Jean Piaget (1896-1980)
Cognitive perspective
This is a theory of how knowledge develops.
Schemes= mental representations of an organized pattern of behavior.
organize= create systems to bring together knowledge.
adaption=to new information
assimilation= incorporate new objects
accommodation= change existing
schemes to include new experiences.
Equilibration= striving for cognitive
balance.
Humans organize and adapt, and
through that, knowledge develops.
Piaget looks at knowledge
through a biological
model. This theory is
based on maturation.
Development from within the
organism.
Free play for Piaget is a way of
learning.
Piaget's Four Stages of
Cognitive Development
Stage 1: Sensorimotor (Infancy)
Cognitive development focuses on motor and reflex actions.
The child learns about herself and her
environment through sensation and
movement.
Stage 1: Sensorimotor (0-2 years)
Object permanence:
An object still exist when it is out of sight.
Mental Representations: begins to remember and imagine experiences.
Stage 2: Preoperational 2-7 years old
The main focus of the child's intellectual development is language and using symbols (e.g., pictures and words) to represent ideas and objects.
The child at this stage has an active imagination and vivid fantasies.
Stage 2: Preoperational 2-7 years old
Egocentrism: Child assumes everyone else thinks as she does. Inability to consider another person’s point of view.
Irreversibility: A child fails to understand that an operation or action can go both ways.
Centration: or inability to decenter. Child focus on one aspect of a situation and neglects others.
Stage 3: Concrete Operation
(Ages 7-11)
Children begin to process abstract concepts such as numbers and relationships but they need concrete examples to understand these concepts.
If before they could manipulate objects only physically, now they can do so mentally.
Stage 3: Concrete Operation (Ages 7-11)
Conservation: Recognition that amount stays the same if nothing has been added or taken away, even when substance is reshaped or rearranged.
Reversibility: Ability to envision how certain processes can be reversed.
Stage 4: Formal Operation 11 through adulthood
The child begins to reason logically and analytically without requiring references to concrete applications.
This symbolizes the reaching of the final form of
intelligence.
The child is capable of hypothetical and deductive reasoning.
