chapter 4 handout
Chapter Four The Emergence of Thought and Language: Cognitive Development in Infancy and Early Childhood
Basic Principles of Cognitive Development • Children make sense of the world
through schemes • Children adapt to their
environment as they develop by adding and refining their schemes • Schemes change from physical, to
functional, conceptual, and abstract as the child develops 1/31/11
2
Piaget’s Account: Assimilation & Accommodation Assimilation
Accommodation
Assimilation is required to benefit
from experience. Accommodation allows for dealing with completely new data or experiences1/31/11
3
Piaget’s Account: Equilibration Equilibrium vs. disequilibrium
Equilibration
Equilibration occurs three times
during development, resulting in 4 stages of cognitive development 1/31/11
4
Piaget’s Account: Periods of Cognitive Development Sensorimotor Period (0-2 years) Infancy
Preoperational Period (2-7 years) Preschool and early elementary school
Concrete Operational Period (7-11 years) Middle and late elementary school
Formal Operational Period (11 years & up) Adolescence and adulthood
1/31/11
5
1/31/11
6
1/31/11
7
Criticisms of Piaget’s Theory Piaget underestimates cognitive ability in
infants and overestimates in adolescents Piaget is vague about mechanisms and
processes of change He does not account for variability in
childrens' performance His theory undervalues the influence of
sociocultural environment 1/31/11
8
Extending Piaget’s Account: Children’s Naive Theories Naive Physics Naive Biology
1/31/11
9
Information Processing: General Principles Human thinking understood
along a computer model Mental Hardware Mental Software
1/31/11
10
Information Processing Processes: Attention Attention Orienting response Habituation 1/31/11
11
Information Processing Processes: Learning Classical Conditioning Operant Conditioning Imitation 1/31/11
12
Information Processing Processes: Memory What and how do children
remember about past events? Autobiographical memory 1/31/11
13
Preschoolers on the Witness Stand Children’s responses to questioning about
facts are quite vulnerable to suggestion and leading questions Source monitoring skills
This may lead to answers that reflect their
memories without regard to whether they experienced the event, or were told about it 1/31/11
14
Information Processing Processes: Learning Number Skills Ordinality One-to-one principle Stable-order principle Cardinality principle 1/31/11
15
Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) A Russian psychologist Saw cognitive development as an
apprenticeship in which children advance by interaction with others more mature Vygotsky died young (37) and did not fully
develop his theory beyond childhood
1/31/11
16
Mind & Culture: Vygotsky’s Theory: Major Contributions Zone of Proximal
Development Scaffolding Private Speech/Inner
Speech 1/31/11
17
Language: The Road to Speech Perceiving Speech Phonemes- The smallest sounds Studies show that as early as 1 month infants
can distinguish between sounds Different languages use different sets of
phonemes Children practice all phonemes, gradually
restricting their use to only those phonemes to which they are exposed Eventually, they lose the ability to distinguish
unused phonemes
1/31/11
18
Language: Identifying Words Children learn to pay more attention
to often repeated and emphasized words Parents use infant-directed speech in
which they speak slowly and exaggerate changes in pitch and volume Sometimes called motherese because
it was first observed in mothers 1/31/11
19
Language: Steps to Speech At 2 months, infants begin
cooing Around 6 months, toddlers
begin babbling At 8-11 months children
incorporate intonation 1/31/11
20
Language: First Words & Many More Around 1 year, children use their first words,
usually consonant-vowel pairs such as “dada” or “wawa” By 2 years, children have a vocabulary of
around a few hundred words By age 6, children know around 10,000 words Some children use a referential style
vocabulary to name objects, persons, or actions Other children use an expressive style to make
statements resembling single words 1/31/11
21
Language: Fast Mapping of Words Connecting new words to that which
they refer helps to infer the meaning of the new word Parents pay attention to what children
are attracted to and provide guidance, which is called joint attention Children seem to understand constraints
on word names that help to infer meaning 1/31/11
22
Language:Fast Mapping (Cont)
Types of constraints on word
names include: If an unfamiliar word is heard in
the presence of objects that already have names and objects that don’t, the word must refer to one of the objects that doesn’t have a name Names refer to the whole object
and not just a part of it 1/31/11
23
Language: Fast Mapping (Cont)
Children use sentence cues to infer
the meaning of unfamiliar words Cognitive factors, such as better
attentional and perceptual skills, assist in learning language Naming errors result from
underextension and overextension 1/31/11
24
Language: Individual Differences in Word Learning Vocabulary ranges from 25
to 250 words at 18 months Phonological Memory Referential Style Expressive Style 1/31/11
25
Language: Encouraging Language Growth Parents assist in learning language by: Speaking to children frequently Naming objects of children’s attention Using speech that is more
grammatically sophisticated Reading to them Encouraging watching television
programs with an emphasis on learning new words, such as Sesame 1/31/11 Street
26
Language: Speaking in Sentences Two- and three-word sentences, called
telegraphic speech, begin around 18 months Children may leave out grammatical
morphemes, or words and endings that make a sentence correct Overregularization
1/31/11
27
How do Children Acquire Grammar? The Behaviorist answer The Linguistic answer The Cognitive answer The Social-Interactive
answer 1/31/11
28
Language: Communicating With Others Effective communication requires: Taking turns as speaker and listener Making sure to speak in language the
listener understands Paying attention while listening and
