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chapter 5 Cognitive Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood
A father encourages his child’s curiosity and delight in discovery. With the sensitive support of caring adults, infants’ and toddlers’ cognition and language develop rapidly.
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chapter outline
Piaget’s Cognitive-Developmental Theory
Piaget’s Ideas About Cognitive Change
The Sensorimotor Stage
Follow-Up Research on Infant Cognitive Development
Evaluation of the Sensorimotor Stage
■ SOCIAL ISSUES: EDUCATION Baby Learning from TV and Video: The Video Deficit Effect
Information Processing
A General Model of Information Processing
Attention
Memory
Categorization
Evaluation of Information-Processing Findings
■ BIOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT Infantile Amnesia
The Social Context of Early Cognitive Development
■ CULTURAL INFLUENCES Social Origins of Make-Believe Play
Individual Differences in Early Mental Development
Infant and Toddler Intelligence Tests
Early Environment and Mental Development
Early Intervention for At-Risk Infants and Toddlers
Language Development
Theories of Language Development
Getting Ready to Talk
First Words
The Two-Word Utterance Phase
Individual and Cultural Differences
Supporting Early Language Development
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When Caitlin, Grace, and Timmy gathered at Ginette’s child-care home, the playroom was
alive with activity. The three spirited explorers, each nearly 18 months old, were bent on
discovery. Grace dropped shapes through holes in a plastic box that Ginette held and
adjusted so the harder ones would fall smoothly into place. Once a few shapes were inside,
Grace grabbed the box and shook it, squealing with delight as the lid fell open and the
shapes scattered around her. The clatter attracted Timmy, who picked up a shape, carried it
to the railing at the top of the basement steps, and dropped it overboard, then followed
with a teddy bear, a ball, his shoe, and a spoon. Meanwhile, Caitlin pulled open a drawer,
unloaded a set of wooden bowls, stacked them in a pile, knocked it over, and then banged
two bowls together.
As the toddlers experimented, I could see the beginnings of spoken language—a whole new
way of influencing the world. “All gone baw!” Caitlin exclaimed as Timmy tossed the bright
red ball down the basement steps. “Bye-bye,” Grace chimed in, waving as the ball
disappeared from sight. Later that day, Grace revealed the beginnings of make-believe.
“Night-night,” she said, putting her head down and closing her eyes, ever so pleased that
she could decide for herself when and where to go to bed.
Over the first two years, the small, reflexive newborn baby becomes a self-assertive,
purposeful being who solves simple problems and starts to master the most amazing
human ability: language. Parents wonder, how does all this happen so quickly? This
question has also captivated researchers, yielding a wealth of findings along with vigorous
debate over how to explain the astonishing pace of infant and toddler cognition.
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In this chapter, we take up three perspectives on early cognitive development: Piaget’s
cognitive-developmental theory, information processing, and Vygotsky’s sociocultural
theory. We also consider the usefulness of tests that measure infants’ and toddlers’
intellectual progress. Finally, we look at the beginnings of language. We will see how
toddlers’ first words build on early cognitive achievements and how, very soon, new words
and expressions greatly increase the speed and flexibility of their thinking. Throughout
development, cognition and language mutually support each other.
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Piaget’s Cognitive-Developmental Theory
Swiss theorist Jean Piaget inspired a vision of children as busy, motivated explorers whose
thinking develops as they act directly on the environment. Influenced by his background in
biology, Piaget believed that the child’s mind forms and modifies psychological structures so
they achieve a better fit with external reality. Recall from Chapter 1 that in Piaget’s theory,
children move through four stages between infancy and adolescence. During these stages,
all aspects of cognition develop in an integrated fashion, changing in a similar way at about
the same time.
Piaget’s first stage, the sensorimotor stage, spans the first two years of life. Piaget believed
that infants and toddlers “think” with their eyes, ears, hands, and other sensorimotor
equipment. They cannot yet carry out many activities inside their heads. But by the end of
toddlerhood, children can solve practical, everyday problems and represent their
experiences in speech, gesture, and play. To appreciate Piaget’s view of how these vast
changes take place, let’s consider some important concepts.
Piaget’s Ideas About Cognitive Change
According to Piaget, specific psychological structures—organized ways of making sense of
experience called schemes—change with age. At first, schemes are sensorimotor action
patterns. For example, at 6 months, Timmy dropped objects in a fairly rigid way, simply
letting go of a rattle or teething ring and watching with interest. By 18 months, his
“dropping scheme” had become deliberate and creative. In tossing objects down the
basement stairs, he threw some in the air, bounced others off walls, released some gently
and others forcefully. Soon, instead of just acting on objects, he will show evidence of
thinking before he acts. For Piaget, this change marks the transition from sensorimotor to
preoperational thought.
In Piaget’s theory, two processes, adaptation and organization, account for changes in
schemes.
Adaptation.
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TAKE A MOMENT… The next time you have a chance, notice how infants and toddlers
tirelessly repeat actions that lead to interesting effects. Adaptation involves building
schemes through direct interaction with the environment. It consists of two complementary
activities, assimilation and accommodation. During assimilation, we use our current
schemes to interpret the external world. For example, when Timmy dropped objects, he was
assimilating them to his sensorimotor “dropping scheme.” In accommodation, we create
new schemes or adjust old ones after noticing that our current ways of thinking do not
capture the environment completely. When Timmy dropped objects in different ways, he
modified his dropping scheme to take account of the varied properties of objects.
According to Piaget, the balance between assimilation and accommodation varies over time.
When children are not changing much, they assimilate more than they accommodate—a
steady, comfortable state that Piaget called cognitive equilibrium. During rapid cognitive
change, however, children are in a state of disequilibrium, or cognitive discomfort.
Realizing that new information does not match their current schemes, they shift from
assimilation toward accommodation. After modifying their schemes, they move back
toward assimilation, exercising their newly changed structures until they are ready to be
modified again.
Each time this back-and-forth movement between equilibrium and disequilibrium occurs,
more effective schemes are produced. Because the times of greatest accommodation are the
earliest ones, the sensorimotor stage is Piaget’s most complex period of development.
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In Piaget’s theory, first schemes are sensorimotor action patterns. As this 11-month-old repeatedly experiments with her dropping scheme, her dropping behavior becomes more deliberate and varied.
Organization.
Schemes also change through organization, a process that takes place internally, apart from
direct contact with the environment. Once children form new schemes, they rearrange
them, linking them with other schemes to create a strongly interconnected cognitive system.
For example, eventually Timmy will relate “dropping” to “throwing” and to his developing
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understanding of “nearness” and “farness.” According to Piaget, schemes truly reach
equilibrium when they become
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part of a broad network of structures that can be jointly applied to the surrounding world
(Piaget, 1936/1952).
In the following sections, we will first describe infant development as Piaget saw it, noting
research that supports his observations. Then we will consider evidence demonstrating
that, in some ways, babies’ cognitive competence is more advanced than Piaget believed.
The Sensorimotor Stage
The difference between the newborn baby and the 2-year-old child is so vast that Piaget
divided the sensorimotor stage into six substages, summarized in Table 5.1. Piaget based
this sequence on his own three children—a very small sample. He observed his son and two
daughters carefully and also presented them with everyday problems (such as hidden
objects) that helped reveal their understanding of the world.
According to Piaget, at birth infants know so little that they cannot explore purposefully.
The circular reaction provides a special means of adapting their first schemes. It involves
stumbling onto a new experience caused by the baby’s own motor activity. The reaction is
“circular” because, as the infant tries to repeat the event again and again, a sensorimotor
response that first occurred by chance strengthens into a new scheme. Consider Caitlin, who
at age 2 months accidentally made a smacking noise after a feeding. Finding the sound
intriguing, she tried to repeat it until she became quite expert at smacking her lips.
The circular reaction initially centers on the infant’s own body but later turns outward,
toward manipulation of objects. In the second year, it becomes experimental and creative,
aimed at producing novel outcomes. Infants’ difficulty inhibiting new and interesting
behaviors may underlie the circular reaction. This immaturity in inhibition seems to be
adaptive, helping to ensure that new skills will not be interrupted before they strengthen
(Carey & Markman, 1999). Piaget considered revisions in the circular reaction so important
that, as Table 5.1 shows, he named the sensorimotor substages after them.
TABLE 5.1 Summary of Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage
SENSORIMOTOR SUBSTAGE TYPICAL ADAPTIVE BEHAVIORS
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SENSORIMOTOR SUBSTAGE TYPICAL ADAPTIVE BEHAVIORS
1. Reflexive schemes (birth–1 month)
Newborn reflexes (see Chapter 3, page 107)
2. Primary circular reactions (1– 4 months)
Simple motor habits centered around the infant’s own body; limited anticipation of events
3. Secondary circular reactions (4–8 months)
Actions aimed at repeating interesting effects in the surrounding world; imitation of familiar behaviors
4. Coordination of secondary circular reactions (8–12 months)
Intentional, or goal-directed, behavior; ability to find a hidden object in the first location in which it is hidden (object permanence); improved anticipation of events; imitation of behaviors slightly different from those the infant usually performs
5. Tertiary circular reactions (12–18 months)
Exploration of the properties of objects by acting on them in novel ways; imitation of novel behaviors; ability to search in several locations for a hidden object (accurate A–B search)
6. Mental representation (18 months–2 years)
Internal depictions of objects and events, as indicated by sudden solutions to problems; ability to find an object that has been moved while out of sight (invisible displacement); deferred imitation; and make-believe play
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This 3-month-old tries to repeat a newly discovered action—sucking her toes—in a primary circular reaction that helps her gain voluntary control over her behavior.
Repeating Chance Behaviors.
Piaget saw newborn reflexes as the building blocks of sensorimotor intelligence. In Substage
1, babies suck, grasp, and look in much the same way, no matter what experiences they
encounter. In one amusing example, Carolyn described how 2-week-old Caitlin lay on the
bed next to her sleeping father. Suddenly, he awoke with a start. Caitlin had latched on and
begun to suck on his back!
Around 1 month, as babies enter Substage 2, they start to gain voluntary control over their
actions through the primary circular reaction, by repeating chance behaviors largely
motivated by basic needs. This leads to some simple motor habits, such as sucking their fist
or thumb. Babies in this substage also begin to vary their behavior in response to
environmental demands. For example, they open their mouths differently for a nipple than
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for a spoon. And they start to anticipate events. When hungry, 3-month-old Timmy would
stop crying as soon as Vanessa entered the room—a signal that feeding time was near.
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During Substage 3, from 4 to 8 months, infants sit up and reach for and manipulate objects.
These motor achievements strengthen the secondary circular reaction, through which
babies try to repeat interesting events in the surrounding environment that are caused by
their own actions. For example, 4-month-old Caitlin accidentally knocked a toy hung in front
of her, producing a fascinating swinging motion. Over the next three days, Caitlin tried to
repeat this effect, gradually forming a new “hitting” scheme. Improved control over their
own behavior permits infants to imitate others’ behavior more effectively. However, they
usually cannot adapt flexibly and quickly enough to imitate novel behaviors. Therefore,
although they enjoy watching an adult demonstrate a game of pat-a-cake, they are not yet
able to participate.
Intentional Behavior.
In Substage 4, 8- to 12-month-olds combine schemes into new, more complex action
sequences. As a result, actions that lead to new schemes no longer have a hit-or-miss quality
—accidentally bringing the thumb to the mouth or happening to hit the toy. Instead, 8- to 12-
month-olds can engage in intentional, or goal-directed, behavior, coordinating schemes
deliberately to solve simple problems. Consider Piaget’s famous object-hiding task, in which
he shows the baby an attractive toy and then hides it behind his hand or under a cover.
Infants of this substage can find the object by coordinating two schemes—“pushing” aside
the obstacle and “grasping” the toy. Piaget regarded these means–end action sequences as
the foundation for all problem solving.
Retrieving hidden objects reveals that infants have begun to master object permanence, the
understanding that objects continue to exist when out of sight. But this awareness is not yet
complete. Babies still make the A-not-B search error: If they reach several times for an
object at a first hiding place (A), then see it moved to a second (B), they still search for it in
the first hiding place (A). Consequently, Piaget concluded, they do not have a clear image of
the object as persisting when hidden from view.
Infants in Substage 4, who can better anticipate events, sometimes use their capacity for
intentional behavior to try to change those events. At 10 months, Timmy crawled after
Vanessa when she put on her coat, whimpering to keep her from leaving. Also, babies can
now imitate behaviors slightly different from those they usually perform. After watching
someone else, they try to stir with a spoon, push a toy car, or drop raisins into a cup (Piaget,
1945/1951).
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In Substage 5, from 12 to 18 months, the tertiary circular reaction, in which toddlers repeat
behaviors with variation, emerges. Recall how Timmy dropped objects over the basement
steps, trying first this action, then that, then another. This deliberately exploratory approach
makes 12- to 18-month-olds better problem solvers. For example, Grace figured out how to
fit a shape through a hole in a container by turning and twisting it until it fell through and
how to use a stick to get toys that were out of reach. According to Piaget, this capacity to
experiment leads to a more advanced understanding of object permanence. Toddlers look
for a hidden toy in several locations, displaying an accurate A–B search. Their more flexible
action patterns also permit them to imitate many more behaviors—stacking blocks,
scribbling on paper, and making funny faces.
Mental Representation.
Substage 6 brings the ability to create mental representations—internal depictions of
information that the mind can manipulate. Our most powerful mental representations are
of two kinds: (1) images, or mental pictures of objects, people, and spaces; and (2) concepts,
or categories in which similar objects or events are grouped together. We use a mental
image to retrace our steps when we’ve misplaced something or to imitate another’s
behavior long after observing it. By thinking in concepts and labeling them (for example,
“ball” for all rounded, movable objects used in play), we become more efficient thinkers,
organizing our diverse experiences into meaningful, manageable, and memorable units.
Piaget noted that 18- to 24-month-olds arrive at solutions suddenly rather than through
trial-and-error behavior. In doing so, they seem to experiment with actions inside their
heads—evidence that they can mentally represent their experiences. For example, at 19
months, Grace—after bumping her new push toy against a wall—paused for a moment as if
to “think,” then immediately turned the toy in a new direction.
Representation also enables older toddlers to solve advanced object permanence problems
involving invisible displacement—finding a toy moved while out of sight, such as into a
small box while under a cover. It permits deferred imitation—the ability to remember and
copy the behavior of models who are not present. And it makes possible make-believe play,
in which children act out everyday and imaginary activities. As the sensorimotor stage
draws to a close, mental symbols have become major instruments of thinking.
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To find the toy hidden under the cloth, a 10-month-old engages in intentional, goal-directed behavior —the basis for all problem solving.
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Follow-Up Research on Infant Cognitive Development
Many studies suggest that infants display a wide array of understandings earlier than Piaget
believed. Recall the operant conditioning research reviewed in Chapter 4, in which
newborns sucked vigorously on a nipple to gain access to interesting sights and sounds. This
behavior, which closely resembles Piaget’s secondary circular reaction, shows that infants
explore and control the external world long before 4 to 8 months. In fact, they do so as soon
as they are born.
To discover what infants know about hidden objects and other aspects of physical reality,
researchers often use the violation-of-expectation method. They may habituate babies to a
physical event (expose them to the event until their looking declines) to familiarize them
with a situation in which their knowledge will be tested. Or they may simply show babies an
expected event (one that follows physical laws) and an unexpected event (a variation of the
first event that violates physical laws). Heightened attention to the unexpected event
suggests that the infant is “surprised” by a deviation from physical reality and, therefore, is
aware of that aspect of the physical world.
