Infant cognitive development is the first stage of human cognitive development, in the youngest children. The academic field of infant cognitive development studies of how psychological processes involved in thinking and knowing develop in young children. Information is acquired in a number of ways including through sight, sound, touch, taste, smell and language, all of which require processing by our cognitive system. Scientific investigation in this field has its origin in the first half of the 20th century, an early and influential theory in this field is Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development. Since Piaget's contribution to the field, infant cognitive development and methods for its investigation have advanced considerably, with numerous psychologists investigating different areas of cognitive development including memory, language and perception, coming up with various theories—for example Neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development.
Overview
Tabula rasa is an idea (by now a discredited theory) that, at birth, the human mind is a "blank slate" without any rules for processing data, that data is added and rules for processing it are formed solely by one's sensory experiences. The modern idea of the theory is mostly attributed to John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, written in the 17th century. Its corollary, nativism, argues that we are born with certain cognitive modules that allow us to learn and acquire certain skills, such as language, (for example the theory of Universal Grammar, the theory that the 'programming' for grammar is hardwired in the brain) and is most associated with the recent work of Noam Chomsky, Jerry Fodor, and Steven Pinker. If one accepts that nothing is known until learned, and that everyone shares a basic common sense, it appears infants must—to some degree—make some specific ontological inferences about how the world works, and what kinds of things it contains. This procedure is studied in psychology and its validity is studied in philosophy.
We acquire these ordinary [common sense] beliefs at an early age and we take them for granted in everyday life; ... Then, because we are also self-reflective creatures, we turn back on our commonsense assumptions and find them to be more puzzling and problematic than we had bargained for. The concepts we habitually employ raise the kinds of disturbing questions we call philosophical'. The notion of shared intentionality, a category of processes during social learning at the onset of life when organisms in the simple-reflexes substage of the sensorimotor stage of cognitive development do not maintain communication via the sensory system, proposes another approach to the problem: Cognition is fostered by social bonds between children and caregivers, which gradually increase through shared intentionality. Based on recent insights in neuroscience research, proponents argue that this collaborative interaction emerges in the mother-child pairs at birth for sharing the essential sensory stimulus of the actual cognitive problem.
Jean Piaget Through observations of children, Jean Piaget established a theory of cognitive development. According to Piaget's theory of cognitive development there are four stages of cognitive development.
Sensorimotor Stage (Birth to 24 Months) Preoperational Stage (24 Months to 7 Years) Concrete Operational Stage (7 Years to 12 Years) Formal Operational Stage (12 Years and Up) Infant cognitive development occurs in the Sensorimotor stage which starts at birth and extends until the infant is about 2 years of age. The sensorimotor stage is made up of six sub-stages.
In the sensorimotor stage, language is absent however infants do show signs of the development of intelligence via action schemes, the basic ways of learning about the physical world. This begins with reflexes, fixed and predictable behavioral responses. Reflexes which can be practiced develop into action schemes via assimilation, fitting new experiences into what they already know. The conditioning of reflexes causes the development of habits, systematic coordinated behaviors, but infants fail to understand the causality of their behavior. They then develop coordination, involving grasping and manipulating objects to know how their actions cause things to occur, but without understanding why it occurs, in a form of practical intelligence. They then divide different objects by their physical properties. Once action schemes are formed, they can be connected and differentiated using accommodation based on where and when objects exist. Finally, infants are able to connect and differentiate their internal world with the external world.
Lev Vygotsky Lev Vygotsky was also very influential in cognitive development theory. His theory included the Zone of proximal development. Vygotsky also believed that social and cultural factors contributed heavily to cognitive development. Vygotsky argued that development first takes place socially as infants observe their parent's behavior and try to imitate it. As this imitation occurs, parents will guide their children, correcting them and provide challenges for them. Play is an integral part of cognitive development according to Vygotsky, as it is through this play that children gain confidence in their language skills, and start regulating their own thought processes. Through his research Vygotsky suggested that a child's performance differs depending on whether they are solving a problem alone or if another child or adult is assisting them. He refers to this difference as the "zone of proximal development". The theory states that if a child is learning to complete a task, and a more competent person is able to provide assistance, then the child is able to move into a new zone of development and problem solving. Vygotsky refers to this movement through assistance as "scaffolding" and helps bridge the gap between the child's current cognitive abilities and their full potential.
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