Cognitive Development in Infancy - Developed Psychology Life Span | PSYC 2070, Study notes of Psychology

Download Cognitive Development in Infancy - Developed Psychology Life Span | PSYC 2070 and more Study notes Psychology in PDF only on Docsity! Life-Span Development Twelfth Edition Chapter 5: Cognitive Development in Infancy ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Cognitive Processes Piaget proposed that we build mental structures that help us adapt to the world Adaptation involves adjusting to new environmental demands Piaget stressed that children actively construct their own cognitive worlds through interaction with the environment Systematic changes in children’s thinking occur at different points in their development ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Cognitive Processes Equilibration: the mechanism by which children shift from one stage of thought to the next Disequilibrium: child’s inevitable experience of cognitive conflict Brought about by inconsistencies in his or her existing schemes Internal search for equilibrium creates motivation for change Assimilation and accommodation are used to resolve conflict and bring about a new way of thinking ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Cognitive Processes According to Piaget, individuals go through four stages of development Cognition is qualitatively different from one stage to another Sensorimotor Stage: infant cognitive development lasting from birth to 2 years Infants understand the world through their sensory experiences ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Sensorimotor Substages ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Object Permanence ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Cognitive Processes Evaluating Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage: Piaget claimed that certain processes are crucial in transitions between stages; data do not always support this Example: the A-not-B Error Infant’s perceptual abilities may be much more developed than Piaget thought Studies by Elizabeth Spelke and others Piaget was not specific enough about how infants learn about their world ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Conditioning and Attention Conditioning: Infants can learn through classical and operant conditioning Rovee-Collier (1997) demonstrated that infants can retain conditioning experiences Attention: the focusing of mental resources on select information Newborns can detect and fix their attention on contours 4-month-olds can scan more thoroughly and show selective attention ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Memory Memory: retention of information over time Encoding: the process by which information gets into memory Implicit memory: memory without conscious recollection Skills and routine procedures that are performed automatically Explicit memory: conscious memory of facts and experiences Occurs in infants after 6 months Maturation of hippocampus and surrounding cerebral cortex ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Memory Infantile or childhood amnesia: inability to recall memories of events that occurred before 3 years of age May be caused by immaturity of prefrontal lobes of the brain ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Memory Imitation: Meltzoff: infants’ imitative abilities are biologically based and are characterized by flexibility and adaptability Deferred Imitation: imitation that occurs after a time delay of hours or days Piaget: deferred imitation does not occur until about 18 months Meltzoff: research suggests it can occur as early as 9 months ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Predicting Intelligence Scores on infant tests are not highly correlated with IQ scores in childhood Components of tests are very different Exception: Fagan test Measures of habituation and dishabituation are linked to intelligence in childhood and adolescence Many important changes in cognitive development take place after infancy ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Language Development Wild or feral children are raised in isolation and are unable to recapture normal language development despite intensive intervention later Victor, Wild Boy of Aveyron Genie: 13-year-old found in 1970 in Los Angeles Both cases raise questions about biological and environmental determinants of language Language: a form of communication – whether spoken, written, or signed – that is based on a system of symbols Infinite Generativity: the ability to produce an endless number of meaningful sentences using a finite set of words and rules ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. The Rule Systems of Language ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Language Development ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Language Development Vocabulary spurt begins at approximately 18 months of age Overextension and underextension of words are common Overextension: tendency to apply a word to objects that are inappropriate for the word’s meaning Underextension: tendency to apply a word too narrowly Two-word utterances occur at about 18–24 months Telegraphic speech: use of short and precise words without grammatical markers ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Language Milestones in Infancy ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Language Development Biological Influences (continued): Language Acquisition Device (LAD; Noam Chomsky): theory that a biological endowment enables children to detect certain features and rules of language Theoretical concept only Critics argue that the LAD cannot explain all of language development ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Language Development Environmental Influences: Behaviorists claim language is a complex learned skill acquired through responses and reinforcements Interaction view (Tomasello): children learn language in specific contexts Children’s vocabulary is linked to family socioeconomic status and the type of talk parents direct toward their children ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Language Development ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.