PIAGET’S COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT THEORY

JEAN PIAGET1896-1980

Presented By: Lethane Sakiwat

PIAGET’S BACKGROUND

• Born in 1896 in Neuchâtel, Switzerland• Died in 1980 in Geneva, Switzerland.

• After graduating high school, he attended the University of Zurich, where he became interested in psychoanalysis.

• He married in 1923 and had three children, Jacqueline, Lucienne and Laurent.

• Piaget studied his children’s intellectual development from infancy.

• Piaget divided schemes that children use to understand the world through four main stages, roughly correlated with and becoming increasingly sophisticated with age.

KEY CONCEPTS

- A representation of a plan or theory in the form of an outline or model.

- Possibly one of the most important concepts put forward by Piaget, Schemata help individuals understand the world they inhabit.

- They are cognitive structures that represent a certain aspect of the world, and can be seen as categories which have certain pre-conceived ideas in them. .

Schema

KEY CONCEPTS

- Simply the process of incorporating new information into a pre-existing schema.

- So with the “dog” example, the child assimilated the Labrador’s information into the old dog schema.

-  Is normally a simple process, as new information already fits the pre-existing categories.

Assimilation

KEY CONCEPTS

- When coming across a new object for the first time, a child will attempt to apply an old schema to the object. - For consistency, let’s use the dog example again. The child may have “four legs, furry” in their dog schema. When coming across another similar animal, such as a cat, they might say “Look, a dog!” – that’s assimilation. - However, when told that it’s actually a cat – not a dog – they will accommodate the new information into another schema. - They will now form a “cat” schema; “not all four legged furry animals are dogs – some are cats too!”. 

Accommodation

KEY CONCEPTS

- Assimilation and accommodation are the two parts of adaptation – which is simply what it says – adapting our schemata to make an accurate (enough) model of the world we live in.

- It is a form of learning, but an entirely different form to the kind you’d see in behaviorist psychology for example (such as operant/classical conditioning).

Adaptation

KEY CONCEPTS

- Piaget suggested that humans naturally strive to achieve a cognitive balance; there must be a balance between applying prior knowledge (assimilation) and changing schemata to account for new information (accommodation).

- Piaget suggested that when a child has a schema which doesn’t fit reality, there is tension in the mind.

- By balancing the use of assimilation and accommodation, this tension is reduced and we can proceed to higher levels of thought and learning (equilibration).

Equilibrium

Stage1: Sensorimotor Stage (Birth - Age 2)

Stage1: Sensorimotor Stage (Birth - Age 2)

During this stage, information is received through all the senses.

The child tries to make sense of the world during this stage, and as the name suggests, only senses and motor abilities are used to do so.

The child utilizes innate behaviors to enhance this learning process, such as sucking, looking, grasping, crying and listening.

To make this even more complex, there are 6 sub-stages of this one stage.

To begin, the child uses only reflexes and innate behavior.

Towards the end of this stage, the child uses a range of complex sensorimotor skills.

1. Reflexes (0-1 month)

The child uses only innate reflexes.

For example, if a nipple or dummy is put into a baby’s mouth, they will reflexively suck on it. If an object is placed in their palm, the hand will automatically grab it.

These reflexes have the sole function of keeping the child alive.

The child now has a fixation with it’s own body with regards to behavior(what Piaget refers to as primary behavior); they will perform actions repeatedly on themselves (like sucking their own hand).

They also begin to refine reflexes here to form more complex versions of them.

2. Primary Circular Actions (1-4 months)

3. Secondary Circular Reactions (4-8 months)

At around 4 months, the child begins to take an interest in their environment (their behavior is secondary).

They notice that they can actually influence events in their world, for example they can drop a teddy which bashes a ball on the floor.

Although this occurs, the infant will not make conscious connections between what they do and the consequences, they merely observe that their actions have interesting effects.

4. Co-ordination of Secondary Circular Reactions (8-12 months)

At this point, the child begins to engage in goal-directed behavior; they begin to develop cause-effect relationships. So rather than crawl over to a teddy in a cart to pick it up, they might instead pull the cart over with the teddy in to acquire it.

The child effectively knows that their behavior will have a certain consequence.

At this stage, object permanence is acquired 

5. Tertiary Circular Reactions (12-18 months)

At this stage, children like to use creativity and flexibility with their previous behaviors, and the result of their experimentation often leads to different outcomes.

So rather than grabbing a box, they might instead try to tilt or manipulate it.

6. Symbolic/Mental Representation (18-24 months)

At this stage, the child develops symbolic thought and the ability to mentally represent objects in their head.

Normally, the child would need to resort to trial-and-error to achieve a desired effect.

Now, however, the child can ‘plan’ to some extent and mentally construct the consequences of an action in their head.

Of course, predictions are notalways accurate, but it is a step up from trial-and-error.

Key Example of Mental Representation in Children:

1. Object Permanence- is when objects exist even when out of sight.

First three sub-stages- children will not attempt to search for an object which

is hidden from their view; in their mind, the object simply ceases to exist as they cannot see it.

Sub-stage four- they show this characteristic of object permanence. If

an object is hidden from them, they will attempt to find it, but will repeatedly look in the same place – even if the object is moved (the so called “A-not-B error”).

Sub-stage 6- the child is able to mentally represent the object in

their mind, leading to exploration for an object even if it is moved. They will continue to look for an object until they find it, as they understand objects exist regardless of where they are.

Key Example of Mental Representation in Children:

2. Deferred imitation - is simply the imitation of behavior a child has

seen before.

As a child can mentally represent behavior they have seen, they are able to enact it through playing and in other situations.

So a child might ‘talk’ down a toy telephone or ‘steer’ a toy car around the room.

Stage 2: Preoperational Stage(Age 2 - 7 )

Stage 2: Preoperational Stage(Age 2 - 7 )

During this stage, a child begins to use his imagination, using symbols to represent objects

The preoperational stage is also where the majority of language development occurs. Language development, like almost everything else, occurs in a defined, set order.

Example: “She may hold up a picture so only she can see it and expect you to see it too. Or she may explain that grass grows so she won’t get hurt when she falls." (Boeree, Piaget)

MAJOR CHARACTERISTIC

Egocentrism- perception of the world in relation to

oneself only. Children struggle to perceive situations from another point of view or perspective

Stage 3: Concrete Operational Stage (Age7-12 )

Stage 3: Concrete Operational Stage (Age7-12 )

(about first grade to early adolescence)

They begin to understand the concept of conservation (physical quantities do not change based on the arrangement and/or appearance of the object)

Example: The amount of liquid in a short, wide cup is equal to that in a tall, skinny glass.

Thinking becomes more logical and organized, but still very concrete or observable phenomena.

MAJOR CHARACTERISTIC

Conservation - Children struggle to understand the

difference in quantity and measurements in different situations.

Stage 4: Formal Operational Stage (Age 13&up )

Stage 4: Formal Operational Stage (Age 12 & up)

Children at this stage acquire the ability to think hypothetically and “outside the box”.

Logical conclusions can be inferred from verbal information, and “concrete”, physical objects are no longer necessary. When presented with a problem, children at this stage can consider solutions to the problem in a logical manner.

The child becomes increasingly “adult-like” with regards to their cognitive abilities. 

Scientific reasoning is apparent in this stage