Cognitive Development in Infancy 1

Cognitive Development
in Infancy

BY CHELSEA MILES, HOLLY
BRYSON AND CLAIRE ALLEN

04:255 CHILD DEVELOPMENT
AND THE LEARNING PROCESS

JANUARY, 2013

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1. Piaget’s Overview
Approach to
Cognitive
Development

2. Information-
Processing
Approaches to
Cognitive
Development

3. The Roots of All Information from Feldman Text Unless
Language Otherwise Stated
http://www.tower.com/child-development-robert-s-feldman-
hardcover/wapi/121155178?download=true&type=1

Piaget’s Approach to

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Piaget’s Approach to Cognitive
Development

Learning Objective Questions

 What are the fundamental
features of Piaget’s theory
of cognitive development?

 How has Piaget’s theory
been supported and
challenged by later
research?
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Development

 Infants do not acquire
knowledge from facts
communicated by
others, nor through
sensation and perception
 Knowledge is the product
of direct motor behaviour

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Development

Key Elements of Piaget’s Theory
 Based on the stage  To move to the next
approach to development stage, physical maturation
 Series of 4 universal and exposure to relevant
stages which occur in a experiences must occur
fixed order from birth to  Important to consider
adolescence changes in the content but
 4 Stages: quality of knowledge
 Sensorimotor

 Preoperational

 Concrete Operational

 Formal Operational Clipart

Development

Key Elements of Piaget’s Theory
 Schemes: organized  Assimilation: process by
mental structure and which people understand
patterns an experience based on
 At first schemes are based their current stage of
on physical or sensorimotor cognitive development and
activities and evolve into way of thinking
mental functions where  Accommodation: changing
there is reflective thought the existing way of
 Two principles underlie the thinking, understanding or
growth in children’s behaving in response to an
schemes: assimilation and encounter with a new
accommodation stimulus or event

Development

The Sensorimotor Period
 Begins at birth and  Tertiary Circular
continues till child is about Reactions
age 2  Beginnings of thought
 6 Substages:  Development is gradual
 Simple Reflexes rather than a harsh stair
 First Habits and Primary
model
Circular Reactions  Periods of transition where
a child will exhibit
 Secondary Circular
behaviour from both their
Reactions current stage and the
 Coordination of higher stage they will
Secondary Reactions enter next

Development

Substage 1: Simple Reflexes
 Spans the first month of
life
 Inborn reflexes are at the
center of both the physical
and cognitive
development, which
determines their
interactions with the world
 Babies gain information and
knowledge about the world
around them based on
reflex interactions
 Reflexes also begin to
Clipart accommodate for new

Development
Substage 2: First Habits and Primary Circular
Reactions
 Occurs from 1 month to 4  Primary Circular
months of age Reactions: infant’s
 Infants begin to coordinate
repetition of interesting or
separate actions into enjoyable activities, just
single, integrated activities for the enjoyment of doing
them
 If an activity catches a
 Babies are focusing on
baby’s interest, they will
repeat it to continue activities that involve their
experiencing that activity own bodies

Development

Substage 3: Secondary Circular Reactions

 4 to 8 months  Major difference is
 Behaviour becomes more whether baby’s actions are
purposeful and infants focused on his/her own
begin to act of their body (primary) or actions
environment relating to the world
 Secondary Circular
outside them (secondary)
Reactions: schemes  Babies become much more
regarding repeated actions vocal
that brings about a desired  Babies begin to imitate the
consequence noises made by others

Development

Substage 4: Coordination of Secondary
Circular Reactions
 8 months to 12 months  Object Permanence: the
 Before this stage, realization that people and
behaviour involved direct objects exist even when
actions on objects they cannot be seen
 Goal-Directed Behaviour:  While this principle
behaviour in which several develops, it will take time
schemes are combined and before the concept will be
coordinated to generate a
fully understood
single act to solve a
problem
 Children begin to anticipate
upcoming events Clipart