The violation-of-expectation method is controversial. Some researchers believe that it
indicates limited awareness of physical events—not the full-blown, conscious
understanding that was Piaget’s focus in requiring infants to act on their surroundings, as in
searching for hidden objects (Campos et al., 2008; Munakata, 2001). Others maintain that the
method reveals only babies’ perceptual preference for novelty, not their knowledge of the
physical world (Bremner, 2010; Cohen, 2010; Kagan, 2008). Let’s examine this debate in light
of recent evidence.
Object Permanence.
In a series of studies using the violation-of-expectation method, Renée Baillargeon and her
collaborators claimed to have found evidence for object permanence in the first few months
of life. Figure 5.1 illustrates one of these studies (Aguiar & Baillargeon, 2002; Baillargeon &
DeVos, 1991). After habituating to a short and a tall carrot moving behind a screen, infants
were given two test events: (1) an expected event, in which the short carrot moved behind a
screen, could not be seen in its window, and reappeared on the other side; and (2) an
unexpected event, in which the tall carrot moved behind a screen, could not be seen in its
window (although it was taller than the window’s lower edge), and reappeared. Infants as
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young as 2½ to 3½ months looked longer at the unexpected event, suggesting that they had
some awareness that an object moved behind a screen would continue to exist.
Additional violation-of-expectation studies yielded similar results, suggesting that infants
look longer at a wide variety of unexpected events involving hidden objects (Newcombe,
Sluzenski, & Huttenlocher, 2005; Wang, Baillargeon, & Paterson, 2005). Still, several
researchers using similar procedures failed to confirm Baillargeon’s findings (Cohen &
Marks, 2002; Schöner & Thelen, 2006; Sirois & Jackson, 2012). And, as previously noted,
critics question what babies’ looking preferences tell us about what they actually
understand.
But another type of looking behavior suggests that young infants are aware that objects
persist when out of view. Four- and 5-month-olds will track a ball’s path of movement as it
disappears and reappears from behind a barrier, even gazing ahead to where they expect it
to emerge (Bertenthal, Longo, & Kenny, 2007; Rosander & von Hofsten, 2004). With age,
babies are more likely to fixate on the predicted place of the ball’s reappearance and wait
for it—evidence of an increasingly secure grasp of object permanence.
In related research, 6-month-olds’ ERP brain-wave activity was recorded as the babies
watched two events on a computer screen. In one event, a black square moved until it
covered an object, then moved away to reveal the object (object permanence). In the other,
as a black square began to move across an object, the object disintegrated (object
disappearance) (Kaufman, Csibra, & Johnson, 2005). Only while watching the first event did
the infants show a particular brain-wave pattern in the right temporal lobe—the same
pattern adults exhibit when told to sustain a mental image of an object.
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FIGURE 5.1 Testing young infants for understanding of object permanence using the violation-of-expectation method.
(a) First, infants were habituated to two events: a short carrot and a tall carrot moving behind a yellow screen, on alternate trials. Next, the researchers presented two test events. The color of the screen was changed to help infants notice its window. (b) In the expected event, the carrot shorter than the window’s lower edge moved behind the blue screen and reappeared on the other side. (c) In the unexpected event, the carrot taller than the window’s lower edge moved behind the screen and did not appear in the window, but then emerged intact on the other side. Infants as young as 2½ to 3½ months looked longer at the unexpected event, suggesting that they had some understanding of object permanence.
(Adapted from R. Baillargeon & J. DeVos, 1991, “Object Permanence in Young Infants: Further Evidence,” Child Development, 62, p. 1230. © 1991, John Wiley and Sons. Reproduced with permission of John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)
If young infants do have some notion of object permanence, how do we explain Piaget’s
finding that even babies capable
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of reaching do not try to search for hidden objects before 8 months of age? Consistent with
Piaget’s theory, searching for hidden objects is a true cognitive advance because infants
solve some object-hiding tasks before others: Ten-month-olds search for an object placed on
a table and covered by a cloth before they search for an object that a hand deposits under a
cloth (Moore & Meltzoff, 1999). In the second, more difficult task, infants seem to expect the
object to reappear in the hand from which it initially disappeared. When the hand emerges
without the object, they conclude that there is no other place the object could be. Not until
14 months can most babies infer that the hand deposited the object under the cloth.
Once 8- to 12-month-olds search for hidden objects, they make the A-not-B search error.
Some research suggests that they search at A (where they found the object previously)
instead of B (its most recent location) because they have trouble inhibiting a previously
rewarded response (Diamond, Cruttenden, & Neiderman, 1994). Another possibility is that
after finding the object several times at A, they do not attend closely when it is hidden at B
(Ruffman & Langman, 2002).
A more comprehensive explanation is that a complex, dynamic system of factors—having
built a habit of reaching toward A, continuing to look at A, having the hiding place at B
appear similar to the one at A, and maintaining a constant body posture—increases the
chances that the baby will make the A-not-B search error. Disrupting any one of these
factors increases 10-month-olds’ accurate searching at B (Thelen et al., 2001). In addition,
older infants are still perfecting reaching and grasping (see Chapter 3) (Berger, 2010). If
these motor skills are challenging, babies have little attention left to focus on inhibiting
their habitual reach toward A.
LOOK AND LISTEN
Using an attractive toy and cloth, try several object-hiding tasks with 8- to 14-month-olds. Is
their searching behavior consistent with research findings?
In sum, mastery of object permanence is a gradual achievement. Babies’ understanding
becomes increasingly complex with age: They must distinguish the object from the barrier
concealing it, keep track of the object’s whereabouts, and use this knowledge to obtain the
object (Cohen & Cashon, 2006; Moore & Meltzoff, 2008). Success at object search tasks
coincides with rapid development of the frontal lobes of the cerebral cortex (Bell, 1998).
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Also crucial are a wide variety of experiences perceiving, acting on, and remembering
objects.
Mental Representation.
In Piaget’s theory, before about 18 months of age, infants are unable to mentally represent
experience. Yet 8- to 10-month-olds’ ability to recall the location of hidden objects after
delays of more than a minute, and 14-month-olds’ recall after delays of a day or more,
indicate that babies construct mental representations of objects and their whereabouts
(McDonough, 1999; Moore & Meltzoff, 2004). And in studies of deferred imitation and
problem solving, representational thought is evident even earlier.
Deferred and Inferred Imitation.
Piaget studied imitation by noting when his three children demonstrated it in their
everyday behavior. Under these conditions, a great deal must be known about the infant’s
daily life to be sure that deferred imitation—which requires infants to represent a model’s
past behavior—has occurred.
Laboratory research suggests that deferred imitation is present at 6 weeks of age! Infants
who watched an unfamiliar adult’s facial expression imitated it when exposed to the same
adult the next day (Meltzoff & Moore, 1994). As motor capacities improve, infants copy
actions with objects. In one study, an adult showed 6- and 9-month-olds a novel series of
actions with a puppet: taking its glove off, shaking the glove to ring a bell inside, and
replacing the glove. When tested a day later, infants who had seen the novel actions were
far more likely to imitate them (see Figure 5.2). And when researchers paired a second,
motionless puppet with the first puppet a day before the demonstration, 6-month-olds
generalized the novel actions to this new, very different-looking puppet (Barr, Marrott, &
Rovee-Collier, 2003).
Between 12 and 18 months, toddlers use deferred imitation skillfully to enrich their range of
sensorimotor schemes. They retain modeled behaviors for at least several months, copy the
actions of peers as well as adults, and imitate across a change in context—for example,
enact at home a behavior seen at child care (Klein & Meltzoff, 1999; Meltzoff & Williamson,
2010). The ability to recall modeled behaviors in the order they occurred—evident as early
as 6 months—also strengthens over the second year (Bauer, 2006; Rovee-Collier & Cuevas,
2009). And when toddlers imitate in correct sequence, they remember more behaviors
(Knopf, Kraus, & Kressley-Mba, 2006).
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Through deferred imitation, toddlers greatly expand their sensorimotor schemes. While imitating, this 2-year-old encounters a problem faced by all cookie bakers at one time or another.
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FIGURE 5.2 Testing infants for deferred imitation.
After researchers performed a novel series of actions with a puppet, this 6-month-old imitated the actions a day later—at left, removing the glove; at right, shaking the glove to ring a bell inside. With age, gains in recall are evident in deferred imitation of others’ behaviors over longer delays.
Toddlers even imitate rationally, by inferring others’ intentions! Fourteen-month-olds are
more likely to imitate purposeful than accidental behaviors (Carpenter, Akhtar, &
Tomasello, 1998). And they adapt their imitative acts to a model’s goals. If 12-month-olds see
an adult perform an unusual action for fun (make a toy dog enter a miniature house by
jumping through the chimney, even though its door is wide open), they copy the behavior.
But if the adult engages in the odd behavior because she must (she makes the dog go
through the chimney only after first trying to use the door and finding it locked), 12-month-
olds typically imitate the more efficient action (putting the dog through the door) (Schwier
et al., 2006).
Between 14 and 18 months, toddlers become increasingly adept at imitating actions an adult
tries to produce, even if these are not fully realized (Bellagamba, Camaioni, & Colonnesi,
2006; Olineck & Poulin-Dubois, 2007, 2009). On one occasion, Ginette attempted to pour
some raisins into a bag but missed, spilling them onto the counter. A moment later, Grace
began dropping the raisins into the bag, indicating that she had inferred Ginette’s goal.
Problem Solving.
As Piaget indicated, around 7 to 8 months, infants develop intentional means–end action
sequences, which they use to solve simple problems, such as pulling on a cloth to obtain a
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toy resting on its far end (Willatts, 1999). Soon after, infants’ representational skills permit
more effective problem solving than Piaget’s theory suggests.
By 10 to 12 months, infants can solve problems by analogy—apply a solution strategy from
one problem to other relevant problems. In one study, babies were given three similar
problems, each requiring them to overcome a barrier, grasp a string, and pull it to get an
attractive toy. The problems differed in many aspects of their superficial features—texture
and color of the string, barrier, and floor mat and type of toy (horse, doll, or car). For the
first problem, the parent demonstrated the solution and encouraged the infant to imitate.
Babies obtained the toy more readily with each additional problem (Chen, Sanchez, &
Campbell, 1997). Similarly, 12-month-olds who were repeatedly presented with a spoon in
the same orientation (handle to one side) readily adapted their motor actions when the
spoon was presented with the handle to the other side, successfully transporting food to
their mouths most of the time (McCarty & Keen, 2005).
These findings reveal that at the end of the first year, infants form flexible mental
representations of how to use tools to get objects. They have some ability to move beyond
trial-and-error experimentation, represent a solution mentally, and use it in new contexts.
Symbolic Understanding.
One of the most momentous early attainments is the realization that words can be used to
cue mental images of things not physically present—a symbolic capacity called displaced
reference that emerges around the first birthday. It greatly expands toddlers’ capacity to
learn about the world through communicating with others. Observations of 12-month-olds
reveal that they respond to the label of an absent toy by looking at and gesturing toward the
spot where it usually rests (Saylor, 2004). As memory and vocabulary improve, skill at
displaced reference expands.
But at first, toddlers have difficulty using language to acquire new information about an
absent object—an ability that is essential to learn from symbols. In one study, an adult
taught 19- and 22-month-olds a name for a stuffed animal—“Lucy” for a frog. Then, with the
frog out of sight, the toddler was told that some water had spilled, so “Lucy’s all wet!”
Finally, the adult showed the toddler three stuffed animals—a wet frog, a dry frog, and a pig
—and said, “Get Lucy!” (Ganea et al., 2007). Although all the children remembered that Lucy
was a frog, only the 22-month-olds identified the wet frog as Lucy. This capacity to use
language as a flexible symbolic tool—to modify and enrich existing mental representations
—improves gradually into the preschool years.
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Awareness of the symbolic function of pictures also emerges in the second year. Even
newborns perceive a relation between a picture and its referent, as indicated by their
preference for looking at a photo of their mother’s face (see page 145 in Chapter 4). At the
same time, infants do not treat pictures as symbols.
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Rather, they touch, rub, and pat a color photo of an object, or pick it up and manipulate it.
These behaviors, which reveal confusion about the picture’s true nature, decline after 9
months, becoming rare around 18 months (DeLoache et al., 1988; DeLoache & Ganea, 2009).
As long as pictures strongly resemble real objects, by the middle of the second year toddlers
treat them symbolically. After hearing a novel label (“blicket”) applied to a color photo of an
unfamiliar object, most 15- to 24-month-olds—when presented with both the real object and
its picture and asked to indicate the “blicket”—gave a symbolic response. They selected
either the real object or both the object and its picture, not the picture alone (Ganea et al.,
2009). Around this time, toddlers increasingly use pictures as vehicles for communicating
with others and acquiring new knowledge (Ganea, Pickard, & DeLoache, 2008). They point
to, name, and talk about pictures, and they can apply something learned from a book with
realistic-looking pictures to real objects, and vice versa.
But even after coming to appreciate the symbolic nature of pictures, young children have
difficulty grasping the distinction between some pictures (such as line drawings) and their
referents, as we will see in Chapter 8. How do infants and toddlers interpret another ever-
present, pictorial medium—video? Turn to the Social Issues: Education box on the following
page to find out.
Evaluation of the Sensorimotor Stage
Table 5.2 summarizes the remarkable cognitive attainments we have just considered. TAKE
A MOMENT… Compare this table with Piaget’s description of the sensorimotor substages in
Table 5.1 on page 153. You will see that infants anticipate events, actively search for hidden
objects, master the A–B object search, flexibly vary their sensorimotor schemes, engage in
make-believe play, and treat pictures and video images symbolically within Piaget’s time
frame. Yet other capacities—including secondary circular reactions, understanding of object
properties, first signs of object permanence, deferred imitation, problem solving by analogy,
and displaced reference of words—emerge earlier than Piaget expected. These findings
show that the cognitive attainments of infancy do not develop together in the neat, stepwise
fashion that Piaget assumed.
Recent research raises questions about Piaget’s view of how infant development takes place.
Consistent with Piaget’s ideas, sensorimotor action helps infants construct some forms of
knowledge. For example, in Chapter 4, we saw that crawling enhances depth perception and
ability to find hidden objects, and handling objects fosters awareness of object properties.
Yet we have also seen that infants comprehend a great deal before they are capable of the
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motor behaviors that Piaget assumed led to those understandings. How can we account for
babies’ amazing cognitive accomplishments?
Alternative Explanations.
Unlike Piaget, who thought young babies constructed all mental representations out of
sensorimotor activity, most researchers now believe that infants have some built-in
cognitive equipment for making sense of experience. But intense disagreement exists over
the extent of this initial understanding. As we have seen, much evidence on young infants’
cognition rests on the violation-of-expectation method. Researchers who lack confidence in
this method argue that babies’ cognitive starting point is limited (Campos et al., 2008; Cohen,
2010; Cohen & Cashon, 2006; Kagan, 2008). For example, some believe that newborns begin
life with a set of biases for attending to certain information and with general-purpose
learning procedures—such as powerful techniques for analyzing complex perceptual
information. Together, these capacities enable infants to construct a wide variety of
schemes (Bahrick, 2010; Huttenlocher, 2002; Quinn, 2008; Rakison, 2010).
