Chapter Introduction
CHAPTER 6
The First Two Years: Cognitive Development
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What Will You Know?
Why did Piaget compare 1-year-olds to scientists? Piaget said that toddlers “experiment in order to see.” They use trial and error to explore and understand the world around them. They are devoted to discovery just like every scientist.
Why isn’t Piaget’s theory of sensorimotor intelligence universally recognized as insightful? Hundreds of researchers have since shown that many infants reach the stages of sensorimotor intelligence earlier than Piaget predicted. In addition, several specific criticisms of Piaget's research methods have been lodged. His sample was too small (initially based on his own infant children), his methods were too simple (relying almost exclusively on direct observation using imprecise measurement tools), and new methods of measuring brain activity allow modern researchers to record infant cognition before the infant is old enough to display behaviors that would establish the existence of those cognitions.
What factors influence whether infants remember what happens to them before they can talk? If an infant experiences a reminder session, it will help to ensure that the infant will remember the event. Repetition is important, too; multiple reminders produce better memory than single reminders. When the context is the same at initial exposure and at memory test, memory will be better than when the context is different.
When and how do infants learn to talk? Most infants utter their first words around their first birthdays. These one–word utterances typically label familiar things and are accompanied by gestures, facial expressions, and intonation that assist in conveying meaning. Infants learn vocabulary words from their caregivers' use of child–directed speech. But exactly how language is learned remains uncertain. According to Skinner, language is learned through training and reinforcement from parents and other caregivers. According to Chomsky, infants possess an innate language acquisition device that allows them to naturally discover the rules and vocabulary of the language to which they are exposed.
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Sensorimotor Intelligence Stages One and Two: Primary Circular Reactions Stages Three and Four: Secondary Circular Reactions Stages Five and Six: Tertiary Circular Reactions a view from science: Piaget and Modern Research -
Language: What Develops in the First Two Years? Theories of Language Learning opposing perspectives: Language and Video
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You’ve been flossing more,” the hygienist told me approvingly after she cleaned my teeth. Hurray, I am happy that she noticed. I never flossed as a child (did flossing exist then?) and I have rarely flossed in adulthood (I had no time, I rationalized) but for the past two months I have been flossing every morning. This change of behavior was primarily cognitive. First I read research that found a negative correlation between flossing and heart disease. Then I applied several techniques of behavior modification to myself. I am glad this new daily action accumulated to something remarkable.
But then she made excessive demands.
“You need to brush three minutes each time, and floss twice a day.”
“You will have less tartar.”
“What is wrong with tartar?”
“What is wrong with gingivitis?”
“It causes periodontitis.”
“What is wrong with periodontitis?”
She looked at me as if I were incredibly stupid, and said, “It is terrible, it is expensive, it is time-consuming. You could lose a tooth.”
I could have asked what’s wrong with losing a tooth. Instead I was quiet.
How does this apply to infant cognitive development? The cascade of events, from another minute of daily brushing to a tooth lost forever, is not unlike the cascade that transforms a newborn into a talking, goal-directed 2-year-old. Infants learn each day, from their first attempt to suck and swallow to their comprehension of some laws of physics, from recognition of Mother’s voice to memory for action sequences they have witnessed, from a reflexive cry to deliberate sentences.
Each day of looking and learning seems insignificant, yet responses accumulate to develop a toddler who thinks, understands, pretends, and explains. This chapter describes in detail those early days and months, which build the intellectual foundation for later thinking and talking. Nurture is not the only influence, of course; maturation is crucial too, but nurture is crucial.
Newborns seem to know nothing. Two years later they can make a wish, say it out loud, and blow out their birthday candles. Thousands of developmentalists have traced this rapid progression, finding that preverbal infants understand much more than adults once realized and that every day brings new cognitive development, guided by experience.
This chapter begins with Piaget, specifically his six stages of intellectual progression over the first two years. We then describe another approach to understanding infant cognition, information processing, with some intriguing research that uses methods such as habituation and brain scans and reveals preverbal memory and communication. The most dramatic evidence of early intellectual growth—talking fluently or haltingly in whatever language the caregivers choose—is then described.
The final topic of this chapter may be most important: What is the best way to nurture early cognition? Do developmentalists know answers that other people need to know?