Developmental psychology/Chapter 3/Infant Cognition

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Sensorimotor Intelligence

For the first 2 years of a baby's life, this cognitive stage is known as the sensorimotor (of or relating to motor activity caused by sensory stimuli [1]) intelligence. Infants go from reflexes/ready-made schemes to goal-directed behavior (mental representations of objects, hold complex pics of past events in mind, solve problems through trial and error).

Here's a breakdown of this stage:

Primary Circular Reactions

These first two stages deal with the infants' response to their own body

1. This is from birth to month 1: simple reflexes include sucking, staring, grasping, listening.
2. This is from month 1 to month 4: primary circular reactions include coordination of reflexes (sucking a nipple vs. sucking a pacifier; trying to hold a bottle to suck on it).

Secondary Circular Reactions

These next two stages deal with an infants' response to objects and people.

3. This is from month 4 to month 8: responding to people (interacting with their mother in a game of patty cake).
4. This is from month 8 to month 12: more purpose in responding and interacting to people (pulling mom's head to oneself for a kiss).

Tertiary Circular Reactions

Most creative stages

5. This is from 12-18 months: "little scientist" mode
6. This is from 18-24 months (1.5 years - 2 years): thinking before doing

Primary Circular Reactions (stages 1 & 2)

A baby is sucking on a pacifier

These are the shortest-lived stages (only lasting for a month). Stage 1 is known as the stage of reflexes as this is where the infant experiments with its senses. Soon, the baby will realize the differences between sucking his mother's nipple vs. sucking on a pacifier. They are getting comfortable with their reflexes and are now able to interpret their sensations. This differentiation of sucking leads us into stage 2, which is the stage of first habits (or more fancily put, first acquired adaptations). This is where sensations (of sucking) lead to perceptions (realizing different ways of sucking). This is where actions that first occured by chance and focus on the infant's own body take place (holding one's hand so they can see it).

Simply looking and seeing --> Looking in order to see.

Secondary Circular Reactions (stages 3 & 4)

Two children playing "peek-a-boo" (in a painting). Peek-a-boo is a wonderful example of the concept of object perminanence. This particular game is quite fun to play with infants, as they do not understand that the person's face is still there even if they cannot see them

Responses go from oneself to their environment (objects and environmental events). Stage 3 is "making interesting sights last". Patterns of activity are repeated because of their effect on the environment.

Stage 4, between 8-12 months, is where babies start initiating actions to get a response. An example of this is when a baby starts jumping up and down and raising his/her hands up high so that their caregiver can hold them. Object permanence, the ability to understand that objects are still there even if they are not within eyesight, is developed during stage 4. For example, an adult may put a toy under a blanket, to which the child would lift the blanket and get the toy.

Imitation also becomes intentional in this stage.

Tertiary Circular Reactions (stages 5 & 6)

This young child may be holding up his hands because he saw other boys doing it

After a year, infants experiment. Stage 5 is where infants go into "scientist" mode. This is where infants do not think before they do something, examples being pulling the cat's tail, hitting their sibling or rubbing peanut butter all over the counter, or pulling in a stick into a crib the way it can fit. Its the intentional adaptations of concrete schemes to certain situations.

Fast-forwarding it to another year, stage 6 comes into play (much to the relief of the parents).

Stage 6 is known as "thinking before doing" (18-24 months). Before they yank the cat's tail, they assess whether it's a good idea to do so or not. They most likely will end up not pulling the cat's tail due to prior experiences, such as a scolding or the cat attacked the infant. Trial-and-error behavior may not need to be done, decent studying of the situation can prove successful (Lucienne & the chain in the box).

This does not mean that dangerous objects/items can be left to the disposal of infants. Pools still need to be locked up and curtains should be away from the reach of children.

Deferred imitation is an infant copying what others do hours, days and weeks after an action. For example, a boy may sleep on a tire at the park because he either saw his caregiver do the same or another boy did the same thing before him. This shows that children can maintain mental representations of behavior patterns.

What Are the Strengths and Limitations of Piaget’s Theory of Sensorimotor Development?

1. Cognitive development is not as tied to solid stages. Process is gradual, not discontinuous.
2. Interpersonal influences, such as adult and peer influences, are crucial on cognitive development.
3. Infants as early as 3 months can grasp object permanence. Come on Piaget!

Information Processing

Maybe because Piaget wasn't exposed to technology that allowed him to study cognition in detail (brain waves/activity), but he missed many cognitive details in a baby's brain (such as brain scans and gazes). We realize that the information-processing theory is supreme, in which we now know that human understanding is broken down into steps (similar to a computer's input, analysis and output).

Memory

"What did you eat for breakfast today?" - "An egg sandwich". This is an example of explicit memory.

Contrary to Piaget's findings, the concept of object permanence can be found in infants way before month 8! Canadian professor Renée Baillargeon found that infants as old as 3 months were able to grasp the idea of object permanence. She studied the brain waves of babies when she removed the objects after they were covered by a screen. These brain waves showed surprise, indicating that they knew that just because the object was out of their sight, doesn't mean it was gone. This is because the infant brain is extremely active, ready to take in information and patterns as soon as they are born (they memorize their caregivers' looks, voice and scent).

Although some scientists, including Mareschal & Kaufman (2012), disagree with Baillargeon's findings (saying it may be different levels of surprise or the brain waves may imply something else), all scientists can agree that babies are actively thinking before bodies can demonstrate it. Cognition is demonstrated in babies during several occurences, an example being when a baby gazes intently on a cat playing with a ball of yarn. Instead of criticizing infants for not having the knowledge of an adult, we should realize that they're remembering information that is relevant to them (such as their caregiver). Repetitive patterns and sensations are needed in order to remember something (this is true for everyone).

We can also forget about infant amnesia, the idea that everyone forgets everything that happened to them <3 yrs of age. Although it is hard for us to recall things that happened to us before the age of 3, we do remember various simple things (especially emotional things).

Implicit memory is memory that is not consciously recalled (driving a car, it's automatic!). Implicit memory begins at 3 months and is stable by 9 months. This varies from infant to infant. An example of implicit memory is a fear of cats, which may have spawned from several altercations with a neighborhood cat that occured at age 1. Explicit memory is memory that is conciously recalled, such as if you're asked "What did you eat for breakfast today?" and you answer with "An egg sandwich". This is known as explicit memory as you actively recalled that you ate an egg sandwich for breakfast. On the other hand, if you respond with "I do not remember" - it is more as if you do not recall. It is not an explicit memory but it is within your unconsciousness (it is an implicit memory).

For a great overview of this section, please watch the Rovee Collier study. Here, the memory of infants is tested with a mobile right above their crib.