Jean piaget theory of cognitive development

2.1 Cognitive Development: The Theory of Jean Piaget Cognition refers to thinking and memory processes, and cognitive development refers to long-term changes in these processes. One of the most widely known perspectives about cognitive development is the cognitive stage theory of a Swiss psychologist named Jean Piaget. Piaget created and studied an account of how children and youth gradually become able to think logically and scientifically. Piaget believed that learning proceeded by the interplay of assimilation (adjusting new experiences to fit prior concepts) and accommodation (adjusting concepts to fit new experiences). The to-and-fro of these two processes leads not only to short-term learning, but also to long-term developmental change. The long-term developments are really the main focus of Piaget’s cognitive theory. After observing children closely, Piaget proposed that cognition developed through distinct stages from birth through the end of adolescence. By “stages” he meant a sequence of thinking patterns with four key features: • The stages always happen in the same order. • No stage is ever skipped. • Each stage is a significant transformation of the stage before it. • Each later stage incorporated the earlier stages into itself. Basically, this is a “staircase” model of development. Piaget proposed four major stages of cognitive development, and called them (1) sensorimotor intelligence, (2) preoperational thinking, (3) concrete operational thinking, and (4) f...

People use these mental categories to help understand the world around them. Schemas are influential in shaping how someone takes in new information and organizes it. Thus, schemas can play an important role in learning. Adaptation is one schema that describes how people learn and understand new information. Think of this as like having a mental database. When information fits into an existing category, it can be quickly and easily assimilated into the database. However, this process doesn't always work perfectly, especially during early childhood. Here's one classic example: Imagine a very small child is seeing a dog for the first time. If the child already knows what a cat is, they might assume the dog is a cat: It fits into their existing schema for cats, since both are small, furry, and have four legs. Correcting mistakes like these takes place through the next adaptation process, accommodation. Not surprisingly, the accommodation process tends to be much more difficult than assimilation. People are often resistant to changing their schemas, particularly if it involves changing a deeply held belief. The child in the previous example that initially thought that a dog was a cat might begin to notice key differences between the two animals. One barks while the other meows. One likes to play while the other wants to sleep all day. After a while, the child will accommodate the new information by creating a new schema for dogs while at the same time altering their existing s...

Piaget's theory suggests that children progress through a series of four different stages of cognitive development. These stages encompass numerous aspects of mental development including that reasoning, language, morals, and memory. Piaget believed that kids take an active role in this cognitive development, building knowledge as they interact with the world. Piaget chose to call this stage the 'sensorimotor' stage because it is through the senses and motor abilities that infants gain a basic understanding of the world around them. The abilities that an infant is born with—sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch—combined with physical capabilities that continue to develop—including touching, grasping, and tasting—allow infants to interact and build awareness of themselves and what is around them. Illustration by Hugo Lin. © Verywell, 2018. Stages of the Sensorimotor Stage As any parent or caregiver can attest, a great deal of learning and development happens during the first two years of a child's life. The sensorimotor stage can be divided into six separate sub-stages that are characterized by the development of a new skill: Object permanence is a child's understanding that objects continue to exist even though they cannot be seen or heard. Imagine a game of peek-a-boo, for example. A very young infant will believe that the other person or object has actually vanished and will act shocked or startled when the object reappears. Older infants who understand object permanen...