• Chapter 5 – Cognitive Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood

Piaget’s Theory: Schemes

• Psychological structures
• Organized ways of making sense of experience
• Schemes change with age:
  • first schemes: sensorimotor action patterns
  • later schemes: deliberate and creative

Building Schemes

• Adaptation
  • Building schemes through direct interaction with environment
• Assimilation
  • Using current schemes to interpret the external world
• Accommodation
  • Adjusting old schemes and creating new ones to better fit environment

Assimilation and Accommodation

• Cognitive equilibrium:
  • steady, comfortable state
  • characterized by assimilation more than accommodation
• Cognitive disequilibrium:
  • state of cognitive discomfort
  • shift from assimilation toward accommodation, then back toward assimilation

Sensorimotor Stage

• Birth to age 2 years
• Building schemes through sensory and motor exploration
• Circular reactions

Sensorimotor Substages

• Reflexive schemes (birth–1 month)
  • Newborn reflexes
• Primary circular reactions (1–4 months)
  • Simple motor habits centered around own body
• Secondary circular reactions (4–8 months)
• Repetition of interesting effects; imitation of familiar behaviors
• Coordination of secondary circular reactions (8–12 months)
  • Intentional, goal-directed behavior; beginning object permanence
• Tertiary circular reactions (12–18 months)
  • Exploration of object properties through novel actions
• Mental representation (18 months–2 years)
  • Internal depictions of objects and events; advanced object permanence (invisible displacement)

Object Permanence

• Understanding that objects continue to exist when out of sight
• Revealed by retrieval of hidden objects
• Awareness not yet complete: A-not-B search error
• Full understanding revealed by problems involving invisible displacement

Mental Representation

• Internal depictions:
  • images (objects, people, spaces)
  • concepts (groups of similar objects
    or events)
• Representation permits
  • advanced object permanence
  • deferred imitation
  • make-believe play

Deferred Imitation

• 6 weeks: imitates facial expressions
• 6–9 months: copies novel actions with objects
• 12–14 months: imitates rationally
• 14–18 months: imitates actions that are intended but not completed

Evaluation of the Sensorimotor Stage

• Some suggest infants are born with core knowledge in several domains.

Core Knowledge Perspective

• Babies are born with a set of core domains of thought:
  • innate, special-purpose knowledge systems
  • permit a quick grasp of related information
  • support rapid early development

Suggested Domains of Core Knowledge

• Physical
• Linguistic
• Psychological
• Numerical

Infants’ Numerical Knowledge

• Research suggests that infants can
  • discriminate quantities up to 3
  • perform simple addition and subtraction
  • represent large-number values
• Findings are controversial

Information Processing

• Sensory register: sights and sounds are represented directly, stored briefly
• Short-term memory store:
  • attended-to information is retained briefly and “worked” on
  • working memory: number of items that can be briefly held in mind while engaging in some effort to manipulate them
• Long-term memory: permanent knowledge base

Managing the Cognitive System’s Activities

• Central executive
  • directs flow of information
  • coordinates incoming information with information already in the system
  • selects, applies, and monitors strategies that facilitate memory storage, comprehension, reasoning, and problem solving
• Automatic processes
  • require no space in working memory
  • can be done while focusing on other information

Improvements in the Cognitive System

• Increase in basic capacity of memory stores, especially working memory
• Increase in speed with which information is worked on
• Improvements in executive function

Cognitive Gains in Infancy and Toddlerhood

• Attention
  • improved efficiency, ability to shift focus
  • less attraction to novelty, improved sustained attention
• Memory
  • longer retention intervals
  • development of recall by second half of first year
• Categorization
  • gradual shift from perceptual to conceptual categorization in toddlerhood

Development of Categorization

• Perceptual
  • First categories are based on physical properties
  • By 6 months, babies categorize on basis of two correlated features
• Conceptual
  • Shift to categories based on common function or behavior during toddlerhood

Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory

• Complex mental activities develop through joint activities with more mature members of child’s society
• Zone of proximal development: tasks too difficult for child to do alone but possible with help of more skilled partners

Infant and Toddler Intelligence Tests

• Bayley Scales:
  • Cognitive
  • Language
  • Motor
  • Social-Emotional
  • Adaptive Behavior
• Predict later intelligence poorly
• Largely used for screening

Computing Intelligence Test Scores

• Intelligence quotient (IQ): comparison with typical performance for age
  • standardization
  • normal distribution: bell-shaped curve
• Infant tests and later performance:
  • largely used for screening

Features of a
High-Quality Home Life

• Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) measures:
  • parental emotional and verbal responsiveness
  • parental acceptance of child
  • organization of physical environment
  • provision of appropriate play materials
  • parental involvement with child
  • opportunities for variety in daily stimulation

Developmentally Appropriate Infant and Toddler Child Care

• Physical setting
• Toys and equipment
• Caregiver–child ratio
• Daily activities
• Interaction among adults and children
• Caregiver qualifications
• Relationships with parents
• Licensing and accreditation

Theories of Language Development

• Nativist (Chomsky)
  • Language Acquisition Device (LAD)
  • contains universal grammar
  • infants biologically prepared to learn language
• Interactionist
  • interaction between inner capacities and environmental influences
  • social-interactionist view: emphasizes social skills and language experiences

Getting Ready to Talk

• First speech sounds:
  • cooing
  • babbling
• Becoming a communicator:
  • joint attention
  • give-and-take
  • preverbal gestures

Starting to Talk

• First words:
  • underextension
  • overextension
• Two-word utterances:
  • telegraphic speech
  • copies adult word pairings

Individual and
Cultural Differences

• Gender
• Temperament
• Environment:
  • verbal stimulation
  • characteristics of native language

Supporting Early
Language Learning

• With infants
  • Respond to coos and babbles
  • Establish joint attention
  • Use infant-directed speech
  • Play social games
• With toddlers
  • Engage in joint make-believe
  • Engage in frequent conversations
  • Read often and talk about books
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