The First Two Years: Cognitive Development

Slides prepared by Kate Byerwalter, Ph.D., Grand Rapids Community College

The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence by Kathleen Stassen Berger

Chapter 6

Seventh Edition

Berger: The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 7th Edition, Chapter 6

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 informationExample: 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 adaptationsExample: 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 lastExample: infant smiles when someone shakes a

rattle (secondary circular reaction).

Stage Four: new adaptations and anticipationThe infant shows goal-directed behaviorObject 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: 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.

Stage Five of Sensorimotor Intelligence

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 experiencesCurrent developmental levelSensory 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 highSpecial 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

B. F. Skinner argued that infants learn language by:

Associating objects with words heard oftenReinforcement and praise for correct wordsCorrection of incorrect words

Theory One: Infants Are Taught

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

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.

Theory Three: Social Impulses Foster Infant Language

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

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!

A Note for Caregivers