cognition and development

Piaget’s theory of schema development

Jean Piaget suggested that children reason (think) differently from adults and see the world in different ways. he believed that cognitive development was a result of maturation (the effects of the biological process of ageing) and interaction with the environment

schemas

schemas are mental structures which contain knowledge about the world. some schemas may represent a group of related concepts, such as your schema for a dog (fur, four legs, wet nose). schemas can be behavioural (such as grasping an object) or cognitive (such as classifying) or social schema’s (for example schemas for an event or a person.

rather like individual computer programs, schemas are ‘programmes’ that people construct for dealing with the world. children are born with a small number of schemas and in infancy they develop new schemas as a result of interactions with the environment. new experiences lead to new and more complex schemas being developed.

adaption

Piaget suggested schemas develop through the process of adaptation and identified two main processes:

• assimilation - applying an existing schema to a new situation or object. this means that when you are faced with new information, you make sense of this information by referring to information you already have and try to fit the new information into the information you already have

• accommodation - involves forming a new schema distinct from the existing schema. this happens because the existing schemas has to change because incoming information conflicts with what is already known 

• equilibration and disequilibrium - according to Piaget, the driving force behind adaptation is the principle of equilibration. this is where there is a mental balance between what is already known and incoming information. equilibrium occurs when a child’s schemas can deal with the most information through assimilation. however, an unpleasant state of disequilibrium occurs 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 feel to restore balance by mastering the new challenge (accommodation)

evaluation of Piaget’s schema theory

1. research - there is evidence to support Piaget’s belief that some schemas are innate. Fantz (1961) studied 2 month old babies by putting a display board above them with two pictures attached a sketch of a human face and a bullseye. he found that the babies spent twice as long looking at the human face, he claimed showing that human babies had innate schemas for facial recognition further supported by Hunt (1993) that found at 3 months babies can tell the difference between members of their family

2. debate - Piaget’s theory explains cognitive development through the combined interaction of nature and nurture. Piaget believed that cognitive development was a result of nature - as a child becomes older (biological maturation), certain mental processes become possible and through nurture; as children interact with the environment their understandings of the world becomes more complex

3. application - many features from Piaget’s theory have been applied to education and have been very influential in developing educational policies and teaching practices. a review of primary education by the UK government in 1966 was based strongly on Piaget’s theory. this led to a radical transformation in teaching whereby discovery learning, the idea that children learn best through doing and actively exploring, replaced old-fashioned practices such as sitting silently in rows copying from the board. in addition, the idea of ‘readiness’ was applied as according to Piaget children should not be taught certain concepts until they have reached the appropriate stage of cognitive development and the idea that children should be given opportunities for disequilibrium in a safe way that maximises learning

4. alternative - Piaget’s theory can be compared and contrasted against Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development. both psychologists place cognition at the centre of the theory and see the learner as being active as opposed to passive. both Piaget and Vygotsky highlight the role of experience (nurture) in cognitive development. however, Piaget’s saw learners as mini-scientists, learning in terms of what happens in the mind of the individual though trial and error whereas Vygotsky proposed that learning is essentially a social process (learners are mini-apprentices), and that children are capable of much more advanced learning if this is supported by peers or an expert adult. Vygotsky provides a useful counterpoint to Piaget theory, suggesting the development can be explained in terms of social rather than individual factors

Piaget’s stages of intellectual (cognitive) development

Piaget identified four universal stages of intellectual development. each stage represents the development of new ways of reasoning. Piaget believed that the stages are determined by biological maturation (the natural process of getting older) although, the exact ages vary from child to child, all children go through the stages in the same order

summary of stages of intellectual development

1. sensori-motor stage - 0-2yrs - gain knowledge through sensory exploration and movement (crawling, walking, running etc) and fine motor skills (grasping, picking things up etc). develop object permanence (around 8 months)

2. pre-operational stage - 2-7rs - thinks at symbolic level and unable to use logic.. egocentric. lacks conversation. difficulty with class inclusion

3. concrete operational stage - 7-11yrs - begin to think logically about concrete events. tend to make mistakes or be overwhelmed when asked to reason about abstract or hypothetical problems. less egocentric. able to conserve

4. formal operational stage - 11+ - abstract thoughts and reasoning

sensori-motor stage

in this stage, infants develop an understanding of the world through coordinating sensory experiences (seeing, hearing) with motor actions (reaching touching). Children learn by trial and error that can deliberately move their body in particular ways, and eventually that they can move other objects. during this stage babies also develop an understanding that other people are separate objects and acquire some basic knowledge. By around 8 months old, children develop object-permanence, an understanding that objects and peoplestill exist when they are out of sight

Piaget’s research investigating object permanence (1963)

Piaget hid a toy under a blanket, while the child was watching, and observed whether or not the child searched for the hidden toy. searching for the hidden toy was evidence of object permanence. Piaget assumed that the child could only search for a hidden toy if they had a mental representation of it. Piaget found that infants searched for the hidden toy when they were around 8-months old. he concluded that children around 8 months have object permanence because they are able to form a mental representation of the object in their minds.