Chapter 7 Cognitive Development during the First Three Years Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. Studying Cognitive Development: Six Approaches Behavioral Psychometric Piagetian Information-processing Cognitive neuroscience Social contextual Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-2 Behaviorist Approach Approach to the study of cognitive development that is concerned with the basic mechanics of learning. Classical conditioning: Learning based on associating a stimulus that does not ordinarily elicit a particular response with another stimulus that does elicit the response. Operant conditioning: Learning based on reinforcement or punishment. Focuses on the consequences of behaviors Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-3 Behaviorist Approach Memory Neonates show memory for previously exposed stimuli By 12 months dramatic improvement in encoding and retrieval Rovee-Collier (1993) studies of infant memory Given a reminder (priming), improves memory 2 months – 2 days 18 months – 13 weeks Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-4 Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. Psychometric Approach Approach to the study of cognitive development that seeks to measure the quantity of intelligence a person possesses. Intelligent behavior: Behavior that is goal oriented and adaptive to circumstances and conditions of life. Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-6 Psychometric Approach IQ (intelligent quotient) tests: Intelligent quotient (IQ) tests: Psychometric tests that seek to measure intelligence by comparing a test-taker’s performance with standardized norms. Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development: Standardized test of infants’ and toddlers’ mental and motor development. Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-7 Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) Instrument designed to measure the influence of the home environment on children’s cognitive growth. Factors responsible: Parental responsiveness Number of books and playthings that encourage the development of concepts Parents’ involvement in children’s play Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-8 Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-9 Factors That Support Cognitive and Psychosocial Development Aspects that support cognitive and psychosocial development • Encouraging exploration of the environment • Mentoring in basic cognitive and social skills • Celebrating developmental advances • Guidance in practicing and extending skills • Protection from inappropriate disapproval, teasing, and punishment • Communicating richly and responsively • Guiding and limiting behavior Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-10 Guidelines for Fostering Infants’ and Toddlers’ Cognitive Development Provide sensory stimulation in early three months. Create an environment that fosters learning. Respond to babies’ signals. Give babies the power to effect changes. Give babies freedom to explore. Talk to babies. Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-11 Guidelines for Fostering Infants’ and Toddlers’ Cognitive Development Enter into whatever they are interested in, when talking or playing with babies. Arrange opportunities to learn basic skills. Applaud new skills and help babies practice and expand them. Read to babies in a warm, caring atmosphere from an early age. Use punishment sparingly. Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-12 Early Intervention Planning and providing therapeutic and educational services for families that need help in meeting their children’s developmental needs. Reduces gap for children with limited learning opportunities and low parental expectations. Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-13 Effective Early Interventions Start early and continue throughout the preschool years Are highly time-intensive Are center-based, providing direct educational experiences Take a comprehensive approach Are tailored to individual differences and needs Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-14 Piagetian Approach Approach to the study of cognitive development that describes qualitative stages in cognitive functioning. Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-15 Sensorimotor Stage Infants learn through senses and motor activity. First stage in cognitive development Schemes: Organized patterns of thought and behavior used in particular situations. Circular reactions: Processes by which an infant learns to reproduce desired occurrences originally discovered by chance. Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-16 Substages of Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage of Cognitive Development Substage 1: Use of reflexes • Exercising of inborn reflexes and control over them • No coordination of information from senses • No grasping of an object they are looking at Substage 2: Primary circular reactions • Repetition of pleasurable behaviors that first occur by chance • Acquired adaptations are made • Coordination of sensory information begins Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-17 Substages of Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage of Cognitive Development Substage 3: Secondary circular reactions • Interest in environment develops • Repetition of actions that bring interesting results • Actions are intentional but not initially goal directed Substage 4: Coordination of secondary reactions • Behavior is more deliberate and purposeful • Use of previously learned schemes and behavior • Anticipation of events Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-18 Substages of Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage of Cognitive Development Substage 5: Tertiary circular reactions • Curiosity and experimentation appear • Purposeful variation of actions to get different results • Trying of new activities and use of trial and error in solving problems Substage 6: Thought/Mental combinations • Symbolic thought enables toddlers to begin to think about events and anticipate their consequences • Use of symbols, words, and gestures • Can pretend Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-19 Imitative Abilities Visible imitation: Involves parts of the body that babies cannot see. Invisible imitation: Uses body parts such as hands or feet that babies can see. Deferred imitation: Reproduction of an observed behavior after the passage of time by calling up a stored symbol of it. Elicited imitation: Toddlers are induced to imitate a specific series of actions they have seen, but not done before. Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-20 Imitation Meltzoff (2007, 2011)– Infant can imitate facial expression within a few days after birth; others disagree. Social Cognition Deferred imitation: Imitation that occurs after a delay of hours or days May aid in attachment Mirror Neurons Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. Development of Knowledge About Objects and Space Object concept - Idea that objects have independent existence, characteristics, and locations in space. Object permanence: Realization that an object or person continues to exist when out of sight. A-not-B error: Tendency to search for a hidden object in a place where they previously found it rather than in the place where they most recently saw it being hidden. Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-22 Information-Processing Approach: Perceptions and Representations Habituation: Type of learning in which familiarity with a stimulus reduces, slows, or stops a response. Dishabituation: Increase in responsiveness after presentation of a new stimulus. Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-23 Visual and Auditory Processing Abilities Visual preference: Tendency to spend more time looking at one sight rather than another. Novelty preference - Infants' preference of new sights to familiar ones. Visual recognition memory: Ability that depends on the capacity to form and refer to mental representations. Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-24 Visual and Auditory Processing Abilities Cross-modal transfer: Ability to use information gained from one sense to guide another. Joint attention - Babies follow an adults’ gaze by looking or pointing in the same direction. Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-25 Information Processing as a Predictor of Intelligence Visual expectation paradigm - Measures Visual reaction time Visual anticipation Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-26 Information Processing and the Development of Piagetian Abilities Categorization - Dividing the world into meaningful categories. • Foundation of language, reasoning, problem solving, and memory Causality - Principle that one event causes another. Object Permanence • Violation-of-expectations: Dishabituation to a stimulus that conflicts with experience is taken as evidence that an infant recognizes the new stimulus as surprising. Number - Research indicates that understanding of numbers begins long before Piaget’s sixth substage. Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-27 Evaluating Information-Processing Research on Infants Proposals suggest that infants have: Innate learning mechanisms Core knowledge of basic physical principles Perceptual awareness or a conceptual understanding Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-28 Cognitive Neuroscience Approach Approach to the study of cognitive development that links brain processes with cognitive ones. Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-29 The Brain’s Cognitive Structures Long-term memory systems Implicit memory: Unconscious recall, habits, and skills. Called procedural memory Explicit memory: Intentional and conscious memory, facts, names, and events. Called declarative memory Working memory: Short-term storage of information being actively processed. Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-30 Guided Participation Participation of an adult in a child’s activity in a manner that helps to: Structure the activity Bring the child’s understanding of it closer to that of the adult Affected by cultural difference Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-31 Language Development Language: Communication system based on words and grammar. Prelinguistic speech: Utterance of sounds that are not words and deliberate imitation of sounds without understanding their meaning. Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-32 Sequence of Early Language Development Early vocalization Crying, cooing, and babbling Imitation of language sounds Perceiving language sounds and structure Required to imitate languages Phonemes - Smallest units of sound in speech Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-33 Sequence of Early Language Development Gestures - Pointing, which helps regulate joint interactions Conventional social gestures Representative gestures Symbolic gestures Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-34 Sequence of Early Language Development First words Linguistic speech: Verbal expression designed to convey meaning. Holophrase: Single word that conveys a complete thought. Receptive vocabulary - What infants understand Expressive vocabulary - Spoken vocabulary Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-35 Sequence of Early Language Development First sentences Telegraphic speech: Early form of sentence use, consists of only a few essential words. Syntax: Rules for forming sentences in a particular language. Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-36 Characteristics of Early Speech Simplified language Understanding grammatical relationships not yet expressed Underextending and overextending word meanings Overregularizing of rules Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-37 Classic Theories of Language Acquisition: The Nature-Nurture Debate Skinner • Language learning is based on: • Experience • Learned associations • Observation, imitation, and reinforcement contribute to language. Chomsky’s view • Nativism: Human beings have an inborn capacity for language acquisition. • Language acquisition device (LAD): Inborn mechanism that enables children to infer linguistic rules from the language they hear. Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-38 Learning Theory Does not explain the correspondence between: Ages at which linguistic advances in both hearing and nonhearing babies typically occur Many developmental scientists believe language acquisition depends on: Intertwining of nature and nurture Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-39 Influences on Language Development Brain development • Brain growth is linked with language development. • Brain scans confirm the sequence of vocabulary development. Social interaction: The role of parents and caregivers • Parents or caregivers provide: • Opportunities for communicative experience • Models of language use Prelinguistic period • Helps babies: • Experience social aspect of speech • Sense that a conversation consists of alternating or taking turns Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-40 Vocabulary Development Parents or caregivers can help by: Repeating their first words Pronouncing words correctly Code mixing: Use of elements of two languages, sometimes in the same utterance. In houses where two languages are spoken Code switching: Changing one’s speech to match the situation. Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-41 Child-Directed Speech (CDS) Form of speech used in talking to babies or toddlers. • Slow, simplified speech • High-pitched tone • Exaggerated vowel sounds • Short words and sentences • Repetition Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-42 Preparing for Literacy: The Benefits of Reading Aloud Literacy: Ability to read and write. Describer - Focuses on describing what is going on in the pictures. Comprehender - Encourages the child to: Look more deeply at the meaning of a story Make inferences and predictions Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-43 Preparing for Literacy: The Benefits of Reading Aloud Preformance-oriented style - Reading the story straight through. Introducing the main themes beforehand Asking questions afterward Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 7-44