SAR HP 252 Chapter 5: HP252 - Textbook Chapter 5 Notes
2 May 2018
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CHAPTER 5: COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN INFANCY
Cognitive Processes
• Piaget believes the most concepts include: schemes, assimilation, accommodation,
organization, equilibrium, equilibration
o Schemes – actions or mental representations that organize knowledge
o Behavioral Schemes – physical activities characterize infancy
o Mental Schemes – cognitive activities that develop during childhood
o Assimilation – when existing schemes are used to deal with new information and
experiences
o Accommodation – when existing schemes are adjusted to take in new information
and experiences
o Organization – the grouping of isolated behaviors and thoughts into a high-order
system
▪ This skill is crucial and must be continually be refined in order to develop
o Disequilibrium – cognitive conflict (ex: when existing schemes are questioned
with counterexamples and inconsistencies)
o Equilibration – the mechanism used by children when they want to shift one stage
of thought to the next
Sensorimotor Stage – when infants understand the world by coordinating sensory experiences
with physical, motoric actions
• 6 Substages
o Simple Reflexes – birth to 1 month
o First Habits/Primary Circular Reactions – 1 to 4 months
o Secondary Circular Reactions – 4 to 8 months
o Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions – 8 to 12 months
o Tertiary Circular Reactions/Novelty/Curiosity – 12 to 18 months
o Internalization of Schemes – 18 to 24 months
Interpretation: object permanence and cause/effect (expectations) is developed
• Nature v. Nurture (whether an infant’s cognitive development is guided by either)
• Core Knowledge Approach – the belief that infants are born with domain-specific
knowledge systems (ex: object permanence, language, number sense, space)
Learning, Remembering and Conceptualizing
• Operant Conditioning – used to measure infants’ perception and retention of information
(usually about perceptual-motor actions)
• Attention – focusing mental resources on select information
• Habituation – repeated presentation of the same stimulus which eventually causes a
reduced attention to this stimulation
• Dishabituation – when a different stimulus is presented causing an increased attention to
this stimulus, thus breaking the cycle
• Memory – the retention of information over time
• Long-Term Memory – typically develops after the second year
