Jean Piaget is a Swiss psychologist, born 1896 and died 1980. He observed his own three
children and changed the way we think about the development of children’s minds.
His interest began in 1920, when he was working in Paris to develop questions for
children’s intelligence tests. While administering tests to find out at what age children
could answer correctly to certain questions, Piaget became intrigued by the children’s
wrong answers. Where others saw childish mistakes, Piaget saw intelligence at work. He
noticed that the mistakes made by children at a specific age, was similar with the majority
of children the same age.
Theory of cognitive development: states that children actively construct their
understanding of the world and go through four stages of cognitive development.
We adapt our thinking to include new ideas because additional information furthers
knowledge and understanding.
Piaget’s core idea was that children were active thinkers, constantly trying to construct
more advanced understandings of the world.
Piaget believed that organization and adaptation were two important processes that make
up the cognitive construction of the world.
Scheme: a cognitive structure that helps individuals organize and understand their
experiences. This turns into what Piaget believed we adapted in two ways:
1) Assimilation: occurs when individuals incorporate new information into their
existing knowledge.
2) Accommodation: occurs when individuals adjust to new information.
Behavior has to be first assimilated then accommodated.
He believed that assimilation and accommodation operate in a young infant’s life.
Example: a newborn reflexively suck everything that touches their lips (assimilation).
But after a few months of experience they begin to understand the world
differently. They now know that they can suck certain things like their mothers
nipples, fingers etc., but, things such as fuzzy blankets should not be sucked
(accommodation).
Piaget believed that all children try to strike a balance between assimilation and
accommodation, which is achieved through a mechanism Piaget called equilibration. It
helps to explain how children are able to move from one stage of thought into the next.
Equilibration- as children process through the stages of cognitive development, it is
important to maintain a balance between applying previous knowledge (assimilation) and
changing behavior to account for new knowledge (accommodation).
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Piaget’s Four Stages and Substages of Cognitive Development
1. Sensorimotor Stage
 Reflexes
 Primary Circular Reactions
 Secondary Circular Reactions
 Coordination of Reactions
 Tertiary Circular Reactions
 Early Representational Thought
2. Preoperational Stage
 Egocentrism
 Conservation
3. Concrete Operational Stage
 Logic
 Reversibility
4. Formal Operational Stage
- Deductive Logic
- Abstract Thought
- Problem Solving
1. Sensorimotor Stage, from birth to 2 years of age, the infant constructs an
understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences with physical actions.
An infant progresses from reflexive, instinctual action at birth to the beginning of
symbolic thought toward the end of the stage.
Substages:
 Reflexes (0-1 month): the child understands the environment simply through
natural reflexes such as sucking and looking.
 Primary Circular Reactions (1-4 months): involves coordinating sensation and new
schemas.
Example: the child may suck their thumb by accident and then later do it again,
intentionally, because the infant finds that action pleasurable.
 Secondary Circular Reactions (4-8 months): the child becomes more focused on
the world and begins to intentionally repeat an action in order to trigger a response
in the environment.
Example: the child will purposely pick up a toy to put it in his or her mouth.
 Coordination of Reactions (8-12 months): the child begins to show intentional
actions. Children begin exploring the environment around them and will often
imitate the observed behavior of others. The understanding of objects also begins
during this time and children begin to recognize objects depending on their quality.
Example: a rattle makes a sound when shaken.
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 Tertiary Circular Reactions (12-18 months): children begin a period of trial and
error.
Example: a child may try out different sounds or actions as a way of getting
attention from a caregiver.
 Early Representational Thought (18-24 months): children develop symbols to
represent events or objects in the world. They begin to understand the world
through mental operations instead of only through actions.
2. Preoperational stage, ages 2 to 7 years old, the child begins to represent the world
with words and images. Thee words and images then reflect increased symbolic thinking
and go beyond the connection of sensory information and physical action.
Substages:
 Egocentrism: Piaget used a number of creative and clever techniques to study the
mental abilities of children. He used a three-dimensional display of a mountain
scene. The children are then asked to choose a picture that showed the scene they
had observed. Most children are able to do this without difficulty. Next the
children are asked to pick a picture showing what someone else would have seen
when looking at the mountain from a different viewpoint. Many of the children
chose the scene showing their own viewpoint of the mountain scene because they
are unable to take on the perspective of another person.
 Conservation: Piaget conducted a number of experiments to do with number,
length, weight, volume, mass and quantity. He then found out that only a few
children showed any understanding of conservation prior to the age of five.
Example: the same amount of liquid is placed into two cups. One cup is tall and
thin and another cup is short and wide. Children are then asked to pick which cup
holds the most liquid. The children almost always pick the cup that looks fuller.
3. Concrete Operational stage, 7 to 11 years old, the child can now reason logically
about concrete events and classify objects into different sets.
Substages:
 Inductive Logic: involves going from a specific experience to a general principle.
 Reversibility: awareness that actions can be reversed. For example being able to
reverse the order of relationships between mental categories.
Example: a child may be able to recognize that his or her dog is a Pitbull, and that
a Pitbull is a dog, and that the dog is an animal.
Pitbull Dog  Animal
Pitbull Dog  Animal
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4. Formal Operational, 11 years old to adulthood, the adolescent reasons in more
abstract, idealistic, and logical ways.
Substages:
 Deductive Logic: it requires the ability to use a general principle to determine a
specific outcome. This type of thinking involves hypothetical situations and is
often required in math and science.
 Abstract Thought: instead of relying solely on previous experiences, children
begin to consider possible outcomes and consequences of actions. This type of
thinking is important in long-term actions.
 Problem Solving: the ability to systematically solve a problem in a logical and
methodical way. Children are often able to quickly plan an organized approach to
solving a problem.
Piaget Beliefs
Children go through all these four stages to understand the world better and each stage is
related and consists of distinct ways of thinking.
He believed that development didn’t always have a smooth transition.
He believed that children played an active role in their cognitive development.
Children use the processes of organization and adaption (assimilation and
accommodation) to understand their world.
Object Permanence is the Piagetian term for one of an infant’s most important
accomplishment: understanding that objects and continue to exist even when they cannot
directly be seen, touched or heard.
Example: You can observe an infants reaction by watching how they interact with an
object and then cover the object and watch the infant’s reaction when it disappears. There
will be two reactions. One, if the infant shows no reaction it is then assumed that they
believe the object no longer exists. Two, if infants are surprised at the disappearance and
start to look for the missing object then they believe that it still exists.
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Works Cited
"Background and Key Concepts of Piaget's Theory." About.com Psychology. Web. 15
Mar. 2012. <http://psychology.about.com/od/piagetstheory/a/keyconcepts.htm>.
Myers, David G. Psychology. 5th ed. New York: Worth, 1998. Print.
Santrock, John W. Life-span Development. 3rd ed. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 2008.
Print.
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