Development

Substage 5: Tertiary Circular
Reactions
 12 to 18 months  During this stage the main
 Tertiary Circular focus is on the unexpected
Reactions: the deliberate and rather than just
variation of actions that repeating an enjoyable
bring desired consequences activity, emphasis is on that
 Rather than just repeating
an event is to be explained
enjoyable activity, they and understood
begin to carry on mini
experiments to see the
consequences
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Development

Substage 6: Beginnings of Thought
 18 months to 2 years old
 Capacity for mental
representation or symbolic
thought
 Mental Representation: an
internal image of a past
event or object
 Children are able to
imagine where objects are
that they are unable to
see
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Development

Substage 6: Beginnings of Thought
 Due to their ability to
create internal
pictures, their
understanding of causality
also become much more
sophisticated
 The ability to pretend also
develops in this stage
 Deferred Imitation: an act
in which a person who is no
longer present is imitated
by children who have Clipart
witnessed a similar act

Development

Appraising Piaget: Support
 Piaget was masterful  Broad outlines sketched
reporter of child behaviour out of the sequence of
and his description of cognitive development and
growth during infancy is the increasing cognitive
extremely accurate accomplishments that
 Thousands of studies have occur in infancy are
supported Piaget’s view generally accepted to be
that children learn by accurate
acting on the objects in
their environment

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Development

Appraising Piaget: Challenges
 Stage concept that is the
basis of Piaget’s theory
 Notion that cognitive
development is grounded in
motor activities
 Belief that infants are
incapable of developing
object permanence before
the age of 1
 Work seems to describe
children from
Clipart developed, western
countries better than those
of non-western cultures

Information-Processing
Approaches to Cognitive
Development

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Information-Processing Approaches to


 How do infants process
information?

 What are the memory
capabilities of infants?

 How is infant intelligence
measured?

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 Information processing
approach:
 Seeks to identify the way
in which individuals take
in, use and store
information
 The infant’s ability to
organize and manipulate
information demonstrates
the level of cognitive
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development


Encoding, Storage and Retrieval
 Encoding: process in which
information is recorded in
a from usable to the
memory
 Storage: placement of
information into the brain
 Retrieval: ability to locate
the information, bring it
into awareness and use it

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Encoding, Storage and Retrieval

 Automatization: degree to
which an activity requires
attention
 Automatic: little to no
attention (ex.
walking, eating)
 Controlled: large amount
of attention required (ex.
studying)

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Memory and Infants

1. Do infants have a memory?
Why? Why not?

2. Do you remember anything
from when you were a
baby?

3. Do you think it is possible?


Memory Capabilities in Infancy
 Infants do have memory
capabilities
 Habituation: lessened
response to a repeated
stimulus
 Rovee-Collier Experiment
 As we grow our memory
increases, recall increases,
and we can remember
information longer http://www.tusculum.edu/faculty/home/tharlow/DE
V%20Residential/Working%20folder%20clutter%20
 Dr. Jan Nijhuis: Fetus removal/Chapter_5BDev_SK.html
Research


Why Can’t We Remember Our Infancy?
 Infantile Amnesia: lack of
memory for experiences
that occurred prior to 3
years of age
 New information can keep
us from recalling old
memories
 Forget memories as we get
older
 Memories are susceptible
to mis-recollection
Clipart Memory Video


Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory

 Two systems involved in
long-term memory:
 Explicit Memory: conscious
and can be recalled
intentionally (Cerebellum
and brain stem)
 Implicit Memory: not
conscious of it but affects
performance and behaviour
(hippocampus) http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/prod_consum
p/groups/cr_common/@cah/@gen/documents/i
mage/crukmig_1000img-12313.jpg


Intelligence

 What is intelligence?
 No specific definition of
intelligence
 Difficult to measure
intelligence in infants


Arnold Gesell
 Formulated earliest measure
of infant development
 Developmental Quotient
(DQ): overall developmental
score that relates to
performance in 4 domains:
 Motor Skills

 Language Use

 Adaptive Behaviour
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 Personal-Social


Nancy Bayley
 Bayley Scales of Infant  Mental abilities:
Development: perception, memory,
 Widely used measure for learning, problem solving,
infants and language
 Evaluates infant  Motor abilities: fine and
development from 2-42 gross motor skills
months  Provides a DQ score
 Average score for infants
is 100.

