LSE 10B - Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

Jean Piaget

• He was born in Switzerland in 1896

• Received his doctoral degree at age 22

• He proposed that the thinking process will develop through each of the stages until a child can think logically

• He identified four stages in which children develop cognitively

Sensorimotor Stage

Lack the idea of OBJECT PERMANENCE

Sensorimotor Stage

The characteristic limitation of this stage is “ thinking by doing”

Sensorimotor Stage

At this stage, the infant gains physical knowledge

Sensorimotor Stage

In this stage children learn about the world through their senses and body movements

grasping and sucking

What 2 reflexes does a baby learn when they are 1-4 months old.

Object Permanence

The idea that objects continue to exist even when out of sight—

Preoperational Stage

• Two to 7 years old

• Coincides the preschool years

• Children start to use symbols such as language to represent objects

• Children are unaware of another person’s perspective

• EGOCENTRIC THOUGHT and LANGUAGE

• Children lack the CONCEPT OF CONSERVATION

Preoperational Stage

At this stage, children learn mostly by language and mental images

Preoperational Stage

At this stage, make-believe play is used to create and express all kinds of mental images

classification

the ability to understand that an object may fit into more than one category

seriation

the ability to order groups of things by size, weight, or any common property

concept of conservation

the knowledge that quantity is unrelated to the arrangement and physical appearance of objects

egocentrism

Everyone views the world like they do

syncretic

a break in logic, changing set of criteria

Intuitive reasoning

type of reasoning wherein the child guesses

time concepts

one of the last to develop in the preoperational stage

weight, area, length, liquid, number, mass, volume

what are the 7 types of conservation

concrete operational stage

• Seven to 11 years old

• This stage represents the elementary grade years

• The child begins to think logically

• Operations are associated with personal experience

• Operations are in concrete situations

• Allow children to classify several classes into a bigger group

• Allow children to order objects in terms of more than one

dimension

• Children can solve conservations tasks

conservation

a given amount of anything remains the same even if it changes shape

reversibility

things can return to their original condition after being changed

formal operational stage

• Eleven years and beyond

• Students have the ability to consider many possibilities for a given condition

• They have the ability to use planning to think ahead

• Students increase their ability to think abstractly

• They can recognize and identify a problem

formal operational stage

Can think in abstract ways

formal operational stage

Recognize and identify a problem

formal operational stage

Understand loyalty and freedom

schemas

the basic building block of intelligent behavior- a way of organizing knowledge

assimilation

the process of taking in new information into our already existing schemas

accommodation

- changing or altering our existing schemas in light of new information

equilibration

-a mechanism that balances between assimilation and accommodation