Physical and Cognitive Changes

in Infancy (Ch 4 & 5)

Physical Development
BodyGrowth and Change
Changes in the Brain
Behavioral States & Reflexes
Sensory & Perceptual Skills

Cognitive Changes
Piagets View of Infancy
Challenges
 Postnatal Development:
Body Growth and Change
Rapid growth during
1st two yrs finish half of your development
Then slows down
Body proportion changes as well
Follow cephalocaudal and Proximodistal

 Changes in the Brain
At birth, medulla
and midbrain
developed

 Changes in the Brain

Neurons increase in size and complexity
Dendritic spreading
Number of synapses increases
(synaptogenesis )
Followed by synaptic pruning
use it or lose it
Advantage: Neuroplasticity
 Changes in the Brain
Effect of environment
enriched vs impoverished environments
VS

Myelinization
Not completed all at once
Follows cephalocaudal and proximodistal
patterns
Sleep What do babies do?
A lot! (at least at the beginning)
sleep through the night since 8 weeks, 2-3 hours sleep cycles ,

lots of variability ( )

Cry
a lot! (Peaks at 6 weeks 6 )

Different cries

Colic week2 3-4

 What do babies do?
Reflexes
Adaptive reflexes
Help survival!
Reflect nervous system function
Eg. neck stiffness reflection walk grasp, rooting (

),
Primitive reflexes

Eg.moro reflex ),
babinsky reflex
disappear by 6-8 mos. If not, may be
What do babies experience?
Sensory & Perceptual Skills
How do we find out?
Habituation ,
Tests recognition

Dishabituation
Tests discrimination
Sensory & Perceptual Skills
Vision
Acuity sharpness of vision
not so good(20/400) but improves
What do babies like to look at?
Things they can see well
High contrast
Complexity (1 mouth old :outline of the face, 2 month

old:inside the face especially eyes)

2

VS
Curves
Sensory & Perceptual Skills
Hearing
Acuity ( ) Better than seeing
except for high-pitched sound
Can discriminate speech sounds
better than adults!
And voices
like moms best
Sensory & Perceptual Skills
Taste and Smell
Can distinguish all basic flavours
Butlike some more than others: normal, sweet,
sour , bitter
 Cognitive Changes (Ch. 5)
Piagets View
Thinking develops in four stages
Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 yrs.)
Piagets newborn:
Only have reflex
No mental structures with which to think (

)
Things inside our head that stand for things out there in the world
Use sensory and motor information to learn about
the world.
 How does it happen?
Schemes: Actions or mental representations
that organize knowledge
Action schemes
organized ways of acting
Mental schemes
organized ways of thinking
Must act on the world in increasingly
organized ways before they can think about it
 Substage 1 - Reflex
(0-1 mos)
Babies use their
reflexes + accommodation (reflex scheme
)

Substage 2 - Primary Circular Reactions (1-

4 mos.)

Repeat actions focused on babys own

body
Co-ordinate schemes with sensorimotor
information
Substage 3 - Secondary Circular Reactions
(4 - 8 mos.)
Repeat actions focused on external
objects
Behaviours are still reactions
discovered by accident
Creates new schemes!
Eg.
Substage 4 - Co-ordination of Secondary
Schemes
(8 -12 mos)
Goal-directed behaviour

Combine schemes as a means end
behavior
Not an accident!

Eg.
Substage 5 - Tertiary Circular Reactions
(12 - 18 mos.)
Attention focused on objects themselves
(how things works, why)
little scientist
Use trial-and-error( ) to explore
objects
Can solve problems
But only by acting on objects

objects
Substage 6 - Internalization of Schemes

(18-24 mos)
Start internalizing ( ) action
schemes so that they become mental
schemes

Problem-solving

pretend play
deferred imitation

18-24
recall

Object Permanence
Objects continue to exist even when we
can no longer perceive them
babies dont know this until 24 mos.
 Development of Object
Permanence
Substage Level Of Object Concept
Substage Level Of Object Concept
1. Reflex (0-1 mos) None
Reflex None
2. Primary Circular Reactions Looks briefly at spot where object
Primary Circular Reactions
(1-4 mos) Looks intently
disappeared at spot
then loses where
interestobject
disappeared
3. Secondary
Secondary Circular
Circular ReactionSearches
Reaction Searchesfor
for partly
partly concealed
concealedobject
object
(4-8 mos)
Coordination of Secondary Will search for object not visibly
4. Coordination of Secondary Will search for object in location last
Schemes
Schemes (8-12 mos)
displaced
found not last seen (A not B error)
Tertiary Circular Reactions Searches for an finds object that has
5. Tertiary Circular Reactions been visiblywhere
Will search displaced
last seen but cant
(12 18 mos)of Schemes
Internalization follow invisible
Object Conceptdisplacement
is complete
6. Internalization of Schemes Object Concept is complete

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhHkJ3InQOE
Do babies know more than
Piaget thought?

Very young babies appear to have a

better understanding of object
permanence than Piaget thought