lOMoARcPSD|29902747
The 4 Stages of Cognitive Development handout
computer science (AAB University )
Studocu is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university
Downloaded by Allen Bercasio (xianelldave16@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|29902747
The 4 Stages of Cognitive Development
Background and Key Concepts of Piaget's Theory
(Cherry, 2018)
Based on his observations, he concluded that children
were not less intelligent than adults, they simply think
differently. Albert Einstein called Piaget's discovery "so simple
only a genius could have thought of it."
Piaget's stage theory describes the cognitive
development of children. Cognitive development involves
changes in cognitive process and abilities. In Piaget's view,
early cognitive development involves processes based upon
actions and later progresses to changes in mental operations.
The Stages
Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development
suggests that children move through four different stages of
mental development. His theory focuses not only on
understanding how children acquire knowledge, but also on
understanding the nature of intelligence. Piaget's stages are:
•
•
•
•
Sensorimotor stage: birth to 2 years
Preoperational stage: ages 2 to 7
Concrete operational stage: ages 7 to 11
Formal operational stage: ages 12 and up
Piaget believed that children take an active role in the
learning process, acting much like little scientists as they
perform experiments, make observations, and learn about
the world. As kids interact with the world around them, they
continually add new knowledge, build upon existing
knowledge, and adapt previously held ideas to accommodate
new information.
How Piaget Developed the Theory
Piaget was born in Switzerland in the late 1800s and
was a precocious student, publishing his first scientific paper
when he was just 11 years old. His early exposure to the
intellectual development of children came when he worked
as an assistant to Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon as they
worked to standardize their famous IQ test.
Through his observations of his children, Piaget
developed a stage theory of intellectual development that
included four distinct stages:
1. The Sensorimotor Stage (Ages: Birth to 2 Years)
- Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes:
a. The infant knows the world through their
movements and sensations.
b. Children learn about the world through basic
actions such as sucking, grasping, looking, and
listening.
c. Infants learn that things continue to exist even
though they cannot be seen (object
permanence).
d. They are separate beings from the people and
objects around them.
e. They realize that their actions can cause things to
happen in the world around them.
During this earliest stage of cognitive development,
infants and toddlers acquire knowledge through sensory
experiences and manipulating objects. A child's entire
experience at the earliest period of this stage occurs through
basic reflexes, senses, and motor responses.
It is during the sensorimotor stage that children go
through a period of dramatic growth and learning. As kids
interact with their environment, they are continually making
new discoveries about how the world works.
Much of Piaget's interest in the cognitive
development of children was inspired by his observations of
his own nephew and daughter. These observations reinforced
his budding hypothesis that children's minds were not merely
smaller versions of adult minds. Up until this point in history,
children were largely treated simply as smaller versions of
adults. Piaget was one of the first to identify that the way that
children think is different from the way adults think.
The cognitive development that occurs during this
period takes place over a relatively short period of time and
involves a great deal of growth. Children not only learn how
to perform physical actions such as crawling and walking, they
also learn a great deal about language from the people with
whom they interact. Piaget also broke this stage down into a
number of different substages. It is during the final part of the
sensorimotor stage that early representational thought
emerges.
Instead, he proposed, intelligence is something that
grows and develops through a series of stages. Older children
do not just think more quickly than younger children, he
suggested. Instead, there are both qualitative and
quantitative differences between the thinking of young
children versus older children.
Piaget believed that developing object permanence
or object constancy, the understanding that objects continue
to exist even when they cannot be seen, was an important
element at this point of development. By learning that objects
are separate and distinct entities and that they have an
existence of their own outside of individual perception,
Downloaded by Allen Bercasio (xianelldave16@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|29902747
children are then able to begin to attach names and words to
objects.
and that not everyone else necessarily shares their thoughts,
feelings, and opinions.
