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An Account of Infants’ Physical Reasoning

Renée Baillargeon, Jie Li, Weiting Ng, and Sylvia Yuan

in Learning and the Infant Mind

This chapter presents an account of infants' physical reasoning. The account rests on two central claims. One is that infants' physical representations of events initially include only basic ... More

This chapter presents an account of infants' physical reasoning. The account rests on two central claims. One is that infants' physical representations of events initially include only basic information and become increasingly richer and more detailed as infants gradually identify relevant variables. The other claim is that infants primarily learn what information to include in their physical representations, not how to interpret this information once represented. Infants' core knowledge provides a causal framework for interpreting both the basic and the variable information infants include in their physical representations.Less

Numerical Identity and the Development of Object Permanence

M. Keith Moore and Andrew N. Meltzoff

in Neoconstructivism: The New Science of Cognitive Development

This chapter proposes an identity development (ID) account of object permanence that locates the origins and development of permanence in infants' notions of how to determine and trace numerical ... More

This chapter proposes an identity development (ID) account of object permanence that locates the origins and development of permanence in infants' notions of how to determine and trace numerical identity. The arguments and evidence generated from this approach suggest a number of conclusions: (a) object permanence understanding is not an all-or-none attainment; (b) permanence is understood for some disappearance transforms but not others; (c) the development of infants' spatiotemporal criteria for numerical identity provide the form and ordering of the disappearance transforms over which they understand permanence; (d) apparent violations of permanence can cause negative emotion; and (e) taking seriously the conceptual distinctions between representation, identity, and permanence offers considerable theoretical power. The chapter presents a mechanism of change to account for the transition from having no concept of permanence to having permanence.Less

A Bottom-up Approach to Infant Perception and Cognition: A Summary of Evidence and Discussion of Issues

Leslie B. Cohen

in Neoconstructivism: The New Science of Cognitive Development

This chapter presents a bottom-up approach to infant perception and cognition. It provides evidence from topics ranging from infant angle perception to infant categorization and early word learning ... More

This chapter presents a bottom-up approach to infant perception and cognition. It provides evidence from topics ranging from infant angle perception to infant categorization and early word learning that a constructivist, building block type of system seems to capture much of the acquisition process. The system, which is domain-general and occurs at many different ages, uses correlational, conditional, and perhaps other types of relations to construct higher-order units from combinations of lower-order units. Even though this system describes how changes may occur in many aspects of infant perception and cognition, it still is only a description of behavior and behavioral change. A more complete explanation requires models that are explicit about the mechanisms underlying that change. Connectionist models may be one vehicle for doing that, but most of the ones designed so far for infant perception and cognition are limited to a single area of application and do not deal adequately with underlying and repeated developmental changes. The models are a good first step, however, and they do highlight an interesting and important issue. Fundamentally, they are models of learning, some that do require feedback and others that just self-organize from the inputs they receive. But they do raise the issue of similarities and differences between mechanisms underlying learning and mechanisms underlying development.Less

The Role of Learning in Cognitive Development: Challenges and Prospects

Richard N. Aslin

in Learning and the Infant Mind

This chapter reviews the discussions in the preceding chapters in an attempt to bring these seemingly related, but often separate, mechanisms of development into some sort of synergy. It takes a ... More

This chapter reviews the discussions in the preceding chapters in an attempt to bring these seemingly related, but often separate, mechanisms of development into some sort of synergy. It takes a two-pronged approach to accomplish this task: raising the set of key questions that the conference organizers posed to each presenter, and answering them by citing the work of the presenters or by challenging them (and the field) to strive to address them. The chapter also dwells on some of these key questions to raise additional challenges for the field.Less

Child health and cognitive development in developing countries

Alok Bhargava

in Food, Economics, and Health

This chapter extends the framework developed in Chapter 3 for the analysis of health indicators (height, weight, and morbidity) to children's psychological indicators such as scores on cognitive ... More

This chapter extends the framework developed in Chapter 3 for the analysis of health indicators (height, weight, and morbidity) to children's psychological indicators such as scores on cognitive tests. This is important because children's learning is a cumulative process and future supply of skilled labour depends on cognitive achievements at various stages. The results from the analyses of data from Kenya and Tanzania show the importance of children's health status for their scores on cognitive and educational achievement tests. The empirical results identified key determinants of child development.Less

