Cognitive Development Across the Lifespan - Piaget

Cognitive Development

  • Evolution over the lifespan of mental activities: thinking, knowing, remembering, communicating.
  • Key figure: Jean Piaget.

Jean Piaget

  • Developmental psychologist: focused on differences in thinking between adults and children.
  • Before Piaget: children seen as less competent thinkers.
  • Piaget showed: children think differently than adults.
  • Introduced the concept of schemas.

Assimilation and Accommodation

  • Assimilation: Incorporating new experiences into existing schemas.
  • Accommodation: Adjusting schemas to fit new experiences.

Stages of Cognitive Development

  • Sensorimotor Stage: Birth to 2 years.

    • Infants learn through senses and motor abilities.
    • Key milestone: Object Permanence (understanding objects exist when out of sight; typically develops after 8-10 months).

  • Preoperational Stage: Ages 2 to 6/7.

    • Children use language but lack concrete logic.
    • Increase in mental representation through make-believe play.
    • Animism: Belief that inanimate objects have feelings.
    • Egocentrism: Difficulty seeing perspectives other than their own. Development of theory of mind is the opposite of egocentrism.

  • Conservation (Decentration): Understanding quantity remains the same despite changes in shape.

  • Reversibility: Understanding that actions can be reversed.

  • Concrete Operational Stage: Ages 6/7 to 11.

    • Children gain logical thinking about concrete events.

  • Formal Operational Stage: Begins around age 12.

    • Abstract thinking develops.
    • Reasoning expands from concrete to abstract.

Critiques of Piaget's Theory

  • Development is a continuous process.
  • Children may show mental abilities earlier than Piaget suggested.
  • Formal logic is a smaller part of cognition than Piaget believed.

Alternative to Piaget

  • Lev Vygotsky: Social environments influence learning; interaction is key.
    • Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD): What a learner can do with guidance vs. alone.
    • Scaffolding: Skilled learner helps less skilled, gradually reducing assistance.