1

• Erik Erikson

• First Psychosocial Stage

Trust vs. Mistrust

2

• Sensation

The translation of a stimulus by a sense organ

• Perception

The complex process by which the mind interprets and gives meaning to sensory information

3

• The novelty ParadigmClosely related to habituation method• The Preference MethodGives a choice of stimuli to look at or listen to• The Surprise MethodRelies on the fact that infants react with surprise

when their expectations are violated• Event-Related Potential MethodProvides the equivalent of a complex

electroencephalograph

4

• Infants are born with a full intact set of visual structures.

• Newborns’ eyes are sensitive to brightness• They have some control over eye movement• Newborns focus optimally on objects at a range

of 7 to 10 inches• They look primarily at the edges and contours of

objects• Are responsive to human face and are able to

imitate facial expressions• By the first 4 to 6 months, infants can focus

almost as well as adults, acuity sharpens, and they can discriminate between most colors

5

6

• Because the newborn eyes are not well coordinated and the infant has not yet learned to interpret all of the information transmitted by the eyes.

• Early depth perception is probably not very sophisticated.

• Even when coaxed by their mothers, infants 6 months or over will not crawl over the edge of the visual cliff.

7

• Neonates can hear. They are startled by loud sounds

• Newborns are soothed by low-pitched sounds such as lullabies

• Infants seem able to localize sounds, and prefer human voices

8

• They are fully operating at birth, and the sense of touch is well developed.

9

• Research generally indicates that either the senses are integrated at birth or integration occurs early and rapidly.

• Behavior and emotion become integrated over time as a result of the interaction of experience and maturation

10

• The Active Mind

Infants take an active role in their cognitive development.

This was the basic position of Jean Piaget.

Infants possess mental structures called schemes that process and organize information.

This occurs in a series of stages.

11

1- Knowledge = motor behavior

2- Universal stages in a fixed order

3- Qualitative and quantitative acquisition of knowledge

4- Mental Structures or schemes

5- Two Principles:

Assimilation

Accommodation

12

• Action = Knowledge

• Infants attain understanding of the world by doing.

• Knowledge is a product of direct motor behavior

• Children don’t learn:

– Through sensation and perception

– From facts communicated by others

13

• Sensorimotor Stage

(birth – 2)

• Preoperational Stage

(2 – 7)

• Concrete Stage

(7 – 11)

• Formal Operations Stage

(12 – adulthood)

14

1- Simple Reflexes (first month)

Reflexes determine the infant’s interaction with world

2- First Habits & Primary Circular Reactions (1 – 4 months)

Coordination of actions

Repeating enjoyable actions on the infant’s own body

15

3- Secondary Circular Reactions (4 – 8)

Repeated actions meant to bring about desirable consequence on the outside world

16

4- Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions (8 – 12)

Goal Directed Behavior

Several schemes are combined and coordinated to generate a single act to solve a problem

Object Permanence

The realization that people and objects exist even when they cannot be seen

17

5- Tertiary Circular Reactions (12 – 18)

The deliberate variation of actions to bring desirable consequences

6- Beginning of Thought (18 – 24)

Symbolic Representation

The use of a word, picture, gesture or other sign to represent past & present events, experiences, and concepts.

a. Understanding Causality

b. Deferred Imitation

18

• Until the 1930s, children were considered like miniature adults as far as intelligence was concerned.

• They were supposed to differ from adults in the quantity of knowledge they had managed to acquire.

• According to Piaget, children acquire knowledge in a qualitative and quantitative manner.

19

• All we know is based on our mental construction or ideas.

• We don’t passively discover knowledge ready-made.

• We actively construct knowledge.

How?

20

• Infants have mental structures or schemes:

(organized patterns of sensorimotor functioning)

Sensorimotor Functioning

Physical activity that changes with mental development

21

• 1- Assimilation

• 2- Accommodation

22

1- Assimilation is when people understand an experience in terms of their current stage of cognitive development or way of thinking.

Example:

A flying squirrel = a bird

The child is assimilating his existing scheme of a bird.

23

2- Accommodation is change in existing ways of thinking that occur in response to encounters with new stimuli or events.

Example:

A flying squirrel = a bird with a tail

The child is accommodating to new knowledge, modifying her scheme of“bird”

24

• Piaget constructed his view by mainly observing his three children (not a representative population)

• A stable and differentiated perceptual world is established much earlier in infancy than Piaget envisioned

• Memory and other forms of symbolic activity occur by at least the second half of the first year.

25

Infants as young as 3 months old show memory skills.

The Large Black Boxes Study

Infants predicted a four-step sequence and most could remember it up to 2 weeks later.

Carolyn Rovee-Collier

Infants can remember intricate material.

Nancy Myers

An infant’s experience at 6 months can be remembered 2 years later.

26

• Infantile Amnesia

The lack of memory for experiences that occurred prior to three years of age

Although memories are stored from early infancy, they cannot be easily retrieved.

Early memories are susceptible to interference from later events.

Memories are sensitive to environmental context.

