Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development in the First Two Years

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering Piaget's theory of cognitive development, the sensorimotor stage, its six substages, and core concepts such as assimilation, accommodation, and object permanence.

Jean Piaget

A Swiss psychologist with a background in biology and zoology who studied qualitative changes in children's thinking, primarily by observing his own children.

Constructivist Approach

The view in psychology that children are active learners who build their knowledge and understanding of the world through experiences by using and modifying existing psychological structures.

Invariant Stages

Developmental stages that occur in a fixed, unalterable order where no stage can be skipped.

Equilibrium

A state of mental balance where the brain feels in the know and comfortable with what is happening in the environment.

Disequilibrium

A state of cognitive discomfort, confusion, dissonance, or chaos caused by a new idea or experience that does not fit existing mental frameworks, motivating adaptation.

Schemas

Organized mental frameworks and patterns of thinking used to understand, interpret, and make sense of experiences in the world.

Adaptation

The cognitive process of resolving disequilibrium to return to a state of equilibrium, achieved through assimilation or accommodation.

Assimilation

The process of fitting new information, objects, or experiences into an already existing schema without changing the schema.

Accommodation

The process of modifying, adjusting, or expanding an existing schema to incorporate new information or experiences that do not fit the current framework.

Sensorimotor Intelligence

Piaget's first stage of cognitive development, lasting from birth to two years, in which infants make sense of the world through their sensory perceptions and motor actions.

Circular Reaction

An action-oriented schema or behavior that is repeated over and over again in a continuous feedback loop.

Primary Circular Reactions

The second substage of sensorimotor development, involving accidental movements that directly center on the infant's own body and are repeated because they yield pleasurable or soothing outcomes.

Secondary Circular Reactions

The third substage of sensorimotor development, where infants repeat accidental actions that elicit an interesting or pleasurable response from an external object or another person.

Means to an End (Substage 4)

The sensorimotor substage characterized by new adaptation and anticipation, where infants combine secondary circular reactions into intentional, goal-directed behavior to achieve a specific outcome.

Object Permanence

The understanding that an object or person continues to exist even when they are no longer visible, audible, or detectable to the senses.

A-not-B Error

A developmental mistake where an infant continues to search for a hidden object in the original hiding spot (Place A) even after witnessing it being moved to a second hiding spot (Place B).

Tertiary Circular Reactions

The fifth substage of sensorimotor development, characterized by repeated behaviors that the infant deliberately varies and modifies through trial and error to produce new outcomes.

"Little Scientist"

Piaget's description of a child in the fifth sensorimotor substage who actively experiments, explores, and tests trial-and-error behaviors to see what happens in their environment.

New Means through Mental Combinations

The sixth sensorimotor substage, wherein toddlers formulate solutions to problems internally using thought and mental representations rather than external trial and error.

Mental Representations

Internal images and concepts of objects, actions, and experiences that enable an individual to think through consequences and solve problems in their head.

Deferred Imitation

The ability to remember an observed behavior and replicate it at a later time when the original model is no longer present.

Pretend Play

Make-believe play emerging in the sixth sensorimotor substage where children use objects, such as dolls or toy trucks, to construct imagined scenes and roles.