Chapter 5

Cognitive Development During the First Three Years

Behaviorist Approach

Born with ability to sense. Maturation is the limiting factor in learning.

Classical Conditioning Whenever a picture was taken, the flash went off and

the baby blinked. After several pictures, the baby blinks when sees the camera, before picture taken or flash.

 Learns to make a reflex/involuntary response

(blinking) to the stimulus of the camera; the camera did not originally provoke the response. The infant anticipates the event before it happens by forming associations between stimuli (camera and flash). 

The association will be extinguished if not reinforced. The learner is passive, absorbing and reacting to the stimuli.

Operant Conditioning

Baby learns that smiling brings attention. The learner acts, operates on the environment.

Infant memory

Infantile amnesia: brain simply not developed enough for storage and recall. Recency effect plays a role. The more recent the event, the more the infant recalls the situation and reacts accordingly.

Psychometric ApproachTesting to measure the factors believed reflect

intelligence (comprehension, reasoning) and to predict future performance.

 Intelligent behavior is inferred. Assumed to

be goal-orientated and adaptive. Intelligence adjusts to the circumstances and

conditions of life; enables people to acquire, remember, and use knowledge; to understand concepts and relationships; and to solve everyday problems.

IQ (Intelligence Quotient)

Various tests

Fostering competencies of Infants

• Provide sensory stimulation (not overstimulation)

• Create environment that fosters learning

• Respond to babies’ signals

• Power to effect changes (light switch, faucet)

• Freedom to explore

• Talk to babies!

• Join whatever they are doing/saying

• Arrange opportunities to learn basic skills (labeling, comparing)

Fostering competencies of Infants

• Applaud new skills; help practice and expand them

• Read in a warm, caring atmosphere

• Use punishment sparingly

Piagetian Approach: PiagetThe Sensorimotor Stage•  Focus on change in abstract reasoning.•  Viewed child as an active learner and the

architect of their own learning experiences.•  Cognitive development is the result of the

child using their own skills to make sense of their experiences.

• Interaction with the environment leads to qualitative changes in the way the child thinks.

• Adults cannot arbitrarily structure the child’s thinking and behavior.

The direction of cognitive development is genetically predetermined and lies within the child.

 Learning also plays a role. Play is very important. Everyone, including infants, organize their

knowledge of the world into schemata or schemes.

Schemes are sets of physical actions, mental operations, concepts or theories people use to organize and to acquire information about their world.

Assimilation: is the process of actively molding new information to fit existing schemes.

 

Accommodation: is the process of changing existing schemes to fit new, discrepant information.

Four factors that contribute to children’s cognitive development:

maturation of inherited physical structuresphysical experiences with the environmentsocial transmission of information and

knowledgeequilibration- innate tendency to keep our

cognitive structures in balance. It is a form of self-regulation; of altering or adjusting our cognitive structures in order to maintain organization and stability in our environment.

 

Four distinct stages in Cognitive Development

Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 years) This is experienced in the here and now (The active child: infants develop goal-directed behavior, means-ends thinking, and object permanence).

 Schemes- organized patterns of behavior, becoming more elaborate as development proceeds. The baby will organize their activity in relation to their environment via organization, adaptation, and equilibrium (first 5 substages).

Substages:a. Stage 1 (1st/2nd month): reflex activity.

Reflexes organize the newborn’s interactions. Within 3 weeks, babies come to expect certain coordinations among perceptual events, such as sights and sounds. Begin to exercises some control over reflexes- even without normal stimulus. Suck reflexes when lips are touched; eventually searches for nipple even when not touched; then sucks even when not hungry but nipple present. Cannot grasp object looking at.

Substages:

a. Stage 2 (2 to 4 months): Self-investigation. Elaborates on existing schemes and integrates simple schemes into more complicated behaviors. Modification and repetition of scheme to achieve interesting sensations: coordination of different schemes (e.g., looking and grasping). Primarily interested in own body. Repeats pleasant bodily sensations first by chance, then repeats for pleasure. Begins to suck different objects differently.

Primary circular reactions: simple repetitive acts that center upon the infant’s own body (e.g., thumb sucking, hand clasping).

