Ch 2: Jean Piaget - PSYC 380

What is genetic epistemology?

The study of knowledge and the emergence of knowledge

What was Jean Piaget’s contribution to the field of genetic epistemology?

He proposed that knowledge is an action or event rather than a state. He also proposed that knowledge is biased.

Cognitive organization

the mind is coherent

cognitive adaptation

a behavior that is intelligent is one that is suited to the environment

assimilation

fitting reality into your fixed schema

What is an example of assimilation?

Accomidation

adjusting your existing schema to compensate for new information

What is an example of accommodation?

An example of accommodation is when a child sees a zebra for the first time and initially calls it a horse. However, after learning that zebras have distinct black and white stripes, the child adjusts their existing schema of horses to create a new category for zebras, showing accommodation by modifying their understanding that not all four-legged animals with manes are horses.

What was Piaget’s view in regard to nature versus nurture?

He believed that cognitive development is the by-product of the intertwined influences of innate and experiential factors

Sensorimotor Period

• 0-2

• a child actively learns about properties of objects and relations among them

• cognitive structures gradually become more tightly organized

• behavior gradually becomes more intentional

• the self is gradually differentiated from the environment

• object permeance is acquired

Stage 1: Modification of Reflexes

• 0-1m

• form info from reflexes into schemas

Stage 2: Primary Circular Reactions

• 1-4 months

• habits formed within baby’s body by learning often for pleasure

Stage 3: Secondary Circular Reactions

• 4-8 months

• habits formed outside of baby’s body by triggering a response in the environment

Stage 4: Coordination of Secondary Schemes

• 8m-1y

• babies use knowledge to construct expectations and plan events

Stage 5: Tertiary Circular Reactions

• 1-1.5y

• the discovery of new means through active experimentation

Stage 6: Invention of New Means Through Mental Combinations

• 1.5-2y

• the discovery of symbolism

Preoperational Period

• 2-7y

• characteristics of the period:

• egocentrism

• rigidity of though

• semi logical reasoning

• limited social cognition

egocentrism

incomplete differentiation between self and world. Tendency to interpret the world in terms of self

rigidity of thought

centration- the tendency to attend or think about one salient feature of an object or event and ignore other features

irreversibility- the inability to mentally reverse actions or processes

semi logical thinking

construction of logic through low level knowledge

limited social cognition

judge morality of act through punishment. Based on personal experience

Concrete Period

• 7-11y

• characteristics of the period:

• conservation shows reversibility and stability in the physical world

• operations with mathematics shows system of mental actions

• class inclusion is understood

Formal Operational Period

• 11-15y

• characteristic of the period

• think logically with sound knowledge base

• think abstractly

• metacognition

metacognition

thinking about your own thinking