CHAPTER 6
Infancy: Cognitive
Development
Learning Outcomes
LO1 Examine Jean Piaget’s studies of
cognitive development.
LO2 Discuss the information-processing
approach.
LO3 Identify individual differences in
intelligence among infants.
LO4 Examine language development in
infancy.
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TRUTH OR FICTION?
PRE-QUIZ
• T F
For 2-month old infants, “out of sight” is “out
of mind.”
• T F
A 1-hour old infant may imitate an adult who
sticks out his or her tongue.
• T F
Psychologists can begin to measure
intelligence in infancy.
• T F
Infant crying is a primitive form of language.
• T F
You can advance children’s development of
pronunciation by correcting their errors.
• T F
Children are “pre-wired” to listen to language
in such a way that they come to understand rules of
grammar.
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LO1 Cognitive
Development: Jean Piaget
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Cognitive Development – Jean Piaget
• COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
– Focus on development of how children perceive and
mentally represent the world
• PIAGET’S HYPOTHESIS
– Cognitive processes develop in an orderly sequence
of stages
– Rate of development is variable to individuals but
sequence remains constant
• TERMS AND CONCEPTS
– Schemes
• Children’s concepts of the world
– Assimilation
• Incorporating new events into existing schemes
– Accommodation
• If assimilation does make sense of new events, children try
to modify existing schemes through accommodation.
Cognitive Development – Jean Piaget
• Piaget’s FOUR STAGES of cognitive
development:
–
–
–
–
Sensorimotor: B-2 yrs
Preoperational: 2-7 yrs
Concrete operational: 7-11 yrs
Formal operational: 12 yrs - adult
Cognitive Development – Jean Piaget
• Sensorimotor Stage
– The first 2 years of cognitive development
– It is divided into six sub-stages.
•
•
•
•
•
•
Simple Reflexes
Primary Circular Reactions
Secondary Circular Reactions
Coordination of Secondary Schemes
Tertiary Circular Reactions
Invention of New Means through Material Combinations
Cognitive Development – Jean Piaget
• Sensorimotor Stage
– Sub-stage 1 – Simple Reflexes
• B-1 month
• Dominated by assimilation of stimuli into reflexes
• Within first few hours, infants began to modify
reflexes as a result of experiences
• There seems to be no connection between stimuli
from different sensory modalities
– Making no effort to grasp objects they visually track
Cognitive Development – Jean Piaget
• Sensorimotor Stage
– Sub-stage 2 – Primary Circular Reactions
•
•
•
•
1-4 months
Beginning to coordinate different schemes
Focus on the infant’s own body rather than external stimuli
3-months: infants examine objects intensely
– No longer simply looking but “looking in order to see”
• Sensorimotor coordination is self-reinforcing because they
repeat actions that allow them to “see.”
• The desire to prolong stimulation is seen as a “basic” drive
much like hunger and thirst.
Cognitive Development – Jean Piaget
• Sensorimotor Stage
– Sub-stage 3 – Secondary Circular Reactions
• 4-8 months
• Focus shifts from self to objects and environmental events
• Patterns of activity are repeated because of their effect on
the environment
• Infants may now lean to shake a rattle
Cognitive Development – Jean Piaget
• Sensorimotor Stage
– Sub-stage 4 – Coordination of Secondary Schemes
•
•
•
•
9-12 months
Can now coordinate schemes to attain specific goals
Begin to show intentional, goal-directed behavior
Gain capacity to imitate gestures and sounds they
previously ignored
Cognitive Development – Jean Piaget
• Sensorimotor Stage
– Sub-stage 5 – Tertiary Circular Reactions
• 12-18 months
• Infants now engage in tertiary circular reactions or
purposeful adaptation of established schemes to specific
situations
• Become “budding scientists” experimenting with their
actions dozens of times in deliberate trial-and-error testing
to learn how things work
Cognitive Development – Jean Piaget
• Sensorimotor Stage
– Sub-stage 6 – Invention of New Means Through
Mental Combinations
• 18-24 months
• Transition stage between sensorimotor development
and the development of symbolic thought
• External exploration is replaced by mental
exploration
• By 18 mos, child may also use imitation to symbolize
a plan of action
• Also begin to exhibit concept of deferred imitation
– Imitation of an action that may have occurred hours,
days, or even weeks earlier
Cognitive Development – Jean Piaget
• Development of Object Performance
– Awareness that an object or person continues to
exist when out of sight
– Object permanence is tied to the development of
the infant’s working memory and reasoning ability
– Newborns
• Show no tendency to respond to objects not within their
immediate grasp
Cognitive Development – Jean Piaget
• Development of Object Performance
– 2 - 6 months
• At 2 months they may show surprise at missing objects but
make no attempt to search for them
• Typically infants at this stage behave as if object is gone if
out of sight
• But by 6 months infants will tend to look for objects they
have dropped
– 8 - 12 months (sub-stage 4)
• Baby now seeks to find objects that have been hidden
from their sight.
