Jean Piaget

Speciality of Jean Piaget

Cognitive development

Cognitive development

Biologically universal, regardless of cultural and demographic variables

3 types of conceptualization and schematic development

• Natural conceptualization

• Artificial conceptualization

• Hierarchical conceptualization

Natural conceptualization

Forming concepts through real life experiences

Artificial conceptualization

Forming concepts through structured learning and education

Hierarchical conceptualization

Organizing concepts in a hierarchy, where broader categories include more specific subcategories

Schemas

Mental frameworks used to interpret information about the world

Schematic assimilation

Using existing schemas to understand and incorporate new information

Schematic accommodation

Changing or creating new schemas to fit new information

4 stages of Piaget’s cognitive development

• Sensorimotor

• Preoperational

• Concrete operational

• Formal operational

Sensorimotor

• Stage 1

• Birth to 2 years

• Sensory development and stimuli exploration

• Development of basic mental frameworks or rudimentary schemas

• Object permanence

Object permanence

• Understanding that objects continue to exist even when they can’t be seen

• Out of sight, out of mind

Preoperational

• Stage 2

• 2 to 7 years

• Development of symbols and language

• Operational cognition

• Critical period hypothesis

• Egocentric cognition

• Animistic cognition

• Artificialistic cognition

Operational cognition

• Sequential mental processing

• Arranging thoughts and tasks in order

Critical period hypothesis

• Birth to 12 years

• Language is best learned early in life, and after this window, fluency becomes much harder

Egocentric cognition

Inability to understand other people’s perspectives

Animistic cognition

Belief that inanimate objects are alive

Artificialistic cognition

Belief that environmental events are due to human actions

Concrete operational

• Stage 3

• 7 to 11 years

• Reversibility

• Conservation

Reversibility

• Reversing the sequential operations that was developed through operational cognition

• Subtraction and counting backwards

Conservation

Understanding that quantity remains the same despite changes in appearance as in shape or arrangement

Formal operational

• Stage 4

• 11 and more years

• Cognitive maturity

• Metacognition

Cognitive maturity

Ability to think logically about abstract concepts and hypothetically

Metacognition

Thinking about thinkings like understanding one’s own preferred learning styles