time. Rovee-Collier’s experiment with
the model and ribbon tied to the infant’s leg relies on operant conditioning to
demonstrate memory. The infant remembers the mobile, and how to make it spin by
pulling the ribbon. Recall memory is measured through techniques such as deferred
imitation, and elicited imitation, in which the subject repeats a sequence of actions
demonstrated by the experimenter.
As infants mature, they are able to separate memory from context, process
information more rapidly, and remember a greater amount of information.
Problem-Solving Piaget’s descriptions of the development of means-ends behavior
during the sensorimotor stage of development suggest that infants show the
beginnings of problem-solving. Infants are capable of solving problems by combining
several subgoals to reach an interesting toy. Problem-solving can even stake on
complex qualities. In some circumstances, very young children can discern the
similarities across problems and transfer that knowledge from one problem to another.
Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of cognitive development Vygotsky, in contrast to
Piaget, emphasized that development must be understood within the context of the
culture in which a child is reared. The social activity surrounding formal and informal
exchanges with others plays a significant role in development.
Scaffolding Others provide a scaffolding for cognitive development—that is,
temporary support by demonstrating cognitive skills and techniques in which the child
is deficient and that the child eventually incorporates as part of her or his own
thinking. The zone of proximal development stresses that the most effective help the
child can receive from an expert is assistance just slightly beyond his or her
capacities, thereby building on the child’s current level of competence.
The role of skilled collaborators Research indicates that in general, when children
work with a skilled collaborator (whether an adult or a peer), performance on
cognitive tasks improves. An important component in effective collaboration is shared
attention and communication, known as intersubjectivity. Infants show the early
beginnings of participating in shared attention and communication in the first few
months of life as demonstrated through simple routines, such as the game of peek -aboo.
Language A baby’s contact with language is one-sided.
Among the first tasks is to learn to identify the myriad sounds of the native language.
These tasks involve distinguishing specific sounds in the spoken language, noting the
regularities in how they are combined, recognizing which combinations constitute
words, and eventually, after making the transaction from listener to speaker, forming
the consonant-vowel combinations that build words and sentences.
Phonology The first task of the newborn infant is to establish phonological skills in
order to receive and produce messages. Very young infants can discriminate among
different phonemes categorically and are sensitive to the prosody of the language, or
its patterns of intonation, stress, and rhythm that communicate meaning. From an
early age, infants can detect differences in language. By six to eight weeks, the child
begins to produce cooing sounds, vowel-like utterances occasionally accompanied by
consonants. At about three to six months of age, the child produces consonant-vowel
combinations (babbling), and shortly thereafter vocalizations feature canonical
babbling. The discovery of cultural differences in babbling and differences in the
preverbal utterances of deaf and normal-hearing infants suggests that prelinguistic
utterances are influenced by environmental as well as biological factors.
First Words Typically, children say their first words at one year. The child’s
comprehension and production of words also signal a new focus in the mastery of
language: semantic development.
Children begin to speak one word at a time at 12–20 months. Children’s first words
are mostly labels for objects, people, or events. At about eighteen months, most
children show a vocabulary spurt. Many of the child’s first words are bound to a
specific context---child applies a word to a narrower class of objects than the word
signifies. This type of error is called underextension. Another type of error, called
overextension, occurs when the child applies a word to a broader category than the
word signifies.
Children’s comprehension of language, or receptive language, far exceeds their
productive language. In general, children show common trends in the way they
acquire language. But children vary in terms of the age of the first word uttered,
whether or not a vocabulary spurt occurs, and whether their one-word speech displays
a referential style (mostly object words) or an expressive style (words that direct the
behaviors of others). Individual differences may result from differences in
neurological structures that control language or from inborn differences in
temperament. Another possibility is that parents influence the rate and form of
children’s vocabulary development. Cultural differences can be found in how children
speak, even during the one-word stage, bolstering the idea that what children hear
others say influences what they themselves say. Children in Korea and China use
more verbs, mothers from both Asian groups pepper their speech with many more
verbs and action sequences than mothers in the US.
Atypical development occurs when children deviate noticeably from developmental
milestones. Approximately five percent of children under age three display
developmental delays.
