Cognitive Development in Infancy: Key Concepts and Theories CH.5

Cognitive Development in Infancy

Overview

Cognitive development in infancy encompasses the changes in thinking, learning, memory, and language that occur during the first two years of life. This period is marked by rapid growth in mental abilities, as infants begin to understand their environment, develop memory, and acquire language skills.

Cognitive Changes in Infancy

General Cognitive Growth

• Cognitive skills such as thinking, learning, and remembering increase significantly during the first two years.

• These changes are consistent across different environments, though two-year-olds are still far from cognitive maturity.

• Infants take important steps toward mature thinking, including the development of mental representation and problem-solving abilities.

Piaget’s Theory: Sensorimotor Stage

Substages of the Sensorimotor Stage

Jean Piaget proposed that infants progress through six substages in the sensorimotor stage, each characterized by different cognitive abilities and behaviors.

Substage	Age (months)	Primary Technique	Characteristics
1	0–1	Reflexes	Responds to immediate stimuli; limited imitation and integration of information.
2	1–4	Primary circular reactions	Begins to coordinate sensations and new schemas; repeats actions for pleasure.
3	4–8	Secondary circular reactions	Becomes more aware of external events; repeats actions to trigger responses.
4	8–12	Coordination of secondary schemas	Begins to show intentionality; coordinates schemas to achieve goals.
5	12–18	Tertiary circular reactions	Experiments with new behaviors; explores different outcomes.
6	18–24	Beginnings of mental representation	Develops mental symbols; can represent events mentally.

Object Permanence

• Object permanence is the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen.

• Developmental progression:

  • 2 months: Shows surprise when an object disappears.

  • 6–8 months: Looks for a partially hidden object.

  • 8–12 months: Searches for a completely hidden object.

Imitation

• 2 months: Can imitate actions they can see themselves make.

• 8–12 months: Can imitate others’ facial expressions.

• 12 months: Begins to imitate actions not in their repertoire; deferred imitation (imitating later) begins.

• Early television viewing can negatively affect later social interactions.

Challenges to Piaget’s View

Modern Research Findings

• Infants show signs of object permanence and imitation earlier than Piaget proposed.

• Babies as young as 4 months demonstrate object permanence by tracking hidden objects.

• Imitation of facial gestures and deferred imitation occur earlier than Piaget suggested.

• Some cognitive skills may be inborn rather than learned.

Object Concept and Individuation

Object Concept

• Refers to an infant’s understanding of the nature and behavior of objects.

• Violation-of-expectancy studies show that infants as young as 3 months have sophisticated knowledge of object properties.

Object Individuation

• Infants differentiate and recognize distinct objects based on mental images.

• 4 months: Use location and motion to individuate objects.

• 10 months: Use properties like color and texture.

• 9–12 months: Use object kind (e.g., duck vs. ball).

Learning, Categorizing, and Remembering

Learning in Infancy

• Learning is defined as permanent changes in behavior resulting from experience.

• Infants learn from birth, organizing their interactions with the environment.

Conditioning and Modelling

• Classical conditioning: Infants learn to associate stimuli (e.g., refusing a breast that caused discomfort).

• Operant conditioning: Infants learn to repeat behaviors that produce rewards (e.g., sucking a pacifier to turn on music).

• Observational learning: Infants imitate others, especially successful models, and learn through watching.

Schematic Learning

• Infants organize experiences into schemas (known combinations or categories).

• By 7 months, infants use categories but cannot process hierarchical levels (e.g., animals vs. furniture, but not dogs vs. birds).

• Hierarchical categorization develops by age 2 and matures by age 5.

Memory in Infancy

• Infants can remember auditory stimuli heard while asleep.

• By 3 months, infants remember specific objects and their actions for up to a week.

• Early memory is context-dependent and more sophisticated than previously thought.

Measuring Intelligence in Infancy

Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development

• Measures cognitive, language, motor, adaptive, and social-emotional development.

• Not a strong predictor of later IQ or school performance (correlation ~0.20–0.30).

Fagan’s Test of Infant Intelligence

• Assesses habituation rate and can be used with infants with health issues.

• Intelligence is relatively stable after age two but can be influenced by environment and early interventions.

The Beginnings of Language

Prelinguistic Development

• Many developments precede first words, which typically appear around 12 months.

• Includes cooing, babbling, and recognition of language patterns.

Theoretical Perspectives on Language Development

Theory and Proponent(s)	Main Idea	Example
Behaviourist (B.F. Skinner)	Language learned through reinforcement of sounds and grammar.	Babbling reinforced by parents; correct sounds encouraged.
Nativist (Noam Chomsky)	Innate language acquisition device (LAD) guides language learning.	Children learn grammar rules not explicitly taught.
Interactionist (Bowerman, Tomasello, Vygotsky)	Language development is a subprocess of cognitive development, influenced by both biology and environment.	Children learn language through social interaction and cognitive growth.

Infant-Directed Speech (IDS)

• Simplified, higher-pitched speech used with infants.

• Preferred by infants and helps them identify language-specific sounds and grammatical forms.

Role of Experience

• Frequent reading and conversational turn-taking enhance vocabulary and language skills.

• Cultural differences may affect language development and assessment.

Milestones of Language Development

Age	Milestone
2–3 months	Makes cooing sounds; responds with smiles and cooing when talked to.
4–5 months	Makes various vowel and consonant sounds with cooing.
6 months	Babbles; utters phonemes of all languages.
8–9 months	Focuses on phonemes, rhythm, and intonation of home language; receptive vocabulary of 20–30 words.
12 months	Expressive language emerges; says single words.
12–18 months	Uses word-gesture combinations (holophrases).
16–24 months	Displays rapid vocabulary growth (naming explosion).
18–20 months	Uses two-word sentences (telegraphic speech); expressive vocabulary of 100–200 words.

Word Production and Use

Expressive Language and Holophrases

• First words appear around 12 months; learned slowly in context.

• Holophrases: Single words combined with gestures to express complete thoughts (12–18 months).

Naming Explosion and Sentence Formation

• Between 16–24 months, vocabulary grows rapidly (naming explosion).

• By 24 months, children may know up to 320 words.

• Sentences appear when vocabulary reaches 100–200 words (18–24 months); sentences are short and simple (telegraphic speech).

Individual Differences in Language Development

Variation in Rate and Bilingualism

• Wide range of normal variation in language development rate.

• Exposure to multiple languages influences rate and fluency.

• Early exposure to two languages promotes higher competence, but equal fluency is rare.

• Children with persistent delays may need professional assessment.

Language Development Across Cultures

• Cooing, babbling, first words, holophrases, and telegraphic speech occur in all languages at similar ages and in the same sequence.

• Specific word order and sentence structure are learned in varying orders across cultures.