Cognition in Infants and Children
LECTURE 1: INTRODUCTION TO COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
• Fundamental question for developmental psychologists is finding out what infants begin with
o also what this tells us about the nature of development
• Infants do not behave at random
o e.g. motor patterns
▪ Infants tend to crawl around 9 months
▪ 20-month olds speak one words, cannot form sentences, get confused easily – try to get inside
small cars
• conflict between children’s knowledge and abilities
▪ 6-year olds are poor at conservation of volume whereas 8 year olds are successful
• 8-year olds can reason
o there are huge developmental advances in early life
▪ as you age, you acquire more knowledge
• helps with general knowledge and transforms the way you can behave
▪ acquire more motor skills
• cognitive abilities may be grounded in motor abilities
▪ language develops
▪ capacity increases
• e.g. memory
Questions in development
Qualitative vs Quantitative
• There is a big question about qualitative vs quantitative developmental change
o qualitative developmental change = changes in the way you think (difference in quality)
▪ e.g. phone running different software
o quantitative developmental change = changes in the capacity of someone (difference in quantity)
▪ e.g. more pixels in screen
• Development involves both of these types – matters for understanding and interventions
Domain specific vs domain general
• Domain specific = there is no relation between each aspect of development (improvement in maths will not affect
language ability)
• Domain general = there are contributions from a variety of general abilities to our overall capacity (aspects of
maths learning will aid aspects of memory learning through a domain general factor such as working memory)
• This is important for interventions – to determine treatment pathway
Innate vs Acquired
• Debate about the relative contribution of nature and nurture to an aspect of development (e.g. cognition)
Continuity vs Discontinuity
• Some theorists believe babies are mini adults located at the starting point along a continuum of growth –
psychologically and physically (continuity)
• Others believe that babies are nothing like mini adults. To become adults children, need to undergo a
psychological metamorphosis (discontinuous – development in stages)
o adults are qualitatively different from children
The adult model – use with caution
• The adult model:
o Basic form of the brain and the number of neurons is relatively stable throughout healthy adulthood until
old age
• Example of adult cognitive model – Working Memory Model (Baddeley & Hitch, 1974)
, • Adults’ STM capacity = 7+/-2 – Miller’s magic number
• Adult findings
o Word length effect
▪ people will perform less well on disyllabic words than monosyllabic words
o phonological interference
▪ when words sound the same memory is worse than when they sound different
• Developmental findings
o increase in memory span with age
o no word length effect
o no phonological interference
▪ adults perform task differently to children
• adults immediately recode pictures into words (phonological)
• children remember pictures (visual)
• Thus, in this aspect there is not continuity – there is qualitative developmental change
The developmental brain
• Developmentally: there is a 3-4 fold increase in brain mass (net decrease in neurons, increased number of
connections and myelination - efficiency)
• Brain matures at different rates
o visual cortex = adult form = 2-4 years
o frontal cortex = adult = 10-20 years
Behaviourism
• Proposed by Skinner
• Focuses on importance of nurture (learning and association)
• Focus on observable behaviours
• Unlike Pavlov, focus on relationship between stimulus and response (not stimuli pairs)
• In order to understand behaviour, need to understand reinforcement
• Behaviour is the product of one’s reinforcement history
• Shaping shows selective reinforcement is capable of shaping the simple repertoire of reflexes we have as children
into the sophisticated behaviour of adults through successive proximations
• Development = quantitative not qualitative (children and adults learn in the same way – continuous)
Nativism
• Proposed by Chomsky
• Suggests infants are born with innate knowledge of language
• Claims underlying the surface structure is a deep structure
o this deep structure is universal and innate
• Language is able to be learnt so quickly due to the innate ability
• Chomsky assumed the core facilities that underlie behaviour are innate
• Changes are quantitative - nativism holds a continuous perspective
Maturation and Ethology
• Just because a characteristic is innate it does not mean that it is active at the outset (e.g. losing baby teeth)
• Things like walking are evidence of maturational unfolding
o a genetically determined developmental progression
• Maturation = discontinuous, occurs in maturational stages by a maturational clock
• Babies are seen as qualitatively different to adults
• Biological preparedness says there is a genetically determined readiness to learn specific skills
o maturational clock sets temporal limits
• Biological preparedness and maturation combine with learning and experience as a driving force of development
• The ways in which these innate behaviours come to fruition is determined by the environment
• This allows people to achieve developmental milestones – which make them qualitatively different
Stage Theories
, • Stage theories posit that children undergo major discontinuous changes in development
• These result as a combination of innate and environmental factors
• Examples of stage theorists include Freud and Piaget
o Piaget believed that as the child shifts onto a new and more sophisticated plane of intelligence it shed
many of the old cognitive limitations
o believed egocentrism (as a child) interferes with development as people only consider their own
perspective
▪ three mountains test tests egocentrism
o each stage brings better adjustment to the environment and reduces egocentrism
o presents a stage theory not a maturation theory – stages not under control of a maturational clock
o interested in genetic epistemology – origin of knowledge
