7eCHAPTER SIX – Outline
Reading Highlights:
outline of chapter topics – page 203
Piaget – Sensorimotor - pages 204 - 216
Sensorimotor sub-stages chart – page 205
infant memory – pages 219-221
Information Processing – pages 220-226
social context – pages 224-226
infant intelligence tests – page 227-228
home environment – pages 229
infant daycare – pages 230
early intervention – pages 231 - 232
language development – pages 233-243
supporting language development – pages 241-242
Terms and Concepts:
Sensorimotor
cognition
adaptation
accommodation
assimilation
organization
object permanence
recall memory
recognition memory
infantile amnesia
deferred imitation
telegraphic speech
child directed speech
zone of proximal development
A not B search error
developmentally appropriate practice
LAD
make believe play
mental representation
overextension
underextension
scheme
babbling and cooing
behaviorist
nativist
interactionist
Main Ideas:
 Piaget called his first stage of cognitive development “sensorimotor”
because he believed that infants learn through active exploration, using
their senses and their motor actions. He believed that their learning starts
through accidental encounters with the world, and that infants gradually
develop deliberate or intentional behavior as they learn about cause and
effect, and construct mental “schemes” about how the world works. He
divided the Sensorimotor period into 6 sub-stages.
 New research suggests that Piaget underestimated the cognitive abilities
of young infants. For example, it is possible that awareness of object
permanence begins around three months, instead of eight months as
Piaget said. A theory based on the new research is called core

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knowledge perspective; it holds that infants have more prewired or built-in
understanding than Piaget realized. The new research and theory are still
controversial. We do know that infants learn through observation and
imitation as well as through active exploration, and that experiences (with
people objects, language, etc.) are essential for learning.
Over the first two years of life, changes in infants’ memory and attention
(which result from changes in the brain combined with appropriate
external stimulation), contribute to their increasing cognitive and language
ability.
Infant learning does not take place in a vacuum. It is enhanced by the
support and guidance of the people in their lives. Infants whose parents
are loving and encouraging, talk to them and play with them, score higher
on mental tests.
Early intervention and enrichment can increase the abilities of children
from deprived backgrounds.
Since a stimulating and responsive environment has been shown to be
important, infant and toddler child care should be required to meet high
standards. Standards for quality vary widely from state to state in the U.S.
Developmentally appropriate programs best meet the needs of infants and
toddlers.
There are several theories about how young children first learn language.
The interactionist view holds that both built-in language ability in the
human brain and imitation of spoken language are responsible.
A language rich environment promotes strong language and cognitive
development. That is an environment in which infants and toddlers hear
language frequently, are warmly spoken to and encouraged to respond,
and are played with in an interactive turn-taking manner.
Television is not an effective part of a rich language or learning
environment for infants and toddlers. The American Academy of
Pediatrics discourages all forms of screen time for children two or
younger.
Berk Chapter 6: Cognitive Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood
7e
PIAGET’S COGNITIVE-DEVELOPMENTAL THEORY
Piaget’s first stage of cognitive development is called the
_____________________________ _____________.
Why is this a good name for this stage?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
What does Piaget mean by “schemes”?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Piaget said that schemes change through 2 processes:
A_____________________________________________
O_____________________________________________
Let’s look at Adaptation. It happens 2 ways.
1. When we use our current schemes to interpret the world, that’s
______________________________________________________ .
2. When we make new schemes, or change old ones to fit new information, that’s
_______________________________________________________ .
There are six sub stages of the Sensorimotor period. They are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Define Object Permanence:
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Define mental representation:
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Define deferred imitation:
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Define make-believe play. Can you remember an example of toddler make-believe
play?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Give one criticism of Piaget’s sensorimotor stage theory:
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
INFORMATION PROCESSING
Information-processing researchers agree with Piaget’s view of the child as an active
inquiring learner, but they focus on the aspects or elements involved in thinking and
learning. List 3 of these aspects:
___________________, ___________________, ____________________________
Habituation / recovery research studies show that infants also learn and remember a wide
variety of information just by watching objects and events. Infants do not always have to
be ___________________ _____________ to acquire new information.
Distinguish between recognition memory and recall memory:
Recognition:____________________________________________________________
Recall:_________________________________________________________________
SOCIAL CONTEXT OF EARLY COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Lev Vygotsky suggested that which skills we learn and how we learn them reflect the
values of the societies in which we live. He theorized that complex mental activities,
such as voluntary attention, deliberate memory, categorization and problem solving have
their origins in ________ _____________. Think of an example in which a more mature
member of the child’s society (say an older sibling or parent) helps a child master an
activity:
_____________________________________________________________________
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN EARLY MENTAL DEVELOPMENT
The goal of mental tests is to
1. measure __________________________________________________________
2. predict ___________________________________________________________
IQ tests for any age individual compute scores by comparing the individual’s
performance to ________________________________________________________.