• “A not B” error: baby will continue to seek lost object in the
place where they have found it before, even if they see it
has not been placed there
– By 9-10 months this error no longer occurs if the
retrieval is immediate; if having to wait 5 or more
seconds they tend to revert to the error behavior
Evaluation of Piaget’s Theory
•
Pros
–
–
•
Still provides a comprehensive model of cognitive
development
Confirmation of patterns and sequences observed in many
other cultures worldwide
Cons
–
–
–
Process appears to be more gradual; not tied to discrete
stages
Overlooks the importance of interpersonal influences
Seems to underestimate competency of infants
•
•
Infants seem to display object permanence earlier than (s)he
thought
Deferred Imitation also occurs earlier than (s)he indicated (9
mos instead of 18 mos)
LO2 Information
Processing
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• Focuses on how children manipulate new
information or previously stored information
• Tools for processing include:
– Memory
• Memory is critical in development of all cognitive
development.
• Newborns display memory for stimuli previously exposed
to them.
• Dramatic improves are seen between 2-6 months and
again at 1 yr.
• Infant memory skills can be improved with use of
reminders (“priming”).
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Information Processing
Information Processing
• Tools for processing include:
– Imitation
• “Infant see, infant do” Imitation is basis for much of
human learning.
• Some studies show neonates only 0.7 to 71 hrs. old
display imitation of adult gestures other have not.
• The key may be up to 2 wks imitation appears to be a
reflex and it typically disappears as reflexes “drop out”
and re-emerge later.
– These early imitations could be an evolutionary
response to assist survival by helping to form
infant/caregiver bonding.
LO3 Individual
Differences in Intelligence
among Infants
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Individual Differences in Intelligence
Among Infants
• Cognitive development does not proceed the same in all
infants.
• Measuring cognition/intelligence in infants is very different
from adults.
• Bayley Scales of Infant Development
– Originally developed in 1933
– Current updated version consists of:
• 178 mental scale items
– Verbal, perceptual, problem-solving, learning, memory skills
• 111 motor scale items
– Gross skills: standing, walking, climbing; Fine: hand, finger
dexterity
• Behavior rating (based on examiner observations)
– 1. Attention Span
– 2. Goal directedness
– 3. Persistence
– 4. Social and Emotional development
Table 6.1 - Items from the Bayley Scales of
Infant Development
Individual Differences in Intelligence
Among Infants
• Testing Infants: Why and with What?
– Screening for handicaps one major reason
– Difficult to test infants; administered one-to-one, individual judgments
prevail
– Number of tests developed:
• Bayley Scale; Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale; Denver
Developmental Screening Test
• Instability of Intelligence Scores in Infancy
– Screening is also done to predict future development
• Overall they fail to predict accurately over long period
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Individual Differences in Intelligence
Among Infants
• Use of Visual Recognition Memory
– Ability to discriminate previously seen object from new ones (based
on habituation)
– Infants with greater visual recognition later attained higher IQ scores
• In Sum:
– Scales of infant development may prove useful as screening devices,
or for research or descriptive purposes but their predictive power
is not valid.
LO4 Language
Development in Infancy
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Language Development in Infancy
• Early Vocalizations
– Prelinguistic Vocalizations
• Actual words are symbols of objects and events; prelinguistic
vocalizations do NOT represent objects or events.
• Newborns
– Utilize crying as an effective form of verbal expression
• 2 months
– Cooing (happy sounds)
» Use tongue more; sounds are more articulated; linked to
pleasure or excitement; not associated with hunger or pain
Language Development in Infancy
– Prelinguistic Vocalizations
• 6-9 months
– Babbling (first sounds resembling human speech)
» 8 mos cooing decreases and babbling begins
» Frequently combining consonant and vowel sounds; ( ba ba ma ma - da da)
• 10-12 months
– Echolalia (begin to repeat syllables at length)
» Ah bah bah bah bah bah
– Intonation (begin to use patterns of rising and falling
tones)
Table 6.2 – Milestones in Language
Development In Infancy
Language Development in Infancy
• Development of Vocabulary
– Refers to learning the meanings of words
• Receptive vocabulary: words they can understand
• Expressive vocabulary: words they can use
• At any given time, children can understand more words than they
can use.