o Siegler (1996) says development occurs in overlapping waves – children have strategies that co-
exist/overlap in time
▪ testing children during transitions (days) relieves the co-existence of different strategies
(microgenetic approach)
• These theories suggest children are qualitatively different during development
LECTURE 2: MEMORY DEVELOPMENT
Methods to study infants
• Rovee-Collier (1990) – mobile movement
o Conditioned 3mo infants to kick in order to make a mobile move
o Mobile elicited same response 2 weeks later – baby learned and remembered to kick the mobile to make
it move
▪ infants in the experimental condition kicked their legs more than those in the control
o However, this movement was highly specific
▪ when the wallpaper changed, the same response did not occur
▪ not different from what would be expected from rats
Adult memory processes
• Association
• Recognition
o Explicit
o Implicit
• Recall
• Inhibition
Recognition: Implicit
• Implicit vs Explicit
o explicit recognition is where you experience the recognition whereas implicit recognition is shown
through other mediums
▪ one way implicit recognition can be shown is skin conductance
• Implicit memory can be measured in infants through:
o EEG
o Habituation
▪ decreasing interest to a repeated stimulus
• signals implicit recognition
• measuring the time between when the stimulus is habituated to when it returns to a
non-recognisable state can provide an insight into their memory
• it is quite durable
o Fantz et al (1975) – 2 month olds look less at a picture pre-exposed 2 weeks
previously
, ▪ new stimulus can be introduced, if looking time increases, they distinguish between objects
▪ speed of habituation predicts later IQ
▪ need to remain cautious – infants cannot report on what happened
Inhibitory control
• Measured in adults by the Stroop task
o skilled readers read these words automatically when words enter visual field
o children do not show the Stroop effect - do not automatically read the words
o Gerstadt et al (1994)
▪ children respond ‘night’ to picture of sun (a)
▪ ‘morning’ to picture of moon (b)
▪ they must also respond to control conditions (c = night, d = day)
• neuronal maturation occurs at this time
• age related improvement in task
• latency decreases
o Can also be measured using the ‘Marshmallow Test’
▪ Mischel et al (1989)
• ability to resist temptation predicted future performance and future salary
o Enables people to resist interference from distracting stimuli
o Allows one to stop doing one task to start another
o Involved frontal brain regions
Summary
▪ Infants are capable of association, recognition and recall, so these basic processes are present from very early
▪ There is improvement in these memory processes:
▪ Increase in the basic memory capacity
▪ Increase in some other capacity (processing speed, inhibition)
▪ There is increased knowledge and strategy use
What develops in Memory Development?
• Older children often remember more accurately than younger children because:
o older children have superior basic processes and capacities
▪ improvements in absolute speech or capacity
LECTURE 1: INTRODUCTION TO COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
• Fundamental question for developmental psychologists is finding out what infants begin with
o also what this tells us about the nature of development
• Infants do not behave at random
o e.g. motor patterns
▪ Infants tend to crawl around 9 months
▪ 20-month olds speak one words, cannot form sentences, get confused easily – try to get inside
small cars
• conflict between children’s knowledge and abilities
▪ 6-year olds are poor at conservation of volume whereas 8 year olds are successful
• 8-year olds can reason
o there are huge developmental advances in early life
▪ as you age, you acquire more knowledge
• helps with general knowledge and transforms the way you can behave
▪ acquire more motor skills
• cognitive abilities may be grounded in motor abilities
▪ language develops
▪ capacity increases
• e.g. memory
Questions in development
Qualitative vs Quantitative
• There is a big question about qualitative vs quantitative developmental change
o qualitative developmental change = changes in the way you think (difference in quality)
▪ e.g. phone running different software
o quantitative developmental change = changes in the capacity of someone (difference in quantity)
▪ e.g. more pixels in screen
• Development involves both of these types – matters for understanding and interventions
Domain specific vs domain general
• Domain specific = there is no relation between each aspect of development (improvement in maths will not affect
language ability)
• Domain general = there are contributions from a variety of general abilities to our overall capacity (aspects of
maths learning will aid aspects of memory learning through a domain general factor such as working memory)
• This is important for interventions – to determine treatment pathway
Innate vs Acquired
• Debate about the relative contribution of nature and nurture to an aspect of development (e.g. cognition)
Continuity vs Discontinuity
• Some theorists believe babies are mini adults located at the starting point along a continuum of growth –
psychologically and physically (continuity)
• Others believe that babies are nothing like mini adults. To become adults children, need to undergo a
psychological metamorphosis (discontinuous – development in stages)
o adults are qualitatively different from children
The adult model – use with caution
• The adult model:
o Basic form of the brain and the number of neurons is relatively stable throughout healthy adulthood until
old age
• Example of adult cognitive model – Working Memory Model (Baddeley & Hitch, 1974)
, • Adults’ STM capacity = 7+/-2 – Miller’s magic number
• Adult findings
o Word length effect
▪ people will perform less well on disyllabic words than monosyllabic words
o phonological interference
▪ when words sound the same memory is worse than when they sound different
• Developmental findings
o increase in memory span with age
o no word length effect
o no phonological interference
▪ adults perform task differently to children
• adults immediately recode pictures into words (phonological)
