cognitive development (chapter 6)

naming explosion

- once spoken vocabulary reaches about 50 words, it builds quickly, at a rate of 50 to 100 words per month - 21-month-olds say twice as many words as 18-month-old

affordances concern perception (input)

- perception requires selectivity - affordances provide opportunity for perception & interaction that is offered by a person, place, or object in the environment - (Gibson & Gibson)

selection of which affordance is perceived & acted upon is related to four factors:

- sensory awareness - immediate motivation - maturation - experience (it is also characteristic of every age & every culture)

hybrid theory of language learning

- some aspects of language learning may be best explained by one theory at one age & other aspects by another theory at another age - multiple attentional, social, & linguistic cues contribute to early language - different elements of the language apparatus may have evolved in different ways

the textbook's discussion suggests that observational learning first becomes apparent when infants are about _____ months of age.

9

"truck!" baby Bea exclaims as she points to a toy. Bea is indicating that she wishes to play with the truck. Bea's utterance is an example of a:

holophrase

which choice pairs a type of circular reaction with an appropriate description, according to Piaget's theory?

primary circular reactions - reactions to one's own body

gesturing

- all infants gesture - concepts with gesture are expressed sooner than speech - gestures occur even without adult signing - pointing emerges in human babies around 10 months

cultural differences in language use

- cultural & family variation occurs in child-directed speech - universals of infant communication are evident in current research - music tempo is culture-specific

language development

- early stages of language involve communication through noises, gestures, & facial expressions - timing of language acquisition varies but sequence is universal

visual cliff

- experimental apparatus that gives the illusion of a sudden drop-off between one horizontal surface & another - infant performance depends on past experience, including social context

infant amnesia

- implicit memory (begins at 3 months, stable by 9 months) - explicit memory takes longer to emerge

instrumental learning

- in Rovee-Collier's experiment, a young infant immediately remembers how to make the familiar mobile move; reminders reinforce learning - unfamiliar mobiles do not provoke the same reaction

grammar

- includes all the devices by which words communicate meaning - becomes obvious in holophrases used between 18 & 24 months - proficiency correlates with sentence length; mean length utterance (MLU) is measured

Piaget's theory

- infants are active learners - adaptation is the core of intelligence - cognition develops in four distinct periods

babbling

- involves repetition of certain syllables, such as ba-ba-ba, that begins when babies are between 6 & 9 months old - is experience-expectant - begins to sound like native language around 12 months

Chomsky's theory of language development

- language too complex to be mastered through step-by-step conditioning - language acquisition device (LAD) - all babies are eager learners, & language may be considered one more aspect of neurological maturation

information processing approach

- modeled on computer functioning - involves incremental details & step-by-step description of the mechanisms of thought - adds insight to understanding of cognition at every age - theorizes signs of attention correlate with later cognitive ability

conditions of memory

- motivations & emotions are high - retrieval is strengthened by reminders & repetition - changes in brain dendrites & neurons facilitate this improved memory

listening & responding

- newborns prefer to listen to the language their mother spoke when they were in the womb; language from everyday life - newborns with bilingual mothers show language preferences - child-directed speech occurs in every language

an infant who can imitate what she has seen a YouTuber do after the video clip has ended is probably _____ months of age or older.

12

on average, children begin saying recognizable words at about:

12 months of age

the Swiss scientist who emphasized that infants are active learners and that early learning is based on sensory and motor skills was:

Jean Piaget

Kenderrick is exploring a new smartphone app. when the app's screen appears, Kenderrick immediately swipes right. Kenderrick's action BEST demonstrates the phone's:

affordance

sensorimotor intelligence

Piaget's term for the way infants think—by using their senses & motor skills—during the first period of cognitive development - infants adapt reflexes through information from repeated responses - once adaptation occurs, it persists

a baby kicks its legs, smiles, & deliberately kicks its legs again. these actions are repeated for several minutes. according to Piaget, this is an example of:

a primary circular reaction

language around 6 months

ability to distinguish sounds & gestures in own language

four-month-old Haley is placed on Gibson and Walk's visual cliff. studies have demonstrated that Haley will notice the difference between a solid surface and an apparent cliff. however, one _____ of the cliff, falling, will only be understood when Haley starts crawling.

