Chapter 6 Cognitive Development in Infancy. Essay and Critical Thinking Questions

Comprehension and Application Essay Questions

 

We recommend that you follow either our guidelines for "Answering Essay and Critical Thinking Questions," or those provided by your instructor, when preparing your response to these questions. Your answers to these kinds of questions demonstrate an ability to comprehend and apply ideas discussed in this chapter.

 

1. Explain how it is possible for developmentalists to study newborns and infants and team about their early competencies.

2. How would you explain the importance of reflexes, and their development, to a friend?

3. Identify and describe the general patterns in the development of infant motor capabilities during the first year.

4. Compare and contrast the development of gross and fine motor skills during infancy.

5. Describe the various states of infant consciousness. Also explain their relationship to sleep and waking?

6. Discuss the pros and cons of breast- versus bottle-feeding.

7. Define and distinguish sensation, perception, and intermodal perception. Also explain why they make interesting problems for study by developmentalists and what practical problems their study might solve?

8. Apparently infants can imitate facial expression nearly at birth, but have 20-200 to 20-400 vision at birth. Provide a rationale for understanding this apparent inconsistency.

9. Explain what we know about the ability of infants to hear.

10. Do infants feel pain? Also indicate evidence that challenges the traditional practice of not administering anesthetics to infants having operations.

11. Evaluate the pros and cons of exercise classes for infants.

 

Chapter 6 Cognitive Development in Infancy

Summary

 

1.0 Images of Children: The Doman Better Baby Institute and What Is Wrong with It

 

Glenn Doman's Better Baby Institute endeavors to accelerate the learning of infants, and thereby illustrates what Piaget meant by the American question. Developmentalists question the scientific basis of Doman's approach and recommend providing a rich and emotionally supportive atmosphere for learning by infants. A controversial issue in development is whether infants construct their knowledge of the world or whether they experience it directly.

 

2.0 Piaget's Theory of Infant Development

 

Piaget's theory of cognitive development includes four qualitatively different stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational.

 

The Stage of Sensorimotor Development. The sensorimotor stage lasts from birth to about 2 years. During this stage, infants progress in their ability to organize and coordinate sensations with physical movement. By the end of this stage, infants develop the ability to use simple symbols.

Piaget described six substages of the sensorimotor period. A scheme is the basic unit for an organized pattern of sensorimotor functioning. In the first stage (simple reflexes), knowledge is gained through simple reflexive behaviors, the only action of which the infant is capable. In the second substage (first habits and primary circular reactions), the child becomes capable of primary circular reactions, actions in which an infant attempts to repeat an action that initially occurred by chance. The third substage (secondary circular reactions) is characterized by secondary circular reactions, in which infants repeat actions because they caused an interesting event to occur in the environment. Despite an object orientation, there is a lack of goal-directed activity. The fourth substage (coordination of secondary circular reactions) involves the coordination of secondary reactions and also the appearance of intentionality. The infant can use one action to be able to perform another. The fifth substage (tertiary circular reactions, novelty, and curiosity) is characterized by tertiary circular reactions. The infant systematically explores the effects of a variety of actions on an object, the developmental starting point for curiosity and an interest in novelty. The final substage is the internalization of schemes. The child becomes able to use primitive symbols, and mental representation appears. La Visa Wilson has proposed a day care curriculum based on Piaget's substages of sensorimotor development.

 

Object Permanence. The development of object permanence is an important achievement of the sensorimotor stage. The child develops the ability to understand that objects and events continue to exist even though the child is not in direct contact with them. This ability is the end product of the six substages of sensorimotor development.

 

3.0 A New Perspective on Cognitive Development in Infancy

 

In the past decades, a new understanding of infant cognitive development has been occurring. Piaget's theory has been attacked from two sources.

 

Perceptual Development. Extensive research suggests that a stable and differentiated perceptual world is established much earlier than Piaget envisioned. For example, work by Speike has demonstrated intermodal perception by infants as young as 4 months of age.

 

Conceptual Development. Researchers recently have found that memory and other forms of symbolic activity occur by at least the second half of the first year. For example, infants whose parents use sign language have begun to use conventional signs at about 6 to 7 months of age.

