Infant Cognitive Development
...they move their gaze along with the toy. Then move the toy all the way to the left before slowly returning to the starting position. 2. Tracking a moving toy behind a screen. With a cardboard screen in the middle of the table, start with a toy to one side of the screen. When you have the babies attention, move it toward the screen and behind it so that it comes out the other side. Do this again toward the other direction as well. 3. Partially covered objects Hold the toy in front of the baby to gain his attention. Then making sure its within reach of the child, place it on the table and cover half of it with a cloth. 4. Completely Covered Objects Get the babies attention with the toy, and this time, place it all of the way under the cloth. See if the baby realizes that there is still a toy there, even if it is under a washcloth. 5. Changing Hiding Places With both cloths on the table, this time get the babies attention and then place the toy under one of the cloths. See if the baby knows where the toy is. Repeat with the sane cloth once more before moving on to the other cloth. 6. Invisable Displacement of Object Using one cloth, put the toy in a closed hand. Put the toy under the cloth and when bringing it out, keep your hand closed as if you still have a toy in your hand. If the baby follows the task well, use two cloths and put the toy under one cloth before moving it to the second cloth. We used four different babies in our video lab. The following shows how the different babies reacted to the experiment. Allen--5 months (Secondary Circular Reactions) Allen was a very attentive baby and was very good tempered. He continuously smiled throughout the experiments. He played peek-a-boo with his family often. Allen really only completed the first two tasks completely, failing to complete the others. He showed secondary circular reactions by continuously taking the washcloth and placing it in his mouth. Daley--10 months (Coordination of Schemes) Daley was a very happy and attentive baby, and was very easy to work with, as was Allen. Daley performed very well on the first two tasks, and responded easily when we talked to him. He tracked the toy with his eyes when we moved it, as well as realizing that the toy came out the other side of the screen. He had a little bit more difficulty when we moved on to the tasks where we hid the toy under the washcloth. Although at times, he did pick up the washcloth, he was then more interested in the washcloth and persisted to put the washcloth into his mouth. When this started happening, he began to lose interest in finding the toy, and more of an interest in putting the cloths in his mouth. Zach--12 ½ months (Tertiary Circular Reactions) Zach was a very active toddler and was well aware of what was going on. When the experimenters moved the toy behind the screen, Alex leaned over and looked behind the screen. He realized that the toy didn’t disappear, as a younger baby might think. He performed the tasks very well, and he only lost interest when he realized that there was a T.V. in the room. After finding this out, it was hard to get his attention back to the tasks. When Peter did the last task of Invisable Displacement of an Object, he placed the toy under the cloth but kept his hand in a fist making it seem like the toy was in his hand. Zach noticed this and tried to open Peter’s hand to see if the toy was in fact, there. Alex--18 months (Beginnings of Representational Thought) Although Alex is supposed to be in the sixth stage of The Sensorimotor Period, we weren’t able to tell as we had some trouble in the labs with him. Before the lab, he was playing with markers and in an attempt to get him interested in the toy we would be experimenting with, his mother took Ernie and let him play with it. When the lab was about to begin we took Ernie back from him and he immediately began crying. He completed the first task and the second task, reaching for the toy the whole time. Upon retrieving the toy, he threw it across the room. He then squirmed off his mother’s lap, got the toy and when the lab door was opened, he took off down the hall screaming. He continued screaming for the next 15 minutes until it was decided that the lab could not go on, as he didn’t seem willing to cooperate at this point. When Piaget performed this study, a child in stage 3 should be able to reach for a partially covered object. This is the last task that they should be able to perform though, as Piaget explained that the child needs to be able to see part of the object to realize that it still exists. Allen varied from Piaget’s experiment because he only made it to the first two tasks. Even when the object was only partially covered, he was more interested in picking up the washcloth and placing that in his mouth. In stage 4, which is 8 to 12 months, the infant should be able to search for a hidden object. This shows that they understand that the obje...