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Sample Items from Bayley Scales

(Feldman, 2012, Pg. 154)

Information-Process Approaches to
Individual Differences in Intelligence

 Research shows that the
speed with which infants
process information may
correlate with later
intelligence (academic)
 Test speed of processing
by using:
 1. A habituation test:
faster the baby turns away
= speed of processing
 2. Visual recognition test:
Clipart the memory and recognition
of a stimulus that has been
previously seen

Why Formal Education is Lost on
Infants
 Many parents believe that by exposing their babies to
educational toys and media it will enhance their infant’s
cognitive growth
 Educational videos such as Baby Einstein and Brainy Baby
promise to stimulate and enhance cognitive development
 Do they work?
 Evidence suggests that they don’t and in some cases
their use may backfire and hamper learning
 Assume infants learn the same way as children do
through structured activities with specific learning
goals
 Infants merely explore their surroundings in an
unplanned way

Infant Media Exposure and Toddler
Development Article

“Overall exposure and exposure to older child/adult–
oriented content were associated with lower levels of
cognitive and language development at age 14 months.
Findings from this longitudinal study provide strong
support for the American Academy of Pediatrics
recommendation of no media exposure before age 2
years (Berkule et al, 2010).”

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Infant Media Exposure and Toddler
Development Article
Three potential reasons for media-associated negative
effects on very young children's development:

1.Reductions in parent-child interactions, including
reduced spoken language, conversation, and
engagement with the child. Specifically reduced
shared reading and playing together with toys. These
are activities critical to young children's
development.
2.Interferes with children's play activities.
3.Characteristics of videos such as rapid scene changes
have been thought to have direct, negative effects
on the developing brain
(Berkule et al, 2010)

Why Formal Education Is Lost on
Infants
 Baby Einstein Refunds
Refunds to millions of

parents who had bought
the videos because
parents said they were
ineffective in promoting
cognitive development
 They have some benefits
however:
 When parents watch
videos with children http://www.freecodesour
ce.com/movie-
they engage more often posters/B00005YUPP--
baby-einstein-baby-
with their children and shakespeare-world-of-

in more positive ways
poetry-movie-poster.html

Baby Einstein Discussion

Do you think that purchasing
educational toys and media for
infants is worth a try, despite the
lack of scientific research?

Why do you think parents generally
do not seem to be concerned about
the lack of scientific evidence?

The Roots of Language

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 What processes do
children learn to use
language?

 How do children influence
adults’ language?

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Baby’s First Words
 The first and most
noticeable expression of
language
 However, infants begin to
understand the language
used by others many
months earlier
 This helps them make
sense of the world around
them
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The Fundamentals of Language: From Sounds
to Symbols
 Language: the
systematic, meaningful
arrangement of
symbols, provides the basis
for communication
 It is closely tied to the
way we think and
understand the world
 It enables us to reflect on
people and objects and to Clipart
express our thoughts to
others


Formal Characteristics of Language
 Each characteristic must be
mastered as linguistic
competence is developed
 1. Phonology: refers to the
basic sounds of
language, called
phonemes, that can be
combined to produce words
and sentences
http://itp.nyu.edu/~kh1243/blizzog/h
 Ex. “a” in “mat” represents a
tml5/1322
phoneme – the English
Language contains 40


Formal Characteristics of Language

 2. Morphemes: the
smallest language unit that
has meaning. Some
morphemes are complete
words while others add
information necessary for
interpreting a word (“ish”)
 3. Semantics: the rules
that govern the meaning of
words and sentences
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The Fundamentals of Language
 When studying the
development of language
we need to distinguish
between:
 Linguistic Comprehension:
the understanding of
speech
AND
 Linguistic Production: the
use of language to
communicate
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The Fundamentals of Language