TABLE 5.2 Some Cognitive Attainments of Infancy and Toddlerhood
AGE COGNITIVE ATTAINMENTS
Birth–1 month Secondary circular reactions using limited motor skills, such as sucking a nipple to gain access to interesting sights and sounds
1–4 months Awareness of object permanence, object solidity, and gravity, as suggested by violation-of-expectation findings; deferred imitation of an adult’s facial expression over a short delay (one day)
4–8 months Improved knowledge of object properties and basic numerical knowledge, as suggested by violation-of-expectation findings; deferred imitation of an adult’s novel actions on objects over a short delay (one to three days)
8–12 months Ability to search for a hidden object when covered by a cloth; ability to solve simple problems by analogy to a previous problem
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AGE COGNITIVE ATTAINMENTS
12–18 months Ability to search in several locations for a hidden object, when a hand deposits it under a cloth, and when it is moved from one location to another (accurate A–B search); deferred imitation of an adult’s novel actions on objects after long delays (at least several months) and across a change in situation (from child care to home); rational imitation, inferring the model’s intentions; displaced reference of words
18 months–2 years
Ability to find an object moved while out of sight (invisible displacement); deferred imitation of actions an adult tries to produce, even if these are not fully realized; deferred imitation of everyday behaviors in make-believe play; beginning awareness of pictures and video as symbols of reality
TAKE A MOMENT… Which of the capacities listed in the table indicate that mental representation emerges earlier than Piaget believed?
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Social Issues: Education Baby Learning from TV and Video: The Video Deficit Effect
Children first become TV and video viewers in early infancy, as they are exposed to
programs watched by parents and older siblings or to shows aimed at viewers not yet out of
diapers, such as the Baby Einstein products. About 40 percent of U.S. 3-month-olds watch
regularly, a figure that rises to 90 percent at age 2, a period during which average viewing
time increases from just under an hour to 1½ hours a day (Zimmerman, Christakis, &
Meltzoff, 2007). Although parents assume that babies learn from TV and videos, research
indicates that they cannot take full advantage of them.
Initially, infants respond to videos of people as if viewing people directly—smiling, moving
their arms and legs, and (by 6 months) imitating actions of a televised adult. But they
confuse the images with the real thing (Barr, Muentener, & Garcia, 2007; Marian, Neisser, &
Rochat, 1996). When shown videos of attractive toys, 9-month-olds manually explored the
screen, as they do with pictures. By 19 months, touching and grabbing had declined in
favor of pointing at the images (Pierroutsakos & Troseth, 2003). Nevertheless, toddlers
continue to have difficulty applying what they see on video to real situations.
In a series of studies, some 2-year-olds watched through a window while a live adult hid an
object in an adjoining room, while others watched the same event on a video screen.
Children in the direct viewing condition retrieved the toy easily; those in the video
condition had difficulty (Troseth, 2003; Troseth & DeLoache, 1998). This video deficit effect
—poorer performance after a video than a live demonstration—has also been found for 2-
year-olds’ deferred imitation, word learning, and means–end problem solving (Deocampo,
2003; Hayne, Herbert, & Simcock, 2003; Krcmar, Grela, & Linn, 2007).
One explanation is that 2-year-olds typically do not view a video character as offering
socially relevant information. After an adult on video announced where she hid a toy, few
2-year-olds searched (Schmidt, Crawley-Davis, & Anderson, 2007). In contrast, when the
adult uttered the same words while standing in front of the child, 2-year-olds promptly
retrieved the object.
Toddlers seem to discount information on video as relevant to their everyday experiences
because people do not look at and converse with them directly or establish a shared focus
on objects, as their caregivers do. In one study, researchers gave some 2-year-olds an
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interactive video experience (using a two-way, closed-circuit video system). An adult on
video interacted with the child for five minutes—calling the child by name, talking about
the child’s siblings and pets, waiting for the child to respond, and playing interactive games
(Troseth, Saylor, & Archer, 2006). Compared with 2-year-olds who viewed the same adult in
a noninteractive video, those in the interactive condition were far more likely to use a
verbal cue from a person on video to retrieve a toy.
This baby thinks the child she sees on the TV screen is real. Not until she is about 2½ will she understand how onscreen images relate to real people and objects.
Around age 2½, the video deficit effect declines. Before this age, the American Academy of
Pediatrics (2001) recommends against mass media exposure. In support of this advice,
amount of TV viewing is negatively related to 8- to 18-month-olds’ language progress
(Tanimura et al., 2004; Zimmerman, Christakis, & Meltzoff, 2007). And 1- to 3-year-old heavy
viewers tend to have attention, memory, and reading difficulties in the early school years
(Christakis et al., 2004; Zimmerman & Christakis, 2005).
When toddlers do watch TV and video, it is likely to work best as a teaching tool when it is
rich in social cues—close-ups of characters who look directly at the camera, address
questions to viewers, and pause to invite their response. Repetition of video programs also
helps children over age 2 make sense of video content.
Others, convinced by violation-of-expectation findings, believe that infants start out with
impressive understandings. According to this core knowledge perspective, babies are born
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with a set of innate knowledge systems, or core domains of thought. Each of these prewired
understandings permits a ready grasp of new, related information and therefore supports
early, rapid development (Carey & Markman, 1999; Leslie, 2004; Spelke, 2004; Spelke &
Kinzler, 2007). Core knowledge theorists argue that infants could not make sense of the
complex stimulation around them without having been genetically “set up” in the course of
evolution to comprehend its crucial aspects.
Researchers have conducted many studies of infants’ physical knowledge, including object
permanence, object solidity (that one object cannot move through another), and gravity
(that an object will fall without support). Violation-of-expectation findings suggest that in
the first few months, infants have some awareness of all these basic object properties and
quickly build on this knowledge (Baillargeon, 2004; Hespos & Baillargeon, 2008;
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Luo & Baillargeon, 2005; Spelke, 2000). Core knowledge theorists also assume that an
inherited foundation of linguistic knowledge enables swift language acquisition in early
childhood—a possibility we will consider later in this chapter. Furthermore, these theorists
argue, infants’ early orientation toward people initiates rapid development of psychological
knowledge—in particular, understanding of mental states, such as intentions, emotions,
desires, and beliefs, which we will address further in Chapter 6.
Did this toddler learn to build a block tower by repeatedly acting on objects, as Piaget assumed? Or did he begin life with innate knowledge that helps him understand objects and their relationships quickly, with little hands-on exploration?
Research even suggests that infants have basic numerical knowledge. In the best known
study, 5-month-olds saw a screen raised to hide a single toy animal and then watched a hand
place a second toy behind the screen. Finally the screen was removed to reveal either one or
two toys. If infants kept track of the two objects (requiring them to add one object to
another), then they should look longer at the unexpected, one-toy display—which is what
they did (see Figure 5.3) (Wynn, Bloom, & Chiang, 2002). These findings and those of similar
investigations suggest that babies can discriminate quantities up to three and use that
knowledge to perform simple arithmetic—both addition and subtraction (in which two
objects are covered and one object is removed) (Kobayashi et al., 2004; Kobayashi, Hiraki, &
Hasegawa, 2005; Wynn, Bloom, & Chiang, 2002).
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Additional evidence suggests that 6-month-olds can distinguish among large sets of items, as
long as the difference between those sets is very great—at least a factor of two. For example,
they can tell the difference between 8 and 16 dots but not between 6 and 12 (Lipton &
Spelke, 2004; Xu, Spelke, & Goddard, 2005). As a result, some researchers believe that infants
can represent approximate large-number values, in addition to the small-number
discriminations evident in Figure 5.3.
FIGURE 5.3 Testing infants for basic number concepts.
(a) First, infants saw a screen raised in front of a toy animal. Then an identical toy was added behind the screen. Next, the researchers presented two outcomes. (b) In the expected outcome, the screen dropped to reveal two toy animals. (c) In the unexpected outcome, the screen dropped to reveal one toy animal. Five-month-olds shown the unexpected outcome looked longer than did 5-month-olds shown the expected outcome. The researchers concluded that infants can discriminate the quantities “one” and “two” and use that knowledge to perform simple addition: 1 + 1 = 2. A variation of this procedure suggested that 5-month-olds could also do simple subtraction: 2 – 1 = 1.
(From K. Wynn, 1992, “Addition and Subtraction by Human Infants.” Nature, 358, p. 749. © 1992 by Nature Publishing Group. Adapted with permission of Macmillan Publishers, Ltd.)
But like other violation-of-expectation results, babies’ numerical capacities are
controversial. In experiments similar to those just described, looking preferences were
inconsistent
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(Langer, Gillette, & Arriaga, 2003; Wakeley, Rivera, & Langer, 2000). These researchers point
out that claims for infants’ knowledge of number concepts are surprising, in view of other
research indicating that before 14 to 16 months, toddlers have difficulty making less-than
and greater-than comparisons between small sets. And not until the preschool years do
children answer correctly when asked to add and subtract small sets.
The core knowledge perspective, while emphasizing native endowment, acknowledges that
experience is essential for children to extend this initial knowledge. But so far, it has said
little about which experiences are most important in each core domain of thought and how
those experiences advance children’s thinking. Despite ongoing challenges from critics, core
knowledge research has sharpened the field’s focus on specifying the starting point of
human cognition and carefully tracking the changes that build on it.
Piaget’s Legacy.
Follow-up research on Piaget’s sensorimotor stage yields broad agreement on two issues.
First, many cognitive changes of infancy are gradual and continuous rather than abrupt and
stagelike, as Piaget thought (Bjorklund, 2012; Courage & Howe, 2002). Second, rather than
developing together, various aspects of infant cognition change unevenly because of the
challenges posed by different types of tasks and infants’ varying experience with them.
These ideas serve as the basis for another major approach to cognitive development—
information processing.
Before we turn to this alternative point of view, let’s recognize Piaget’s enormous
contributions. Piaget’s work inspired a wealth of research on infant cognition, including
studies that challenged his theory. Today, researchers are far from consensus on how to
modify or replace his account of infant cognitive development, and some believe that his
general approach continues to make sense and fits most of the evidence (Cohen, 2010).
Piaget’s observations also have been of great practical value. Teachers and caregivers
continue to look to the sensorimotor stage for guidelines on how to create developmentally
appropriate environments for infants and toddlers.
ASK YOURSELF
REVIEW Using the text discussion on pages 155–158, construct your own summary table of
infant and toddler cognitive development. Which entries in your table are consistent with
Piaget’s sensorimotor stage? Which ones develop earlier than Piaget anticipated?
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APPLY Several times, after her father hid a teething biscuit under a red cup, 12-month-old
Mimi retrieved it easily. Then Mimi’s father hid the biscuit under a nearby yellow cup. Why
did Mimi persist in searching for it under the red cup?
REFLECT What advice would you give the typical U.S. parent about permitting an infant or
toddler to watch as much as 1 to 1½ hours of TV or video per day? Explain.
Information Processing
Information-processing researchers agree with Piaget that children are active, inquiring
beings. But instead of providing a single, unified theory of cognitive development, they
focus on many aspects of thinking, from attention, memory, and categorization skills to
complex problem solving.
Recall from Chapter 1 that the information-processing approach frequently relies on
computer-like flowcharts to describe the human cognitive system. Information-processing
theorists are not satisfied with general concepts, such as assimilation and accommodation,
to describe how children think. Instead, they want to know exactly what individuals of
different ages do when faced with a task or problem (Birney & Sternberg, 2011; Miller,
2009). The computer model of human thinking is attractive because it is explicit and precise.
A General Model of Information Processing
Most information-processing researchers assume that we hold information in three parts of
the mental system for processing: the sensory register, the short-term memory store, and
the long-term memory store (see Figure 5.4 on page 162). As information flows through
each, we can use mental strategies to operate on and transform it, increasing the chances
that we will retain information, use it efficiently, and think flexibly, adapting the
information to changing circumstances. To understand this more clearly, let’s look at each
component of the mental system.
First, information enters the sensory register, where sights and sounds are represented
directly and stored briefly. TAKE A MOMENT… Look around you, and then close your eyes.
An image of what you saw persists for a few seconds, but then it decays, or disappears,
unless you use mental strategies to preserve it. For example, by attending to some
information more carefully than to other information, you increase the chances that it will
transfer to the next step of the information-processing system.
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In the second part of the mind, the short-term memory store, we retain attended-to
information briefly so we can actively “work” on it to reach our goals. One way of looking at
the short-term store is in terms of its basic capacity, often referred to as short-term memory:
how many pieces of information can be held at once for a few seconds. But most
researchers endorse a contemporary view of the short-term store, which offers a more
meaningful indicator of its capacity, called working memory—the number of items that can
be briefly held in mind while also engaging in some effort to monitor or manipulate those
items. Working memory can be thought of as a “mental workspace” that we use to
accomplish many activities in daily life. From childhood on, researchers assess changes in
working-memory capacity by presenting individuals with lists of items (such as numerical
digits or short sentences), asking them to “work” on the items (for example, repeat the digits
backward or remember the final word of each sentence in correct order), and seeing how
well they do.
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FIGURE 5.4 Model of the human information-processing system.
Information flows through three parts of the mental system: the sensory register, the short-term memory store, and the long-term memory store. In each, mental strategies can be used to manipulate information, increasing the efficiency and flexibility of thinking and the chances that information will be retained. The central executive is the conscious, reflective part of the mental system. It coordinates incoming information with information already in the system, decides what to attend to, and oversees the use of strategies.
The sensory register can take in a wide panorama of information. Short-term and working
memory are far more restricted, though their capacity increases steadily from early
childhood to early adulthood—on a verbatim digit-span task tapping short-term memory,
from about 2 to 7 items; and on working-memory tasks, from about 2 to 5 items (Cowan &
Alloway, 2009). Still, individual differences are evident at all ages. By engaging in a variety
of basic cognitive procedures, such as focusing attention on relevant items and repeating
(rehearsing) them rapidly, we increase the chances that information will be retained and
accessible to ongoing thinking.
To manage the cognitive system’s activities, the central executive directs the flow of
information, implementing the basic procedures just mentioned and also engaging in more
sophisticated activities that enable complex, flexible thinking. For example, the central
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executive coordinates incoming information with information already in the system, and it
selects, applies, and monitors strategies that facilitate memory storage, comprehension,
reasoning, and problem solving (Pressley & Hilden, 2006). The central executive is the
conscious, reflective part of our mental system. It ensures that we think purposefully, to
attain our goals.
The more effectively the central executive joins with working memory to process
information, the better learned cognitive activities will be and the more automatically we
can apply them. Consider the richness of your thinking while you automatically drive a car.
Automatic processes are so well-learned that they require no space in working memory and,
therefore, permit us to focus on other information while performing them. Furthermore,
the more effectively we process information in working memory, the more likely it will
transfer to the third, and largest, storage area—long-term memory, our permanent
knowledge base, which is unlimited. In fact, we store so much in long-term memory that
retrieval—getting information back from the system—can be problematic. To aid retrieval,
we apply strategies, just as we do in working memory. Information in long-term memory is
categorized by its contents, much like a library shelving system that enables us to retrieve
items by following the same network of associations used to store them in the first place.
Information-processing research indicates that several aspects of the cognitive system
improve during childhood and adolescence: (1) the basic capacity of its stores, especially
working memory; (2) the speed with which information is worked on; and (3) the
functioning of the central executive. Together, these changes make possible more complex
forms of thinking with age (Case, 1998; Kail, 2003).
