PSYC207 Week three

Jean Piaget

Swiss developmental psychologist (1896–1980). Founded genetic epistemology and is labelled a "constructivist" — he believed children actively construct their own knowledge.

Genetic Epistemology

Piaget's field of study: the origins and development of knowledge in humans, particularly in children.

Schema

A mental framework or structure that organises and interprets information. Piaget believed children are born with basic schemas that develop through experience.

Assimilation

A learning process where new outside information is integrated into existing schemas without changing them.

Accommodation

A learning process where existing schemas are changed or new ones formed to fit new information that doesn't fit current schemas.

Equilibrium

A state in which there are no apparent inconsistencies between a child's schemas and the world. Assimilation and accommodation work together to achieve this.

Piaget's Stage Theory — Key Properties

Qualitative change between stages; broad applicability across topics and contexts; brief transitions between stages; invariant sequence (all children go through stages in the same order).

Sensorimotor Stage

Piaget's first stage (birth – 2 years). Infants know the world through their senses and motor actions. Sensorimotor intelligence develops tremendously.

Preoperational Stage

Piaget's second stage (2 – 7 years). Children acquire symbolic representation and mental imagery, but show limitations including egocentrism, centration, and lack of conservation.

Concrete Operational Stage

Piaget's third stage (7 – 12 years). Children begin to think logically and systematically, can solve conservation problems, but struggle with purely abstract thinking.

Formal Operational Stage

Piaget's fourth stage (12+ years). Adolescents can think abstractly, reason about hypothetical situations, and consider what might be as well as what is. Piaget did not believe this stage was universally attained.

Sensorimotor Substage 1

Birth – 1 month. Infants begin to modify inborn reflexes to make them more adaptive.

Sensorimotor Substage 2

1 – 4 months. Infants begin to organise separate reflexes into larger behaviours, mostly centred on their own bodies.

Sensorimotor Substage 3

4 – 8 months. Infants become increasingly interested in the external world. Object permanence typically emerges by the end of this substage.

Sensorimotor Substage 4

8 – 12 months. Children begin coordinating actions to achieve goals. They make the A-Not-B error during this substage.

Sensorimotor Substage 5

12 – 18 months. Infants actively explore the potential uses of objects through trial-and-error experimentation.

Sensorimotor Substage 6

18 – 24 months. Infants become able to form enduring mental representations. First sign of this is deferred imitation.

Object Permanence

The understanding that objects continue to exist even when they are out of sight. Typically emerges during Sensorimotor Substage 3 (4–8 months).

A-Not-B Error

An error made by infants (8–12 months) where they search for a hidden object in the location where they previously found it (Location A), even after watching it be hidden in a new location (Location B).

Deferred Imitation

The ability to imitate an action observed in the past, not just immediately. First sign of enduring mental representation; emerges in Substage 6 (18–24 months).

Symbolic Representation

The ability to use words, images, or symbols to mentally represent objects and events. A key achievement of the Preoperational Stage.

Egocentrism (Piaget)

The tendency of preoperational children to see the world only from their own perspective and difficulty understanding that others may have a different viewpoint.

Three-Mountain Task

Piaget's classic test of egocentrism. A child is shown a model of three mountains and asked what a doll sitting elsewhere would see. Preoperational children typically describe their own view, not the doll's.

Centration

The tendency of preoperational children to focus on only one aspect of a situation at a time, ignoring other important features.

Conservation

The understanding that quantity remains the same even when its appearance changes (e.g., liquid in a tall vs. wide glass). Preoperational children lack this concept; it is mastered in the Concrete Operational Stage.

Limitations of Piaget's Theory

(1) Infants and children are more cognitively advanced than Piaget believed. (2) He understated the role of social influences on cognitive development. (3) Children's thinking is less consistent across contexts than Piaget assumed.

Piaget's Legacy

Highly influential theory in developmental psychology. Provides insights into learning at different ages, has implications for education, spans topics from number to memory, and describes the interaction between nature and nurture across the full span of childhood.

Lev Vygotsky

Soviet developmental psychologist (1896–1934). Proposed the Sociocultural Theory of development, emphasising the role of social interaction and culture in cognitive development.

Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory

The view that cognitive development is fundamentally shaped by social interaction and cultural context. Key concepts include scaffolding and the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD).

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

Vygotsky's concept describing the gap between what a child can do independently and what they can achieve with guidance from a more knowledgeable person.

Scaffolding

Vygotsky's concept of temporary support provided by a more knowledgeable person (e.g., teacher or parent) to help a child complete a task they couldn't do alone. Support is gradually removed as the child becomes more capable.

Piaget vs. Vygotsky — Independence

Piaget emphasised children actively constructing knowledge on their own. Vygotsky emphasised the role of social influences and interaction in learning.

Piaget vs. Vygotsky — Continuity

Piaget emphasised discontinuous, qualitative stages. Vygotsky emphasised gradual, continuous learning.

Piaget vs. Vygotsky — Mechanisms of Change

Piaget: assimilation and accommodation. Vygotsky: scaffolding.

Educational Implications — Piaget

Align teaching with the child's developmental stage (e.g., sensorimotor learning for infants). Focus on unstructured, child-driven, play-based activities.

Educational Implications — Vygotsky

Use scaffolding as a core educational tool. Guide children through their ZPD with adult or peer support.

Educational Implications — Both

Both support moving early years curricula away from direct instruction and towards developmentally appropriate practice.