Varieties of Attention in Infancy

John Colombo, Leah Kapa, and Lori Curtindale

in Infant Perception and Cognition: Recent Advances, Emerging Theories, and Future Directions

This chapter summarizes over twenty years of research on the development of attention in human infants. It begins by briefly tracing the history of consideration of attention as a construct in the ... More

This chapter summarizes over twenty years of research on the development of attention in human infants. It begins by briefly tracing the history of consideration of attention as a construct in the developmental literature; it has been evident for some time that a multicomponent conceptualization of this cognitive function is necessary. Using the development and evolution of a research program conducted in Kansas over the past twenty-five years as a basis, it reviews the development of attention from the multicomponent perspective. Such an examination requires a discussion of the neural basis of these processes, and shows the inexorable movement of the field toward cognitive neuroscience. The chapter concludes with a discussion of some future questions for the study of attention in infancy and early childhood.Less

Translating ‘infant-directed singing’ into a strategy for the hospitalized family

Helen Shoemark

in Music Therapy and Parent–Infant Bonding

This chapter explores the possibilities for the music therapist employing infant-directed singing both with the infant's family, and also directly with the infant. First, the experience of the ... More

This chapter explores the possibilities for the music therapist employing infant-directed singing both with the infant's family, and also directly with the infant. First, the experience of the healthy infant in the context of the infant's family is presented, and then an exploration of the hospital experience for a newborn infant and family creates a picture about the potential and value of music therapy in this context. Finally, the chapter focuses on how and why infant-directed singing provides a simple yet potent experience for the developing infant.Less

Music therapy for hospitalized infants and their parents

Joanne V. Loewy

in Music Therapy and Parent–Infant Bonding

Infants and parents who experience risk may be faced with traumatic challenges. This is especially true for premature babies where the necessity for medical interventions often requires that they be ... More

Infants and parents who experience risk may be faced with traumatic challenges. This is especially true for premature babies where the necessity for medical interventions often requires that they be separated from their parents. In these circumstances, parents are at high risk for developing depression. The inability to bond can result from this physical separation impeding the natural course of development for both baby and parent. This may, in turn, interfere with the beginning stages of healthy emotional growth. This chapter discusses music medicine and music psychotherapy approaches that provide unique opportunities for infants and children, especially as they are treated within a family-centred care context.Less

Acuity cards and the search for risk factors in infant visual development

François Vital-Durand, Louis Ayzac, and Gabriel Pinzaru

in Infant Vision

It is widely accepted that the major steps of visual development occur during the first eighteen months of life. Resolution, measured with acuity cards, improves steadily from birth where it is close ... More

It is widely accepted that the major steps of visual development occur during the first eighteen months of life. Resolution, measured with acuity cards, improves steadily from birth where it is close to one cycle per degree (20/600) to near fifteen cycles/degree (20/40) toward the end of the first year. Introduction of Teller Acuity Cards (TAC) has been a strong incentive to promote early detection of visual defects by allowing the estimation of resolution at any age as well as in infants afflicted by visual deficits. Specifically, this chapter investigates the sensitivity and specificity of TAC in clinical practice, when considered as a single test in a standard battery of tests. Few studies have described a general population of infants in terms of visual capacity. The present study is based on data gathered over four years from a large population of infants.Less

Neurobiology and Development

Wendy B. Smith

in Youth Leaving Foster Care: A Developmental, Relationship-Based Approach to Practice

Chapter 3 describes infant brain development, the structures of the brain and the functions of brain regions, especially the limbic system and the orbitofrontal cortex. The brain’s response to ... More

Chapter 3 describes infant brain development, the structures of the brain and the functions of brain regions, especially the limbic system and the orbitofrontal cortex. The brain’s response to stress and the developing stress response system of the young child is explained. Recent research on the neurobiological impact of trauma in infancy and its impact on the development of risk for psychopathology in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood is summarized for the reader. The chapter includes research on maltreatment and its relationship to the development of memory, affect regulation, and cognition in the first months and years.Less

