vertical axis shows the looking time.
The Habituation graph line shows a steady drop from trial to trial 5. But after the pattern change, the “continued habitation” line continues to fall right up to trial 10. On the other hand, the line labelled “dishabituation” rises sharply at trial 7, but subsequently starts to drop.
A caption reads: Looking time declines with each trial as the infant habituates to the pattern. Dishabituation, renewed interest, signifies that the infant detects a change in stimulus pattern.
Back to Figure
The three photos on the top row show a man doing three actions which are mimicked by the infant, shown in the three photos in the bottom row.
The three actions are:
sticking the tongue out
yawning
drawing the lips together
A caption below reads: In this classic experiment, Meltzoff and Moore demonstrated that neonates imitated the adults’ facial expression more often than chance, suggesting that they are capable of facial imitation—a groundbreaking finding.
Back to Figure
The Teller Acuity cards have a portion of the card covered with alternating black and white stripes, which get progressively thinner and closer spaced.
A caption below reads: Researchers and pediatricians use stimuli such as the Teller Acuity Cards illustrated here to determine what infants can see. Young infants attend to stimuli with wider lines and stop attending as the lines become smaller.
Back to Figure
The images on the left, marked A, show two stars. A 1-month-old infant scans only on one point of the star, whereas a 2-month-old infant scans all over the central part of the star.
The images on the right, marked B, show two human faces. The lines indicating the pattern of a 1-month-old infant’s scan starts at the chin, moves to above the head, comes down briefly to alternate between the eyes and then finishes above the head.
The pattern of a 2-month-old infant’s scan starts above the head, moves to the right eye repeatedly after darting to the other eye, the mouth, and hair several times. The finishing point is marked at the left eye.
A caption below reads: The externality effect refers to a particular pattern of infant visual processing. When presented with a complex stimulus, such as a face, infants under 2 months of age tend to scan along the outer contours, such as along the hairline. Older infants scan the internal features of complex images and faces, thereby processing the entire stimulus.
Back to Figure
The illustration shows a glass cube covered with a checked pattern on the left half. On the right half, the checked pattern is placed on the floor of the cube.
An infant is shown sitting on top of the cube on the half covered with the checked pattern while its father is shown standing beyond the right edge of the cube and trying to make the infant crawl over to him.
A caption below reads: Three-month-old infants show a change in heart rate when placed face down on the glass surface of the deep side of the visual cliff, suggesting that they perceive depth, but do not fear it. Crawling babies, however, move to the shallow side of the visual cliff and refuse to cross the deep side of the visual cliff.
Back to Figure
The horizontal axis of the graph shows the years 1979 to 2010, and the vertical axis shows the percent of male newborn infants, from 0 to 85 in increments of 10.
The details are as follows with all values approximated from the graph.
Midwest: The line starts at 75 in 1979, rises close to 84 around 1997 and drops down to 68 in 2008, finishing at 70 in 2010.
Northeast: The line starts at 65 in 1979, and ends at 65 in 2010 with fluctuations of 5 percent on either side.
South: The line starts around 55 in 1979, starts rising after 1989 to reach 65 by 1995 before again dropping to 55 by 2005. The line ends at around 60 in 2010.
West: The line starts at 65 in 1979 and shows a steady declining trend, reaching 35 by 1994. The line ends at 40 in 2010, with fluctuations of around 5 percent on both sides.
Notes: Rates represent circumcisions performed during the birth hospitalization. Circumcision is identified by International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) procedure code 64.0.
5 Cognitive Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood
Dominic eagerly crawled toward the open cupboard. Just as he began to peer inside, his father bent down and swooped Dominic into his arms. His father said, “That’s not for you, Dominic. Let’s find something for you to play with.” Soon Dominic sat amidst several toys: a set of stacking rings, cups and bowls, and a giant telephone with wheels and a string. “Overdoing it?” asked Dominic’s mother. “Just giving Dominic options,” his father explained. “Everyone wants a choice, right?” Soon Dominic placed several stacking rings in a bowl and then tried to balance the bowl on the giant telephone. His father said, “See? Dominic’s figuring it all out in his own, unorthodox, way.” Dominic’s father grasps an important principle: individuals actively contribute to their own development, as noted in Chapter 1. We learn by acting on the world and making sense of our observations. In this chapter, we examine how infants interact with the world around them to influence their cognitive development.
©iStockphoto.com/romrodinka
Learning Objectives
5.1 Discuss the cognitive-developmental perspective on infant reasoning.Video Activity 5.1: Object Permanence
5.2 Describe the information processing system in infants.Video Activity 5.2: Infants, Young Children, and Technology
5.3 Discuss individual differences in infant intelligence.
5.4 Summarize the patterns of language development during infancy and toddlerhood.
Chapter Contents
Piaget’s Cognitive-Developmental TheoryProcesses of DevelopmentSensorimotor SubstagesSubstage 1: Reflexes (Birth to 1 Month)Substage 2: Primary Circular Reactions (1 to 4 Months)Substage 3: Secondary Circular Reactions (4 to 8 Months)Substage 4: Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions (8 to 12 Months)Substage 5: Tertiary Circular Reactions (12 to 18 Months)Substage 6: Mental Representation (18 to 24 Months)Evaluating Sensorimotor ReasoningViolation-of-Expectation TasksA-Not-B TasksDeferred Imitation TasksCore Knowledge Theory
Information ProcessingInformation
