Cognitive Development

Jean Piaget

Pioneer in child development - found as children age, their ability to handle logical problems changes

Schema

An organized pattern of thought/action that one constructs to interpret some aspect of one’s experiences

Assimilation

The process of interpreting new experiences by incorporating them into existing schemes

Accommodation

The process of modifying existing schemes in order to incorporate or adapt to new experiences

Piaget’s theory of cognitive development

All humans pass through 4 stages of development

Sensorimotor stage of development

Infants are developing the ability to coordinate their sensory input with their motor actions. Lack object permanence

Object permanence

Child recognizes that objects continue to exist even when they are no longer visible

Preoperational stage of development

Stage of development where a child’s mental images improve, lack logic reasoning, with flaws in conservation, centration, irreversibility, egocentrism

Conservation

The awareness that physical quantities remain constant in spite of changes in their shape or appearance. (Ex same amt of water poured into skinnier glass = more bc taller)

Centration

Tendency to focus on just one feature of a problem, neglecting other important aspects

Irreversibility

inability to envision the reversing of an action; preoperational children can’t mentally “undo” something

Egocentrism

Thinking characterized by a limited ability to share another person’a viewpoint

Animism

The belief that all things are living, just like oneself

Concrete Operational

operational thinking develops in this stage of development, egocentrism decreases, and 7 types of conservation are understood

Formal operational

Abstract reasoning and logic develops in this stage

Silly People Can’t Fly

Sensorimotor, Pre-operational, Concrete operational, Formal operational

Lev Vygotski

Contemporary rival of Piaget; children learn according to their own schedule

Zone of Proximal Development

The gap between what a child can do without help and what they can do only with support (scaffolding).