Chapter 5- Cognitive Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood PDF

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Chapter 5: Cognitive Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood 1. Be familiar with the basic tenets of Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory. According to Piaget, how to infants “think”? Be able to define schemas, assimilation, accommodation, equilibrium vs. disequilibrium. How does disequilibrium lead to cognitive growth? a. Schemes - In Piaget’s theory, specific psychological structures or organized ways of making sense of experience, that change with age. b. Assimilation - In Piaget’s theory, the part of adaptation in which current schemes are used to interpret the external world. c. Accommodation - In Piaget’s theory, the part of adaptation in which new schemes are created and old ones adjusted to produce a better fit with the environment. d. Organization - In Piaget’s theory, the internal rearrangement and linking of schemes to create a strongly interconnected cognitive system. In information processing, a memory strategy that involves grouping related items together to improve recall e. According to Piaget, the balance between assimilation and accommodation varies over time. When children are not changing much, they assimilate more than they accommodate - a steady, comfortable state that Piaget called cognitive equilibrium. During times of rapid cognitive change, children are in a state of disequilibrium, or cognitive discomfort. 2. Describe Piaget’s six substages of sensorimotor development and what key developments take place during each. a. Reflexive Schemes (Birth - 1mo.) - Newborn reflexes b. Primary Circular Reactions (1-4 mo.) - simple motor habits centered around the infant’s own body; limited anticipation of event c. Secondary Circular Reactions (4-8 mo.) - Actions aimed at repeating interesting effects in the surrounding world; imitation of familiar behavior d. Coordination of secondary circular reactions (8-12 mo.) - Intentional, or goal-directed, behavior; ability to find a hidden object in the first location in which it is hidden (object permanence); improved anticipation of events; imitation of behaviors slightly different from those the infant usually performs e. Tertiary Circular Reactions (12-18 mo.) - Exploration of the properties of objects by acting on them in novel ways; imitation of novel behaviors; ability to search in several locations for a hidden object (accurate A-B search) f. Mental Representation (18 mo. - 2 years) - Internal depictions of objects and events, as indicated by sudden solutions to problems; ability to find an object that has been moved while out of sight (invisible displacement); deferred imitation; and make-believe play 3. Describe the different procedures researchers use to study infant attention and memory: preferential looking procedures, habituation/dishabituation procedures, violation of expectation paradigms. a. To discover what infants know about hidden objects and other aspects of physical reality, researchers often use the violation-of-expectation method. They may habituate babies to a physical event (expose them to the event until their looking declines) to familiarize them with a situation in which their knowledge will be tested. b. Violation of expectation method - A method in which researchers show babies an expected event (one that is consistent with reality) and an unexpected event (a variation of the first event that violates reality). Heightened attention to the unexpected event suggests that the infant is “surprised” by a deviation from physical reality and, therefore, is aware of that aspect of the physical world.

2 Psych 2400 W18 Study Guide for Exam 1

4. What is the core knowledge perspective? a. A perspective that states that infants are born with a set of innate knowledge systems, or core domains of thought, each of which permits a ready grasp of new, related information and therefore supports early, rapid development of certain aspects of cognition. 5. How well do infant developmental assessments such as the Bayley Scales of Infant Development predict children’s later cognitive outcomes? a. Accurately measuring infants’ intelligence is a challenge because they cannot answer questions or follow directions. b. The Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development is suitable for children between 1 month and 3 ½ years. The most recent edition, the Bayley-III has three main subtests: (1) the Cognitive Scale, which includes such items as attention to familiar and unfamiliar objects, looking for a fallen object and pretend play; (2) the language scale, which assesses understanding and expression of language - for example, recognition of objects and people naming objects and pictures; and (3) the Motor Scale, which includes gross and fine-motor skills, such as grasping, sitting, stacking blocks, and climbing stairs. 6. Be able to describe the major milestones of language development during infancy and toddlerhood: cooing, babbling, first words (holophrases), fast mapping and the naming explosion, telegraphic speech, grammar a. Infants begin cooing at 2 months and babbling at about 6 months. At 10 to 11 months, their skill at establishing joint attention improves and soon they use preverbal gestures. Adults can encourage language progress by playing turn-taking games, establishing joint attention and labeling what babies see, and labeling their preverbal gestures b. Telegraphic Speech - Toddlers’ two word utterances that, like a telegram, focus on highcontent words while omitting smaller, less important words. 7. Describe two errors infants make in learning words (underextension and overextension) and give an example of each. a. Around 12 months, toddlers say their first word. Young children make errors of underextension and overextension. Once vocabulary reaches 200 to 250 words, two-word utterances called telegraphic speech appear. At all ages, language comprehension is ahead of production. b. Underextension - An early vocabulary error in which young children apply a word too narrowly, to a smaller number of objects and events than is appropriate c. Overextension - An early vocabulary error in which young children apply a word too broadly, to a wider collection of objects and events than is appropriate. 8. Be familiar with the different ways parents support infants’ language-learning: infant-directed speech, expansions, recasts a. Infant-Directed Speech - A form of communication used by adults to speak to infants and toddlers, consisting of short sentences with high-pitched, exaggerated expression, clear pronunciation, distinct pauses between speech segments, and repetition of new words in a variety of contexts. b. Expansions - Adult responses that elaborate on children’s speech, increasing its complexity. c. Recasts - Adult responses that restructure children’s grammatically inaccurate speech into correct form....