Chapter 6 Outline — Part 1 (of 2)

  1. Perception and Cognition
    1. The Gibson’s Affordances
      1. Affordance = each of the various opportunities for perception, action, and interaction that an object or place offers to any individual.
      2. Affordances depend on
        1. Past experiences
        2. Current developmental/maturation level
        3. Sensory awareness of the opportunities
        4. Immediate needs and motivation
      3. Reflexes- some of the first affordances
        1. Graspability, suckability, noisemaking, and movability
        2. Early perceptual abilities
          1. Visual cliff experiment — depth perception
    2. Dynamic Perception
      1. Definition: primed to focus on movement and change
      2. Object permanence
        1. ability to understand that people and objects still exist even when they cannot be seen, touched, or heard
        2. Baillargeon’s hinged screen experiment

     

  2. Key Elements of Cognitive Growth
    1. Categorization
      1. As age increases, categorization of objects becomes more complex.
    2. Memory
      1. Freud: infantile amnesia = the inability to remember anything that happened before the age of two years and only important events before the age of five years
      2. Reminder session = an experience that triggers an entire memory
        1. memory of young infants can be reactivated
    3. Deferred Imitation
      1. Definition: the ability to witness, remember, and later copy a particular behavior
    4. Awareness of Cause and Effect
      1. Launching event — triggers a particular happening
      2. Infants begin to draw cause and effect inferences at 6-10 months