Deck 6: Seciton 1: the First Two Years: Cognitive Development

Question 1

Describe the five stages of spoken language development from the first to second birthday.

Answer 1

12 mos: First word
13-18 mos: Vocabulary reaches 50 words
18 mos: Naming explosion
21 mos: Two-word sentences
24 mos: Multiword sentences

Question 2

How do the views of B. F. Skinner and Noam Chomsky differ in their explanations of infant language acquisition? Explain each view, and then defend the one that seems more convincing to you.

Answer 2

Noticing that an infant's first babbles are reinforced with smiles, repetition of the sound, and other forms of attention, Skinner believed that parents' responses reinforce the development of speech in their babies. In Skinner's behavioral theory, parents and other caregivers are teachers of language. In contrast, Chomsky believed that infants are born with an innate language acquisition device (LAD) that equips them to learn language on their own. According to his view, language learning is the result of neurological maturity.

Question 3

Identify the basic four theories of language learning and describe them.

Answer 3

1) Skinner said that infants need to be taught language through association and reinforcement. Children associate the names of objects and events with their meaning, and caregivers provide reinforcement for utterances that are close to real language (e.g., babbling "ma-ma-ma-ma" is rewarded with smiles). Skinner assumed that children who use language better are those whose caregivers spoke to them the most.
2) Social-pragmatic learning proposes that social impulses foster infant language. Children master words and grammar to join the social world of the people around them. This theory emphasizes that language requires social give-and-take; children cannot learn language from educational programs alone.
3) Chomsky said that learning language is innate or inborn, and that adults do not need to directly teach it. Children's innate drive to imitate, combined with a predisposition to derive the patterns in spoken language (thanks to a structure he referred to as a language acquisition device (LAD)), enable children to acquire the language to which they are exposed.
4) A hybrid theory proposed by Hollich et al. suggests that there is an emergent coalition of aspects of several of the theories. This theory contends that each of the three theories accounts for certain aspects of language acquisition, but to fully understand language acquisition, all three theories must be combined.

Question 4

Explain the characteristics of child-directed speech. Why is it used all over the world?

Question 5

Explain two ways in which parents can help to ensure that their baby develops good language skills.

Question 6

Briefly describe stages four through six of sensorimotor intelligence, including each stage's length. For each stage, give an example of an infant's behavior.

Question 7

Your friend has a 10-month-old infant. She's considering buying an expensive set of infant learning software to train her baby's cognitive ability. What advice would you give your friend about the wisdom of buying such a program? Give at least two reasons for your recommendation.

Question 8

Explain what the Gibsons meant by affordances and give an example.

Question 9

Explain the nature and limitations of memory in infants aged 0 to 9 months.

Question 10

Describe the five stages of spoken language development from birth until the first birthday.

Question 11

Define object permanence and when it begins. Describe how it is measured in laboratory settings and how it can be revealed in informal settings. Why is this concept considered a major milestone in cognitive development?

Question 12

Briefly describe the first three stages of sensorimotor intelligence, including each stage's length. For each stage, give an example of an infant's behavior.