Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

  • Cognitive development­ involves changes in cognitive process and abilities; processes based on physical action and later progresses into changes in mental operations
  • Key Elements of Piaget’s Theory
    • Schemas/ schemes­ categories of knowledge that helps us to interpret and understand the world
    • Assimilation­ the process of taking in new information into our previously existing schemas
    • Accommodation­ involves changing or altering our existing schemas in light of new information
  • The Sensorimotor Period: Six Substages of Cognitive Development
    • Simple reflexes­ first month of life
    • First habits and primary circular reactions­ 1 & 4 months of age; infant coordinates sensation and two types of schemes: habits and primary circular reations
    • Circular reaction­ a repetitive action
    • Secondary circular reactions­ 4 & 8 months; infant becomes more object oriented, moving beyond preoccupation with the self
    • Coordination of secondary circular reactions­ 8 & 12 months; infant must coordinate their senses
    • Object permanence­ realization that people and objects continue to exist even though they cannot be seen
  • Tertiary circular reactions­ 12 & 18 months of age; infants become intrigued by the many properties of objects and by many things that they can make happen to objects
  • Beginning of thought­ between 18 & 24 months of age; infant develops the ability to use primitive symbols
    • Mental representation­
    • Deferred imitation­

 

Information Processing Approaches­ seek to identify the ways individuals take in, use, and store information

  • Difficult concept to define
  • Even more difficult to measure in infants
    • Foundations of Information Processing Approach
    • Encoding­
    • Storage­
    • Retrieval­
    • Automatization­ degree to which a process requires attention o Noticing how often stimuli go together

o Allows them to develop concepts­ categorization of people, objects, or events that share common properties

  • Memory During Infancy
    • Rovee and Rovee (1969)
    • Experiment with infants between 8 and 12 weeks
    • Infants would lay in their cribs looking up at a mobile covered in bright wooden figures A cord was attached to their foot; if the infant kicked the mobile would move; if they kicked hard enough the wooden figures would bump into one another to create a pleasant sound • Infantile Amnesia­ memories from 3yrs and younger are blank B. Individual Differences in Intelligence

 

  • 1. Developmental scales­ could measure intelligence by when infant reaches milestone
    • Gesell Developmental Schedules­ standard stages of development
    • Early­advanced; late­ delayed
    • Motor dev. Language dev, adaptive behavior, personal­social behavior

Developmental quotients­ overall developmental score relating to performance in 4 areas

  • Bayley’s Scales of Infant Development
  • Mental abilities­ senses, perception, memory, learning
  • Motor abilities
  • Information­ Processing Approach­ how fast infant processes info
    • Speed of processing in infancy highly correlated with adult measures of intelligence
    • Measured using habituation
    • Infants who process info quickly will habituate faster
    • Intelligence tests only measure one type of intelligence­ related to school performance
    • Not highly correlated with career, personal success

The Roots of Language

  • Language­ form of communication based on system of symbols; rules for combining symbols 1. Infinite generativity­ ability to produce endless number of meaningful sentences using finite set of words, rules
  • Formal Characteristics of Language
    • Phonology­ basic units of sound in language (phonemes), rules for combining sounds
      • No 2 languages have the same phonologies
      • Discriminate sounds of language, like difference between b and d
  • Which phonemes can be combined
  • Morphology­ rules for formation of meaningful words from sounds
    • Morpheme­ smallest language unit that has meaning
    • Suffixes, prefixes, simple nouns
    • Semantics­ rules for meanings expressed in words, sentences
    • “sally hit the car” ii. “the car hit sally”
  • “hit car sally the”

Linguistic Comprehension­ understanding the language Linguistic Production­ use of language to communicate

  • Comprehension precedes production A. Language Milestones
  • Crying­ different cries signal different needs
  • Cooing­ 1­2months; gurgling sounds in back of throat; usually expression of pleasure
  • Babbling­ 2­3 months; strings of constant­ vowel combinations
    • Even deaf babies babble­ with their hands
    • 6 months­ babbling narrowed to sounds found in home language
  • Gestures­ 8­12months; pointing, waving, etc.
  • First words­ 8­12 months; evidence of understanding words
    • 10­14 months; produces first word
    • Don’t get disapointed if first word isn’t “mama” or “dada”; usually fav toy, car
  • Holophrases­ one­worded utterance standing for whole phrase
    • Meaning depends on context
    • Rapid increase in vocabulary around 18 months­ vocabulary spurt
  • Overextension­ applying words too broadly
    • Underextension­ applying words too narrowly
    • Two­Word Utterance­ 18­24 months; gesture, tone, and context needed to get meaning; huge range!
    • Telegraphic speech­ short, precise words without grammatical markers
    • Referential style­ primarily use language to label objects
  • Expressive style­ primarily use language to express feelings/needs
    • Influenced by culture
    • Theories of Language Development
    • Learning Theory Approach­ kids learn language based on reinforcement
    • Kids repeat what they have heard, and are rewarded
    • Problems:
      • Doesn’t explain how kids acquire rules of language so easily
      • Reinforce any utterance
      • Kids say things they’ve never heard
  • Nativist Approach­ genetically determined, innate mechanism that directs language development
    • Noam Chomsky­ input alone would not enable kids to learn language
    • Universal grammar­ all languages in world share similar underlying structure
  • Noun, verb categories
    • All grammatical info needed to combine categories
    • Language acquisition device­ neural system that permits understanding of language
    • Interactionist Approach­ interaction of innate predisposition/ environmental influences
    • Biological predisposed
    • Infant­ Directed Speech­ aka “motherese”­ short simple sentances
    • Higher tone, careful separation of words, singsong quality
    • Elderspeak
    • Helps infants gain language
    • Clear indication of where words end/begin

Recasting­ rephrasing; question, more grammatical sentence

  • encourages child to continue to speaking

Expanding­ restating in a more linguistically sophisticated form Labeling­ identifying names of objects