Inside the Minds of Infants

The current chapter provides a broad introduction to some of the many ways developmental psychology explores inside the minds of infancy. We will examine how the science of Developmental Psychology informs us about what is going on inside the minds of infants. We will examine thoughts and feelings from birth – and occasionally beforehand – through the stage of infancy (from zero to about two years of age), and into toddlerhood, the third year of life. We begin by examining the basic cognitive processes of attention, memory, and learning. Through these basic processes we will see some of the techniques developmental psychologists have devised for studying infants’ thinking. Next, we consider infants’ experience of sensations and their perceptions. Third, we explore infants’ expression of emotion, understanding the emotions of others, and the beginnings of their own self-concepts. Finally, we examine how infants understand abstractions like language and mathematics.