 

4.0 The Information Processing Perspective on Infant Development

 

Unlike Piaget, information processing psychologists do not describe infancy as a series of substages of sensorimotor development. They do, however, emphasize the importance of cognitive processes such as attention, memory, and thinking. This view assumes a much greater level of competence in attentional, symbolic, imitative, and conceptual abilities than Piaget envisioned.

 

Habituation and Dishabituation. Infants habituate to repeated presentations of the same stimulus and dishabituate to a new stimulus, demonstrating the ability to discriminate between two different stimuli. Habituation allows researchers to study exactly what kinds of things infants can tell apart. An understanding of these learning principles can benefit parent-infant interactions.

 

Memory. Mobile objects that an infant can move provides a technique to study memory in infants. Using this technique, infants as young as 6 weeks old have demonstrated memory over a period of two weeks.

 

Imitation. Research suggests that infants as young as 1 day old can imitate some facial expressions. In addition, Meltzoff has observed deferred imitation, imitation that occurs after a delay of hours or days,

by infants about 9-months-old. The latter finding contradicts the belief of Piaget that deferred imitation does not occur before the age of 18 months.

 

5.0 Individual Differences in Intelligence

 

Infant intelligence tests are called developmental scales and are oriented toward motor development rather than the verbal skills orientation of intelligence tests for older children and adults. The developmental quotient is an overall developmental score on the Arnold Gesell test of motor, language, adaptive, and personal-social behavior. A commonly used procedure is the Bayley Scales of Infant Development that include a motor scale, a mental scale, and an infant behavior profile. Although global infant intelligence tests do not predict later intelligence well, recent research on information processing skills such as attention, and habituation and dishabituation better predict intelligence in childhood. There is both continuity and discontinuity between cognitive development in infancy and later in childhood.

 

6.0 Language Development

 

What is Language? Language involves a system of symbols that we use to communicate with one another. Language is characterized by infinite generativity and a complex set of rules. The five rule systems include: (a) phonology, the sound system of a language, (b) morphology, the smallest units of language that carry meaning, (c) syntax, the rules governing how words are combined into sequences, (d) semantics, the meaning of words and sentences, and (e) pragmatics, rules about the social context of language. Grammar, the formal description of syntactical rules, is closely related to the concept of syntax. Linguists also distinguish between surface and deep structure.

 

Biological Influences. The nativist's theory assumes biological components to language development. Chomsky argues that a language acquisition device is wired into the brain and is sensitive to the grammaticality of language. One question is whether animals have language, and a second question is whether there is a critical period for learning a language, an issue raised by the discovery of Genie—a modern day wild child. Animals clearly can communicate, and chimpanzees and sea lions can be taught to use symbols. Whether animals have all of the properties of human language is debated. The experiences of Genie and old children suggest the early years of childhood are a critical time for learning language. Children not exposed to language before puberty show life-long deficits in grammar.

 

Behavioral and Environmental Influences. The behavioral view sees language as verbal behavior, and explains language acquisition through the processes of shaping, reinforcement, and imitation. There are various criticisms of this approach to language. Brown found that mothers did not just reinforce grammatically correct utterances. The behavioral view also does not explain the orderliness of language, and imitation cannot totally explain language learning. All children master language despite large individual differences between children in imitation. Children appear to generalize complex rules in mastering language. A number of environmental factors that contribute to the acquisition of language include motherese, reacting, echoing, expanding, and recasting. Another experience that may facilitate language development is the labeling game that children play with their parents.

 

How Language Develops. Language development occurs in a number of different stages. Milestones in infant language development include babbling (3 to 6 months), first words understood (6 to 9 months), the growth of receptive vocabulary (reaches 300 or more words at age 2), first instructions understood (9 months to 1 year), first word spoken (10 to 15 months), and the growth of spoken vocabulary (reaches 200 to 275 words at age 2). The holophrase hypothesis states that a single word is often used to imply a complete sentence, a characteristic of infant's first words. At 18 to 24 months of age, infants often speak in two-word utterances. Telegraphic speech is the use of short and precise words to communicate, a characteristic of toddlers. Brown developed the mean length of utterance (MLU) to measure a child's language maturity. Five stages of MLU provide a valuable indicator of language maturity.

