A Developmental Sequence of Agent Use in Late Infancy

Watson, Malcolm W.; Fischer, Kurt W.

doi:10.2307/1128331

Cited by 194 publications

(96 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…The first two steps are also suggested by research on children's spontaneous pretend play (Dasen, Inhelder, Lavalle'e, & Retschitzki, 1978;Watson & Fischer, 1977).…”

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confidence: 87%

Development of social roles in elicited and spontaneous behavior during the preschool years.

Watson¹,

Fischer²

1980

Developmental Psychology

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In two experiments, children between l l /2 and 7 l /2 years of age were tested on a predicted, eight-step sequence of the development of social roles. Performance on this sequence was related to two measures of more spontaneous behavior. Nearly all children fit the predicted sequence perfectly. By 2 years of age, most children could make a doll act as an independent agent. The majority of 3-yearolds could make a doll carry out several behaviors fitting the role of doctor. At age 4 or 5, most children developed the capacity to show a social role, making a doctor doll interact with a patient doll. The intersection of social roles for two agents appeared at about age 6: A man doll could be both doctor and father to a patient who was also his daughter. In their spontaneous behavior, early preschoolers almost always showed the highest step that they were capable of, but beginning with the step for social roles, late preschoolers seldom showed their highest step.For children to act and feel socially competent, they need to understand roles such as mother, father, doctor, and patient. Despite the importance of these social roles in the child's life, the development of social roles in the preschool years is, at best, only vaguely understood. The several previous studies of social-role development have concluded that children do not really understand social roles until 7 or 8 years of age (

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“…The first two steps are also suggested by research on children's spontaneous pretend play (Dasen, Inhelder, Lavalle'e, & Retschitzki, 1978;Watson & Fischer, 1977).…”

mentioning

confidence: 87%

Development of social roles in elicited and spontaneous behavior during the preschool years.

Watson¹,

Fischer²

1980

Developmental Psychology

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“…Moving beyond action systems, they can cognitively evoke an object, event, or person that is not actually present, pretending that a doll is walking across the table or talking about what their uncle did a few days before (Watson & Fischer, 1977). At the same time they begin to speak sentences and show a large spurt in vocabulary (Bates, Benigni, Bretherton, Camaioni, & Volterra, 1979;Bloom, 1973;Conigan, 1983).…”

Section: Synaptogenesis and Sensorimotor Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relations between Brain and Cognitive Development

Fischer¹

1987

Child Development

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FISCHER, KURTW.Relations between Brain and Cognitive Development. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1987, 58, 623-632. Goldman-Rakic reports important new data on cortical development in rhesus monkeys. Some of her findings, especially concurrent cortical synaptogenesis, may be related to cognitive capacities that develop in infancy. The developmental pattern of concurrent synaptogenesis in rhesus is consistent with a straightforward model of relations between brain and cognitive development: Concurrent synaptogenesis is hypothesized to lay the primary cortical foundation for a series of developmental levels in middle infancy that have been empirically documented in both human and rhesus infants. Other general brain changes, especially in the electroencephalogram, also seem to correlate with these levels, as well as with other levels that develop at other periods. In the simplest form of the model, these several factors all show synchronous developmental discontinuities at the time of emergence of a level. Specific research methods are available for specifying when discontinuities occur in development of both brain and behavior.

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“…One is that early pretense with parents jump-starts the child's own pretending: when pretense activity is modeled children are apt to imitate it (Fenson & Ramsay, 1981;Jackowitz & Watson, 1980;Watson & Fischer, 1977). Pretense with more skilled partners thus facilitates pretending oneself.…”

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confidence: 99%