Substages:

c. Stage 3 (4 to 8 months): Coordination and reaching out. Development of a variety of schemes that produce interesting effects: a more externally orientated, “cognitively extroverted” approach. Do something that produces a result, will repeat it. Manipulating objects and learning about their properties. Repeat actions that produce interesting results (e.g., shaking a rattle; coo when friendly face appears).

Substages:

c. Stage 3 (4 to 8 months): Coordination and reaching out.

Secondary Circular Reaction: no longer focus on infant’s own body, rather reaches out. Operant conditioning, when immediate reinforcement follows a spontaneous activity, the baby repeats the activity. Kicks the mobile, it moves interestingly, will do it again. Good at tracking moving objects with eyes and reaching for things to grasp. Retrieves a hidden toy under a transparent cup. Searches for missing objects.

Substages:

d. Stage 4 (8 to 12 months): Goal-directed behavior. Coordination of these schemes into intentional, “intelligent” looking means-end sequences, in which one scheme leads to another. Behavior is deliberate and purposeful. Try out new schemes in order to effect their environment. Combine sequences into order. Some schemes serve as a means for others in order to reach a goal. E.g., removes a barrier to get a toy. Can also anticipate events that do not depend on own immediate behavior (e.g., sees mother walking toward door, begins to cry). Crawls across room to get object. Baby is now a skillful imitator.

Substages:

d. Stage 4 (8 to 12 months): Goal-directed behavior.

Play, that is, practicing sensorimotor schemes for the sheer fun of it, becomes prominent here. Play for longer periods of time engaging in same behavior. Infants in this stage learn from both play and imitation. Can retrieve object hidden. Learn from past experience, modify and coordinate previous schemes.

Substages:

e. Stage 5 (12 to 18 months): Experimentation. Curious, trial and error experimentation, often leading to the discovery of new means to achieve goals; outer directed efforts to learn about the world. Experiments with hands or mouth. Explores new properties of objects by trial and error, systematically testing different approaches as if thinking “Lets see what happens if…”

Substages:

e. Stage 5 (12 to 18 months): Experimentation.

Varies approaches. This is the last “pure” sensorimotor stage. Still deals with only the “here and now”. Cannot yet imitate events that have occurred earlier or elsewhere. Imprisoned in own cognitive world by limited ability to communicate.

Substages:

e. Stage 5 (12 to 18 months): Experimentation.

Tertiary (third-order) circular reactions: child begins to actively experiment with things in order to discover how various actions will affect an object or outcome. (e.g., sitting in highchair, dawdling over oatmeal, drops handful over side. Does it again with more force, delighted in the splash; learns things fall down, not up; the force determines the degree of splash; can make an interesting patter on the floor with the oatmeal; and oatmeal is on the finer things in life!)

Substages:f. Stage 6 (about 18 to 24 months): mental

combinations and problem solving. Representational ability- to mentally visualize objects and actions in memory. Anticipates consequences. Invention of new means thorough internal, mental combinations; first appearance of deferred imitation, symbolic play, and speech.

This is the transitory stage between sensorimotor and conceptual intelligence. Beginning of the representational intelligence and preoperational thought, which occur in the preschool years. Changes include the ability to represent objects and events in thought by symbols and to act on those symbols. Demonstrates insight!

Substages:

f. Stage 6 (about 18 to 24 months): mental combinations and problem solving.

Can contemplate a problem, pause to think, and then act to solve it, without trial and error. Able to visualize own actions and thus use mental trial and error. Toddlers in this stage have not mastered symbolic thought, but do have mental images and apparently are able to use them in solving problems.

E.g.: play with shape box; searching for right hole for the shape before trying; succeeding!

 

Object PermanenceObjects have an existence of their own (object

permanence). Occurs between 8-12 months. Takes 2 years to fully develop. 4-8 months: drop something, will look, then forget. 8-12 months: will look where they first found it after seeing it being hidden, even if it seen it move to another location (does not recall where moved to). 12-18 months, look where last seen. 18-24 months- will look for object even if did not see it placed somewhere.

 

Object Permanence

Requires ability to have mental representations of the world and objects. Without mental images, symbols, or depictions to represent an object, you would be unable to think about it, because you have no internal was of representing it. In other words, without object permanence, “out of sight, out of mind”.

