Guidepost 1: How do infants learn, and how long can they remember?

• Two types of learning that behaviorists study are classical conditioning and operant conditioning.
• Rovee-Collier's research suggests that infants' memory processes are much like those of adults, but their memories fade quickly without periodic reminders.

Guidepost 2: Can infants' and toddlers' intelligence be measured, and how can it be improved?

• Psychometric tests measure factors presumed to make up intelligence.
• Developmental tests, such as the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, can indicate current functioning but are generally poor predictors of later intelligence.
• Socioeconomic status, parenting practices, and the home environment may affect measured intelligence.
• If developmental priming mechanisms are not present, early intervention may be needed.

Guidepost 3: How did Piaget describe infants' and toddlers' cognitive development, and how have his claims stood up?

• During Piaget's sensorimotor stage, infants' schemes become more elaborate. They progress from primary to secondary to tertiary circular reactions and finally to the development of representational ability, which makes possible deferred imitation, pretending, and problem solving.
• Object permanence develops gradually. Piaget saw the A, not-B, error as a sign of incomplete object knowledge and the persistence of egocentric thought.
• Research suggests that a number of abilities develop earlier than Piaget described. He may have underestimated young infants' grasp of object permanence and their imitative abilities.

Guidepost 4: How can we measure infants' ability to process information, and how does this ability relate to future intelligence?

• Information-processing researchers measure mental processes through habituation and other signs of perceptual abilities. Contrary to Piaget, such research suggests that representational ability is present virtually from birth.
• Indicators of the efficiency of infants' information processing, such as speed of habituation, tend to predict later intelligence.

Guidepost 5: When do babies begin to think about characteristics of the physical world?

• Violation-of-expectations research suggests that infants as young as 3½ to 5 months may have a rudimentary grasp of object permanence, a sense of number, the beginning of an understanding of causality, and an ability to reason about other characteristics of the physical world. Some researchers suggest that infants may have innate learning mechanisms for acquiring such knowledge. However, the meaning of these findings is in dispute.

Guidepost 6: What can brain research reveal about the development of cognitive skills?

• Brain studies have found that some forms of implicit memory and a primitive form of preexplicit memory develop during the first few months of life. Explicit memory and working memory emerge between 6 and 12 months of age. Neurological developments help explain the emergence of Piagetian skills and information-processing abilities.

Guidepost 7: How does social interaction with adults advance cognitive competence?

• Social interactions with adults contribute to cognitive competence through shared activities that help children learn skills, knowledge, and values important in their culture.

Guidepost 8: How do babies develop language?

• The acquisition of language is an important aspect of cognitive development.
• Prelinguistic speech includes crying, cooing, babbling, and imitating language sounds. By 6 months, babies have learned the basic sounds of their language and begin to become aware of its phonological rules and to link sound with meaning.
• Use of gestures is an important part of language development.
• Babies begin to recognize and understand words before they can say them. The first word typically comes sometime between 10 and 14 months, initiating linguistic speech. A "naming explosion" typically occurs sometime between 16 and 24 months of age.
• The first brief sentences generally come between 18 and 24 months. By age 3, syntax and communicative abilities are fairly well developed.
• Early speech is characterized by simplification, underextending and overextending word meanings, and overregularizing rules.
• Two classic theoretical views about how children acquire language are learning theory and nativism. Today, most developmentalists hold that an inborn capacity to learn language may be activated or constrained by experience.

Guidepost 9: What influences contribute to linguistic progress?

• Influences on language development include brain maturation and social interaction.
• Family characteristics, such as socioeconomic status and household size, may affect language learning.
• Child-directed speech (CDS) seems to have cognitive, emotional, and social benefits, and infants show a preference for it. However, some researchers dispute its value.
• Reading aloud to a child from an early age helps pave the way for literacy.