Infancy

As we have read most of infant development is about learning to recognize our surroundings and manipulate them.  Learning that if we move our arm and stretch out our fingers we can manipulate objects around us.  Of coarse to be able to do that we must first have our brain tell our arm and fingers to move  and in which direction.  How do we do this?  Through trail and error.  We see an object dangling in front of us.  Our brain then sends a signal to our arm to move in a direction, and our fingers in a direction.  If this does not result in us being able to grasp the object then we go through the process again.  This information is stored in sensory register but is quickly lost.  When we finally are able to grasp the object that movement pattern is then stored in short term memory or working memory.  The more we practice this pattern of movement the more permanent it becomes and is then encoded into long term memory allowing us to pull from it when needed.

Infants cognitive ability is also developing at this time.  They are being conditioned to know if they cry someone come to aid them.  Whether it is because we are hungry, need to be changed or just wanting attention.  At the same time the infant is conditioning the caregiver to respond to their cries.  I was very conditioned to my daughters cries when she was an infant.  My husband would say that I am still conditioned to her cries.  Does that come from being a mother?  Why is it that her crying does not affect him the same way that is does me?  Does the way that we were raised affect how we raise our children?  Maybe we are conditioned throughout our childhood to respond differently to different stimulus.  For example when my daughter cries is causes me to respond.  When my husband hears her cough it causes him to respond.  Maybe it comes with knowledge.  When it comes to parenting I am not sure we will ever know everything.