Assessment tools include the Denver Developmental Screening Test, the Peabody
Picture Vocabulary Test, and an assortment of questionnaires asking parents to report
their children’s behaviors. The Bayley Scales of Infant Development is widely used to
predict later childhood competence. The test consists of two scales, Mental and
Motor, as well as a Behavior Rating Scale to assess the infant’s interests, emotions,
and general level of activity compared to the standardization sample. Intervention
programs can be developed with a multidisciplinary team to help the child achieve the
most positive outcomes.
Language in the Context of Social Interactions Many researchers hold a central
tenet that language is a social activity. They acknowledge that there may be innate
predispositions to learn language but emphasize the role that experiences with more
mature, expert speakers play in fostering linguistic skill. Parents have a unique way of
talking to their young children. Parents present a version of the spoken language that
contains simple, well-formed sentences and is punctuated by exaggerated intonation,
high pitch, and clear pauses between segments. Caregivers describe concrete events
taking place presently, and model turn taking. Caregivers also elaborate, expand and
explain. Two general principles operate during caregiver-child interactions. Parents
interpret infants’ behaviors as attempts to communicate. Second, children actively
seek relationships among objects, events, and people in their world and the vocal
behaviors of the caregivers.
Parentese (motherese) may serve a number of functions in the child’s growing
competence with language: assisting the child’s acquisition of word meaning,
facilitating the acquisition of phonology and syntax, and providing lessons in
conversational turn taking. The more mothers talk with their children, the more
words the children acquire. It is not just how much talk takes place but the type of
talk that also matters.
Motherese is also not a universal phenomenon. Cultural differences exist both in the
type of talk and in the amount of conversation directed at infants. Linguistic
exchanges with other interaction partners may uniquely influence the child’s
linguistic skill. When communicating with fathers, for instance, children are
challenged to make adjustments to maintain the interaction. Children learn language
by overhearing it on television, in conversations between mothers and older siblings
or even between two strangers.
Research Applied to Parenting: Reading to Children
Speech tends to be particularly diverse, expressive, and socially interactive when
mothers read to their children. A program of dialogic reading presents advice to
parents on how to read more effectively to young children. The program suggests that
parents ask questions that stimulate the child to speak, follow up with further
questions, recast the child’s utterances, model answers, and provide praise and social
support in a gamelike atmosphere.
Chapter 6
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT: THE BRAIN, BODY, MOTOR SKILLS, AND SEXUAL
DEVELOPMENT
AN OVERVIEW OF MATURATION AND DEVELOPMENT
Changes in Height and Weight
Rapid increase in height and weight over first two years
Growth is more gradual during middle childhood
Puberty (early adolescence) there is another rapid growth spurt
Changes in Body Proportions
Cephalocaudal – head downward growth
Proximodistal – center outward growth
Skeletal Development
Bones lengthen, thicken, and harden with age completing most growth by 18
Skull has fontanelles
Muscular Development
Born with all muscle fibers
adolescence
Variations in Physical Development
Structures develop at different rates
Individuals develop at different rates
Cultural variations also exist
DEVELOPMENT OF THE BRAIN
Neural Development and Plasticity
Last three prenatal months and first two years of life = brain growth spurt
Neurons – basic unit of brain/nervous system; most present at birth
Form synapses (connective spaces) with other neurons
Glia – nourish neurons and encase them in myelin; form throughout life
Neural Development: Cell Differentiation and Synaptogenesis
Neurons can serve any neural function
Synaptogenesis – formation of synapses
More formed than needed
Roughly half die; some stand in reserve – injury or new skills
Placticity – cells are responsive to experience (allows change in brain)
Neural Plasticity: The Role of Experience
Increased head circumference in children from high SES homes
Brain Differentiation and Growth
At birth, brain associated with biological functioning is most developed
Cerebrum and cerebral cortex (higher brain centers)
Primary motor areas; primary sensory areas mature first
Myelinization
At birth – pathways between sense organs and brain are myelinated
Pathways between muscles and brain are next
Reticular formation and frontal cortex
Needed for long term concentration
Cerebral Lateralization
Cerebrum consists of two hemispheres connected by the corpus callosum
Each covered by a cerebral cortex
Left – right side of body; speech, hearing, positive emotions
Right – left side of body; music, touch, negative emotions
Lateralization increases with age
MOTOR DEVELOPMENT
Sequence of motor skills is the same for all infants
Basic Trends in Locomotor Development
Cephalocaudal – head-downward
Proximodistal – center-outward
The Maturational Viewpoint
Motor development is a genetically programmed sequence of events
The Experiential/Practice Hypothesis
Maturation and practice are important
Dynamical Systems Theory
New skills are constructed as infants actively reorganize existing capabilities
Desire is to achieve a goal
Fine Motor Development
Development of Voluntary Reaching
Prereaching is replaced by voluntary reaching
Development of Manipulatory Skills
Claw-like ulnar grasp is replaced by the pincer grasp (near end of first year)
Psychological Implications of Early Motor Development
Motor skills allow for fun social interaction
Provide evidence of normal development
Enhances perceptual, cognitive, and social development
Beyond Infancy: Motor Development in Childhood and Adolescence
Each year, skills improve
Young children tend to overestimate physical feats they can perform.