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Early Sounds and Communication
 Sounds that infants make
play a very important role
in linguistic development:
 Cooing

 Crying

 Gurgling

 Murmuring

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Comprehension Precedes Production

(Feldman, 2012, Pg. 158)


 Pre-linguistic
Communication:
communication through
sounds, facial expressions,
gestures, imitation, and
other non-linguistic means
 Mimics the back-and-forth
of communication and
teaches the child about
turn-taking
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Babbling: making speech
like but meaningless
sounds, starts at the age
of 2 or 3 months and
continues until around the
age of 1 year

To Twins Babbling Back and Forth



 Babbling is found
universally and is
accomplished in the same
way throughout all cultures
 While babbling, infants
produce all of the sounds
found in every language

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 Deaf children who are
exposed to sign language
babble with their hands
instead of their voices
 Their gestural babbling is
similar to the verbal
babbling of children who
can speak

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 Broca’s Area: areas of
the brain activated during
the production of hand
gestures are similar to the
areas activated during
speech production
 Suggests that spoken
language may have evolved
from gestural language
(Feldman, 2012)


 As the child develops,
babbling moves from simple
to more complex sounds
 By the age of 6 months,
babbling reflects the sounds
of the language that is
spoken by those around the
child
 Other indications of pre-
linguistic speech: reaching
or crying for something that
results in receiving what is
Clipart wanted - communication


First Words

 First words typically are
spoken at approximately
10-14 months
 Can occur as early as 9
months
 Linguists argue about what
constitutes an infant’s
first word


First Words

 Once an infant starts to
produce words, vocabulary
increases at a very rapid
rate
 By 15 months a child
has, on average, a 10
word vocabulary
 One word stage ends
around 18 months Clipart


First Words
 Early vocabularies typically
regard objects and things,
both animate and inanimate
 Most often people or
objects who constantly
appear and disappear
(“Mama”)
 Explosion of language:
 Between 16-24 months
 Vocabulary increases
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from 50 to 400 words


First Words
 First words are usually
Holophrases: one-word
utterances that stand for a
whole phrase, whose
meaning depends on the
particular context in which
they are used
 Ex. “ma” may be used to
mean “Where’s Mom?” or “I
want to be picked up by
Mom” Clipart

First Words

(Feldman, 2012, Pg. 160)


First Words
 Culture has an effect on
first words:
 North American English-
speaking infants – more
apt to use nouns
 Chinese Mandarin – more
apt to use verbs
 By 20 months there are
outstanding similarities
cross-culturally in words Clipart
spoken

First Word Discussion

Can you remember your first
word/words?

Discuss this at your table
groups!


First Sentences
 The explosive increase in
vocabulary is accompanied
by another triumph:
 Linking together
individual words into
sentences that express a
single thought
 Two-word phrases occur
8-12 months after
infants say their first
word
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First Sentences
 Most early sentences don’t
represent demands or
require a response
 Often merely comments
and observations about
events
 Two-word combinations
tend to be constructed in
same way as adult
sentences: subject
verb object Clipart


First Sentences
 Telegraphic Speech:
speech in which words not
critical to the message are
left out
 Instead of “Josh threw the
ball” infants may say:
 “Josh ball”

 “Josh threw”

Telegraphic Speech

(Feldman, 2012, Pg. 161)


First Sentences

 Underextension: the
overly restrictive use of
words, common among
children just mastering
spoken language
 Ex. Inability to generalize
the label of “blankie” to
blankets in general

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First Sentences
 Overextension: the overly
broad use of
words, overgeneralizing
their meaning
 Ex. Referring to
buses, trucks and tractors
as “cars”
 Demonstrates that the
child is beginning to
develop general mental
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categories and concepts


First Sentences
 Infants show differences
in the style of language
they use
 Referential Style:
language is used primarily
to label objects (American)
 Expressive Style: language
is used primarily to express
feelings and needs about
oneself and others
(Chinese)
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The Origins of Language Development
 Learning Theory
Approach: the theory that
language acquisition follows
the basic laws of
reinforcement and
conditioning
 Language is a learned skill
 Children learn to speak by
being rewarded for making
sounds that estimate
speech Clipart