Gains in working-memory capacity are due in part to brain development, but greater
processing speed also contributes. Fast, fluent thinking frees working-memory resources to
support storage and manipulation of additional information. Furthermore, researchers
have become increasingly interested in studying the development of executive function—
the diverse cognitive operations and strategies that enable us to achieve our goals in
cognitively challenging situations (Welsh, Friedman, & Spieker, 2008). These include
controlling attention, suppressing impulses, coordinating information in working memory,
and flexibly directing and monitoring thought and behavior. As we will see, gains in
working memory capacity and aspects of executive function are under way in the first two
years; dramatic strides will follow in childhood and adolescence.
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Attention
Recall from Chapter 4 that around 2 to 3 months of age, infants shift from focusing on
single, high-contrast features to exploring objects and patterns more thoroughly. Besides
attending to more aspects of the environment, infants gradually become more efficient at
managing their attention, taking in information more quickly. Habituation research reveals
that preterm and newborn babies require a long time—about 3 to 4 minutes—to habituate
and recover to novel visual stimuli. But by 4 or 5 months, they need as little as 5 to 10
seconds to take in a complex visual stimulus and recognize it as different from a previous
one (Rose, Feldman, & Jankowski, 2001; Slater et al., 1996).
One reason that very young babies’ habituation times are so much longer is their difficulty
disengaging attention from a stimulus (Colombo, 2002). When Carolyn held up a colorful
rattle, 2-month-old Caitlin stared intently until, unable to break her gaze, she burst into
tears. The ability to shift attention from one stimulus to another improves by 4 months—a
change believed to be due to development of structures in the cerebral cortex controlling
eye movements (Blaga & Colombo, 2006; Posner & Rothbart, 2007).
Over the first year, infants attend to novel and eye-catching events. In the second year, as
toddlers become increasingly capable of intentional behavior (refer back to Piaget’s
Substage 4), attraction to novelty declines (but does not disappear) and sustained attention
improves, especially when children play with toys. A toddler who engages even in simple
goal-directed behavior, such as stacking blocks or putting them in a container, must sustain
attention to reach the goal (Ruff & Capozzoli, 2003). As plans and activities gradually
become more complex, the duration of attention increases.
Memory
Operant conditioning and habituation provide windows into early memory. Both methods
show that retention of visual events increases dramatically over infancy and toddlerhood.
Using operant conditioning, researchers study infant memory by teaching 2- to 6-month-
olds to move a mobile by kicking a foot tied to it with a long cord. Two-month-olds
remember how to activate the mobile for 1 to 2 days after training, and 3-month-olds for
one week. By 6 months, memory increases to two weeks (Rovee-Collier, 1999; Rovee-Collier
& Bhatt, 1993). Around the middle of the first year, babies can manipulate switches or
buttons to control stimulation. When 6- to 18-month-olds pressed a lever to make a toy train
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move around a track, duration of memory continued to increase with age; 13 weeks after
training, 18-month-olds still remembered how to press the lever (see Figure 5.5) (Hartshorn
et al., 1998).
Even after 2- to 6-month-olds forget an operant response, they need only a brief prompt—an
adult who shakes the mobile—to reinstate the memory (Hildreth & Rovee-Collier, 2002). And
when 6-month-olds are given a chance to reactivate the response themselves for just a
couple of minutes, their memory not only returns but extends dramatically, to about 17
weeks (Hildreth, Sweeney, & Rovee-Collier, 2003). Perhaps permitting the baby to generate
the previously learned behavior strengthens memory because it reexposes the child to more
aspects of the original learning situation.
Habituation studies show that infants learn and retain a wide variety of information just by
watching objects and events, without being physically active. Sometimes, they do so for
much longer time spans than in operant conditioning studies. Babies are especially attentive
to the movements of objects and people. In one investigation, 5½-month-olds remembered a
woman’s captivating action (such as blowing bubbles or brushing hair) seven weeks later,
as indicated by a familiarity preference (see page 135 in Chapter 4) (Bahrick, Gogate, & Ruiz,
2002). The babies were so attentive to the woman’s action that they did not remember her
face, even when tested 1 minute later for a novelty preference.
In Chapter 4, we saw that 3- to 5-month-olds are excellent at discriminating faces. But their
memory for the faces of unfamiliar people and for other visual patterns is short-lived—at 3
months, only about 24 hours, and at the end of the first year, several days to a few weeks
(Fagan, 1973; Pascalis, de Haan, & Nelson, 1998). By contrast, 3-month-olds’ memory for the
unusual movements of objects (such as a metal nut swinging on the end of a string) persists
for at least three months (Bahrick, Hernandez-Reif, & Pickens, 1997).
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FIGURE 5.5 Increase in retention in two operant conditioning tasks from 2 to 18 months.
Two to 6-month-olds were trained to make a kicking response that turned a mobile. Six- to 18-month- olds were trained to press a lever that made a toy train move around a track. Six-month-olds learned both responses and retained them for an identical length of time, indicating that the tasks are comparable. Consequently, researchers could plot a single line tracking gains in retention of operant responses from 2 to 18 months of age. The line shows that memory improves dramatically.
(From C. Rovee-Collier & R. Barr, 2001, “Infant Learning and Memory,” in G. Bremner & A. Fogel, [Eds.], Blackwell Handbook of Infant Development, Oxford, U.K.: Blackwell, p. 150. © 2001, 2004 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Reproduced with permission of John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)
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Biology and Environment Infantile Amnesia
If infants and toddlers recall many aspects of their everyday lives, how do we explain
infantile amnesia—that most of us cannot retrieve events that happened to us before age 3?
The reason cannot be merely the passage of time because we can recall many personally
meaningful one-time events from both the recent and the distant past: the day a sibling was
born or a move to a new house—recollections known as autobiographical memory.
Several accounts of infantile amnesia exist. One theory credits brain development,
suggesting that vital changes in the prefrontal cortex pave the way for an explicit memory
system—one in which children remember deliberately rather than implicitly, without
conscious awareness (Nelson, 1995). But mounting evidence indicates that even young
infants engage in conscious recall (Bauer, 2006; Rovee-Collier & Cuevas, 2009). Their
memory processing is not fundamentally different from that of children and adults.
Another conjecture is that older children and adults often use verbal means for storing
information, whereas infants’ and toddlers’ memory processing is largely nonverbal—an
incompatibility that may prevent long-term retention of early experiences. To test this idea,
researchers sent two adults to the homes of 2- to 4-year-olds with an unusual toy that the
children were likely to remember: The Magic Shrinking Machine, shown in Figure 5.6. One
adult showed the child how, after inserting an object in an opening on top of the machine
and turning a crank that activated flashing lights and musical sounds, the child could
retrieve a smaller, identical object (discretely dropped down a chute by the second adult)
from behind a door on the front of the machine.
A day later, the researchers tested the children to see how well they recalled the event.
Their nonverbal memory—based on acting out the “shrinking” event and recognizing the
“shrunken” objects in photos—was excellent. But even when they had the vocabulary,
children younger than age 3 had trouble describing features of the “shrinking” experience.
Verbal recall increased sharply between ages 3 and 4—the period during which children
“scramble over the amnesia barrier” (Simcock & Hayne, 2003, p. 813). In a second study,
preschoolers could not translate their nonverbal memory for the game into language 6
months to 1 year later, when their language had improved dramatically. Their verbal
reports were “frozen in time,” reflecting their limited language skill at the age they played
the game (Simcock & Hayne, 2002).
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These findings help us reconcile infants’ and toddlers’ remarkable memory skills with
infantile amnesia. During the first few years, children rely heavily on nonverbal memory
techniques, such as visual images and motor actions. As language develops, preschoolers
can use it to refer to preverbal memories. But their ability to do so is fragile, requiring
strong contextual cues, such as direct exposure to the physical setting of the to-be-recalled
experience (Morris & Baker-Ward, 2007). Only after age 3 do children often represent
events verbally and participate in elaborate conversations with adults about them. As
children encode autobiographical events in verbal form, they use language-based cues to
retrieve them, increasing the accessibility of these memories at later ages (Peterson,
Warren, & Short, 2011).
Other findings indicate that the advent of a clear self-image contributes to the end of
infantile amnesia (Howe, Courage, & Rooksby, 2009). Toddlers who were advanced in
development of a sense of self demonstrated better verbal memories a year later while
conversing about past events with their mothers (Harley & Reese, 1999).
Very likely, both neurobiological change and social experience contribute to the decline of
infantile amnesia. Brain development and adult–child interaction may jointly foster self-
awareness, language, and improved memory, which enable children to talk with adults
about significant past experiences (Bauer, 2007). As a result, preschoolers begin to
construct a long-lasting autobiographical narrative of their lives and enter into the history
of their family and community.
FIGURE 5.6 The Magic Shrinking Machine, used to test young children’s verbal and nonverbal memory of an unusual event.
After being shown how the machine worked, the child participated in selecting objects from a polka- dot bag, dropping them into the top of the machine (a), and turning a crank, which produced a “shrunken” object (b). When tested the next day, 2- to 4-year-olds’ nonverbal memory for the event was excellent. But below 36 months, verbal recall was poor, based on the number of features recalled about the game during an open-ended interview (c). Recall improved between 36 and 48 months, the period during which infantile amnesia subsides.
(From G. Simcock & H. Hayne, 2003, “Age-Related Changes in Verbal and Nonverbal Memory During Early Childhood,” Developmental Psychology, 39, pp. 807, 809. Copyright © 2003 by the
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American Psychological Association. Reprinted with permission of the American Psychological Association. Photos: Ross Coombes/Courtesy of Harlene Hayne.)
By 10 months, infants remember both novel actions and features of objects involved in
those actions equally well (Horst, Oakes, & Madole, 2005). Thus, over the second half-year,
sensitivity to object appearance increases. This change is fostered by infants’ increasing
ability to manipulate objects, which helps them learn about objects’ observable properties.
So far, we have discussed only recognition—noticing when a stimulus is identical or similar
to one previously experienced. It is the simplest form of memory: All babies have to do is
indicate (by kicking, pressing a lever, or looking) that a new stimulus is identical or similar
to a previous one. Recall is more challenging because it involves remembering something
not present. But by the second half of the first year, infants are capable of recall, as
indicated by their ability to find hidden objects and engage in deferred imitation. Recall,
too, improves steadily with age. For example, 1-year-olds can retain short sequences of
adult-modeled behaviors for up to 3 months, and 1½-year-olds can do so for as long as 12
months (Rovee-Collier & Cuevas, 2009).
Long-term recall depends on connections among multiple regions of the cerebral cortex,
especially with the prefrontal cortex. During infancy and toddlerhood, these neural circuits
develop rapidly (Nelson, Thomas, & de Haan, 2006). Yet a puzzling finding is that older
children and adults no longer recall their earliest experiences! See the Biology and
Environment box above for a discussion of infantile amnesia.
Categorization
Even young infants can categorize, grouping similar objects and events into a single
representation. Categorization reduces the enormous amount of new information infants
encounter every day, helping them learn and remember (Rakison, 2010).
Creative variations of operant conditioning research with mobiles have been used to
investigate infant categorization. One such study, of 3-month-olds, is described and
illustrated in
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Figure 5.7 on page 166. Similar investigations reveal that in the first few months, babies
categorize stimuli on the basis of shape, size, and other physical properties (Wasserman &
Rovee-Collier, 2001). By 6 months of age, they can categorize on the basis of two correlated
features—for example, the shape and color of an alphabet letter (Bhatt et al., 2004). This
ability to categorize using clusters of features prepares babies for acquiring many complex
everyday categories.
Habituation has also been used to study infant categorization. Researchers show babies a
series of pictures belonging to one category and then see whether they recover to (look
longer at) a picture that is not a member of the category. Findings reveal that in the second
half of the first year, as long as they have sufficient familiarity with category members,
infants group objects into an impressive array of categories—food items, furniture, birds,
land animals, air animals, sea animals, plants, vehicles, kitchen utensils, and spatial location
(“above” and “below,” “on” and “in”) (Bornstein, Arterberry, & Mash, 2010; Casasola, Cohen,
& Chiarello, 2003; Oakes, Coppage, & Dingel, 1997). Besides organizing the physical world,
infants of this age categorize their emotional and social worlds. They sort people and their
voices by gender and age, have begun to distinguish emotional expressions, separate
people’s natural actions (walking) from other motions, and expect people (but not inanimate
objects) to move spontaneously (Spelke, Phillips, & Woodward, 1995; see also Chapter 4,
pages 144–145).
Babies’ earliest categories are based on similar overall appearance or prominent object
part: legs for animals, wheels for vehicles. By the second half of the first year, more
categories appear to be based on subtle sets of features (Cohen, 2003; Mandler, 2004; Quinn,
2008). Older infants can even make categorical distinctions when the perceptual contrast
between two categories is minimal (birds versus airplanes).
As they gain experience in comparing to-be-categorized items in varied ways and as their
store of verbal labels expands, toddlers start to categorize flexibly: When 14-month-olds are
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given four balls and four blocks, some made of soft rubber and some of rigid plastic, their
sequence of object touching reveals that after classifying by shape, they can switch to
classifying by material (soft versus hard) if an adult calls their attention to the new basis for
grouping (Ellis & Oakes, 2006).
FIGURE 5.7 Investigating infant categorization using operant conditioning.
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Three-month-olds were taught to kick to move a mobile that was made of small blocks, all with the letter A on them. After a delay, kicking returned to a high level only if the babies were shown a mobile whose elements were labeled with the same form (the letter A). If the form was changed (from As to 2s), infants no longer kicked vigorously. While making the mobile move, the babies had grouped together its features. They associated the kicking response with the category A and, at later testing, distinguished it from the category 2. (Bhatt, Rovee-Collier, & Weiner, 1994; Hayne, Rovee-Collier, & Perris, 1987.)
In addition to touching and sorting, toddlers’ categorization skills are evident in their play
behaviors. After watching an adult give a toy dog a drink from a cup, most 14-month-olds
shown a rabbit and a motorcycle offered the drink only to the rabbit (Mandler &
McDonough, 1998). They clearly understood that certain actions are appropriate for some
categories of items (animals) and not others (vehicles).
By the end of the second year, toddlers’ grasp of the animate–inanimate distinction
expands. Nonlinear motions are typical of animates (a person or a dog jumping), linear
motions of inanimates (a car or a table pushed along a surface). At 18 months, toddlers
more often imitate a nonlinear motion with a toy that has animate-like parts (legs), even if it
represents an inanimate (a bed). At 22 months, displaying a fuller understanding, they
imitate a nonlinear motion only with toys in the animate category (a cat but not a bed)
(Rakison, 2005, 2006). They seem to realize that whereas animates are self-propelled and
therefore have varied paths of movement, inanimates move only when acted on, in highly
restricted ways.
Researchers disagree on how toddlers gradually shift from categorizing on the basis of
prominent perceptual features (things with flapping wings and feathers belong to one
category; things with rigid wings and a smooth surface to another) to categorizing on a
conceptual basis, grouping objects by their common function or behavior (birds versus
airplanes, dogs versus cats) (Oakes et al., 2009; Rakison & Lupyan, 2008). But all
acknowledge that exploration of objects and expanding knowledge of the world contribute.