• children remember pictures (visual)
• Thus, in this aspect there is not continuity – there is qualitative developmental change
The developmental brain
• Developmentally: there is a 3-4 fold increase in brain mass (net decrease in neurons, increased number of
connections and myelination - efficiency)
• Brain matures at different rates
o visual cortex = adult form = 2-4 years
o frontal cortex = adult = 10-20 years
Behaviourism
• Proposed by Skinner
• Focuses on importance of nurture (learning and association)
• Focus on observable behaviours
• Unlike Pavlov, focus on relationship between stimulus and response (not stimuli pairs)
• In order to understand behaviour, need to understand reinforcement
• Behaviour is the product of one’s reinforcement history
• Shaping shows selective reinforcement is capable of shaping the simple repertoire of reflexes we have as children
into the sophisticated behaviour of adults through successive proximations
• Development = quantitative not qualitative (children and adults learn in the same way – continuous)
Nativism
• Proposed by Chomsky
• Suggests infants are born with innate knowledge of language
• Claims underlying the surface structure is a deep structure
o this deep structure is universal and innate
• Language is able to be learnt so quickly due to the innate ability
• Chomsky assumed the core facilities that underlie behaviour are innate
• Changes are quantitative - nativism holds a continuous perspective
Maturation and Ethology
• Just because a characteristic is innate it does not mean that it is active at the outset (e.g. losing baby teeth)
• Things like walking are evidence of maturational unfolding
o a genetically determined developmental progression
• Maturation = discontinuous, occurs in maturational stages by a maturational clock
• Babies are seen as qualitatively different to adults
• Biological preparedness says there is a genetically determined readiness to learn specific skills
o maturational clock sets temporal limits
• Biological preparedness and maturation combine with learning and experience as a driving force of development
• The ways in which these innate behaviours come to fruition is determined by the environment
• This allows people to achieve developmental milestones – which make them qualitatively different
Stage Theories
, • Stage theories posit that children undergo major discontinuous changes in development
• These result as a combination of innate and environmental factors
• Examples of stage theorists include Freud and Piaget
o Piaget believed that as the child shifts onto a new and more sophisticated plane of intelligence it shed
many of the old cognitive limitations
o believed egocentrism (as a child) interferes with development as people only consider their own
perspective
▪ three mountains test tests egocentrism
o each stage brings better adjustment to the environment and reduces egocentrism
o presents a stage theory not a maturation theory – stages not under control of a maturational clock
o interested in genetic epistemology – origin of knowledge
o Siegler (1996) says development occurs in overlapping waves – children have strategies that co-
exist/overlap in time
▪ testing children during transitions (days) relieves the co-existence of different strategies
(microgenetic approach)
• These theories suggest children are qualitatively different during development
LECTURE 2: MEMORY DEVELOPMENT
Methods to study infants
• Rovee-Collier (1990) – mobile movement
o Conditioned 3mo infants to kick in order to make a mobile move
o Mobile elicited same response 2 weeks later – baby learned and remembered to kick the mobile to make
it move
▪ infants in the experimental condition kicked their legs more than those in the control
o However, this movement was highly specific
▪ when the wallpaper changed, the same response did not occur
▪ not different from what would be expected from rats
Adult memory processes
• Association
• Recognition
o Explicit
o Implicit
• Recall
• Inhibition
Recognition: Implicit
• Implicit vs Explicit
o explicit recognition is where you experience the recognition whereas implicit recognition is shown
through other mediums
▪ one way implicit recognition can be shown is skin conductance
• Implicit memory can be measured in infants through:
o EEG
o Habituation
▪ decreasing interest to a repeated stimulus
• signals implicit recognition
• measuring the time between when the stimulus is habituated to when it returns to a
non-recognisable state can provide an insight into their memory
• it is quite durable
o Fantz et al (1975) – 2 month olds look less at a picture pre-exposed 2 weeks
previously
, ▪ new stimulus can be introduced, if looking time increases, they distinguish between objects
▪ speed of habituation predicts later IQ
▪ need to remain cautious – infants cannot report on what happened
Inhibitory control
• Measured in adults by the Stroop task
o skilled readers read these words automatically when words enter visual field
o children do not show the Stroop effect - do not automatically read the words
o Gerstadt et al (1994)
▪ children respond ‘night’ to picture of sun (a)
▪ ‘morning’ to picture of moon (b)
▪ they must also respond to control conditions (c = night, d = day)
• neuronal maturation occurs at this time
• age related improvement in task
• latency decreases
o Can also be measured using the ‘Marshmallow Test’
▪ Mischel et al (1989)
• ability to resist temptation predicted future performance and future salary
o Enables people to resist interference from distracting stimuli
o Allows one to stop doing one task to start another
o Involved frontal brain regions
Summary
▪ Infants are capable of association, recognition and recall, so these basic processes are present from very early
▪ There is improvement in these memory processes:
▪ Increase in the basic memory capacity
▪ Increase in some other capacity (processing speed, inhibition)
▪ There is increased knowledge and strategy use
What develops in Memory Development?
• Older children often remember more accurately than younger children because:
o older children have superior basic processes and capacities
▪ improvements in absolute speech or capacity