27

1- Development Quotient

Arnold Gesell

2- Bayley Scales of Infant Development

Nancy Bayley

Are useful in identifying infants who are significantly behind their peers

Are not good for predicting future behavior

28

• An overall developmental score that relates to performance in 4 areas:

1- Motor Skills (balance and sitting)

2- Language Use

3- Adaptive Behavior (alertness & exploration)

4- Personal-Social (feeding and dressing)

29

• A measure that evaluates an infant’s development from 2 to 3 months

• It focuses on 2 areas:

1- Mental Scale

Senses, perception, memory, learning, problem solving, language

2- Motor Scale

Gross motor skills

Fine motor skills

30

• Visual-recognition Memory

• Cross-modal Transference

Measure how quickly infants process information

These measures correlate moderately well with later measures of intelligence

31

Measures how quickly an infant can retrieve previous experiences of a stimulus from memory

1- Measures how quickly infants lose interest in stimuli that have already been seen

2- Measures their responsiveness to new stimuli.

32

• Measures the ability to identify a stimulus that has previously only been experienced through one sense by using another sense.

Example

Identifying a screw driver that she has only previously touched, but not seen

33

• The degree of environmental stimulation

• Intelligence measured by IQ tests relates to a particular type of intelligence, one that emphasizes abilities that lead to academic success but not artistic or professional success.

• So, predicting that a child will do well on IQ tests does not necessarily indicate success in life.

34

Phonemes Basic sounds of language

Morphemes words, suffixes,prefixes

Semantics Rules that governthe meaning of words

Syntax How words are combined into meaningful statements

Pragmatics The use of language in context

35

12 weeks cooing, smiles when talked to

16 weeks turns head in response to human voice

20 weeks makes vowels and consonant sounds

6 months babbling (all sounds)

8 months repeat certain syllables (ma-ma)

12 months understands and says some words

18 months can produce up to 50 words

24 months more than 50 words, two-word phrases

30 months about 100 words, phrases of 3-5 words

36 months vocabulary of about 1,000 words

48 months most basic aspects of language are well established

36

Holographic Speech the use of single words to convey complete thoughts

Overextensions the tendency to overgeneralize words

Telegraphic Speech omitting the less significant words and including the words that carry the most meaning

Pivot Grammar action words + nouns (see Daddy)

37

• Girls

Hear twice as many diminutives

Parents respond with a soft answer

Are exposed to warmer phrases

• Boys

• Don’t hear as many diminutives

• Parents respond with a firm “no”

• Hear clearer language

• As adults they tend to be more assertive

38

Cognitive

Piaget

Rationalist

Chomsky

Social

Learning

Behaviorist

Skinner

-Mental

schemes

that child

can apply a

linguistic

label to it

-Innate

tendency to

acquire

language

-Innate

acquisition

device

-learned

-imitation

-Acquired

by

consequen-

ces or by

reinforce-

ment

39

• Encoding Recorded in memory

(Keyboard)

• Storage Saved in memory

(on hard drive)

• Retrieved Brought into awareness

(on screen)

40

1- Knowledge acquisition is automatic when processes require little attention

Children are automatically aware of how often they have encountered people.

Automatically, children develop an understanding of concepts, categorizations of objects, events, or people.

2- Knowledge is deliberate and controlled when processes require large amounts of attention.

41

Cognitive Architecture

Determines the specific steps through which material is processed as it travels through the human mind.

Assume that the basic architecture of information-processing systems is constant over the course of development, although the speed and capacity of the system are thought to grow.

42

2 – 3 months to 1 yr. babbling

10 – 14 months holophrases

15 months 15 words

16 – 24 months 100 words

18 months telegraphic speech

19 months first sentence

43

Do You Know?

According to Piagetian theory, the two processes involved

in the use of schemes are assimilation and

accommodation.

In what ways might these processes be affected within

developing and developed countries?

L.O. 4.9

Agree or Disagree?

During the course of the first year of life, it takes less and

less time for habituation to occur. This provides an

advantage to infant learning.

A. I agree with this statement.

B. I disagree with this statement.

L.O. 4.12

Earlier versions of the Bayley scales do not

predict later IQ or school performance well.

The most recent version of the Bayley scales

includes a measure of habituation, which may

improve ________ and ________.

A. predictive validity; reliability

B. external validity; face-to-face reliability

C.constructive validity; parallel-forms reliability

D. face validity; reliability

L.O. 4.14

What Will You Do?

You are attending a baby shower for your best friend

who is completing her degree in psychology. You

want your gift to support her child’s intellectual

development but can’t decide between a set of Baby

Einstein videos or a set of age-appropriate baby

books. What will you do?

A. Give her the videos.

B. Give her the books.

True or False?

Asian babies have been found to be less active and

irritable and appear to learn self-regulation earlier

and easier than babies in the United States and

Canada.

A. True

B. False

What Will You Predict?

Three-month-old Clay’s mother suffers from severe clinical

depression. Although his mother meets Clay’s most

basic physical needs, she is inconsistent, emotionally

unavailable, and rejecting.

Use Erikson’s theory to predict the developmental

outcome for Clay.

Which of the following features is still

dominant in the worldwide pattern of

infant care in developing countries?

A. For the first two years, most daily infant care is done by

the mother.

B. Infants are held or carried almost constantly.

C.Fathers are usually involved in care during the first year.

D. Infants are typically isolated from other people in the

course of a day.