In addition, adult labeling of a set of objects with a consistently applied word (“Look at the
car!” “Do you see the car?”) calls babies’ attention to commonalities among objects, fostering
categorization as early as 3 to 4 months of age (Ferry, Hespos, & Waxman, 2010). Toddlers’
vocabulary growth, in turn, fosters categorization (Cohen & Brunt, 2009; Waxman, 2003).
Variations among languages lead to cultural differences in development of categories.
Korean toddlers, who learn a language in which object names are often omitted from
sentences, develop object-sorting skills later than their English-speaking counterparts
(Gopnik & Choi, 1990). At the same time, Korean contains a common word, kkita, with no
English equivalent, referring to a tight fit between objects in contact (a ring on a finger, a
cap on a pen), and Korean toddlers are advanced in forming the spatial category “tight fit”
(Choi et al., 1999).
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Evaluation of Information-Processing Findings
The information-processing perspective underscores the continuity of human thinking from
infancy into adult life. In attending to the environment, remembering everyday events, and
categorizing objects, Caitlin, Grace, and Timmy think in ways that are remarkably similar to
our own, though their mental processing is far from proficient. Findings on memory and
categorization join with other research in challenging Piaget’s view of early cognitive
development. Infants’ capacity to recall events and to categorize stimuli attests, once again,
to their ability to mentally represent their experiences.
Information-processing research has contributed greatly to our view of infants and toddlers
as sophisticated cognitive beings. But its central strength—analyzing cognition into its
components, such as perception, attention, memory, and categorization—is also its greatest
drawback: Information processing has had difficulty putting these components back
together into a broad, comprehensive theory.
One approach to overcoming this weakness has been to combine Piaget’s theory with the
information-processing approach, an effort we will explore in Chapter 9. A more recent
trend has been the application of a dynamic systems view (see Chapter 4, pages 137–138) to
early cognition. In this approach, researchers analyze each cognitive attainment to see how
it results from a complex system of prior accomplishments and the child’s current goals
(Spencer & Perone, 2008; Thelen & Smith, 2006).
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Once these ideas are fully tested, they may move the field closer to a more powerful view of
how the minds of infants and children develop.
The social Context of Early Cognitive Development
Recall the description at the beginning of this chapter of Grace dropping shapes into a
container. Notice that she learns about the toy with Ginette’s help. With adult support, Grace
will gradually become better at matching shapes to openings and dropping them into the
container. Then she will be able to perform this and similar activities on her own.
Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory emphasizes that children live in rich social and cultural
contexts that affect the way their cognitive world is structured (Bodrova & Leong, 2007;
Rogoff, 2003). Vygotsky believed that complex mental activities have their origins in social
interaction. Through joint activities with more mature members of their society, children
master activities and think in ways that have meaning in their culture.
A special Vygotskian concept explains how this happens. The zone of proximal (or potential)
development refers to a range of tasks too difficult for the child to do alone but possible
with the help of more skilled partners. To understand this idea, think about how a sensitive
adult (such as Ginette) introduces a child to a new activity. The adult picks a task that the
child can master but that is challenging enough that the child cannot do it by herself. As the
adult guides and supports, the child joins in the interaction and picks up mental strategies.
As her competence increases, the adult steps back, permitting the child to take more
responsibility for the task. This form of teaching—known as scaffolding—promotes learning
at all ages, and we will consider it further in Chapter 7.
Vygotsky’s ideas have been applied mostly to older children, who are more skilled in
language and social communication. Recently, however, his theory has been extended to
infancy and toddlerhood. Recall that babies are equipped with capacities that ensure that
caregivers will interact with them. Then adults adjust the environment and their
communication in ways that promote learning adapted to their cultural circumstances.
A study by Barbara Rogoff and her collaborators (1984) illustrates this process. Placing a
jack-in-the-box nearby, the researchers watched how several adults played with Rogoff’s son
and daughter over the first two years. In the early months, the adults tried to focus the
baby’s attention by working the toy and, as the bunny popped out, saying something like
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“My, what happened?” By the end of the first year, when the baby’s cognitive and motor
skills had improved, interaction centered on how to use the toy. The adults guided the baby’s
hand in turning the crank and putting the bunny back in the box. During the second year,
adults helped from a distance, using gestures and verbal prompts, such as making a turning
motion with the hand near the crank. Research indicates that this fine-tuned support is
related to advanced play, language, and problem solving in toddlerhood and early childhood
(Bornstein et al., 1992; Charman et al., 2001; Tamis-LeMonda & Bornstein, 1989).
As early as the first year, cultural variations in social experiences affect mental strategies. In
the jack-in-the-box example, adults and children focused their attention on a single activity.
This strategy, common in Western middle-SES homes, is well-suited to lessons in which
children master skills apart from the everyday situations in which they will later use those
skills. In contrast, Guatemalan Mayan adults and babies often attend to several events at
once. For example, one 12-month-old skillfully put objects in a jar while watching a passing
truck and blowing into a toy whistle (Chavajay & Rogoff, 1999). Processing several
competing events simultaneously may be vital in cultures where children largely learn
through keen observation of others’ ongoing activities. Children of Guatemalan Mayan,
Mexican, and Native-American parents without extensive education continue to display this
style of attention well into middle childhood (Chavajay & Rogoff, 2002; Correa-Chavez,
Rogoff, & Mejía-Arauz, 2005; Philips, 1983).
Earlier we saw how infants and toddlers create new schemes by acting on the physical
world (Piaget) and how certain skills become better developed as children represent their
experiences more efficiently and meaningfully (information processing). Vygotsky adds a
third dimension to our understanding by emphasizing that many aspects of cognitive
development are socially mediated. The Cultural Influences box on page 168 presents
additional evidence for this idea, and we will see even more in the next section.
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Using simple words and gestures, this mother brings a challenging task—rotating the plane’s propeller—within her toddler’s zone of proximal development. By adjusting her communication to suit the child’s needs, she transfers mental strategies to him and promotes learning.
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Cultural Influences Social Origins of Make-Believe Play
One of the activities my husband, Ken, used to do with our two sons when they were young
was to bake pineapple upside-down cake, a favorite treat. One Sunday afternoon when a
cake was in the making, 21-month-old Peter stood on a chair at the kitchen sink, busily
pouring water from one cup to another.
“He’s in the way, Dad!” complained 4-year-old David, trying to pull Peter away from the
sink.
“Maybe if we let him help, he’ll give us room,” Ken suggested. As David stirred the batter,
Ken poured some into a small bowl for Peter, moved his chair to the side of the sink, and
handed him a spoon.
“Here’s how you do it, Petey,” instructed David, with a superior air. Peter watched as David
stirred, then tried to copy his motion. When it was time to pour the batter, Ken helped Peter
hold and tip the small bowl.
“Time to bake it,” said Ken.
“Bake it, bake it,” repeated Peter, watching Ken slip the pan into the oven.
Several hours later, we observed one of Peter’s earliest instances of make-believe play. He
got his pail from the sandbox and, after filling it with a handful of sand, carried it into the
kitchen and put it down on the floor in front of the oven. “Bake it, bake it,” Peter called to
Ken. Together, father and son placed the pretend cake in the oven.
Piaget and his followers concluded that toddlers discover make-believe independently, once
they are capable of representational schemes. Vygotsky challenged this view, pointing out
that society provides children with opportunities to represent culturally meaningful
activities in play. Make-believe, like other complex mental activities, is first learned under
the guidance of experts (Berk, Mann, & Ogan, 2006). In the example just described, Peter
extended his capacity to represent daily events when Ken drew him into the baking task
and helped him act it out in play.
Current evidence supports the idea that early make-believe is the combined result of
children’s readiness to engage in it and social experiences that promote it. In one
observational study of U.S. middle-SES toddlers, 75 to 80 percent of make-believe involved
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mother–child interaction (Haight & Miller, 1993). At 12 months, almost all play episodes
were initiated by mothers, but by the end of the second year, half of pretend episodes were
initiated by each.
During make-believe, mothers offer toddlers a rich array of cues that they are pretending—
looking and smiling at the child more, making more exaggerated movements, and using
more “we” talk (acknowledging that pretending is a joint endeavor) than they do during the
same real-life event (Lillard, 2007). These maternal cues encourage toddlers to join in and
probably facilitate their ability to distinguish pretend from real acts, which strengthens
over the second and third years (Lillard & Witherington, 2004; Ma & Lillard, 2006).
Also, when adults participate, toddlers’ make-believe is more elaborate (Keren et al., 2005).
They are more likely to combine pretend acts into complex sequences, as Peter did when he
put sand in the bucket (making the batter), carried it into the kitchen, and, with Ken’s help,
put it in the oven (baking the cake). The more parents pretend with their toddlers, the more
time their children devote to make-believe.
In some cultures, such as those of Indonesia and Mexico, where extended-family
households and sibling caregiving are common, make-believe is more frequent and
complex with older siblings than with mothers. As early as age 3 to 4, children provide rich,
challenging stimulation to their younger brothers and sisters, take these teaching
responsibilities seriously, and, with age, become better at them (Zukow-Goldring, 2002). In a
study of Zinacanteco Indian children of southern Mexico, by age 8, sibling teachers were
highly skilled at showing 2-year-olds how to play at everyday tasks, such as washing and
cooking (Maynard, 2002). They often guided toddlers verbally and physically through the
task and provided feedback.
In Western middle-SES families, older siblings less often teach deliberately but still serve as
influential models of playful behavior. In a study of New Zealand families of Western
European descent, when both a parent and an older sibling were available, toddlers more
often imitated the actions of the sibling, especially when siblings engaged in make-believe
(Barr & Hayne, 2003).
As we will see in Chapter 7, make-believe play is a major means through which children
extend their cognitive skills and learn about important activities in their culture. Vygotsky’s
theory, and the findings that support it, tell us that providing a stimulating physical
environment is not enough to promote early cognitive development. In addition, toddlers
must be invited and encouraged by more skilled members of their culture to participate in
the social world around them. Parents and teachers can enhance early make-believe by
playing often with toddlers, guiding and elaborating on their make-believe themes.
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A Kenyan child guides his younger brother in pretend play. In cultures where sibling caregiving is common, make-believe play is more frequent and complex with older siblings than with mothers.
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ASK YOURSELF
REVIEW What impact does toddlers’ more advanced play with toys have on the
development of attention?
CONNECT List techniques parents can use to scaffold the development of categorization in
infancy and toddlerhood, and explain why each is effective.
APPLY When Timmy was 18 months old, his mother stood behind him, helping him throw a
large ball into a box. As his skill improved, she stepped back, letting him try on his own.
Using Vygotsky’s ideas, explain how Timmy’s mother is supporting his cognitive
development.
REFLECT Describe your earliest autobiographical memory. How old were you when the
event occurred? Do your responses fit with research on infantile amnesia?
Individual Differences in Early Mental Development
Because of Grace’s deprived early environment, Kevin and Monica had a psychologist give
her one of many tests available for assessing mental development in infants and toddlers.
Worried about Timmy’s progress, Vanessa also arranged for him to be tested. At age 22
months, he had only a handful of words in his vocabulary, played in a less mature way than
Caitlin and Grace, and seemed restless and overactive.
The cognitive theories we have just discussed try to explain the process of development—
how children’s thinking changes. Mental tests, in contrast, focus on cognitive products.
Their goal is to measure behaviors that reflect development and to arrive at scores that
predict future performance, such as later intelligence, school achievement, and adult
vocational success. This concern with prediction arose nearly a century ago, when French
psychologist Alfred Binet designed the first successful intelligence test, which predicted
school achievement (see Chapter 1). It inspired the design of many new tests, including ones
that measure intelligence at very early ages.
Infant and Toddler Intelligence Tests
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Accurately measuring infants’ intelligence is a challenge because babies cannot answer
questions or follow directions. All we can do is present them with stimuli, coax them to
respond, and observe their behavior. As a result, most infant tests emphasize perceptual
and motor responses. But new tests are being developed that also tap early language,
cognition, and social behavior, especially with older infants and toddlers.
One commonly used test, the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, is suitable
for children between 1 month and 3½ years. The most recent edition, the Bayley-III, has
three main subtests: (1) the Cognitive Scale, which includes such items as attention to
familiar and unfamiliar objects, looking for a fallen object, and pretend play; (2) the
Language Scale, which assesses understanding and expression of language—for example,
recognition of objects and people, following simple directions, and naming objects and
pictures; and (3) the Motor Scale, which includes gross and fine motor skills, such as
grasping, sitting, stacking blocks, and climbing stairs (Bayley, 2005).
Two additional Bayley-III scales depend on parental report: (4) the Social-Emotional Scale,
which asks caregivers about such behaviors as ease of calming, social responsiveness, and
imitation in play; and (5) the Adaptive Behavior Scale, which asks about adaptation to the
demands of daily life, including communication, self-control, following rules, and getting
along with others.
Computing Intelligence Test scores.
Intelligence tests for infants, children, and adults are scored in much the same way—by
computing an intelligence quotient (IQ), which indicates the extent to which the raw score
(number of items passed) deviates from the typical performance of same-age individuals. To
make this comparison possible, test designers engage in standardization—giving the test to
a large, representative sample and using the results as the standard for interpreting scores.
The standardization sample for the Bayley-III included 1,700 infants, toddlers, and young
preschoolers, reflecting the U.S. population in SES and ethnic diversity.
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A trained examiner administers a test based on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development to a 1-year- old sitting in her mother’s lap. Compared with earlier editions, the Bayley-III Cognitive and Language Scales better predict preschool mental test performance.
Within the standardization sample, performances at each age level form a normal
distribution, in which most scores cluster around the mean, or average, with progressively
fewer falling toward the extremes (see Figure 5.8 on page 170). This bell-shaped distribution
results whenever researchers measure individual differences in large samples. When
intelligence tests are standardized, the mean IQ is set at 100. An individual’s IQ is higher or
lower than 100 by an amount that reflects how much
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his or her test performance deviates from the standardization-sample mean.
FIGURE 5.8 Normal distribution of intelligence test scores.
To determine the percentage of same-age individuals in the population a person with a certain IQ outperformed, add the figures to the left of that IQ score. For example, an 8-year-old child with an IQ of 115 scored better than 84 percent of the population of 8-year-olds.
The IQ offers a way of finding out whether an individual is ahead, behind, or on time
(average) in mental development compared with others of the same age. For example, if
Timmy’s score is 100, then he did better than 50 percent of his agemates. A child with an IQ
of 85 did better than only 16 percent, whereas a child with an IQ of 130 outperformed 98
percent. The IQs of 96 percent of individuals fall between 70 and 130; only a few achieve
higher or lower scores.
Predicting Later Performance from Infant Tests.
Despite careful construction, most infant tests—including previous editions of the Bayley—
predict later intelligence poorly. Infants and toddlers easily become distracted, fatigued, or
bored during testing, so their scores often do not reflect their true abilities. And infant
perceptual and motor items differ from the tasks given to older children, which increasingly
emphasize verbal, conceptual, and problem-solving skills. In contrast, the Bayley-III
Cognitive and Language Scales, which better dovetail with childhood tests, are good
predictors of preschool mental test performance (Albers & Grieve, 2007). But because most
infant test scores do not tap the same dimensions of intelligence assessed in older children,
they are conservatively labeled developmental quotients (DQs) rather than IQs.
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Infant tests are somewhat better at making long-term predictions for extremely low-scoring
babies. Today, they are largely used for screening—helping to identify for further
observation and intervention babies who are likely to have developmental problems.
