Chapter 6 Sensorimotor intelligence occurs in the first two years where infants learn through the senses and motor skills that were developing before birth and continue to develop throughout infancy Primary Circular Reactions Stage one is reflexes such as sucking staring and listening and Stage two is when they first acquire adaptations such as accommodation and coordination of reflexes Secondary Circular Reactions Stage three is when infants make interesting sights last such as responding to people and objects and Stage four is when there is new adaptation and anticipation becoming more purposeful in responding to people and objects Tertiary Circular Reactions Stage five is little scientists experimentation and creativity and Stage six is consideration before action infants resort to trial and error and mental combinations Deferred imitation occurs when infants copy behavior they noticed hours or even days earlier Habituation refers to getting accustomed to an experience after repeated exposure loss of interest Functional magnetic resonance fMRI is a burst of electrical activity measured by blood flow within the brain is recorded indicating that neurons are firing Epigenetic theory states that emotions of infants and toddlers are determined both by genetic makeup and environmental influences as is true of many other aspects of a person at that stage Information processing theory includes an input of information and once perceived the infant displays an output that signifies understanding and comprehension Affordance are the opportunities for interaction with what is perceived offered from the environment that depends on sensory awareness immediate motivation current development and past experience Visual cliff designed to provide the illusion of a sudden drop off between one surface to another Dynamic perception focuses on movement and change People preference is an infant perception where they recognize certain people and expect certain affordances from them when they were young Childhood amnesia is when infants forget experiences people and even languages they knew A reminder session is any experience that helps people recollect an idea a thing or an event Toddlers can transfer learning from one object or experience to another and that they learn from various people and events the dendrites and neurons change to reflect their experiences Infants not only remember specific events but also develop memories for patterns Implicit memory is memory that remains hidden until a particular stimulus brings it to mind Explicit memory is memory that can be recalled on demand and are usually verbal Child directed speech is when adults use higher pitch simpler words repetition varied speeds and exaggerated emotional tones when they speak to infants and fosters learning Babbling is when babies begin to repeat certain syllables and is experience expectant Infants imitate what they hear in accents cadence and consonants all babies express concepts with gestures sooner than with speech Intonation variations of tone and pitch is extensive in early babbling and again in holophrase a single word that expresses an entire thought Naming explosion is the language increase among toddlers where they rapidly express words In every language infants demonstrate impressive speed and efficiency in acquiring both vocabulary and grammar Grammar includes all the methods that languages use to communicate meaning word order prefixes suffixes intonation verb forms pronouns and negations prepositions and articles Theory one All learning is acquired step by step through association and reinforcement infants associate objects with words they have heard often especially if reinforcement occurs Parents are expert teachers although caregivers help frequent repetition is instructive and Well taught infants become well spoken children If adults want children who speak understand and later read well they must talk to their infants Theory two Called social pragmatic and arises from communication Infants communicate because humans are social beings dependent on one another for survival and joy Social content of speech is universal which is why babies learn the specifics their culture provides Infants learn better when someone actively taught them suggesting personal social language acquisition and not impersonal learning People differ from the great apes in that they are social driven to communicate Theory three Language learning is innate not a by product of social interaction and adults need not teach but arises from the universal human impulse to imitate Chomsky believed a mental structure language acquisition device LAD enables children to derive the rules of grammar from the speech they hear every day regardless of native language Language itself is experience expectant in this theory but is actually experience dependent Hybrid theory Some aspects of language learning may be best explained by one theory at one age and other aspects by another theory at another age 10 month olds seemed to assign the word to the object but 18 month olds wait for the word to be assigned to the object by someone else before assigning it themselves Multiple attentional social and linguistic cues contribute to early language Nature provides several paths toward language learning and each child learns differently Parents need to talk often to their infants theory one encourage social interaction theory two and appreciate the innate abilities of the child theory three