Nativist Approaches
 Nativist Approach: the  Universal Grammar: all
theory that a genetically the world’s languages share
determined, innate a similar underlying
mechanism directs language structure
development
 Noam Chomsky: people
are born with an innate
capacity to use
language, which develops
when a child matures

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Nativist Approaches

 Language-Acquisition
Device (LAD): a neural
system of the brain
hypothesized to permit
understanding of language
 Language is unique to human
beings
 Made possible by a genetic
predisposition to both
comprehend and produce
words and sentences

(Feldman, 2012, Pg. 162)


The Interactionist Approaches
 Interactionist
Perspective: suggests that
language development is
produced through a
combination of genetically
determined dispositions
and environmental
circumstances that help
teach language
 Innate and social
factors
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Speaking to Children
 Infant-Directed Speech:
a type of speech directed
toward
infants, characterized by
short, simple sentences
 Sometimes includes
humorous sounds that are
not even words
 Directed speech changes
as the child becomes older
Grandma Talking To Baby
- longer and more complex
sentences

Infant-Directed Speech

(Feldman, 2012, 163)

Is Infant-Directed Speech Similar in
All Cultures?

Developmental Diversity and Your Life
 The way the words are  Why use this language?
spoken are quite similar  Infants seem to prefer
 All exaggerate and infant-directed speech
elongate sounds over adult-directed speech
 Even deaf mothers use a  Perceptual systems may
form of infant-directed be more responsive to
speech such language
 Use sign language at a  Facilitates infant
slower pace and language development
frequently repeat the
signs

Is Infant-Directed Speech Similar in
All Cultures?
Gender Differences
 From the time of birth, the
language parents use with
their children differs
depending on the child’s sex
 By the age of 32 months,
girls hear twice as many
diminutives (ex. “kitty”
instead of “cat”) as boys
hear
 Boys hear firmer, clearer
language while girls are
exposed to warmer phrases
(Feldman, 2012, Pg. 164)

Are You an Informed Consumer of
Development?
What Can You Do to Promote Infants’ Cognitive
Development?
 Provide infants the  Literacy skills and
opportunity to explore the creates a lifelong reading
world habit
 Be responsive to infants on  American Academy of
both a verbal and a non- Pediatrics - starting at 6
verbal level months daily
 Read to your infants: they  Keep in mind that you don’t
will respond to your tone of have to be with an infant
voice and the intimacy 24 hours a day
provided  Don’t push infants and
don’t expect too much too
soon

Game Time!

References

 Berkule, S., Brockmeyer, C., Dreyer, B.P., Fierman, A.H., Mendelsohn, A.L., &
Tomopoulous, S. (2010). Infant Media Exposure and Toddler Development.
JAMA Pediatrics, Volume 164. No. 12.
 Feldman, R.S. (2012). Child Development 6th Ed. Pearson Education: New
Jersey.
 Rettner, R. (July 20, 2009). Fetuses have Memories. Retrieved from
http://www.livescience.com/5585-fetuses-memories.html
 The Brandon Public Library

Images
 PowerPoint Clipart
 Baby Mobile:
http://www.tusculum.edu/faculty/home/tharlow/DEV%20Residential/Workin
g%20folder%20clutter%20removal/Chapter_5BDev_SK.html
 Brain:
http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/prod_consump/groups/cr_common/@cah/
@gen/documents/image/crukmig_1000img-12313.jpg

References

 Baby Einstein Photos: http://www.freecodesource.com/movie-
posters/B00005YUPP--baby-einstein-baby-shakespeare-world-of-poetry-
movie-poster.html
 Phonemes Chart: http://itp.nyu.edu/~kh1243/blizzog/html5/1322

Videos
 Memory and Infants: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il0u2s_WGXA
 Grandma Talking to Baby: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epL4UiG4TdE
 Two Twins Babbling Back and Forth:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JmA2ClUvUY

Cognitive Development in Infancy 1

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