 

7.0 Contemporary Concerns

 

Sociocultural Worlds of Development 6.1: Language Traditions in Black Americans and Urban Poverty. Research by Shirley Heath studied the language traditions of Black Americans from low-income backgrounds. Her study revealed that adults do not simplify their talk for children. Children are forced to become active listeners, an experience well-suited for real-life situations, but not for traditional schools. The children of urban and impoverished mothers, who minimally interact with

their children, may experience a lack of family and community support, which can seriously undermine the development of their cognitive and social skills.

 

Perspectives on Parenting and Education 6.1: Live, Concrete Talk to Infants. Burton White suggests various ways in which care-givers can promote the language development of infants. Parents should talk to babies from the outset, parents should talk about the focus of a baby's attention, parents should encourage babies to look and listen to language, and parents should pretend to understand toddler's words.

 

Life-Span Health and Well-Being: Malnutrition in Infancy and Children's Intelligence. Developmental researchers have become concerned with the relationship between malnutrition in infancy and restrictions on a child's cognitive and social development. Good nutrition is important for a child's physical growth and development and for a child's cognitive and social development as well.

 

Key Terms

 

1.0 Images of Life-Span Development: The Doman Better Baby Institute and What Is Wrong with It

Doman Better Baby Institute

constructed knowledge

direct knowledge

 

2.0 Piaget’s Theory of Infant Development

qualitative difference

sensorimotor stage of development

scheme (schema)

simple reflexes

first habits and primary circular reactions

habit

primary circular reactions

secondary circular reactions

coordination of secondary circular reactions

intentionality - произвольность

tertiary circular reactions, novelty, and curiosity

tertiary circular reactions

internalization of schemes                                                                                                                                                                   

    symbol

    object permanence - устойчивость

 

3.0 A New Perspective on Cognitive Development in Infancy
intermodal perception

 

4.0The Information Processing Perspective on Infant Development

information processing perspective

habituation

dishabituation

memory

imitation

deferred imitation - замедленная …

                                                                         .

5.0 Individual Differences in Intelligence individual differences

developmental quotient

Bayley Scales of Infant Development

 

6.0 Language Development

language

infinite generativity

language rule systems

phonemes phonology

morpheme morphology

syntax grammar

surface structure

deep structure

semantics

pragmatics

language acquisition device (LAD)

critical period

motherese  

recasting

echoing

expanding

labeling

receptive vocabulary

spoken vocabulary

holophrase hypothesis

telegraphic speech

mean length of utterance (MLU)

 

7.0 Contemporary Concerns

live language

mechanical language

 

 

Essay and Critical Thinking Questions

Comprehension and Application Essay Questions

We recommend that you follow either our guidelines for "Answering Essay and Critical Thinking Questions," or those provided by your instructor, when preparing your response to these questions. Your answers to these kinds of questions demonstrate an ability to comprehend and apply ideas discussed in this chapter.

1. Compare and contrast the methods used by Piaget and information processing researchers to study infant cognition.

2. Explain why Piaget referred to the initial stage of cognitive development as the sensorimotor E period.

3. What is the relationship between each of the substages in Piaget's theory of the sensorimotor period? How does the infant get from one stage to the next?

4. Although Piaget believes that the development of object permanence is a major accomplishment of the sensorimotor period; there is, however, no longer complete agreement on what it means or how it develops in the infant. Compare and contrast Piaget's view and one of the two alternative views about the development of object permanence.

5. How do information processing theorists approach to development? How would you convince a friend that imitation and deferred imitation demonstrate information processing by infants?

6. If you were a parent of an infant, what would you learn about your infant from the Gesell and I the Bayley Scales of Infant Development?

7. Explain infinite generativity and the five rule systems of language.

8. Discuss evidence regarding the nature and nurture bases for language development.

9. Summarize the milestones in the development of language by infants.

10. For a period of time, infants utter sentences of approximately one word. Explain whether these utterances accurately reflect the level of thinking of a child.

 

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