Session 6 : Perceptual Development and Learning Capacities

1. Session 6 : Perceptual Development and Learning Capacities • Manju Nair

2. Vision • By 2 months children can focus as well as an adults can. • Colour vision is adult like by 4 months. • Visual acuity [fineness of discrimination] and tracking reaches adult like proficiency by 6 months.

3. Three aspects of vision: • Depth Perception • Pattern Perception • Object Perception

4. Hearing • Sense of musical phrasing by 4 to 7 months • Between 6 and 12 infants begin to detect sound regularities that will facilitate later language learning.

5. Learning and Perceptual Development • Infants understand the world through an intermodal system of perception, i.e they may perceive the shape of the object either by touching or looking at it. • Amodal sensory perception is not specific to a single modality e.g. rate, rhythm, duration etc. • It is believed that infants learn by looking at the invariant features of the environment. Acting on the environment is important for this and this leads to discovery of certain affordances e.g. motor capabilities.

6. The Sensory System • The 7 Senses are: • 1. Tactile or Somatosensory System– sense of touch • 2. Visual System— sense of sight • 3. Auditory System—sense of hearing • 4. Gustatory System—sense of taste • 5. Olfactory System—sense of smell • 6. Vestibular System– sense of balance • 7. Proprioception System– sense of body position

7. Learning Capacity of Infants • Infants are born with capability to learn and according to Behaviorists, capable of two forms of learning: classical conditioning and operant conditioning. • Babies enjoy novel stimulation [habituation] and they also learn through imitation.

8. New borns depend on reflexes for classical conditioning. • Unconditioned stimulus leads to unconditioned response, e.g. taste of sweet breast milk leads to sucking. • A neutral stimulus has to be introduced along with unconditioned stimulus for learning to occur.

9. When learning occurs, the neutral stimulus or conditioned stimulus leads to a response similar to reflexive response. • This response is called the conditioned response. If the two stimuli do not occur together it leads to extinction of response. Newborns learn best when the stimuli has survival value. • Responses such as fear are very difficult to classically condition.

10. Operant conditioning is dependent on the infant acting on the environment. It is dependent on reinforcers or punishment. • E.g. sucking faster and visual or auditory stimulus. • Operant conditioning helps study infants preferences and what they can perceive.

11. Habituation • Habituation is the process by which the strength of a response decreases through repeated stimulation. • Human brain is attracted to novelty from birth. • A process by which responsiveness returns to a high level is called recovery.

12. Imitation • Finally newborns learn through imitation. Imitation helps them socialize and also learn appropriate social behavior such as smiling. • Imitation happens much earlier than what we previously assumed, i.e. almost soon after birth.

13. What is cognition? • Cognition refers to: inner processes and products of the mind that lead to knowing. • Mental activity include: attending, remembering, symbolizing, categorizing, planning, reasoning & problem solving. • Human species depends on mental faculties for survival.

14. Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental Theory • The processes children use to construct knowledge are: • Schemas, Assimilation, Accommodation, Organisation, Equilibrium.

15. Schemas • They are specific psychological structures or organized ways of making sense of experience. • They are organized representations of actions (e.g. reflexes), thoughts (e.g. concepts), and processes (e.g. problem solving strategies) • Schemas or schemata provide the framework with which we interpret new experiences and construct new schemata or integrate new information into existing schemata.

16. Adaptation • It is the tendency of organisms to modify themselves to meet environmental demands through direct interaction with the environment. • This is done in two ways, through Assimilation and through Accommodation.

17. Assimilation • Assimilation occurs when children incorporate new information into their existing schemas. • During Assimilation they use their current schemas to interpret the external world.

18. Accommodation • Accommodation occurs when children adjust their new schemas to fit new information and experiences. • In Accommodation, they create new schemas or adjust old ones after noticing that current ways of thinking do not fit the environment completely.

19. Equilibrium • When children are trying to make sense of new experiences they experience what is called a cognitive conflict [cognitive dissonance] or disequilibrium. • When this occurs children are trying to organize and reorganize the existing schemas and may form new schemas. • This resolution of conflict and reaching a state of mental balance is called Equilibrium.

20. Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development • The first stage that lasts from birth to about 2 years is called the Sensorimotor Stage. • The Sensorimotor stage is further divided into six stages; that a new born undergoes till he reaches the age of two.

21. The Sensorimotor Substages • Reflexive schemes. • Primary circular reactions. • Secondary circular reactions. • Coordination of secondary circular reactions. • Tertiary circular reactions. • Mental representation.

23. Object Permanence • Understanding that objects and events continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, heard, or touched. • Acquiring object permanence, according to Piaget is one of the infant’s most important accomplishments.

24. Cause and Effect. • This is the understanding that particular actions [cause] bring about certain reactions [effect]. • This ability appears between 7 to 9 months, and is considered to be another important cognitive development.

25. Some more Definitions & Concepts • Circular reaction i.e. a repetition of a chance action helps develop new schemas. This process is first focused on the self then on external objects and finally leads to experimentation and creatively manipulating the environment. • Intentional behavior: a sequence of actions combining schemas deliberately to solve problems. • Deferred imitation: ability to imitate behavior of those not present.

26. Some more Definitions & Concepts • Sensorimotor sub stage is characterized by these Piagetian concepts such as: repeating chance behaviors and intentional behavior, object permanence, deferred imitation, beginnings of categorization, problem solving and make believe play.

27. Vygotsky’s Theory of Cognitive Development • The influence of the environment is critical for cognitive development. • Children live in a rich, social and cultural context that affects the way their cognitive world is structured. • Through joint activities with more mature members of their society, children master activities and ways of thinking that are unique to and have meaning in their own culture.

28. ZPD & Scaffolding • Zone of Proximal Development refers to tasks that a child cannot yet handle alone but can do with the help of a more skilled partner or partners. • Scaffolding is the changing levels of support that the adult offers. The adult guides and supports the child according to his current level of performance.

29. http://www.mrkeenan.com/?p=658 - Illustration Aparna R Rajan

30. http://www.scss.tcd.ie/disciplines/information_systems/crite/crite_web/lpr/teaching/constructivism.html. Illustration by Aparna R Rajan

31. Class Activity • If you were given an opportunity to design a Child Care centre for infants and toddlers 0 to 3 years of age, what would be some of the experiences, opportunities, materials etc that you would incorporate for the child’s optimum physical and cognitive development.