Despite careful construction, infant IQ tests are poor predictors of intelligence. Infants
performance on tests do not always reflect their true abilities – why? (3 reasons)
______________________________________________________________________
These tests can be useful for screening – briefly explain why that is valuable:
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
Look at the “Features of a High Quality Home Life” table on page 229 in the Berk text.
What 6 home factors were shown to have a significant positive impact on infant IQ?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
When these 6 features are studied in the home environment, how does heredity (inherited
intelligence) also become a factor that needs to be considered?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
How should Vanessa, the mother of Timmy in the textbook story (pages 227 and 229),
change her child rearing practices to better support Timmy’s mental development?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Think about this: What kinds of programs could our society offer to make sure that all
parents learn about effective child rearing practices?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Many American children are in full time child care from infancy. How can the child care
environment help or hurt a child’s development?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
What could we do to improve the quality of child care in the United States? (See p. 231)
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Early Intervention for At-Risk Infants and Toddlers: Research shows that early
intervention can improve children’s chances of reaching their full potential. Children in
poverty are particularly at risk for declines in achievement and test scores. Explain the
“tragic cycle of poverty” talked about in the text:
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
What happens in center-based early intervention?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
What happens in home-based early intervention?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
Briefly summarize the 3 theories of language development:
1. Behaviorist ___________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
2. Nativist _______________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
3. Interactionist __________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
What do each of these language areas of the brain do?
Broca’s area:
_____________________________________________________________
Wernicke’s area: _________________________________________________________
Is there a sensitive period for language development? Explain your answer:
_______________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
How does the idea of a sensitive period affect a person’s ability to learn a second
language? _______________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Language Learning timeline:
At what age do babies coo? _________________________________
At what age do babies babble? ______________________________
How do joint attention and turn taking contribute to infant language learning?
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
At what age do babies begin to understand words? ___________________________
At what age do babies say their first words? ____________________________
At what age do toddlers begin to combine 2 words? __________________________
Define underextension and give an example: _______________________________
____________________________________________________________________
Define overextension and give an example: _________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
Define telegraphic speech and give an example: ______________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
Define child directed speech and give an example: ____________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
Child Growth and Development Video Worksheet (Berk Chapter 6)
Birth to Two and a Half – Cognitive Development
What is cognition? The process through which the child ______________ and
____________ knowledge of the world.
Their state of alertness and their well being affects their ability to respond to the world.
A well-fed child in the _________ _________ _________ is the most attentive.
The 3 facets of cognitive development are perception, memory and problem solving.
I. Perception is the cognitive process of receiving and analyzing information provided
by ______ ________ ___________.
All infants attend to some kinds of stimuli more than others.
These preferences are called perceptual _____________.
Name one infant perceptual bias for each of the 5 senses:
Hearing – ______________________ Vision – ________________________
Touch – _______________________ Smell – ________________________
Taste – ______________________
Infants actively seek stimulation, and try to regulate the amount of stimulation they
receive. Too little: they _______________________________________________
Too much: they ______________________________________________
Stages of Learning About a New Object:
1. random ______________________
2. gross ________________________
3. minute _______________________
4. practice making object __________
5. experiment
6. use this information for _____________________________________
Schemata = perceptual representation of the events and objects around them
Discrepancy principle= once a child has developed a schema for an object, she will pay
most attention to a new object that is moderately _______________ from what she is
already familiar with.
H____________________= waning of a response to a stimulus
R_____________________(Dishabituation) = rekindled interest in a new or different
stimulus
2 Physiological indicators of an infant’s recovered interest include:
_________________________________ __________________________________
Habituation tells us that infants can:
1. detect _______________ in their environment
2. discriminate between _______________________
3. ________________________ a stimulus
What is object permanence? The infant’s understanding that objects and people
_______________________________________________________________.
At what age did Piaget believe that infants develop object permanence? ____________
– but new research suggests it begins much younger.
II. Memory
 ______________________ or receptive memory: child remembers (recognizes)
an object when he sees it again.
 __________________ or expressive memory: child can conjure up a mental
image of an object, person or event
III. Problem Solving Infant problem solving is influenced by
1. p_________________________
2. m________________________
3. child’s m__________________________
Jean Piaget believed that as infants mature, they move toward a more efficient solving of
real world problems.
Piaget’s First Stage of Cognitive Development: S________________________
Add age ranges to the six sub-stages is referred to:
1. child’s actions are reflexive
_____________
2. child repeats accidental actions
______________
3. child imitates others
______________
4. child’s actions are more deliberate and purposeful
______________
5. child engages in systematic exploration
______________
6. child is capable of deferred imitation
______________
How should we facilitate infant / toddler cognitive development?