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Language Development in Infancy
• Development of Vocabulary, con’t
– Child’s First Words (a milestone in development)
•
•
•
•
Usually between 11-13 months
Range of 8-18 months considered normal
Brief, one or two syllables
Acquisition slow at first; taking 3-4 months to achieve 10-30
words
• By 18 months, producing up to 50 words
• 65% of first words are:
– General nominals: names and classes of objects
– Specific nominals: proper nouns
– Words expressing movement are also common
• 18-24 months: rapid burst, increasing from 50 to 300 words
– A.K.A. “naming explosion” because 75% are nouns
– Growth continues with acquisition of average of 9 new words
a day
Language Development in Infancy
• Development of Vocabulary, con’t
– Referential language style
• Uses language primarily to label object in the environment
– Expressive language style
• Uses language primarily for engaging in social interactions
• Uses more pronouns and words involved in social routines
• More children use expressive style; most use a combination
– Overextension
• Extending the meaning of one word to refer to things and actions
for which they have no words yet
• Generally based on perceived similarities in function or form
between original object or action and the new one
• Overextensions gradually correct as child’s vocabulary and
classification skills improve
Language Development in Infancy
• Development of Sentences
– Typically one-word utterances but express complete ideas
• Telegraphic Speech
– Brief expressions that have the meaning of sentences
• Holophrase: single words used to express complex meanings
• Two-Word Utterances: brief and telegraphic but show
understanding of syntax (proper word order); start around 1824 months (when vocabulary reaches 50-100 words)
• Mean Length of Utterance (MLU)
– The average number of morphemes used in a sentence
• Morphemes: the smallest units of meaning in a language
– Patterns in rate of increase in MLU are similar for each child.
Theories of Language Development
• Languages are passed down from generation to
generation (with minor changes).
• Possible roles of Nurture & Nature
– Nurture: Learning Theories
– Nature: Nativist Views
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Theories of Language Development
• Views that Emphasize Nurture
– Role of Imitation
• Parents are models with children learning in part from
observation and imitation.
• But some language is spontaneous and resistant to adult
correction.
– Role of Reinforcement
• Skinner theorized cooing and babbling may be innate but due to
reinforcement they lead to language.
• Extinction of foreign sounds and adherence to native tongue
language takes place through shaping (moving a desired
behavior toward a goal by gradual progressive
reinforcement).
• Selective reinforcement of pronunciation can also “backfire”
– Children whose parents reward proper pronunciation but
correct poor pronunciation develop vocabulary slower than
those whose parents are more tolerant of errors.
Theories of Language Development
• Views that Emphasize Nurture, con’t.
– Learning theory also cannot account for invariant sequences
and spurts in acquisition.
• Types of questions, passive vs. active sentences, etc. all emerge
in the same order
– But some aspects of environment do influence and enhance
language development, such as:
• Use of “Motherese” a simplified form of speech
• Using questions that engage child in conversation
• Making positive responses to child’s expressive language
attempts
• Joining in child’s play and paying attention to their interests
• Making gestures to help child understand
• Describing aspects of environment that have gained child’s
attention
• Reading to the child
• Talk to the child a great deal
Theories of Language Development
• Views that Emphasize Nature
– Nativist View: holds inborn factors cause children to attend to
and acquire language in certain ways:
• Evolutionary Theory:
– Structures that enable humans to perceive and produce
language evolved in bits and pieces.
– Individuals endowed with those were more likely to reach
maturity and transmit their genes because communication
ability increased their chances of survival.
Theories of Language Development
• Views that Emphasize Nature, con’t.
• Psycholinguistic Theory: (Noam Chomsky)
– Language acquisition involves interaction between various
environmental influences and an inborn tendency to
acquire language.
– Chomsky labeled this innate tendency a language
acquisition device (LAD).
– Evidence for support is found in:
» Universality of language abilities; Regularity of early sounds
(even among deaf children); Commonality of sequencing in all
languages
– Inborn tendency primes the nervous system to learn
grammar:
» Surface Structure: languages vary greatly
» Deep Structure: but all variations share a “universal grammar”
– Chomsky believes children are pre-wired to attend to
language and deduce rules for making sentences from
ideas.
Theories of Language Development
• Views that Emphasize Nature, con’t.
• Brain Structures Involved in Language
– Left Hemisphere of Cerebral Cortex
• Broca’s Area
– Located near section of motor cortex controlling muscles of
tongue, throat, and other areas of face involved in speech
– If damaged the ability to speak is compromised but can still
understand speech of others: Broca’s Aphasia
• Wernicke’s Area
– Located near auditory cortex; connected to Broca’s area by
nerves
– If damaged can still speak, but have trouble finding words to
express thoughts, and in understanding speech of others:
Wernicke’s Aphasia
• Angular Gyrus
– Located between visual cortex and Wernicke’s Area
– Translates visual information (written words) into auditory
information (sounds) and sends to Wernicke’s area
– If damaged can cause problems in reading.