Lifespan Development. Tara L. Kuther

43%

      1995: 43%

      2000: 38%

      2005: 33%

      2010: 40%

      Back to Figure

      Top photo: An infant lies in a crib with arms outstretched toward a mobile overhead. Middle photo: A baby on the floor stretches forward to reach a toy. Bottom photo: A toddler holding a soccer ball walks down a park path. The three photos as a whole are labeled Behavior.

      Near the top left of the encompassing circle is the label Maturation (biological, cognitive, and psychosocial). Near the top right is the label Contextual (supports and challenges). The two labels are connected by a double-headed arrow.

      At the bottom of the circle is the label Goals and understanding. It is connected to the two other labels by double-headed arrows.

      5 Cognitive Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood

      Tara L. Kuther

      Blend Images - KidStock/ Brand X Pictures via Getty Images

      “Be careful with Baby Emily,” Lila warned her 22-month-old son, Michael. “She’s just 1 week old and very little. You were once little like her.” “No,” Michael said and giggled. “Big boy!” Michael picked up his teddy bear, cradled it like a baby, then held it to his chest rubbing its back, just like what he sees Mommy do with Baby Emily. In less than 2 years, Michael has transformed from a tiny infant, like Baby Emily, to a toddler who imitates what he sees and can verbally express his ideas. Like all newborns, Baby Emily is equipped with inborn sensory capacities and preferences that enable her to tune in to the world around her. Baby Emily’s abilities to think, reason, problem solve, and interact with objects and people will change dramatically over the next 2 years. In this chapter, we will explore the cognitive developments that occur during infancy and toddlerhood.

      Learning Objectives

       5.1 Discuss the cognitive-developmental perspective on infant reasoning.

       5.2 Describe the information processing system in infants.

       5.3 Discuss individual differences in infant intelligence.

       5.4 Summarize the patterns of language development during infancy and toddlerhood.

      Piaget’s Cognitive-Developmental Theory

      The first scientist to systematically examine children’s thinking and reasoning, Swiss scholar Jean Piaget (1896–1980), believed that to understand children, we must understand how they think because thinking influences all of behavior. According to Piaget’s cognitive-developmental theory, children and adults are active explorers who learn by interacting with the world, building their own understanding of everyday phenomena, and applying it to adapt to the world around them.

      Processes of Development

      According to Piaget (1952), children are active in their own development not simply because they engage other people but because they engage the world, adapting their ways of thinking in response to their experiences. Through these interactions, they organize what they learn to construct and refine their own cognitive schemas, or concepts, ideas, and ways of interacting with the world. The earliest schemas are inborn motor responses, such as the reflex response that causes infants to close their fingers around an object when it touches their palm. As infants grow and develop, these early motor schemas are transformed into cognitive schemas, or thoughts and ideas. At every age, we rely on our schemas to make sense of the world, and our schemas are constantly adapting and developing in response to our experiences. Piaget also emphasized the importance of two developmental processes that enable us to cognitively adapt to our world: assimilation and accommodation.

      Assimilation involves integrating a new experience into a preexisting schema. For example, suppose that 1-year-old Kelly uses the schema of “grab and shove into the mouth” to learn. He grabs and shoves his rattle into his mouth, learning about the rattle by using his preexisting schema. When Kelly comes across another object, such as Mommy’s wristwatch, he transfers the schema to it—and assimilates the wristwatch by grabbing it and shoving it into his mouth. He develops an understanding of the new objects through assimilation, by fitting them into his preexisting schema.

      Sometimes we encounter experiences or information that do not fit within an existing schema, so we must change the schema, adapting and modifying it in light of the new information. This process is called accommodation. For example, suppose Kelly encounters another object, a beach ball. He tries his schema of grab and shove, but the beach ball won’t fit into his mouth; perhaps he cannot even grab it. He must adapt his schema or create a new one in order to incorporate the new information—to learn about the beach ball. Kelly may squeeze and mouth the ball instead, accommodating or changing his schema to interact with the new object.

      The processes of assimilation and accommodation enable people to adapt to their environment, absorbing the constant flux of information they encounter daily (see Figure 5.1). Peopl—infants, children, and adults—constantly integrate new information into their schemas and continually encounter new information that requires them to modify their schemas. Piaget proposed that people naturally strive for cognitive equilibrium, a balance between the processes of assimilation and accommodation. When assimilation and accommodation are balanced, individuals are neither incorporating new information into their schemas nor changing their schemas in light of new information; instead, our schemas match the outside world and represent it clearly. But a state of cognitive equilibrium is rare and fleeting. More frequently, people experience a mismatch, or disequilibrium, between their schemas and the world.

      Disequilibrium leads to cognitive growth because of the mismatch between schemas and reality. This mismatch leads to confusion and discomfort, which in turn motivate children to modify their cognitive schemas so that their view of the world matches reality. It is through assimilation and accommodation that this modification takes place so that cognitive equilibrium is restored. Children’s drive for cognitive equilibrium is the basis for cognitive change, propelling them through the four stages of cognitive development proposed by Piaget (refer to Chapter 1). With each advancing stage, children create and use more sophisticated cognitive schemas, enabling them to think, reason, and understand their world in more complex ways.

      Figure 5.1 Assimilation and Accommodation

      Bobby sees a cat that fits his schema for kitty (left). He has never seen a cat like this before (right). He must accommodate his schema for kitty to include a hairless cat.

      Source: istock/GlobalP; istock/YouraPechkin

      Sensorimotor Substages

      “There you go, little guy,” Mateo’s uncle says, placing a rattle within the infant’s grasp. Six-month-old Mateo shakes the toy and puts it in his mouth, sucking on it. He then removes the rattle from his mouth and gives it a vigorous shake, dropping it to the ground. “Mateo! Where’s your rattle?” asks his mother. “Whenever he drops his toy, he never looks for it,” she explains to Nico’s uncle, “not even when it’s his favorite toy.” Mateo displays sensorimotor thinking. During the sensorimotor stage, from birth to about 2 years old, infants learn about the world through their senses and motor skills. To think about an object, they must act on it by viewing it,