Infant Cognition
What do babies know about the world?
Piaget’s Theory
Jean Piaget (1896-1980)
Swiss psychologist
Father of modern cognitive developmental psychology
Infant Cognition: Piaget’s Claims
• Out of sight, out of mind
– No concept of object permanence
• Senses are uncoordinated
– No intermodal perception
Object Permanence
• Objects continue to exist when they are
out of sight
Piagetian Search Tasks
Show infants a toy, and as they reach for it,
hide the toy under a cloth
0 - 8 months:
8 - 12 months:
12 - 18 months:
18 - 24 months:
No search
A-not-B error
Invisible displacement
Object permanence
A-not-B Error Video Clip
Malena
May 19, 2006
age: 9 months, 27 days
Why do babies make
the A-not-B error?
• Poor memory
– Task is easier if locations are very distinct
• Can’t resist the first location
– Reach to A even when object is visible at B
– Babies look to B first, but reach to A
Tests of Object Permanence:
Eliminating the need for a motor response
• Present infants with an event that
violates object permanence
• Are babies surprised by such an event?
Baillargeon’s Test of Object Permanence
3.5-month-olds
Baillargeon, 1987
Baillargeon Video Clip
“It’s a Kid’s World”
hosted by Alan Alda
Amazing Infant Cognition
• Object Permanence
– Baillargeon: rotating screen; two “Minnies”
• Support / Gravity
– Baillargeon: box on platform
• Physical Causality
– Spelke: object contact makes things move
Physical Causality
The Role of Contact
6-month-olds
Habituation Event:
Physical Causality
The Role of Contact
Test Events:
Impossible
Possible
Physical Causality
The Role of Contact
If infants understand contact as a
mechanism for cause and effect, they
should look longer at (dishabituate to) the
impossible
________________
event.
Results:
6-month-olds look longer at impossible event.
Intermodal Perception
• Integrating information from two or more
senses when perceiving an object or event
– e.g., the coordination of sight and sound
Intermodal Perception
Integrating Sight and Sound
(Spelke, 1976)
Drumbeats
Video A
Speaker
Peek-a-boo
Video B
Playing drum
Baby
Where does baby look?
Intermodal Perception
Sight and Sound: Findings
• 4-month-olds can integrate sight and sound
• Wide range of phenomena
– Emotion (facial expressions with voice)
– Gender (male voice with male face)
– Speech sounds (vowel sounds with mouth movements)
– Speech synchrony (soundtrack with mouth movements)
– Number (items in a display with number of drumbeats)
Intermodal Perception
Integrating Sight and Touch
(Meltzoff & Borton, 1979)
Infants suck bumpy or smooth pacifier for 90 seconds
(without seeing it).
Then they see pictures of two spheres: bumpy & smooth
1-month-olds can integrate sight and touch
(newborns can do it: Kaye & Bower, 1994)
Intermodal Perception
Integrating Sight and Proprioception
(Meltzoff & Moore, 1977, 1989, 1994)
Imitation at birth: Newborns can make their own
facial expressions match those of another person.
Summary
• Knowledge about the physical world
appears early and develops rapidly
• Infant perception and cognition are
coordinated and active
Piaget’s Stages
• Sensorimotor (birth - 2 years)
• Preoperational (2 - 7 years)
• Concrete Operational (7 - 11 years)
• Formal Operational (11 years - adult)
Limitations of
Preoperational Thought
• Centration
• Egocentrism
• Appearance as reality
• Transductive reasoning
Centration
• Focusing on one aspect of a problem,
ignoring other relevant aspects
• Examples
– Conservation
– Class inclusion
Conservation of Number
Conservation of Liquid
Class Inclusion
Are there more apples or more fruit?
Egocentrism
• Thinking everyone sees things the same
way you do
• Difficulty taking another’s perspective
• Examples
– Three-mountains task
– Egocentric speech
Three Mountains Task
Child is asked to pick the picture that shows what the
diorama looks like from the partner’s point of view.
Egocentric Speech
• Child and partner - separated by a
barrier - have identical sets of cards
• Child has to describe one card to the
partner
“It’s the
dinosaur!”
“The one with
a tail.”
Appearance as Reality
• Tendency to confuse what something
looks like with what it really is
• Example
– Fear of Halloween costumes
Appearance as Reality
Transductive Reasoning
• Reasoning from one particular to another
• Indifference to cause-and-effect relations
• Example
– Unconventional connections
“I haven’t had a nap, so it isn’t afternoon.”
Strengths of
Preoperational Thought
• Symbolic representation
• Pretend play