Piaget's Theory and Cognitive Development

Flashcards covering key vocabulary from a lecture on Piaget's cognitive development theory.

Jean Piaget

Pioneer in the domain of cognitive development of children; proposed discontinuous development in universally fixed order.

Cognitive Development (Piaget)

The process of how children develop thinking, reasoning, and problem-solving abilities through distinct stages.

Sensorimotor Stage

Piaget's first stage (0-2 years) where infants learn through sensory and motor skills, developing circular responses.

Preoperational Stage

Piaget's second stage (2-7 years) involving language development, mental representation, egocentrism, and intuitive reasoning.

Concrete Operational Stage

Piaget's third stage (7-11 years) characterized by logical reasoning, categorization, and understanding conservation of number and mass.

Formal Operational Stage

Piaget's fourth stage (from 12 years) marked by scientific reasoning and hypothesis testing.

Schema

Building blocks of knowledge according to Piaget.

Assimilation

Using an existing schema in a new situation.

Accommodation

Changing an existing schema to deal with a new situation.

Equilibration

Balance between assimilation and accommodation.

Circular Responses

Behavior patterns developed through repetitive behavior patterns in the sensorimotor stage.

Object Permanence

Understanding that something exists even when it is out of sight; develops around 9 months.

A-not-B Error

Error made by infants in the sensorimotor stage, related to immature object permanence.

Violation of Expectancy

Research method where infants look longer after an unexpected outcome, indicating understanding of laws of nature.

Intuitive Reasoning

Preschoolers' use of primitive reasoning and their avid acquisition of world knowledge ('magical' thinking).

Animism

Belief that things are conscious and alive (preoperational stage).

Artificialism

Belief that everything is willed, intentional and organized for the good of man (preoperational stage).

Finalism

Belief that everything has an explanation (preoperational stage).

Transductive Reasoning

Combining unrelated facts leading to draw faulty cause-effect conclusions simply because two events occur close together in time or space (preoperational stage).

Lack of Conservation

Inability to understand that certain properties (volume, weight) remain identical despite changes in appearance (preoperational stage).

Centering

Attention goes to visually most salient parts; attention centered on single aspects of a problem.

Irreversibility

Not able to mentally reverse a change.

Static Thought

Thought is fixed on end states rather than the changes that transform one state into another.

Egocentric Perspective

Inability to understand that other people have different points of view.

Classification

The understanding of class inclusion: logical understanding that parts are included in the whole (concrete operational stage).

Seriation

Reasoning about the relations between elements in a series.

Transitivity

Ability to logically combine relations to reach certain conclusions.

Reversibility of Thought

Can mentally reverse or undo an action.

Decentration

Can focus on two or more dimensions of a problem at once.

Transformational Thought

Can understand the process of change from one state to another.

Early Childhood

Ages 3 to 6 (preschool and kindergarten).

Middle Childhood

Ages 7-11/12 (elementary school).

Abstract Thinking

Think logically (formal operation phase).

Hypothetical-Deductive Reasoning

Deliberations and systematically exploring possible realities.

Adolescent Egocentrism

Heightened self-consciousness.

Post-Formal Thought

More complex way of thinking than in the formal operational stage.

Relativistic Thinking

Conclusions depend on context and perspective, multiple solutions.

Dialectic Thinking

Detecting paradoxes and inconsistencies among ideas and trying to reconcile them.

Executive Functions (EF)

Umbrella term for cognitive skills guiding goal-directed behavior.

Cognitive Flexibility / Shifting

Ability to shift between tasks.

Inhibition

Ability to stop / suppress actions.

Updating

Ability to keep information online.

Motor Inhibition

Inhibition of motor responses.

Oculomotor Inhibition

Inhibition of eye movements.

Cognitive Inhibition

Inhibition of cognitive interference.

Short-Term Memory Span

Passive short-term storage; retaining information for up to 30 seconds without rehearsal.

Working Memory (WM)

Active short-term storage; systems that keep things in mind while performing complex tasks.

Long-Term Memory

Memory of long duration.

Explicit (Declarative) Memory

Conscious memories.

Implicit (Nondeclarative) Memory

Automatic, unconscious memory.

Episodic Memory

Memory of specific episodes that one has experienced.

Semantic Memory

Knowledge of facts, concepts, word meanings.

Procedural Memory

Memory for skills and procedures.

Rehearsal

Repetition; useful for short-term memory.

Organization

Beneficial for long-term memory, including imagery for verbal information.

Elaboration

Elaboration on the information to be remembered and making it personally relevant; beneficial for long-term memory.

Metacognition awareness

Awareness of one's own cognitive processes.

Prospective Memory

Memory for intentions.

Cognitive Reserve

Differences in cognitive processes as a function of lifetime intellectual activities and other environmental factors.