What is the nature and extent of infants reprentational abilities

-- suzanne hughes (suzannehughes397@hotmail.com), December 08, 2002

Answers

[Posted for ML by cdg.]

I presume that Suzanne is asking about the infant's representational abilities.

To represent something, means that you know something and can recall it (hopefully) in the absence of perceptual stimulation.

Lets take an example: Knowledge of the continued existence of objects. This is called in Infant psychology: Object permanence. When infants develop object permanence they know that the object continues to exist when out of sight (e.g. hidden). The infant represents the object. So if you cover an object, then the infant will uncover the object (if interested in it) because "out of sight (sight = peceptual stimulation) is not out of mind" (mind is where it is represented). It is not out of mind because the infant 'represents' the object (stores it in the mind).

This is the definition of infant representation.

The extent of this ability depends on the theoretical orientation of the researcher. Some researchers believe that infants are born with the ability to represent the world in a realistic way, and that with development, more information is added. Thus the knowledge becomes more precise and enriched (Gibsonian theory for instance).

Cognitive developmental theory proposes that infants construct a representation of things through acting on it (e.g. playing with objects, understanding that it is round (3 dimensional, makes noise, can be covered and uncovered - e.g. a rattle for instance).

Hope this helps.

-- Maria Legerstee (legerste@YorkU.CA), December 10, 2002.