Puberty – males increase in muscle development; females tend to become less active
PUBERTY: THE PHYSICAL TRANSITION FROM CHILD TO ADULT
The Adolescent Growth Spurt
Increase in height and weight
Bodies and faces appear more adultlike
Sexual Maturation –
Timed with growth spurt, predictable pattern
Girls
Onset of breast and pubic hair development
Widening of hips, enlarging of uterus, and vagina
Menarche (first menstruation)
Completion of breast growth
Boys
Development of testes and scrotum
Emergence of pubic hair
Growth of penis, sperm production
Appearance of facial hair
Lowering of voice
Large individual differences in timing
Secular Trends: Are We Maturing Earlier?
Reaching sexual maturity earlier in industrialized societies than in the past
Also growing taller and heavier
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACTS OF PUBERTY
Girls
Hope to be attractive, not too tall
Increasingly negative body images
Reactions to menarche are mixed
Boys
Better body images than girls
Mixed reactions to becoming sexually mature
Adolescent Body Image and Unhealthy Weight Control Strategies
Positive body image:
Body image dissatisfaction:
Boys
Either want to lose weight, or become more muscular
If average weight, tend to be happy
Girls – compelled to be thin
Family factors influencing weight behaviors
Chaotic home environment
High conflict levels; low emotionality
Intrapersonal factors
Internalize stress
Emotionally unexpressive
Behavioral factors
Participation in certain sports
Dieting; perfectionism
Social Impacts of Puberty
Nonindustrialized societies
Puberty is a sign of adulthood
Other societies
May be an increase in parent-child conflict, but culture and environment
influence the experience of adolescence
Does Timing of Puberty Matter?
Possible Impacts on Boys
Early maturing is beneficial
Possible Impacts on Girls
Early maturing is a disadvantage
Adolescent Sexuality
Hormonal changes increase sex drive
Culture influences sexuality
Education on sexual matters
Preparation for role as a sexual being
Sexual Explorations, Attitudes, Behaviors
Sexuality and the Internet
Sexual Attitudes
Sexual Behavior
Personal and Social Consequences of Sex
Factors associated with early sexual involvement
Failure to use contraception
Sexually Transmitted Disease
Teenage Pregnancy and Childbearing
Consequences for adolescent mothers
50% drop out of school
Consequences for babies of adolescents
Intellectual deficits; emotional disturbances; poor peer relations
More delinquent behaviors
Dealing with the Problem of Teen Sexuality
Begin at home with communication
Teen Outreach program
Formal sex ed
Abstinence
Information about contraceptives, Information about resisting pressure
CAUSES AND CORRELATES OF PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
Biological Mechanisms
Effects of Individual Genotypes
Set limits for height and rate of maturation
Hormonal Influences - Endocrinology of Growth
Pituitary gland releases growth hormome, stimulates production of estrogen,
testosterone, and androgen
Environmental Influences
Lack of Nutrition
Marasmus – not enough calories or protein; small, impaired social and
intellectual development
Kwashiorkor – not enough protein; fluid collects in face, legs, and abdomen
Vitamin and mineral deficiencies
Zinc and iron
Excessive Nutrition
Obesity
Illness
If adequately nourished, most do not affect growth long term
Emotional Stress and Lack of Affection
Nonorganic failure to thrive – before 18 months of age
Deprivation dwarfism – 2-15 years of age