affordance

first words (gradual beginnings)

at about 1 year: speak a few words 6-15 months: understand 10 times more words than produced 12 months: begin to use holophrases; recognize vocalization from universal to language specific

stage 3 (4-8 months)

attempts to make interesting things last

habituation

becoming accustomed to object or event after repeated exposure & then becoming less interested

habituation research

can now be used to measure brain activity (fMRI or DTI & other neuroimaging techniques) related to language perception & learning

information-processing theory compares human thinking to:

computer functioning

twenty-month-old Saniya watches her father stir soup in a pot. the next day, Saniya uses her play kitchen to do the same. Saniya is demonstrating _____ imitation.

deferred

stage two (1 to 4 months)

first acquired adaptions or habits

word order, prefixes, suffixes, intonation, verb forms, pronouns, negations, prepositions, & articles are all aspects of _____.

grammar

Laurel loses interest in a new song after it is played frequently on her favorite music-streaming station. Laurel's experience BEST illustrates:

habituation

a scientific term for becoming bored with an object after repeated exposure to it is:

habituation

Makesha is 8 months old. research on object permanence would suggest that she:

has limited search abilities

theories of language learning (theory 1)

infants need to be taught - B. F. Skinner (1957) noticed that spontaneous babbling is usually reinforced - parents are expert teachers, & other caregivers help them teach children to speak - frequent repetition of words is instructive, especially when the words are linked to the pleasures of daily life - well-taught infants become well-spoken children - if adults want children who speak, understand, & (later) read well, they must talk to their infants

theories of language learning (theory 3)

infants teach themselves - language learning is innate; adults need not teach it, nor is it a by-product of social interaction - language itself is experience-expectant, although obviously the specific language is experience-dependent - variations in children's language ability correlate with differences in brain activity & perceptual ability

secondary circular reactions (stages 3 & 4)

interaction between baby & something else; mirror neurons begin to function

circular reactions (stage 1)

interaction of sensation, perception, & cognition

tertiary circular reactions (stages 5 & 6)

involves active exploration & experimentation; exploration of range of new activities & variations in responses as way of learning

language before birth

language learning via brain organization & hearing; may be innate

memory

memory improves with maturation - first weeks: recognition of caregivers by face, voice, & smell - 3 months: motor memories - 9 months: more complex memories

stage 6 (18-24 months)

mental combinations; intellectual experimentation via imagination, deferred imitation

stage 4 (6-12 months)

new adaptation &anticipation; means to the end

stage 5 (12-18 months)

new means through active exploration; little scientist

newborn language

preference for speech sounds & mother's language; gradual selective listening

goal-direct behavior

purposeful action that benefits from new motor skills resulting from brain maturation

object permanence

realization that objects or people continue to exist when they are no longer in sight

which example reflects a secondary circular reaction?

realizing that rattles make a noise, a 4-month-old infant laughs with delight when his father puts a rattle in his hand.

you are holding your 9-month-old son on your lap. you pluck a dandelion that has gone to seed out of the grass and blows the seeds into the air. your son is fascinated by the flying seeds and reaches out to grab them. this is an example of which of the following?

secondary circular reactions

theories of language learning (theory 2)

social impulses foster infant language (social-pragmatic) - infants communicate because humans have evolved as social beings - the emotional messages of speech, not the words, are the focus of early communication - each culture has practices that further social interaction, including talking - the social content of speech is universal, which is why babies learn whatever specifics their culture provides

stage one (birth to 1 month)

stage of reflexes

the Piagetian sensorimotor stages that involve the infant's responses to her own body are:

stages 1 & 2

an infant would least prefer to look at:

the family dog sleeping on the floor

the term holophrase is used to denote:

the infant's use of one word to express a whole thought

a sudden increase in an infant's vocabulary, especially nouns, is referred to as:

the naming explosion

what happens when a child is able to speak about 50 words?

the progression of language acquisition increases dramatically

which of the following research results provides support for the social impulses theory of language learning?

toddlers learn new words best when they are taught in person

primary circular reactions (stage 2)

two stages of sensorimotor intelligence involving the infant's own body

assimilation

type of adaptation in which new experiences are interpreted to fit into, or assimilate with, old ideas

accomodation

type of adaptation in which old ideas are restructured to include, or accommodate, new experiences