As an alternative to infant tests, some researchers have turned to information-processing
measures, such as habituation, to assess early mental progress. Their findings show that
speed of habituation and recovery to novel visual stimuli are among the best available
infant predictors of IQ from early childhood through early adulthood (Fagan, Holland, &
Wheeler, 2007; Kavsek, 2004; McCall & Carriger, 1993). Habituation and recovery seem to be
an especially effective early index of intelligence because they assess memory as well as
quickness and flexibility of thinking, which underlie intelligent behavior at all ages
(Colombo, 2002; Colombo et al., 2004). The consistency of these findings has prompted
designers of the Bayley-III to include items that tap such cognitive skills as habituation,
object permanence, and categorization.
Early Environment and Mental Development
In Chapter 2, we indicated that intelligence is a complex blend of hereditary and
environmental influences. Many studies have examined the relationship of environmental
factors to infant and toddler mental test scores. As we consider this evidence, you will
encounter findings that highlight the role of heredity as well.
Home Environment.
The Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) is a checklist for
gathering information about the quality of children’s home lives through observation and
parental interview (Caldwell & Bradley, 1994). Applying What We Know on the following
page lists factors measured by HOME during the first three years. Each is positively related
to toddlers’ mental test performance. Regardless of SES and ethnicity, an organized,
stimulating physical setting and parental affection, involvement, and encouragement of
new skills repeatedly predict better language and IQ scores in toddlerhood and early
childhood (Fuligni, Han, & Brooks-Gunn, 2004; Linver, Martin, & Brooks-Gunn, 2004; Tamis-
LeMonda et al., 2004; Tong et al., 2007). The extent to which parents talk to infants and
toddlers is particularly important. It contributes strongly to early language progress, which,
in turn, predicts intelligence and academic achievement in elementary school (Hart &
Risley, 1995).
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A mother plays actively and affectionately with her baby. Parental warmth, attention, and verbal communication predict better language and IQ scores in toddlerhood and early childhood.
Yet we must interpret these correlational findings cautiously. In all the studies, children
were reared by their biological parents, with whom they share not just a common
environment but also a common heredity. Parents who are genetically more intelligent may
provide better experiences while also giving birth to genetically brighter children, who
evoke more stimulation from
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their parents. Research supports this hypothesis, which refers to gene-environment
correlation (see Chapter 2, page 72) (Saudino & Plomin, 1997). But heredity does not account
for the entire association between home environment and mental test scores. Family living
conditions—both HOME scores and affluence of the surrounding neighborhood—continue
to predict children’s IQ beyond the contribution of parental IQ and education (Chase-
Lansdale et al., 1997; Klebanov et al., 1998).
Applying What We Know Features of a High-Quality Home Life: The HOME Infant-Toddler Subscales
Home Subscale Sample Item
Emotional and verbal responsiveness of the parent
Parent caresses or kisses child at least once during observer’s visit.
Parent spontaneously speaks to child twice or more (excluding scolding) during observer’s visit.
Parental acceptance of the child
Parent does not interfere with child’s actions or restrict child’s movements more than three times during observer’s visit.
Organization of the physical environment
Child’s play environment appears safe and free of hazards.
Provision of appropriate play materials
Parent provides toys or interesting activities for child during observer’s visit.
Parental involvement with the child
Parent tends to keep child within visual range and to look at child often during observer’s visit.
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Home Subscale Sample Item
Opportunities for variety in daily stimulation
Child eats at least one meal per day with mother and/or father, according to parental report.
Child frequently has a chance to get out of house (for example, accompanies parent on trips to grocery store).
Sources: Bradley, 1994; Bradley et al., 2001.
How can the research summarized so far help us understand Vanessa’s concern about
Timmy’s development? Ben, the psychologist who tested Timmy, found that he scored only
slightly below average. Ben talked with Vanessa about her child-rearing practices and
watched her play with Timmy. A single parent who worked long hours, Vanessa had little
energy for Timmy at the end of the day. Ben also noticed that Vanessa, anxious about
Timmy’s progress, tended to pressure him, dampening his active behavior and bombarding
him with directions: “That’s enough ball play. Stack these blocks.”
Ben explained that when parents are intrusive in these ways, infants and toddlers are likely
to be distractible, play immaturely, and do poorly on mental tests (Bono & Stifter, 2003;
Stilson & Harding, 1997). He coached Vanessa in how to interact sensitively with Timmy,
while also assuring her that Timmy’s current performance need not forecast his future
development. Warm, responsive parenting that builds on toddlers’ current capacities is a
much better indicator than an early mental test score of how children will do later.
Infant and Toddler Child Care.
Today, more than 60 percent of U.S. mothers with a child under age 2 are employed (U.S.
Census Bureau, 2012b). Child care for infants and toddlers has become common, and its
quality—though not as influential as parenting—affects mental development. Research
consistently shows that infants and young children exposed to poor-quality child care—
whether they come from middle-class or from low-SES homes—score lower on measures of
cognitive and social skills (Belsky et al., 2007b; Hausfather et al., 1997; NICHD Early Child
Care Research Network, 2000b, 2001, 2003b, 2006). In contrast, good child care can reduce
the negative impact of a stressed, poverty-stricken home life, and it sustains the benefits of
growing up in an economically advantaged family (Lamb & Ahnert, 2006; McCartney et al.,
2007; NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2003b).
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In contrast to most European countries and to Australia and New Zealand, where child care
is nationally regulated and funded to ensure its quality, reports on U.S. child care raise
serious concerns. Standards are set by the individual states and vary widely. In studies of
quality, only 20 to 25 percent of U.S. child-care centers and family child-care settings (in
which a caregiver cares for children in her home) provided infants and toddlers with
sufficiently positive, stimulating experiences to promote healthy psychological
development. Most settings offered substandard care (NICHD Early Childhood Research
Network, 2000a, 2004).
LOOK AND LISTEN
Ask several employed parents of infants or toddlers to describe what they sought in a child-
care setting, along with challenges they faced in finding child care. Are the parents
knowledgeable about the ingredients of high-quality care?
Unfortunately, many U.S. children from low-income families experience inadequate child
care (Brooks-Gunn, 2004). But U.S. settings providing the very worst care tend to serve
middle-SES families. These parents are especially likely to place their
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children in for-profit centers, where quality tends to be lowest. Low-SES children more
often attend publicly subsidized, nonprofit centers, which have smaller group sizes and
better teacher-child ratios (Lamb & Ahnert, 2006). Still, child-care quality for low-SES
children varies widely. And probably because of greater access to adult stimulation, infants
and toddlers in high-quality family child care score higher than those in center care in
cognitive and language development (NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2000b).
Applying What We Know Signs of Developmentally Appropriate Infant and Toddler Child Care
Program Characteristics Signs of Quality
Physical setting Indoor environment is clean, in good repair, well-lighted, and well-ventilated. Fenced outdoor play space is available. Setting does not appear overcrowded when children are present.
Toys and equipment
Play materials are appropriate for infants and toddlers and are stored on low shelves within easy reach. Cribs, highchairs, infant seats, and child-sized tables and chairs are available. Outdoor equipment includes small riding toys, swings, slide, and sandbox.
Caregiver-child ratio
In child-care centers, caregiver-child ratio is no greater than 1 to 3 for infants and 1 to 6 for toddlers. Group size (number of children in one room) is no greater than 6 infants with 2 caregivers and 12 toddlers with 2 caregivers. In family child care, caregiver is responsible for no more than 6 children; within this group, no more than 2 are infants and toddlers. Staffing is consistent, so infants and toddlers can form relationships with particular caregivers.
Daily activities Daily schedule includes times for active play, quiet play, naps, snacks, and meals. It is flexible rather than rigid, to meet the needs of individual children. Atmosphere is warm and supportive, and children are never left unsupervised.
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Program Characteristics Signs of Quality
Interactions among adults and children
Caregivers respond promptly to infants’ and toddlers’ distress; hold, talk to, sing to, and read to them; and interact with them in a manner that respects the individual child’s interests and tolerance for stimulation.
Caregiver qualifications
Caregiver has some training in child development, first aid, and safety.
Relationships with parents
Parents are welcome anytime. Caregivers talk frequently with parents about children’s behavior and development.
Licensing and accreditation
Child-care setting, whether a center or a home, is licensed by the state. In the United States, voluntary accreditation by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (www.naeyc.org/academy), or the National Association for Family Child Care (www.nafcc.org) is evidence of an especially high- quality program.
Sources: Copple & Bredekamp, 2009.
See Applying What We Know above for signs of high-quality care for infants and toddlers,
based on standards for developmentally appropriate practice. These standards, devised by
the U.S. National Association for the Education of Young Children, specify program
characteristics that serve young children’s developmental and individual needs, based on
both current research and consensus among experts. Caitlin, Grace, and Timmy are
fortunate to be in family child care that meets these standards.
Child care in the United States is affected by a macrosystem of individualistic values and
weak government regulation and funding. Furthermore, many parents think that their
children’s child-care experiences are better than they really are. Unable to identify good
care, they do not demand it (Helburn, 1995). In recent years, recognizing that child care is in
a state of crisis, the U.S. federal government and some states have allocated additional funds
to subsidize its cost, primarily for low-income families. Though far from meeting the need,
this increase in resources has had a positive impact on child-care quality and accessibility
(Children’s Defense Fund, 2009).
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High-quality child care, with a generous caregiver-child ratio, well-trained caregivers, and developmentally appropriate activities, can be especially beneficial to children from low-SES homes.
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Good child care is a cost-effective means of protecting children’s well-being. And much like
the programs we are about to consider, it can serve as effective early intervention for
children whose development is at risk.
Early Intervention for At-Risk Infants and Toddlers
Children living in poverty are likely to show gradual declines in intelligence test scores and
to achieve poorly when they reach school age (Bradley et al., 2001; Gutman, Sameroff, &
Cole, 2003). These problems are largely due to stressful home environments that undermine
children’s ability to learn and increase the likelihood that they will remain poor as adults
(McLoyd, Aikens, & Burton, 2006). A variety of intervention programs have been developed
to break this tragic cycle of poverty. Although most begin during the preschool years (we
will discuss these in Chapter 7), a few start during infancy and continue through early
childhood.
In center-based interventions, children attend an organized child-care or preschool
program where they receive educational, nutritional, and health services, and their parents
receive child-rearing and other social service supports. In home-based interventions, a
skilled adult visits the home and works with parents, teaching them how to stimulate a very
young child’s development. In most programs of either type, participating children score
higher than untreated controls on mental tests by age 2. The earlier intervention begins, the
longer it lasts, and the greater its scope and intensity, the better participants’ cognitive and
academic performance is throughout childhood and adolescence (Brooks-Gunn, 2004;
Ramey, Ramey, & Lanzi, 2006; Sweet & Appelbaum, 2004).
The Carolina Abecedarian Project illustrates these favorable outcomes. In the 1970s, more
than 100 infants from poverty-stricken families, ranging in age from 3 weeks to 3 months,
were randomly assigned to either a treatment group or a control group. Treatment infants
were enrolled in full-time, year-round child care through the preschool years. There they
received stimulation aimed at promoting motor, cognitive, language, and social skills and,
after age 3, literacy and math concepts. Special emphasis was placed on rich, responsive
adult-child verbal communication. All children received nutrition and health services; the
primary difference between treatment and controls was the intensive child-care
experience.
As Figure 5.9 shows, by 12 months of age, the IQs of the two groups diverged. Treatment
children sustained their advantage until last tested—at age 21. In addition, throughout their
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school years, treatment youths achieved considerably higher scores in reading and math.
These gains translated into more years of schooling completed, higher rates of college
enrollment and employment in skilled jobs, and lower rates of drug use and adolescent
parenthood (Campbell et al., 2001, 2002; Campbell & Ramey, 2010).
Recognition of the power of intervening as early as possible led the U.S. Congress to provide
limited funding for services directed at infants and toddlers who already have serious
developmental problems or who are at risk for problems because of poverty. Early Head
Start, begun in 1995, currently has 1,000 sites serving about 100,000 low-income children
and their families (Early Head Start National Resource Center, 2011). A recent evaluation,
conducted when children reached age 3, showed that intervention led to warmer, more
stimulating parenting, a reduction in harsh discipline, gains in cognitive and language
development, and lessening of child aggression (Love et al., 2005; Love, Chazan-Cohen, &
Raikes, 2007; Raikes et al., 2010). The strongest effects occurred at sites mixing center- and
home-based services. Though not yet plentiful enough to meet the need, such programs are
a promising beginning.
FIGURE 5.9 IQ scores of treatment and control children from infancy to 21 years in the Carolina Abecedarian Project.
At 1 year, treatment children outperformed controls, an advantage consistently maintained through age 21. The IQ scores of both groups declined gradually during childhood and adolescence—a trend probably due to the damaging impact of poverty on mental development.
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(Adapted from Campbell et al., 2001.)
ASK YOURSELF
REVIEW What probably accounts for the finding that speed of habituation and recovery to
novel visual stimuli predicts later IQ better than most infant mental test scores?
CONNECT Using what you learned about brain development in Chapter 4, explain why it is
best to initiate intervention for poverty-stricken children in the first two years rather than
later.
APPLY Fifteen-month-old Joey’s developmental quotient (DQ) is 115. His mother wants to
know exactly what this means and what she should do to support his mental development.
How would you respond?
REFLECT Suppose you were seeking a child-care setting for your baby. What would you
want it to be like, and why?
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Language Development
Improvements in perception and cognition during infancy pave the way for an
extraordinary human achievement—language. In Chapter 4, we saw that by the second half
of the first year, infants make dramatic progress in distinguishing the basic sounds of their
language and in segmenting the flow of speech into word and phrase units. They also start
to comprehend some word meanings and, around 12 months of age, say their first word.
Sometime between 1½ and 2 years, toddlers combine two words (Gleason, 2009). By age 6,
children understand the meaning of about 10,000 words, speak in elaborate sentences, and
are skilled conversationalists.
To appreciate this awesome task, think about the many abilities involved in your own
flexible use of language. When you speak, you must select words that match the underlying
concepts you want to convey. To be understood, you must pronounce words correctly. Then
you must combine them into phrases and sentences using a complex set of grammatical
rules. Finally, you must follow the rules of everyday conversation—take turns, make
comments relevant to what your partner just said, and use an appropriate tone of voice.
How do infants and toddlers make such remarkable progress in launching these skills?
Theories of Language Development
In the 1950s, researchers did not take seriously the idea that very young children might be
able to figure out important properties of language. Children’s regular and rapid attainment
of language milestones suggested a process largely governed by maturation, inspiring the
nativist perspective on language development. In recent years, new evidence has spawned
the interactionist perspective, which emphasizes the joint roles of children’s inner
capacities and communicative experiences.
The Nativist Perspective.
According to linguist Noam Chomsky’s (1957) nativist theory, language is a unique human
accomplishment, etched into the structure of the brain. Focusing on grammar, Chomsky
reasoned that the rules of sentence organization are too complex to be directly taught to or
discovered by even a cognitively sophisticated young child. Rather, he proposed that all
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children have a language acquisition device (LAD), an innate system that contains a
universal grammar, or set of rules common to all languages. It enables children, no matter
which language they hear, to understand and speak in a rule-oriented fashion as soon as
they pick up enough words.