 

Spatial Knowledge

Development of object concept and spatial knowledge linked to self-locomotion and coordination of visual and motor information.

 

Causality

4-6 months and 12 months- discovery of effects of own actions and then effects of outside forces. That one event causes another. Allows to predict and control own world.

 

Numbers

18-24 months- may begin to manipulate and recognize small numbers.

 

Categorization

18-24 months- Depends on representational thinking. Dividing the world into meaningful categories.

 

Imitation

Invisible imitation- 9 months; mental representation- 18-24 months.

 

SUMMARY • Preverbal• Childs begins to construct basic concept of

object permanence (approximately 8-9 months)

• Play primarily involves imitation and copying the actions of others without understanding the purpose of the actions

• Self-concept is limited to a physical awareness that one has a body  

Criticisms of Piaget

• Limitations in early cognitive abilities may be related to immature linguistic and motor skills rather than cognitive abilities.

 

• Toddlers more cognitively competent than Piaget imagined. Infants perceptions are far ahead of motor abilities- Piaget believed motor skills preceded perceptions/cognitive abilities.

Other ApproachesInformation-Processing ApproachApproaches cognitive development by analyzing

processes involved in perceiving and handling information.

 HabituationLearning in which repeated or continuous

exposure to a stimulus reduces attention to that stimulus. (e.g., first few times say something, paid attention. The tenth time, did not even notice it.

Visual PreferenceAbility to make visual distinctions and amount of time

spends looking at it. Visual recognition memory: measured by showing two

stimuli side by side, one new and one familiar. A longer gaze at the new stimulus indicates that the other is one they have seen before. May exist at birth. Piaget saw this developing later.

 Cross-modal transfer- ability to use information gained

from one sense to guide another. (feels objects in dark room, familiarity, and then locates own position) as early as 1 month!

 

Information processing as predictor of intelligence- habituation and attention-recovery during first 6-12 months moderately predictive of childhood IQ.

 Catagorization: found that 3 month olds begin this

process- Piaget said it occurred at 18 months. Object permanence: violation of expectations- when

change an event, infant looks longer for the object in the specific place noticed at 3½ months versus Piaget’s 8-12 months. However, the fact that the infant stares longer may simply be noticing that something is different, not necessarily that a specific object is missing.

 

Violation of Expectations

• Phase 1: Familiarization– Infant watches as events happen normally

• Phase 2: Violation of Expectation– The event is changed in a way that conflicts

with past procedure

• If infant watches the conflict event longer, then it is interpreted as noticing a change

Cognitive NeuroscienceNeurological maturation is major factor in cognitive

development. MemoryExplicit memory- conscious or intentional recollection

(facts, names, events) Implicit memory- remembering that occurs without

conscious effort or even conscious awareness (habits, skills)

Prefrontal cortex (large portion of frontal lobe) controls much of cognition. Develops approximately 6 months. Responsible for working memory (short-term storage and processing, mental representations). Therefore, object permanence cannot occur before 12 months.  

Social-Contextual Approach- from Interactions to Caregivers

Guided participation- mutual interactions with adults that help bridge gap between a child’s understanding and an adult’s. Vygotsky viewed learning as a collaborative process.

 Language Development Communication system based on words and

grammar, and cognitive development. See Table 5-4 (page 177)

Sequence of speech

Early vocalization- crying is newborn’s only means to communicate

Cooing- 1 ½ to 3 months

Babbling- repeating consonant-vowel strings (ma-ma-ma) 6-10 months

Imitation of language- 9-10 months

Recognition of language sounds- begins in womb!

 

Gestures- 9-12 months, learned conventional social gestures (waving, nodding head)

 

Sequence of speech

Representational gestures- waving cup when thirsty- 13 months

 

Symbolic gestures (blowing when hot) about when say first word (11 months)

 

Telegraphic speech- a few essential words

 

Syntax and complete sentences- 20-30 months

 

Theories of language developmentSkinner- based on experience. Practice,

reinforcement, observation. Chomsky- word combinations and nuances too

complex to be imitated or reinforced. Nativism- active role of the learner

Innate capacity for acquiring language, and have an inborn language acquisition device.

Universal principles that underlie all languages.