 Be sensitive to the child – tune in to the child’s ____________ and his stimulation
________________________________
 Allow _____________ _______ ____________
 Engage in reciprocal ______________ _________ __________________
 Provide variety of _________________________
 Provide regularity in scheduling ____________ and ________________ times
Practice Quiz 6
1. When her mother takes the TV remote away from 14 month old Rosita, and puts it out
of sight in the TV cabinet, Rosita toddles over to the cabinet and tries to get the door
open. She is displaying:
a. infantile amnesia
b. separation anxiety
c. organizational scheme
d. object permanence and searching behavior
2. Picture where your car is parked at this minute. What kind of memory is involved in
this mental act?
a. referential
b. recall
c. recognition
d. inferential
3. When Andre’s mother is diapering him, she speaks to him in a high pitched voice,
with many repetitions and distinct pauses. She is using
a. CDS
b. LAD
c. ABC
d. DAP
4. Some theorists believe that humans are aided in the acquisition of language by a sort
of pre-wiring of the brain – an innate system of knowledge of basic language structure.
This view is held by the
a. Nativists
b. Interactionists
c. Behaviorists
d. Developmentalists
5. Little Kimberly repeatedly drops objects off the tray of her high chair. According to
Piaget, she is constructing a
a. proximal zone
b. sensory register
c. modular view
d. mental scheme
6. In the previous example, Kimberly’s mother’s response to Kimberly’s behavior should
be to:
a. never leave anything on the high chair tray
b. smack her hand gently when she drops things, to teach her to behave
c. take away the things that are dropped, and say “If you throw them on the floor,
you lose them.”
d. put only unbreakable objects on the tray, and when she has time, to play a turn
taking game where Kimberly drops and mom picks up
7. LeRoy calls every furry animal he sees “doggie”. He is making an error of
a. overextension
b. underextension
c. telegraphic speech
d. production
8. One of the best available predictors of infant IQ is
a. IQ tests
b. Developmental Quotient Tests
c. advanced physical and motor development, like early walking
d. speed of habituation – recovery sequence
9. Which of the following statements about make-believe play is true?
a. Piaget’s theory emphasized the great value of play in a social context
b. When adults play with toddlers, play is more varied and elaborate.
c. It is potentially harmful to the young child’s play if an older sibling plays with
him.
d. Vygotsky’s theory holds that social context has very little importance for
development of play.
10. When 6-month old Nathan says “ba ba ba ba”, this is an example of
a. wooing
b. babbling
c. brooking
d. cooing
Child Growth and Development Video Worksheet (Berk Chapter 6)
Birth to Two and a Half – Cognitive Development
What is cognition? The process through which the child acquires and uses
knowledge of the world.
Their state of alertness and their well being affects their ability to respond to the world.
A well-fed child in the quiet alert state is the most attentive.
The 3 facets of cognitive development are perception, memory and problem solving.
I. Perception is the cognitive process of receiving and analyzing information provided
by the 5 senses.
All infants attend to some kinds of stimuli more than others.
These preferences are called perceptual biases.
Name one infant perceptual bias for each of the 5 senses:
Hearing – prefer sounds with variety Vision – prefer high contrast, black/white or red
Touch – prefer gentle touch; do feel pain Smell – prefer smell of own mother
Taste – prefer sweet; can also taste salty, sour and bitter
Infants actively seek stimulation, and try to regulate the amount of stimulation they
receive. Too little: they actively seek more Too much: they turn away, lower their eyes.
Stages of Learning About a New Object:
1. random manipulation
2. gross exploration
3. minute examination
4. practice making object move
5. experiment
6. use this information for exploring new things
Schemata = perceptual representation of the events and objects around them
Discrepancy principle= once a child has developed a schema for an object, she will pay
most attention to a new object that is moderately different from what she is already
familiar with.
Habituation= waning of a response to a stimulus
Recovery (Dishabituation) = rekindled interest in a new or different stimulus
Physiological indicators of an infant’s recovered interest include: looking, motor
behavior (like foot jiggling), sucking, increased respiration and heart rate
Habituation tells us that infants can:
4. detect changes in their environment
5. discriminate between stimuli
6. remember a stimulus
What is object permanence? The infant’s understanding that objects and people continue
to exist when out of sight.
At what age did Piaget believe that infants develop object permanence? 8- 9 months – but
new research suggests it begins much younger.
II. Memory
 Recognition or receptive memory: child remembers (recognizes) an object when
he sees it again.
 Recall or expressive memory: child can conjure up a mental image of an object,
person or event
III. Problem Solving Infant problem solving is influenced by
1. perception
2. memory
3. child’s maturation
Jean Piaget believed that as infants mature, they move toward a more efficient solving of
real world problems.
Piaget’s First Stage of Cognitive Development: Sensorimotor
Add age ranges to the six sub-stages is referred to:
1. child’s actions are reflexive
_____________
2. child repeats accidental actions
______________
3. child imitates others
______________
4. child’s actions are more deliberate and purposeful
______________
5. child engages in systematic exploration
______________
6. child is capable of deferred imitation
______________
How should we facilitate infant / toddler cognitive development?
 Be sensitive to the child – tune in to the child’s interest and his stimulation
threshold
 Allow give and take
 Engage in reciprocal play and speech
 Provide variety of stimulation
 Provide regularity in scheduling sleep and feeding times