Are children biologically primed to acquire language? Recall from Chapter 4 that newborn
babies are remarkably sensitive to speech sounds. And children everywhere reach major
language milestones in a similar sequence. Also, the ability to master a grammatically
complex language system seems unique to humans, as efforts to teach language to
nonhuman primates—using either specially devised artificial symbol systems or sign
language—have met with limited success. Even after extensive training, chimpanzees (who
are closest to humans in terms of evolution) master only a basic vocabulary and short word
combinations, and they produce these far less consistently than human preschoolers
(Tomasello, Call, & Hare, 2003).
Furthermore, evidence that childhood is a sensitive period for language acquisition is
consistent with Chomsky’s idea of a biologically based language program. Researchers have
examined the language competence of deaf adults who acquired their first language—
American Sign Language (ASL), a gestural system used by the deaf—at different ages. The
later learners, whose parents chose to educate them through speech and lip-reading, did not
acquire spoken language because of their profound deafness. Consistent with the sensitive-
period notion, those who learned ASL in adolescence or adulthood never became as
proficient as those who learned in childhood (Mayberry, 2010; Newport, 1991; Singleton &
Newport, 2004).
But challenges to Chomsky’s theory suggest that it, too, provides only a partial account of
language development. First, researchers have had great difficulty specifying Chomsky’s
universal grammar. Chomsky’s critics doubt that one set of rules can account for the
extraordinary variation in grammatical forms among the world’s 5,000 to 8,000 languages
(Christiansen & Chater, 2008; Evans & Levinson, 2009; Tomasello, 2005). Second, children do
not acquire language as quickly as nativist theory suggests. They refine and generalize
many grammatical forms gradually, engaging in much piecemeal learning and making
errors along the way. As we will see in Chapter 9, complete mastery of some grammatical
forms, such as the passive voice, is not achieved until well into middle childhood (Tager-
Flusberg & Zukowski, 2009; Tomasello, 2006). This suggests that more experimentation and
learning are involved than Chomsky assumed.
Finally, recall from Chapter 4 that for most people, language is housed largely in the left
hemisphere of the cerebral cortex, consistent with Chomsky’s notion of a brain prepared to
process language. But our discussion also revealed that language areas in the cortex develop
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as children acquire language. Although the left hemisphere is biased for language
processing, if it is injured in the early years, other regions take over (see page 126 in
Chapter 4). So localization of language in the left hemisphere is not necessary for effective
language use. Furthermore, brain-imaging research shows that many regions of the
cerebral cortex participate in language activities to differing degrees, depending on the
language skill and the individual’s mastery of that skill (Shafer & Garrido-Nag, 2007).
The Interactionist Perspective.
Recent ideas about language development emphasize interactions between inner capacities
and environmental influences. One type of interactionist theory applies the information-
processing perspective to language development. A second type emphasizes social
interaction.
Some information-processing theorists assume that children make sense of their complex
language environments by applying powerful cognitive capacities of a general kind (Bates,
2004; Elman, 2001; Munakata, 2006; Saffran, 2009). These theorists note that brain regions
housing language also govern similar perceptual and cognitive abilities, such as the capacity
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to analyze musical and visual patterns (Saygin et al., 2004; Saygin, Leech, & Dick, 2010).
Infants communicate from the very beginning of life, as this interchange between a mother and her 1- month-old illustrates. How will this child become a fluent speaker of her native language within just a few years? Theorists disagree sharply on answers to this question.
Other theorists blend this information-processing view with Chomsky’s nativist perspective.
They agree that infants are amazing analyzers of speech and other information. But, they
argue, these capacities probably are not sufficient to account for mastery of higher-level
aspects of language, such as intricate grammatical structures (Aslin & Newport, 2009). They
also point out that grammatical competence may depend more on specific brain structures
than the other components of language. When 2- to 2½-year-olds and adults listened to
short sentences—some grammatically correct, others with phrase-structure violations—
both groups showed similarly distinct ERP brain-wave patterns for each sentence type in
the left frontal and temporal lobes of the cerebral cortex (Oberecker & Friederici, 2006;
Oberecker, Friedrich, & Friederici, 2005). This suggests that 2-year-olds process sentence
structures using the same neural system as adults do. Furthermore, in studies of older
children and adults with left-hemispheric brain damage, grammar is more impaired than
other language functions (Stromswold, 2000).
Still other interactionists emphasize that children’s social skills and language experiences
are centrally involved in language development. In this social-interactionist view, an active
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child, well-endowed for making sense of language, strives to communicate. In doing so, she
cues her caregivers to provide appropriate language experiences, which help her relate the
content and structure of language to its social meanings (Bohannon & Bonvillian, 2009;
Chapman, 2006).
Among social interactionists, disagreement continues over whether or not children are
equipped with specialized language abilities (Lidz, 2007; Shatz, 2007; Tomasello, 2003, 2006).
Nevertheless, as we chart the course of language development, we will encounter much
support for their central premise—that children’s social competencies and language
experiences greatly affect their language progress. In reality, native endowment, cognitive-
processing strategies, and social experience probably operate in different balances with
respect to each aspect of language. Table 5.3 provides an overview of early language
milestones that we will examine in the next few sections.
TABLE 5.3 Milestones of Language Development During the First Two Years
APPROXIMATE AGE MILESTONE
2 months Infants coo, making pleasant vowel sounds.
4 months on Infants observe with interest as the caregiver plays turn-taking games, such as pat-a-cake and peekaboo.
6 months on Infants babble, adding consonants to their cooing sounds and repeating syllables. By 7 months, babbling starts to include many sounds of spoken languages.
Infants begin to comprehend a few commonly heard words.
8–12 months Infants become more accurate at establishing joint attention with the caregiver, who often verbally labels what the baby is looking at.
Infants actively participate in turn-taking games, trading roles with the caregiver.
Infants use preverbal gestures, such as showing and pointing, to influence others’ goals and behavior and to convey information.
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APPROXIMATE AGE MILESTONE
12 months Babbling includes sound and intonation patterns of the child’s language community.
Speed and accuracy of word comprehension increase rapidly.
Toddlers say their first recognizable word.
18–24 months Spoken vocabulary expands from about 50 to 200 to 250 words.
Toddlers combine two words.
Getting Ready to Talk
Before babies say their first word, they make impressive progress toward understanding
and speaking their native tongue. They listen attentively to human speech, and they make
speechlike sounds. As adults, we can hardly help but respond.
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Cooing and Babbling.
Around 2 months, babies begin to make vowel-like noises, called cooing because of their
pleasant “oo” quality. Gradually, consonants are added, and around 6 months, babbling
appears, in which infants repeat consonant–vowel combinations in long strings, such as
“bababababa” or “nanananana.”
Babies everywhere (even those who are deaf) start babbling at about the same age and
produce a similar range of early sounds. But for babbling to develop further, infants must
be able to hear human speech. In hearing-impaired babies, these speech-like sounds are
greatly delayed. And a deaf infant not exposed to sign language will stop babbling entirely
(Oller, 2000).
As infants listen to spoken language, babbling expands to include a broader range of
sounds. Around 7 months, it starts to include many sounds common in spoken languages. As
care-givers respond to infant babbles, babies modify their babbling to include sound
patterns like those in the adult’s speech (Goldstein & Schwade, 2008). By 8 to 10 months,
babbling reflects the sound and intonation patterns of children’s language community, some
of which are transferred to their first words (Boysson-Bardies & Vihman, 1991).
Deaf infants exposed to sign language from birth babble with their hands much as hearing
infants do through speech (Petitto & Marentette, 1991). Furthermore, hearing babies of deaf,
signing parents produce babblelike hand motions with the rhythmic patterns of natural sign
languages (Petitto et al., 2001, 2004). This sensitivity to language rhythm—evident in both
spoken and signed babbling—supports both discovery and production of meaningful
language units.
Becoming a Communicator.
At birth, infants are prepared for some aspects of conversational behavior. For example,
newborns initiate interaction through eye contact and terminate it by looking away. By 3 to
4 months, infants start to gaze in the same general direction adults are looking—a skill that
becomes more accurate at 10 to 11 months, as babies realize that others’ focus offers
information about their communicative intentions (to talk about an object) or other goals
(to obtain an object) (Brooks & Meltzoff, 2005; Senju, Csibra, & Johnson, 2008). This joint
attention, in which the child attends to the same object or event as the caregiver, who often
labels it, contributes greatly to early language development. Infants and toddlers who
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frequently experience it sustain attention longer, comprehend more language, produce
meaningful gestures and words earlier, and show faster vocabulary development (Brooks &
Meltzoff, 2008; Carpenter, Nagell, & Tomasello, 1998; Flom & Pick, 2003; Silvén, 2001).
Between 4 and 6 months, interactions between caregivers and babies begin to include give-
and-take, as in pat-a-cake and peekaboo games. At first, the parent starts the game and the
baby is an amused observer. But even 4-month-olds are sensitive to the structure and timing
of these interactions, smiling more to an organized than to a disorganized peekaboo
exchange (Rochat, Querido, & Striano, 1999). By 12 months, babies participate actively,
trading roles with the caregiver. In this way, they practice the turn-taking pattern of
conversation, a vital context for acquiring language and communication skills. Infants’ play
maturity and vocalizations during games predict advanced language progress in the second
year (Rome-Flanders & Cronk, 1995).
This baby uses a preverbal gesture to draw his caregiver’s attention to a picture. The caregiver’s verbal response promotes the baby’s transition to spoken language.
At the end of the first year, babies use preverbal gestures to direct adults’ attention, to
influence their behavior, and to convey helpful information (Tomasello, Carpenter, &
Liszkowski, 2007). For example, Caitlin held up a toy to show it, pointed to the cupboard
when she wanted a cookie, and pointed at her mother’s car keys lying on the floor. Carolyn
responded to these gestures and also labeled them (“That’s your bear!” “You want a cookie!”
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“Oh, there are my keys!”). In this way, toddlers learn that using language leads to desired
results. Soon toddlers integrate words with gestures, using the gesture to expand their
verbal message, as in pointing to a toy while saying “give” (Capirci et al., 2005). Gradually,
gestures recede, and words become dominant. But the earlier toddlers form word-gesture
combinations, the faster their vocabulary growth, the sooner they produce two-word
utterances at the end of the second year, and the more complex their sentences at age 3½
(Özçaliskan & Goldin-Meadow, 2005; Rowe & Goldin-Meadow, 2009).
First Words
In the second half of the first year, infants begin to understand word meanings. When 6-
month-olds listened to the word “Mommy” or “Daddy” while looking at side-by-side videos
of their parents, they looked longer at the video of the named parent (Tincoff & Jusczyk,
1999). First spoken words, around 1 year, build on the sensorimotor foundations Piaget
described and on categories children have formed. In a study tracking the first 10 words
used by several hundred U.S. and Chinese
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(both Mandarin- and Cantonese-speaking) babies, important people (“Mama,” “Dada”),
common objects (“ball,” “bread”), and sound effects (“woof-woof,” “vroom”) were
mentioned most often. Action words (“hit,” “grab,” “hug”) and social routines (“hi,” “bye”),
though also appearing in all three groups, were more often produced by Chinese than U.S.
babies, and the Chinese babies also named more important people—differences we will
consider shortly (Tardif et al., 2008). In their first 50 words, toddlers rarely name things that
just sit there, like “table” or “vase.”
When young children first learn words, they sometimes apply them too narrowly, an error
called underextension. At 16 months, Caitlin used “bear” only to refer to the worn and
tattered bear she carried nearly constantly. As vocabulary expands, a more common error
is overextension—applying a word to a wider collection of objects and events than is
appropriate. For example, Grace used “car” for buses, trains, trucks, and fire engines.
Toddlers’ overextensions reflect their sensitivity to categories (MacWhinney, 2005). They
apply a new word to a group of similar experiences: “car” to wheeled objects, “open” to
opening a door, peeling fruit, and untying shoelaces. This suggests that children often
overextend deliberately because they have difficulty recalling or have not acquired a
suitable word. And when a word is hard to pronounce, toddlers are likely to substitute a
related one they can say (Bloom, 2000). As vocabulary and pronunciation improve,
overextensions disappear.
Overextensions illustrate another important feature of language development: the
distinction between language production (the words children use) and language
comprehension (the words they understand). At all ages, comprehension develops ahead of
production. A 2-year-old who refers to trucks, trains, and bikes as “car” may look at or point
to these objects correctly when given their names (Naigles & Gelman, 1995). Still, the two
capacities are related. The speed and accuracy of toddlers’ comprehension of spoken
language increase dramatically over the second year. And toddlers who are faster and more
accurate in comprehension tend to show more rapid growth in words understood and
produced as they approach age 2 (Fernald, Perfors, & Marchman, 2006). Quick
comprehension frees space in working memory for picking up new words and for the more
demanding task of using them to communicate.
The Two-Word Utterance Phase
Young toddlers add to their spoken vocabularies at a rate of one to three words per week.
Gradually, the number of words learned accelerates. Because gains in word production
between 18 and 24 months are so impressive (one or two words per day), many researchers
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concluded that toddlers undergo a spurt in vocabulary—a transition from a slower to a
faster learning phase. But recent evidence indicates that most children show a steady
increase in rate of word learning that continues through the preschool years (Ganger &
Brent, 2004).
How do toddlers build their vocabularies so quickly? In the second year, they improve in
ability to categorize experience, recall words, and grasp others’ social cues to meaning, such
as eye gaze, pointing, and handling objects (Dapretto & Bjork, 2000; Golinkoff & Hirsh-Pasek,
2006; Liszkowski, Carpenter, & Tomasello, 2007). In Chapter 7, we will consider young
children’s specific strategies for word learning.
Once toddlers produce 200 to 250 words, they start to combine two words: “Mommy shoe,”
“go car,” “more cookie.” These two-word utterances are called telegraphic speech because,
like a telegram, they focus on high-content words, omitting smaller, less important ones.
Children the world over use them to express an impressive variety of meanings.
Two-word speech consists largely of simple formulas (“more + X,” “eat + X”), with different
words inserted in the “X” position. Toddlers rarely make gross grammatical errors, such as
saying “chair my” instead of “my chair.” But their word-order regularities are usually copies
of adult word pairings, as when the parent says, “How about more sandwich?” or “Let’s see
if you can eat the berries” (Tomasello, 2003; Tomasello & Brandt, 2009). These findings
indicate that young children first acquire “concrete pieces of language” from frequent word
pairings they hear. Only gradually do they generalize from those pieces to construct word-
order and other grammatical rules (Tomasello, 2006). As we will see in Chapter 7, children
master grammar steadily over the preschool years.
Individual and Cultural Differences
Although children typically produce their first word around their first birthday, the range is
large, from 8 to 18 months—variation due to a complex blend of genetic and environmental
influences. Earlier we saw that Timmy’s spoken language was delayed, in part because of
Vanessa’s tense, directive communication with him. But Timmy is also a boy, and many
studies show that girls are slightly ahead of boys in early vocabulary growth (Fenson et al.,
1994; Van Hulle, Goldsmith, & Lemery, 2004). The most common explanation is girls’ faster
rate of physical maturation, believed to promote earlier development of the left cerebral
hemisphere.
Temperament matters, too. Shy toddlers often wait until they understand a great deal
before trying to speak. Once they do speak, their vocabularies increase rapidly, although
they remain slightly behind their agemates (Spere et al., 2004). Temperamentally negative
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toddlers also acquire language more slowly because their high emotional reactivity diverts
them from processing linguistic information (Salley & Dixon, 2007).
