GenPsych: Piaget's Cognitive Theory of Development

Jean Piaget

Who founded the Cognitive Theory of Development

Cognitive Theory of Development

theory that states that children learn from interacting with their environment

True

T or F: In Piaget's Cognitive Theory of Development, you can only be in one stage at a time; it is not possible to regress

True

T or F: In Piaget's Cognitive Theory of Development, all go through the same stages in the same order

Sensimotor, Preoperational, Concrete Operational, Formal Operational, Beyond Formal Operational Thought

What are the different stages of cognitive development? (Ss, Po, CO, FO, BFO)

Sensimotor Stage

- occurs from birth to 2 years
- sense then move accordingly
- infants “think” by manipulating the world around them by using the 5 senses
- figure out ways from responses to actions

Circular Reactions

repeated acts that are not intended to accomplish a goal

Primary Circular Reactions

- occur during 1 to 4 months old
- doing circular motions or actions with own body

Secondary Circular Reactions

- occur during 4 to 8 months
- repeating primary circular reactions with an object without a goal

Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions

- occurs during 8 to 12 months
- when a baby learns to accomplish a goal

Tertiary Circular Reactions

- occurs during 12 to 18 months
- gains ability to reverse what they accomplish prior

Object Permanence

- occurs at 5 to 8 months old
- items still exist even when not seen
- opposite of out of sight, out of mind

Deferred Imitation

- occurs at the end of the sensimotor stage
- mimicking
- repeating or reproducing a previously-witnessed action

Preoperational Stage

- occurs at ages 2-7
- thinking/imagining
- pretend play, animism, artificialism, transductive reasoning (tries to connect inanimate objects with consequences observed)
- cannot distinguish between quantity and appearance
- egocentric
- memorization without comprehension

Concrete Operational Stage

- occurs at ages 7-12
- understands transformation
- reasoning is logical but linear (only able to reason in a certain way)
- can only conceptualize ideas that can be observed (cannot conceptualize what-ifs)
- begin to do seriation (organize objects)
- able to do inductive (specific to general) but not deductive (general to specific) reasoning

Conservation, Reversibility, Transitivity, Assimilation

What are the principles of the concrete operational stage? (CRTA)

Conservation

ability to recognize that properties of a substance do not change even if physical appearance changes

Reversibility

ability to realize that something can be reversed to its original state after being altered

Transitivity

ability to recognize and understand relations

Assimilation

ability to absorb new ideas and information around what they already know of the world

Formal Operational Stage

- occurs at age 11-adulthood
- ability to combine various ideas to create new ones
- problem-solving ability and developing a hypothesis and reasoning to come up with solutions
- capable of deductive reasoning (general to specific)

Beyond Formal Operational Thought

- added by other authors
- ability to make decisions based on situations and circumstances
- logic combines with emotions to develop principles depending on contexts
- differentiates adults in postformal thought and an adolescent in formal operations regarding how they handle emotionally charged issues

Schema

any concept or idea of how the world works

Assimilation

taking a new experience and adding it to a pre-existing schema

Accommodation

changing something in a schema to fit a new experience