Jean Piaget Theory & Terms

Cognitive Development

Cognitive development is the construction of thought processes, including remembering, problem solving, and decision-making, from childhood through adolescence to adulthood.

Piaget's Cognitive Development Stages

1. Sensori-motor Stage (ages Birth - 2)

2. Pre-operational Stage (ages 2 - 4)

3. Concrete Operations (ages 7 - 11)

4. Formal Operations (beginning at ages 11 to 15)

Schemas

Piaget called the schema the basic building block of intelligent behavior - a way of organizing knowledge. The representation in the mind of a set of perceptions, ideas, and/or actions, which go together.

Equilibrium

When a child's existing schemas are capable of explaining what it can perceive around it, it is said to be in a state of equilibrium, i.e. a state of cognitive (i.e. mental) balance.

Assimilation

which is using an existing schema to a new situation

Accommodation

happens when the existing schema (knowledge) needs to be changed to take in new information.

Equilibration

is the force, which moves development along. An unpleasant state of disequilibrium happens when new information cannot be fitted into existing schemas (assimilation). Equilibration is the force which drives the learning process as we do not like to be frustrated and will seek to restore balance by mastering the new challenge (accommodation). Once the new information is acquired the process of assimilation with the new schema will continue until the next time we need to make an adjustment to it.

Naturalistic observation

Piaget made careful, detailed observations of children. These were mainly his own children and the children of friends. From these he wrote diary descriptions charting their development.

Classification

The ability to group objects together on the basis of common features.

Class Inclusion

The understanding, more advanced than simple classification, that some classes or sets of objects are also sub-sets of a larger class. (E.g. there is a class of objects called dogs. There is also a class called animals. But all dogs are also animals, so the class of animals includes that of dogs)

Conservation

The realisation that objects or sets of objects stay the same even when they are changed about or made to look different.

Decentration

The ability to move away from one system of classification to another one as appropriate.

Egocentrism

The belief that you are the centre of the universe and everything revolves around you: the corresponding inability to see the world as someone else does and adapt to it. Not moral "selfishness", just an early stage of psychological development.

Operation

The process of working something out in your head. Young children (in the sensori-motor and pre-operational stages) have to act, and try things out in the real world, to work things out (like count on fingers): older children and adults can do more in their heads.

Stage

A period in a child's development in which he or she is capable of understanding some things but not others

Sensori-Motor (Birth - 2)

Differentiates self from objects

Recognizes self as agent of action and begins to act intentionally: e.g. pulls a string to set mobile in motion or shakes a rattle to make a noise

Achieves object permanence: realizes that things continue to exist even when no longer present to the sense (pace Bishop Berkeley)

Pre-Operational (2-7 years)

Learns to use language and to represent objects by images and words

Thinking is still egocentric: has difficulty taking the viewpoint of others

Classifies objects by a single feature: e.g. groups together all the red blocks regardless of shape or all the square blocks regardless of color

Concrete Operational (7-11 years)

Can think logically about objects and events

Achieves conservation of number (age 6), mass (age 7), and weight (age 9)

Classifies objects according to several features and can order them in series along a single dimension such as size.

Formal Operational (11 years and up)

Can think logically about abstract propositions and test hypotheses systematically

Becomes concerned with the hypothetical, the future, and ideological problems