How to build a baby: On the development of an accessible representational system

The notion of a sensorimotor stage in infancy is called into question. First, some of the recent experimental literature on cognitive development in infancy is examined to determine the kinds of representational capacity that these data require. It is concluded that most of the recent work on perceptual development and the object concept in infancy is compatible with the notion of a sensorimotor stage but that other work showing imitation, motor recognition, the acquisition of manual signs, and recall of absent objects is not, requiring, instead, a conceptual form of representation. Such a system is apparent early in development. It is suggested that there is a viable alternative to Piaget's theory that conceptual representation consists of a transformation of sensorimotor schemas into a new, more advanced code. It is proposed that an accessible conceptual system develops simultaneously and in parallel with the sensorimotor system, with neither system being derivative from the other. It is further proposed that the mechanism by which infants encode information into an accessible system consists of a process of perceptual analysis.