Cognitive Development in Infancy Flashcards
Piaget's theory; how infants learn, remember & conceptualize; language development
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
children actively construct their own world, building mental structures to adapt to it (schemes)
scheme
actions or mental representations that organize knowledge
assimiation
when children use existing schemes to deal with new information
accommodation
children’s adjustment of existing schemes in the face of new information
equilibration
mechanism Piaget propose for how children shift from one cognitive stage to the next
Piaget’s sensorimotor stage
infant organizes and coordination sensations with physical movement
sensorimotor substages
simple reflexes; first habits & primary circular reactions; coordination of secondary circular reactions; tertiary circular reactions; novelty & curiosity; internalization of schemes
core knowledge approach
Spelke - infants are born with domain-specific innate knowledge systems
Criticism: not enough attention given to infant’s early experiences
infantile or childhood amnesia
not being able to remember first 3 years of life
imitation (Meltzoff)
infants are able to match their behavior to a model (deferred imitation as early as 9 mos)
conceptual categories (Mandler)
infants don’t form conceptual categories until 7–9 mos. Over first 2 yrs of life, categories become gradually more differentiated
Gesell’s scale
used by pediatricians to distinguish normal & abnormal behavior; provides developmental quotient (DQ)
4 categories of behavior: motor, language, adaptive, personal-social
Bayley-III scale
widely used to assess infant development; five scales: cognitive, language, motor, socioemotional and adaptive
Fagan Test of Infant Intelligence
how effectively infants process information