Experiments on Babies

Shuttleworth Sally

in The Mind of the Child: Child Development in Literature, Science, and Medicine, 1840-1900

This chapter examines the emergence of the baby show in England during the 19th century as the cultural dimension of the rise of the scientific interest in the baby. The first major baby show was ... More

This chapter examines the emergence of the baby show in England during the 19th century as the cultural dimension of the rise of the scientific interest in the baby. The first major baby show was held in Woolwich in July 1869, which drew extensive press coverage. The emergence of the baby show as a disturbing cultural phenomenon occurred at the time of the very height of concern about ‘baby farming’, and newspapers and periodicals were quick to pick up on the parallels.Less

The Right to Be Touched

in Erotic Attunement: Parenthood and the Ethics of Sensuality between Unequals

This chapter investigates the empirical research on touch and attachment. It argues that loving touch and intimate attachment are significant for infant development and flourishing. It examines touch ... More

This chapter investigates the empirical research on touch and attachment. It argues that loving touch and intimate attachment are significant for infant development and flourishing. It examines touch research generally to argue that most people need human touch in order to flourish physically, emotionally, and socially, not to mention morally. The firm touch was received in a sustained hug, during a massage, while being held, or in a sexual encounter. Adult pleasure in touch was inevitable and potentially problematic, and yet parents, teachers, and other intimate caretakers were, for the sake of both the children and their relationships with them, obliged to touch children comfortingly and affectionately. It is argued that if affectionate, firm touch is necessary to both our being and our being “becomingly,” then it is a right.Less

Communication, Music, and Language in Infancy

Sandra E. Trehub

in Language, Music, and the Brain: A Mysterious Relationship

Music, as considered here, is a mode of communication, one that has particular resonance for preverbal infants. Infants detect melodic, rhythmic, and expressive nuances in music as well as in the ... More

Music, as considered here, is a mode of communication, one that has particular resonance for preverbal infants. Infants detect melodic, rhythmic, and expressive nuances in music as well as in the intonation patterns of speech. They have ample opportunity to use those skills because mothers shower them with melodious sounds, both sung and spoken. Infants are sensitive to distributional information in such input, proceeding from culture-general to culture-specific skills with alacrity. Mothers’ arousal regulatory goals are well known, but their intuitive didactic agenda is often ignored. Regardless of the amiable and expert tutoring that most infants receive, their progress from avid consumers of music and speech to zealous producers is remarkable. Published in the Strungmann Forum Reports Series.Less

Rescuing the infant brain

Val Gillies, Rosalind Edwards, and Nicola Horsley

in Challenging the Politics of Early Intervention: Who's 'saving' Children and Why

This chapter turns to the latest diagnosis of the problem that early intervention aims to address, focusing on the quality of parenting and infant brain development. It explores how brain claims came ... More

This chapter turns to the latest diagnosis of the problem that early intervention aims to address, focusing on the quality of parenting and infant brain development. It explores how brain claims came to define and propel to the fore early intervention in how mothers bring up their children as a logical expression of social investment models of social policy. The chapter also looks at the use and misuse of developmental neuroscience and of evidence for the early years being formative, to open to question the detail of the five key biologised motifs — critical periods, maternal attunement, synaptic density, cortisol and the prefrontal cortex — that are mobilised to make the case for intervention in the parenting of young, disadvantaged and marginalised mothers.Less

Movement Synchrony, Joint Actions, and Collective Agency in Infancy

Bahar Tunçgenç

in Distributed Agency

Most human actions take place jointly with others rather than solitarily. In the context of such joint actions, it is often difficult to distinguish the boundaries among the participants. Who is the ... More

Most human actions take place jointly with others rather than solitarily. In the context of such joint actions, it is often difficult to distinguish the boundaries among the participants. Who is the agent that performs the action, and who is the recipient? Where do one individual’s actions end and the other’s begin? Instead of evaluating each individual separately, a sense of “we-ness” emerges in joint action settings. This chapter investigates the early development of joint actions by highlighting its social, cognitive, and motor underpinnings. The role of understanding the goals and intentions of other people, identifying animate and inanimate entities as agents, and sharing attention and coordinating movements with other people are assessed with regard to their role in the development of joint actions during infancy.Less