The quantity of caregiver–child conversation and richness of adults’ vocabularies also play
a strong role (Zimmerman et al., 2009). Commonly used words for objects appear early in
toddlers’ speech, and the more often their caregivers use a particular noun, the sooner
young children produce it (Goodman, Dale, & Li, 2008). Mothers talk more to toddler-age
girls than to boys, and parents converse less often with shy than with sociable
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children (Leaper, Anderson, & Sanders, 1998; Patterson & Fisher, 2002).
Low-SES children, who receive less verbal stimulation in their homes than higher-SES
children, usually have smaller vocabularies (Hoff, 2006). Limited parent-child book reading
is a major factor. On average, a middle-SES child is read to for 1,000 hours between 1 and 5
years, a low-SES child for only 25 hours (Neuman, 2003). As a result, low-SES kindergartners
have vocabularies only one-fourth as large as those of their higher SES agemates (Lee &
Burkam, 2002). And low-income children are also behind in early literacy knowledge and
later reading achievement, as we will see in Chapter 7.
Furthermore, 2-year-olds’ spoken vocabularies vary substantially across languages—about
180 to 200 words for children acquiring Swedish, 250 to 300 words for children acquiring
English, and 500 words for children acquiring Mandarin Chinese (Bleses et al., 2008; Tardif
et al., 2009). In Swedish, a complicated system of speech sounds makes syllable and word
boundaries challenging to discriminate and pronounce. In contrast, Mandarin Chinese has
many short words with easy-to-pronounce initial consonants. Within Mandarin words, each
syllable is given one of four distinct tones, aiding discrimination.
Young children have distinct styles of early language learning. Caitlin and Grace, like most
toddlers, used a referential style; their vocabularies consisted mainly of words that refer to
objects. A smaller number of toddlers use an expressive style; compared with referential
children, they produce many more social formulas and pronouns (“thank you,” “done,” “I
want it”). These styles reflect early ideas about the functions of language. Grace, for
example, thought words were for naming things. In contrast, expressive-style children
believe words are for talking about people’s feelings and needs (Bates et al., 1994). The
vocabularies of referential-style toddlers grow faster because all languages contain many
more object labels than social phrases.
What accounts for a toddler’s language style? Rapidly developing referential-style children
often have an especially active interest in exploring objects. They also eagerly imitate their
parents’ frequent naming of objects (Masur & Rodemaker, 1999). Expressive-style children
tend to be highly sociable, and their parents more often use verbal routines (“How are
you?” “It’s no trouble”) that support social relationships (Goldfield, 1987).
The two language styles are also linked to culture. Nouns are particularly common in the
vocabularies of English-speaking toddlers, but Chinese, Japanese, and Korean toddlers have
more words for social routines. Mothers’ speech in each culture reflects this difference
(Choi & Gopnik, 1995; Fernald & Morikawa, 1993; Tardif, Gelman, & Xu, 1999). American
mothers frequently label objects when interacting with their babies. Asian mothers,
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perhaps because of a cultural emphasis on the importance of group membership, teach
social routines as soon as their children begin to speak.
At what point should parents be concerned if their child talks very little or not at all? If a
toddler’s language is greatly delayed when compared with the norms in Table 5.3 (page
175), then parents should consult the child’s doctor or a speech and language therapist. Late
babbling may be a sign of slow language development that can be prevented with early
intervention (Fasolo, Marjorano, & D’Odorico, 2008). Some toddlers who do not follow
simple directions or who, after age 2, have difficulty putting their thoughts into words may
suffer from a hearing impairment or a language disorder that requires immediate
treatment.
Supporting Early Language Development
Consistent with the interactionist view, a rich social environment builds on young children’s
natural readiness to acquire language. For a summary of how caregivers can consciously
support early language development, see Applying What We Know on the following page.
Caregivers also do so unconsciously—through a special style of speech.
Adults in many cultures speak to babies in infant-directed speech (IDS), a form of
communication made up of short sentences with high-pitched, exaggerated expression,
clear pronunciation, distinct pauses between speech segments, and repetition of new words
in a variety of contexts (“See the ball,” “The ball bounced!”) (Fernald et al., 1989; O’Neill et
al., 2005). Deaf parents use a similar style of communication when signing to their deaf
babies (Masataka, 1996).
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By using infant-directed speech, this father speaks in ways that are sensitive to his daughter’s language needs and encourages her to join in. Dialogues about picture books are especially powerful sources of early language learning.
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Applying What We Know Supporting Early Language Learning
Strategy Consequence
Respond to coos and babbles with speech sounds and words.
Encourages experimentation with sounds that can later be blended into first words.
Provides experience with turn-taking pattern of human conversation.
Establish joint attention, and comment on what child sees.
Predicts earlier onset of language and faster vocabulary development.
Play social games, such as pat-a-cake and peekaboo.
Provides experience with the turn-taking pattern of human conversation.
Engage toddlers in joint make-believe play.
Promotes all aspects of conversational dialogue.
Engage toddlers in frequent conversations.
Predicts faster early language development and academic success during the school years.
Read to toddlers often, engaging them in dialogues about picture books.
Provides exposure to many aspects of language, including vocabulary, grammar, communication skills, and information about written symbols and story structures.
IDS builds on several communicative strategies we have already considered: joint attention,
turn-taking, and caregivers’ sensitivity to toddlers’ preverbal gestures. In this example,
Carolyn uses IDS with 18-month-old Caitlin:
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Caitlin: “Go car.”
Carolyn: “Yes, time to go in the car. Where’s your jacket?”
Caitlin: [Looks around, walks to the closet.] “Dacket!” [Points to her jacket.]
Carolyn: “There’s that jacket! [She helps Caitlin into the jacket.] On it goes! Let’s zip up.
[Zips up the jacket.] Now, say bye-bye to Grace and Timmy.”
Caitlin: “Bye-bye, G ace. Bye-bye, Te-te.
Carolyn: “Where’s your bear?”
Caitlin: [Looks around.]
Carolyn: [Pointing.] “See? By the sofa.” [Caitlin gets the bear.]
From birth on, infants prefer IDS over other adult talk, and by 5 months they are more
emotionally responsive to it (Aslin, Jusczyk, & Pisoni, 1998). Parents constantly fine-tune the
length and content of their utterances to fit their children’s needs—adjustments that foster
word learning and enable toddlers to join in (Cameron-Faulkner, Lieven, & Tomasello, 2003;
Rowe, 2008). As we saw earlier, parent-toddler conversation—especially, reading and
talking about picture books—strongly predicts language development and reading success
during the school years.
LOOK AND LISTEN
While observing a parent and toddler playing, describe how the parent adapts his or her
language to the child’s needs. Did the parent use IDS?
Do social experiences that promote language development remind you of those that
strengthen cognitive development in general? IDS and parent-child conversation create a
zone of proximal development in which children’s language expands. In contrast,
impatience with and rejection of children’s efforts to talk lead them to stop trying and result
in immature language skills (Baumwell, Tamis-LeMonda, & Bornstein, 1997; Cabrera,
Shannon, & Tamis-LeMonda, 2007). In the next chapter, we will see that sensitivity to
children’s needs and capacities supports their emotional and social development as well.
ASK YOURSELF
REVIEW Why is the social interactionist perspective attractive to many investigators of
language development? Cite evidence that supports it.
CONNECT Cognition and language are interrelated. List examples of how cognition fosters
language development. Next, list examples of how language fosters cognitive development.
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APPLY Fran frequently corrects her 17-month-old son Jeremy’s attempts to talk and—
fearing that he won’t use words—refuses to respond to his gestures. How might Fran be
contributing to Jeremy’s slow language progress?
REFLECT Find an opportunity to speak to an infant or toddler. Did you use IDS? What
features of your speech are likely to promote early language development, and why?
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SUMMARY
Piaget’s Cognitive-Developmental Theory (p. 152)
According to Piaget, how do schemes change over the course of development?
● By acting on the environment, children move through four stages in which
psychological structures, or schemes, achieve a better fit with external reality.
● Schemes change in two ways: through adaptation, which is made up of two
complementary activities—assimilation and accommodation—and through
organization, the internal rearrangement of schemes into a strongly interconnected
cognitive system.
Describe the major cognitive achievements of the sensorimotor stage.
● In the sensorimotor stage, the circular reaction provides a means of adapting first
schemes, and the newborn’s reflexes gradually transform into the flexible action
patterns of the older infant. Eight- to 12-month-olds develop intentional, or goal-
directed, behavior and begin to understand object permanence.
● Between 18 and 24 months, mental representation is evident in sudden solutions to
sensorimotor problems, mastery of object permanence problems involving invisible
displacement, deferred imitation, and make-believe play.
What does follow-up research reveal about the accuracy of Piaget’s sensorimotor stage?
● Many studies suggest that infants display certain understandings earlier than Piaget
believed. Some awareness of object permanence, as revealed by the violation-of-
expectation method and object-tracking research, may be evident in the first few
months.
● Around the first birthday, babies attain displaced reference, the realization that words
may stand for things not physically present. By the middle of the second year, toddlers
treat realistic-looking pictures symbolically; around 2½ years, they grasp the symbolic
meaning of video.
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● Today, researchers believe that newborns have more built-in equipment for making
sense of their world than Piaget assumed, although they disagree on how much initial
understanding infants have. According to the core knowledge perspective, infants are
born with core domains of thought that support early, rapid cognitive development.
Research suggests that infants have basic physical, linguistic, psychological, and
numerical knowledge.
● Broad agreement exists that many cognitive changes of infancy are continuous rather
than stagelike and that various aspects of cognition develop unevenly rather than in an
integrated fashion.
Information Processing (p. 161)
Describe the information-processing view of cognitive development.
● Most information-processing researchers assume that we hold information in three
parts of the mental system for processing: the sensory register, the short-term memory
store, and long-term memory. The central executive joins with working memory—our
“mental workspace”—to process information effectively, increasing the chances that it
will transfer to our permanent knowledge base. Well-learned automatic processes
require no space in working memory, permitting us to focus on other information while
performing them.
● Gains in executive function—including attention, impulse control, and coordinating
information in working memory—are under way in the first two years. Dramatic
advances will follow in childhood and adolescence.
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What changes in attention, memory, and categorization take place during the first two
years?
● With age, infants attend to more aspects of the environment and take information in
more quickly. In the second year, attention to novelty declines and sustained attention
improves.
● Young infants are capable of recognition memory. By the second half of the first year,
they also engage in recall. Both improve steadily with age.
● Infants group stimuli into increasingly complex categories, and toddlers’ categorization
gradually shifts from a perceptual to a conceptual basis. In the second half of the first
year, infants have begun to grasp the animate–inanimate distinction, an understanding
that expands during toddlerhood.
Describe contributions and limitations of the information-processing approach to our
understanding of early cognitive development.
● Information-processing findings challenge Piaget’s view of infants as purely
sensorimotor beings who cannot mentally represent experiences. But information
processing has not yet provided a broad, comprehensive theory of children’s thinking.
The Social Context of Early Cognitive Development (p. 167)
How does Vygotsky’s concept of the zone of proximal development expand our
understanding of early cognitive development?
● Vygotsky believed that infants master tasks within the zone of proximal development—
ones just ahead of their current capacities—through the support and guidance of more
skilled partners. As early as the first year, cultural variations in social experiences
affect mental strategies.
Individual Differences in Early Mental Development (p. 169)
Describe the mental testing approach and the extent to which infant tests predict later
performance.
● The mental testing approach measures intellectual development in an effort to predict
future performance. Scores are arrived at by
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computing an intelligence quotient (IQ), which compares an individual’s test
performance with that of a standardization sample of same-age individuals, whose
scores form a normal distribution.
● Infant tests consisting largely of perceptual and motor responses predict later
intelligence poorly. As a result, scores on infant tests are called developmental quotients
(DQs), rather than IQs. Speed of habituation and recovery to visual stimuli are better
predictors of future performance.
Discuss environmental influences on early mental development, including home, child care,
and early intervention for at-risk infants and toddlers.
● Research with the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME)
shows that an organized, stimulating home environment and parental encouragement,
involvement, and affection repeatedly predict early mental test scores. Although the
HOME–IQ relationship is partly due to heredity, family living conditions also affect
mental development.
● Infant and toddler child care is increasingly common, and its quality has a major
impact on mental development. Standards for developmentally appropriate practice
specify program characteristics that meet young children’s developmental needs.
● Intensive intervention beginning in infancy and extending through early childhood can
prevent the gradual declines in intelligence and the poor academic performance of
many poverty-stricken children.
Language Development (p. 174)
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Describe theories of language development, and indicate how much emphasis each places
on innate abilities and environmental influences.
● Chomsky’s nativist theory regards children as naturally endowed with a language
acquisition device (LAD). Consistent with this perspective, mastery of a complex
language system is unique to humans, and childhood is a sensitive period for language
acquisition.
● Recent theories view language development as resulting from interactions between
inner capacities and environmental influences. Some interactionists apply the
information-processing perspective to language development. Others emphasize the
importance of children’s social skills and language experiences.
Describe major language milestones in the first two years, individual differences, and ways
adults can support early language development.
● Infants begin cooing at 2 months and babbling at about 6 months. Around 10 to 11
months, their skill at establishing joint attention improves, and soon they use preverbal
gestures. Adults can encourage language progress by responding to infants’ coos and
babbles, playing turn-taking games, establishing joint attention and labeling what
babies see, and responding verbally to infants’ preverbal gestures.
● Around 12 months, toddlers say their first word. Young children often make errors of
underextension and overextension. Once vocabulary reaches 200 to 250 words, two-
word utterances called telegraphic speech appear. At all ages, language comprehension
is ahead of production.
● Girls show faster language progress than boys, and reserved, cautious toddlers may
wait before trying to speak. Most toddlers use a referential style of language learning;
their early words consist largely of names for objects. Some use an expressive style, in
which social formulas and pronouns are common and vocabulary grows more slowly.
● Adults in many cultures speak to young children in infant-directed speech (IDS), a
simplified form of language that is well suited to their learning needs. Parent–toddler
conversation is a good predictor of early language development and reading success
during the school years.
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Important Terms and Concepts
accommodation (p. 152)
adaptation (p. 152)
assimilation (p. 152)
autobiographical memory (p. 164)
automatic processes (p. 162)
babbling (p. 176)
central executive (p. 162)
circular reaction (p. 153)
cooing (p. 176)
core knowledge perspective (p. 159)
deferred imitation (p. 154)
developmentally appropriate practice (p. 172)
developmental quotient (DQ) (p. 170)
displaced reference (p. 157)
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executive function (p. 162)
expressive style of language learning (p. 178)
Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) (p. 170)
infant-directed speech (IDS) (p. 178)
infantile amnesia (p. 164)
intelligence quotient (IQ) (p. 169)
intentional, or goal-directed, behavior (p. 154)
joint attention (p. 176)
language acquisition device (LAD) (p. 174)
long-term memory (p. 162)
make-believe play (p. 154)
mental representation (p. 154)
normal distribution (p. 169)
object permanence (p. 154)
organization (p. 152)
overextension (p. 177)
recall (p. 164)
recognition (p. 164)
referential style of language learning (p. 178)
scheme (p. 152)
sensorimotor stage (p. 152)
sensory register (p. 161)
short-term memory store (p. 161)
standardization (p. 169)
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telegraphic speech (p. 177)
underextension (p. 177)
video deficit effect (p. 159)
violation-of-expectation method (p. 155)
working memory (p. 161)
zone of proximal development (p. 167)
