Piaget’s cognitive development perspective
Children active in own dev.
We rely on our schemas to make sense of the world (which adapt w experience)
schemas: concepts/ideas/ways of interacting with the world
First process of cog dev: integrating new experience into preexisting schema
ex: 1 yr old grabbing and shoving things into mouth to explore
Second cog dev process: needing to change schema bc it doesn’t fit with an existing one
1 y/o cant grab and shove beach ball in mouth so he squeezes and mouths it instead
When assimilation and accommodation are balanced: individuals neither incorporating new info into schemas nor changing schemas in light of new info
A mismatch between schemas and the world
more frequent than equilibrium
leads to cognitive growth
(discomfort motivates children to modify schemas to match reality)
Substages of sensorimotor reasoning
1:
reflexes (birth- 1 mon)
2: primary circular reactions (1-4 mos)
3: secondary circular reactions (4-8 mos)
4: coordination of secondary schemas (8-12 mos)
5: tertiary circular reactions (12-18 mos)
6: mental representation (18-24 mos)
Coordination of secondary schemas
8-12 mos
signifies beginning of intentional behavior (goal-oriented)
object permanence: understanding obj continues to exist outside sensory awareness
(under 8 mos: out of sight out of mind)
Violation-of-Expectation method
task where stimulus appears to violate physical laws
infant looks longer at unexpected event, suggested surprise, aware of physical properties of obj, can mentally represent them
occurs when infants are
able to uncover a toy hidden behind a barrier,
but when the toy moves from behind one
barrier (Place A) to another (Place B), they
look for the toy in the first place it was hidden
Core Knowledge Perspective
Researchers generally agree with Piaget but
some feel that all knowledge doesn’t begin
with sensorimotor activity. They believe that
infants are born with *core knowledge*.
infants are born with innate
(built-in) knowledge systems or core domains
of thought that enable early rapid learning
and adaptation
Innate systems at play in infants (believed by researchers not 100% on board with Piaget)
– How come babies know objects don’t disappear out of
existence?
– Or that objects can’t pass through one another?
– They know they’ll fall without support.
– They show preferences towards causality…
– They can even discriminate between large and small
quantities
These theorists view the mind as composed of 3
different states
1. Sensory Memory
2. Working Memory
3. Long-term Memory
used to manipulate and store info throughout life
Mental stores in info processing
fades quickly from sensory memory if not processed.
If attention on info, passes to working memory.
As information is manipulated in working memory,
there is a higher chance that it will be stored in long-term memory.
can fade in a fraction of a second if not processed
short-term memory.
– Holds and processes information that is being
“worked on” in some way
• Considered/comprehended, encoded, or recalled
– All conscious mental activity
Central Executive: an important part of working memory
: A control processor that directs the flow of
info and regulates cognitive activities such as
attention, action, and problem solving.
– decides what is important to
attend to
– combines new info with info
already in working memory
– selects and applies
manipulation strategies
An unlimited store that holds information indefinitely
Information is not manipulated or processed in long-term memory; it is simply stored until it is retrieved to
manipulate in working memory.
Infants memory capacities
basic/not very good.
most likely to remember events when they
take place in familiar contexts and when the
infants are actively engaged
Grouping different stimuli from a
common class
allows: – Organizing storage of info in
memory
– Efficient retrieval of that information
– Capacity to respond with familiarity
to new stimuli from a common class
Information Processing Skills During Infancy:
Rundown
1. Attention increases steadily over
infancy
2. Memory improves with age.
3. By the end of the first year,
infants can remember a visual
stimulus for several days or even
weeks.
4. Infants first categorize based on
perceived similarity.
5. The use of categories improves
memory efficiency
Bayley Scales of Infant Development
III (BSID-III)
The most often used standardized
measure of infant intelligence
Consists of motor scales, cognitive
scales, language scale, social-emotional scale...
• infants 1 - 42 mos age
–performance varies
considerably from one testing session
to another.
– Poor results may not be the result of
developmental functioning.
– Results from this measure is not
indicative of intelligence scores at 18
years of age.
Information Processing Approach to
Intelligence
Infants who process info more
efficiently are thought to acquire knowledge
more quickly.
naturally notice complex patterns of sounds and organize into meaningful info.
infants understand
more words than they can say
Prelinguistic Communication
vocal sounds like cooing,
gurgling, vowel sounds (ooooo, eeeee), babbling
One-word expressions used to
express complete thought @ one yr age (when first word is spoken)
Around 2 years comes the word explosion, where
vocabulary is rapidly increasing
Begins around 21
months of age
speaking
like a telegram,
only including a few
essential words universal among
toddlers
“Kitty come”, “Mommy milk”
Learning Theory (B.F. Skinner): theory of language dev
Imitation and reinforcement shape children’s language acquisition (operant
conditioning).
• Caregivers respond to utterances with interest, attention, imitating and reinforcing infants’
verbal behavior.
Nativist Theory (Chomsky): theory of language dev
• The human brain has an innate capacity to learn language.
• Language acquisition device (LAD) – an innate facilitator of
language and storehouse of rules that apply to all human languages
(universal grammar)
Biological Contributions of language dev.
1. Broca’s area: controls the ability
to use language for expression
2. Wernicke’s area: responsible for
language comprehension
Canonical babbling
• A type of babbling with well-formed
syllables that sounds like language
• Parents tune in and treat the
vocalizations in a new way.
Infant- directed Speech:
• Known as “motherese”
Expansions:
• Parents enrich versions of the child’s
statement.
Recast:
• Children’s sentences are restated
into new grammatical forms.
What language can be understood
What language can be produced