Infant Cognition

What do babies know about the world?

Piaget’s Theory

Jean Piaget (1896-1980)

Swiss psychologist

Father of modern cognitive developmental psychology

Infant Cognition: Piaget’s Claims

• Out of sight, out of mind– No concept of object permanence

• Senses are uncoordinated– No intermodal perception

Object Permanence

• Objects continue to exist when they are out of sight

Piagetian Search Tasks

Show infants a toy, and as they reach for it, hide the toy under a cloth

0 - 8 months: No search

8 - 12 months: A-not-B error

12 - 18 months: Invisible displacement

18 - 24 months: Object permanence

A-not-B Error Video Clip

Malena

May 19, 2006

age: 9 months, 27 days

Why do babies make the A-not-B error?

• Poor memory– Task is easier if locations are very distinct

• Can’t resist the first location– Reach to A even when object is visible at B– Babies look to B first, but reach to A

Tests of Object Permanence:Eliminating the need for a motor response

• Present infants with an event that violates object permanence

• Are babies surprised by such an event?

Baillargeon’s Test of Object Permanence

3.5-month-olds

Baillargeon, 1987

Baillargeon Video Clip

“It’s a Kid’s World”hosted by Alan Alda

Amazing Infant Cognition

• Object Permanence– Baillargeon: rotating screen; two “Minnies”

• Support / Gravity– Baillargeon: box on platform

• Physical Causality– Spelke: object contact makes things move

6-month-olds

Habituation Event:

Physical CausalityThe Role of Contact

Test Events:

Impossible

Possible

Physical CausalityThe Role of Contact

Physical CausalityThe Role of Contact

If infants understand contact as a mechanism for cause and effect, they should look longer at (dishabituate to) the ________________ event.

Results:

6-month-olds look longer at impossible event.

impossible

Intermodal Perception

• Integrating information from two or more senses when perceiving an object or event

– e.g., the coordination of sight and sound

Intermodal Perception Integrating Sight and Sound

(Spelke, 1976)

Video A Video B

Baby

Speaker

Peek-a-boo Playing drum

Drumbeats

Where does baby look?

Intermodal PerceptionSight and Sound: Findings

• 4-month-olds can integrate sight and sound

• Wide range of phenomena– Emotion (facial expressions with voice)

– Gender (male voice with male face)

– Speech sounds (vowel sounds with mouth movements)

– Speech synchrony (soundtrack with mouth movements)

– Number (items in a display with number of drumbeats)

Intermodal Perception Integrating Sight and Touch

(Meltzoff & Borton, 1979)

1-month-olds can integrate sight and touch

(newborns can do it: Kaye & Bower, 1994)

Infants suck bumpy or smooth pacifier for 90 seconds (without seeing it).

Then they see pictures of two spheres: bumpy & smooth

Intermodal Perception Integrating Sight and Proprioception

(Meltzoff & Moore, 1977, 1989, 1994)

Imitation at birth: Newborns can make their own facial expressions match those of another person.

Summary

• Knowledge about the physical world appears early and develops rapidly

• Infant perception and cognition are coordinated and active

Piaget’s Stages

• Sensorimotor (birth - 2 years)

• Preoperational (2 - 7 years)

• Concrete Operational (7 - 11 years)

• Formal Operational (11 years - adult)

Limitations of Preoperational Thought

• Centration

• Egocentrism

• Appearance as reality

• Transductive reasoning

Centration

• Focusing on one aspect of a problem, ignoring other relevant aspects

• Examples– Conservation– Class inclusion

Conservation of Number

Conservation of Liquid

Class Inclusion

Are there more apples or more fruit?

Egocentrism

• Thinking everyone sees things the same way you do

• Difficulty taking another’s perspective

• Examples– Three-mountains task– Egocentric speech

Three Mountains Task

Child is asked to pick the picture that shows what the diorama looks like from the partner’s point of view.

Egocentric Speech

• Child and partner - separated by a barrier - have identical sets of cards

• Child has to describe one card to the partner

“It’s the dinosaur!”

“The one with a tail.”

Appearance as Reality

• Tendency to confuse what something looks like with what it really is

• Example– Fear of Halloween costumes

Appearance as Reality

Transductive Reasoning

• Reasoning from one particular to another

• Indifference to cause-and-effect relations

• Example– Unconventional connections

“I haven’t had a nap, so it isn’t afternoon.”

Strengths of Preoperational Thought

• Symbolic representation

• Pretend play