Memory in Infants

1. Memory in Infants • How do you study memory in an infant? • By using the orienting response & habituation • Orienting Response = tendency to respond to new stimulation by becoming more alert (shows recognition that stimulus has changed) • Habituation = When stimulus becomes familiar, infant responds less to it (this can be interpreted as demonstrating memory)

2. Development of Infant Memory • Three sequential phases in development of memory: • Neurons fire when a new stimulus is presented and stops with habituation • Around 3 months infants actively look and search and show recognition for things • Around 8 months infants can remember categories of things such as “fuzzy things” and “toys”

3. Intellectual Achievements • The Object Concept – learning to think beyond the “here and now.” • Modifying schemas (assimilation) versus creating new schemas (accommodation) – equilibration • Intention and imitation • Learning new behaviors through observation

4. Cognitive Development in Infancy

5. Cognitive Development • I. Basics of Piaget • Children ACTIVELY construct their cognitive world • Two processes: • Organization and adaptation • Piaget says we adapt in two ways: • Assimilation • Accommodation

6. More Basics • Schema 4 forces that shape development for Piaget • Equilibration • Maturation • Active Experience • Social Interaction

7. Sensorimotor Period • Birth-2 years • No object permanence 1. Exercising Reflexes 0-1 mos. 2. Primary Circular reactions (repetitive actions) 1-4 mos. 3. Secondary Circular Reactions (Actions with people and objects) 4-8 mos. 4. Purposeful Coordination (goal directed actions) 8-12 mos. 5. Tertiary Circular Reactions (experimentation) 12-18 mos. 6. Mental representation (symbolic representation) 18-24 mos.

8. What is Language? • A system of symbols that are used to communicate with others • The Influence of Biology • Evolution • Critical Period (18 mos - puberty)-Genie • LAD (Language Acquisition Device)-Chomsky

9. Stages of Language Development 1st stage: crying, cooing, gurgling -echoing, labeling from parents 2nd stage: 3-6 month -babbling -universal adaptability/universal linguist 3rd stage: 12 months, 1 -word stage -holophrase hypothesis -overextension/underextension -24 mos, 2- word stage, telegraphic speech

10. Social and Emotional Development in Infancy • Focus Questions: • How do infants influence caregivers? • Are all infants the same in terms of emotional reactions and personality? • Are mother-infant bonds biological or learned? • What happens when infants are separated from caregivers? • What do “average, normal, and exceptional” mean?

11. Contextual Model • Family relationships impact members in a reciprocal fashion • Second order effects • Influence father has on mother • Relationship between mother and infant • Effect of child on marital relationship • Economic changes

12. II. Attachment & Temperament • What is Attachment? • Harry Harlow’s Studies • Differences in Attachment Styles

13. Separation Anxiety • Ainsworth – strange situation • Setting designed to evaluate the infant’s reaction at being separated from, and later reunited with, a caregiver. • Used to assess infant attachment • Can minimize fear reactions by having many familiar people and objects around

14. Stranger Anxiety • Unusual prior to 6 months of age • Peaks at about 9 to 15 months • Uneasy or fear response to something that is non-familiar • Incongruity hypothesis – child is developing a familiarity (and sense of predictability) with environment that stranger challenges

15. Attachment • Mary Ainsworth • Strange Situation

17. Attachment Styles • At first, 3 Attachment Styles • Secure (60%) • Insecure • anxious-avoidant (20%) • Anxious-ambivalent/resistant (12%) • Then…Disorganized/Disoriented (8%) (Main & Solomon, 1990)

18. Types of Attachment • Securely attached – use mother as base of exploration – warm contact upon reunion • Insecure-avoidant – display negative behavior at reunion • Insecure-resistant – may appear to want held and then push mother away • Disorganized-disoriented – range of behaviors such as crying and then running from parent

19. Figure 6.3 Types of infant attachment. Source: Based in part on Ainsworth et al. (1978). Patterns of Attachment. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum; and on M. Main & J. Solomon (1986). Discovery of an insecure, disorganized/disoriented attachment pattern: Procedures, findings, and implications for the classification of behavior. In M. Yogman & T. B. Brazelton, eds., Affective development in infancy. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex.

21. Temperament • What is temperament? • 3 Basic types or clusters

22. Infant Temperament • Thomas, Chess, and Birch (1970) • Activity level • Rhythmicity • Approach-withdrawal • Adaptability • Sensitivity to stimuli • Intensity of reaction Chess & Thomas, 1991 • Easy (40%) • Difficult (15%) • Slow-to-warm-up (10%) • Varying Mixtures/Unclassified (35%)

23. Figure 6.1  Infant temperaments. What sort of infant were you? Ask your mother, your father, a sibling, or someone else who can tell you. Do you see any relationship between who you are now and what you were like as an infant? Source: Based on classifications used by Thomas, Chess, and Birch (1968, 1970, 1981) in the New York Longitudinal Study (NYLS).

24. Buss & Plomin, 1987 1. Emotionality 2. Sociability 3. Activity Level

25. Crying • Infants don’t cry because they want to – they cry because they have to • It expresses a need, a fear, a frustration, a relief • Peak period for infant crying is around 6 weeks • Persistent crying is sign of a serious problem

26. Kinds of Cries • Wolff analyzed tape recording of infant cries • Identified 4 distinct cries • Rhythmic cry – typical cry that seems non-serious • Angry cry – protracted loudness • Pain cry – long wail followed by breath holding • Hunger cry – parents usually readily respond

27. Smiling and Laughing • Reflex smiling – brainstem response. • Social smiling – in response to auditory and visual stimuli. • Selective social smile – occurs in response to social stimuli with which the child is familiar.