The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence
by Kathleen Stassen Berger
Seventh Edition
Chapter 6
The First Two Years:
Cognitive Development
Slides prepared by Kate Byerwalter, Ph.D.,
Grand Rapids Community College
What is “cognition”?

Cognition refers to thinking, including
language, learning, memory, and
intelligence.

Jean Piaget (born 1896) was a pioneer in
studying cognitive development in humans.

More recent research has both validated
and extended Piaget’s ideas about infant’s
cognitive abilities.
Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 6
Sensorimotor Intelligence

Piaget’s first stage
of cognitive
development,
characterized by
learning through
senses and motor
actions.
PHOTODISC
Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 6
Adaptation to New Ideas
Includes:

Assimilation: taking new information in by
incorporating it into previous “schemas”
(categories)
 Example: A red

ball bounces like a blue ball.
Accommodation: requires an adjustment of
previous schemas upon new information
 Example: A red
tomato does NOT bounce like a
red ball!
Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 6
Stages One and Two of
Sensorimotor Intelligence

Stage One: the stage of reflexes

Stage Two: first acquired adaptations
 Example: An
infant sucks a bottle differently
than the mother’s nipple.

Primary circular reactions: repetitive
actions with the infant’s own body
Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 6
Stages Three and Four of
Sensorimotor Intelligence

Stage Three: making interesting sights last
 Example:
infant smiles when someone shakes a
rattle (secondary circular reaction).

Stage Four: new adaptations and
anticipation
 The
infant shows goal-directed behavior
 Object permanence begins
Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 6
Quiz: Which stage is this?
ESBIN-ANDERSON / THE IMAGE WORKS
Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 6
Stage Five of Sensorimotor
Intelligence

Stage Five: new means through active
experimentation
 Piaget
called infants in this stage “little
scientists” because of their need for
experimentation.
 Example: An
infant drops her spoon to see what
will happen.
Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 6
Stage Six of Sensorimotor
Intelligence

Stage Six: new means through mental
combinations
 Infants
can think before taking action, for
example, wondering “should I really pull that
cat’s tail.”
 Deferred
imitation: infants can copy the
behavior of others, even days later
Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 6
Quiz: This is
an example of
what?
LDWA-DANN TARDIFF / CORBIS
Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 6
Piaget and Research Methods

Advanced research tools (i.e., habituation
and fMRI), have shown that aspects of
Piaget’s sensorimotor intelligence actually
occur earlier for most infants than Piaget
predicted.

These findings do not negate Piaget’s
work, only update it.
Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 6
What is habituation?

Habituation is the process of getting used
to (i.e., bored with) a stimulus after
repeated exposure.

An infant shows it by looking away.

If a new object appears and the infant
reacts (change in heart rate, sucking), it is
assumed he recognizes the object as
something different.
Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 6
Information Processing Theory

Information processing theory focuses
on the step-by-step description of the
mechanisms of human thought at any age.

Research on memory and “affordances”
stem from this theory.
Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 6
Affordances

Affordances = opportunities for perception
and interaction that environment offers

These depend on:
 Past
experiences
 Current developmental level
 Sensory awareness of opportunities
 Immediate needs and motivation
Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 6
Visual Cliff

The visual cliff is an apparatus to measure
depth perception.

Infants are interested in “crossing” the cliff
until about 8 months, after they have had
experience falling.

The cliff “affords” danger for older infants.
Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 6
Visual Cliff
MARK RICHARDS / PHOTOT EDIT
Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 6
Movement and People

Infants have dynamic perception,
focused on movement and change.

They have a people preference from the
first days of life!
 Examples:
listen to voices, stare at faces, are
soothed by touch
Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 6
Make it Real: Memory

What’s your prediction: Can infants
remember anything? For how long?
What about a 1 or 2 year old?

What is your earliest memory?
Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 6
Memory

Even very young infants (3 months) can
remember IF:
 Experimental
conditions are “real life”
 Motivation is high
 Special measures aid memory retrieval
(repetition and reminders)

Example: Rovee-Collier’s mobile experiment
Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 6
Mobiles and
Memories
MICHAEL NEWMAN / PHOTOEDIT
Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 6
Memory (cont.)

Deferred imitation begins by 9 months,
becoming more elaborate with age.
 Example: A young
infant imitates hitting the
dog, a behavior modeled by an older sibling.

Implicit memory (for routines) develops
sooner than explicit memory (for facts).
Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 6
Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 6
First noises

Infants are noisy!
 They

coo, squeal, cry, yell, grunt, gurgle
Infants prefer child-directed speech
 High-pitched,
simplified, repetitive speech of
adults
Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 6
Babbling

Babbling is repeating certain syllables
(e.g., da-da-da).

All babies babble, even deaf babies
(although later and less frequently).

Babbling is a way to communicate.
Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 6
First Words

First words usually appear around 1 year.

They are often familiar nouns.
 (Have
you ever heard of an infant’s first word
being “stapler”?)
Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 6
The Language Explosion

The naming explosion refers to a language
spurt once an infant begins talking.

Infants learn about 50–100 words a month.

Culture shapes which words appear first.
Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 6
Sentences

A holophrase is a single word that
expresses an entire thought (e.g., “juice”).

Two-word sentences appear around 21
months, and remarkably, follow proper
grammar.
 Example:
“more juice”, not “juice more”
Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 6
Make it Real: Language

What fun sentences or words (good ones
or mistakes) have you heard a young child
make?

Example: “I catched the ball.”
Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 6
Theories of Language Learning

There are 3 theories of how infants learn
language:
 They
are taught (view of B. F. Skinner)
 They teach themselves (view of Noam
Chomsky)
 Social impulses foster learning
Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 6
Theory One: Infants Are Taught

B. F. Skinner argued that infants learn
language by:
 Associating
objects with words heard often
 Reinforcement and praise for correct words
 Correction of incorrect words
Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 6
Support for Theory One

Careful research by Hart and Risley
(1995) has demonstrated that infants of
parents who spoke more words had
superior language development.
Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 6
Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 6
Theory Two: Infants Teach
Themselves

Noam Chomsky argued that language is
far too complex to be learned through
step-by-step conditioning.
 Infants
make up words they have never heard
before (e.g., “runned”).

He believed a language acquisition
device (LAD) exists only in humans.
Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 6
Theory Three: Social Impulses
Foster Infant Language

This theory argues that the social desire to
communicate drives infants to learn
language.
 Example:
Upon hearing a new word, an
infant looks to where the adult is looking
before assuming an association between the
word and object.
Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 6
A Hybrid Theory

An emergentist coalition combines
aspects of several theories.

Different theories may apply at different
ages.

Culture plays a role in language learning.
Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 6
How about a bedtime story?
Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 6
A Note for Caregivers

Engaging a young infant in the wonder of
language, through reading, talking,
singing, etc., is giving that infant an
amazing gift. He or she will have a head
start on learning language and developing
a strong vocabulary!
Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 6