making sure the speaker knows if he/she is being understood
1/31/11
29
Basic Principles of Cognitive Development • Children make sense of the world
through schemes • Children adapt to their
environment as they develop by adding and refining their schemes • Schemes change from physical, to
functional, conceptual, and abstract as the child develops 1/31/11
2
Piaget’s Account: Assimilation & Accommodation Assimilation
Accommodation
Assimilation is required to benefit
from experience. Accommodation allows for dealing with completely new data or experiences1/31/11
3
Piaget’s Account: Equilibration Equilibrium vs. disequilibrium
Equilibration
Equilibration occurs three times
during development, resulting in 4 stages of cognitive development 1/31/11
4
Piaget’s Account: Periods of Cognitive Development Sensorimotor Period (0-2 years) Infancy
Preoperational Period (2-7 years) Preschool and early elementary school
Concrete Operational Period (7-11 years) Middle and late elementary school
Formal Operational Period (11 years & up) Adolescence and adulthood
1/31/11
5
1/31/11
6
1/31/11
7
Criticisms of Piaget’s Theory Piaget underestimates cognitive ability in
infants and overestimates in adolescents Piaget is vague about mechanisms and
processes of change He does not account for variability in
childrens' performance His theory undervalues the influence of
sociocultural environment 1/31/11
8
Extending Piaget’s Account: Children’s Naive Theories Naive Physics Naive Biology
1/31/11
9
Information Processing: General Principles Human thinking understood
along a computer model Mental Hardware Mental Software
1/31/11
10
Information Processing Processes: Attention Attention Orienting response Habituation 1/31/11
11
Information Processing Processes: Learning Classical Conditioning Operant Conditioning Imitation 1/31/11
12
Information Processing Processes: Memory What and how do children
remember about past events? Autobiographical memory 1/31/11
13
Preschoolers on the Witness Stand Children’s responses to questioning about
facts are quite vulnerable to suggestion and leading questions Source monitoring skills
This may lead to answers that reflect their
memories without regard to whether they experienced the event, or were told about it 1/31/11
14
Information Processing Processes: Learning Number Skills Ordinality One-to-one principle Stable-order principle Cardinality principle 1/31/11
15
Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) A Russian psychologist Saw cognitive development as an
apprenticeship in which children advance by interaction with others more mature Vygotsky died young (37) and did not fully
develop his theory beyond childhood
1/31/11
16
Mind & Culture: Vygotsky’s Theory: Major Contributions Zone of Proximal
Development Scaffolding Private Speech/Inner
Speech 1/31/11
17
Language: The Road to Speech Perceiving Speech Phonemes- The smallest sounds Studies show that as early as 1 month infants
can distinguish between sounds Different languages use different sets of
phonemes Children practice all phonemes, gradually
restricting their use to only those phonemes to which they are exposed Eventually, they lose the ability to distinguish
unused phonemes
1/31/11
18
Language: Identifying Words Children learn to pay more attention
to often repeated and emphasized words Parents use infant-directed speech in
which they speak slowly and exaggerate changes in pitch and volume Sometimes called motherese because
it was first observed in mothers 1/31/11
19
Language: Steps to Speech At 2 months, infants begin
cooing Around 6 months, toddlers
begin babbling At 8-11 months children
incorporate intonation 1/31/11
20
Language: First Words & Many More Around 1 year, children use their first words,
usually consonant-vowel pairs such as “dada” or “wawa” By 2 years, children have a vocabulary of
around a few hundred words By age 6, children know around 10,000 words Some children use a referential style
vocabulary to name objects, persons, or actions Other children use an expressive style to make
statements resembling single words 1/31/11
21
Language: Fast Mapping of Words Connecting new words to that which
they refer helps to infer the meaning of the new word Parents pay attention to what children
are attracted to and provide guidance, which is called joint attention Children seem to understand constraints
on word names that help to infer meaning 1/31/11
22
Language:Fast Mapping (Cont)
Types of constraints on word
names include: If an unfamiliar word is heard in
the presence of objects that already have names and objects that don’t, the word must refer to one of the objects that doesn’t have a name Names refer to the whole object
and not just a part of it 1/31/11
23
Language: Fast Mapping (Cont)
Children use sentence cues to infer
the meaning of unfamiliar words Cognitive factors, such as better
attentional and perceptual skills, assist in learning language Naming errors result from
underextension and overextension 1/31/11
24
Language: Individual Differences in Word Learning Vocabulary ranges from 25
to 250 words at 18 months Phonological Memory Referential Style Expressive Style 1/31/11
25
Language: Encouraging Language Growth Parents assist in learning language by: Speaking to children frequently Naming objects of children’s attention Using speech that is more
grammatically sophisticated Reading to them Encouraging watching television
programs with an emphasis on learning new words, such as Sesame 1/31/11 Street
26
Language: Speaking in Sentences Two- and three-word sentences, called
telegraphic speech, begin around 18 months Children may leave out grammatical
morphemes, or words and endings that make a sentence correct Overregularization
1/31/11
27
How do Children Acquire Grammar? The Behaviorist answer The Linguistic answer The Cognitive answer The Social-Interactive
answer 1/31/11
28
Language: Communicating With Others Effective communication requires: Taking turns as speaker and listener Making sure to speak in language the
listener understands Paying attention while listening and
making sure the speaker knows if he/she is being understood
1/31/11
29