2. The Preoperational Stage (Ages: 2 to 7 Years)
- Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes:
a. Children begin to think symbolically and learn to
use words and pictures to represent objects.
b. Children at this stage tend to be egocentric and
struggle to see things from the perspective of
others.
c. While they are getting better with language and
thinking, they still tend to think about things in
very concrete terms.
4. The Formal Operational Stage (Ages: 12 and Up)
- Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes:
a. At this stage, the adolescent or young adult
begins to think abstractly and reason about
hypothetical problems.
b. Abstract thought emerges.
c. Teens begin to think more about moral,
philosophical, ethical, social, and political issues
that require theoretical and abstract reasoning.
d. Begin to use deductive logic, or reasoning from a
general principle to specific information.
The foundations of language development may have
been laid during the previous stage, but it is the emergence of
language that is one of the major hallmarks of the
preoperational stage of development. Children become much
more skilled at pretend play during this stage of development,
yet still think very concretely about the world around them.
At this stage, kids learn through pretend play but still
struggle with logic and taking the point of view of other
people. They also often struggle with understanding the idea
of constancy.
For example, a researcher might take a lump of clay,
divide it into two equal pieces, and then give a child the choice
between two pieces of clay to play with. One piece of clay is
rolled into a compact ball while the other is smashed into a
flat pancake shape. Since the flat shape looks larger, the
preoperational child will likely choose that piece even though
the two pieces are exactly the same size.
3. The Concrete Operational Stage (Ages: 7 to 11 Years)
- Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes
a. During this stage, children begin to thinking
logically about concrete events.
b. They begin to understand the concept of
conservation; that the amount of liquid in a short,
wide cup is equal to that in a tall, skinny glass, for
example.
c. Their thinking becomes more logical and
organized, but still very concrete.
d. Children begin using inductive logic, or reasoning
from specific information to a general principle.
While children are still very concrete and literal in
their thinking at this point in development, they become
much more adept at using logic. The egocentrism of the
previous stage begins to disappear as kids become better at
thinking about how other people might view a situation.
While thinking becomes much more logical during the
concrete operational state, it can also be very rigid. Kids at this
point in development tend to struggle with abstract and
hypothetical concepts.
During this stage, children also become less
egocentric and begin to think about how other people might
think and feel. Kids in the concrete operational stage also
begin to understand that their thoughts are unique to them
The final stage of Piaget's theory involves an increase
in logic, the ability to use deductive reasoning, and an
understanding of abstract ideas. At this point, people become
capable of seeing multiple potential solutions to problems
and think more scientifically about the world around them.
The ability to thinking about abstract ideas and
situations is the key hallmark of the formal operational stage
of cognitive development. The ability to systematically plan
for the future and reason about hypothetical situations are
also critical abilities that emerge during this stage.
It is important to note that Piaget did not view
children's intellectual development as a quantitative process;
that is, kids do not just add more information and knowledge
to their existing knowledge as they get older. Instead, Piaget
suggested that there is a qualitative change in how children
think as they gradually process through these four stages. A
child at age 7 doesn't just have more information about the
world than he did at age 2; there is a fundamental change in
how he thinks about the world.
Important Concepts
To better understand some of the things that happen
during cognitive development, it is important first to examine
a few of the important ideas and concepts introduced by
Piaget.
The following are some of the factors that influence
how children learn and grow:
1. Schemas
A schema describes both the mental and physical
actions involved in understanding and knowing. Schemas are
categories of knowledge that help us to interpret and
understand the world.
In Piaget's view, a schema includes both a category of
knowledge and the process of obtaining that knowledge. As
experiences happen, this new information is used to modify,
add to, or change previously existing schemas.
For example, a child may have a schema about a type
of animal, such as a dog. If the child's sole experience has been
with small dogs, a child might believe that all dogs are small,
Downloaded by Allen Bercasio (xianelldave16@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|29902747
furry, and have four legs. Suppose then that the child
encounters an enormous dog. The child will take in this new
information, modifying the previously existing schema to
include these new observations.
2. Assimilation
The process of taking in new information into our
already existing schemas is known as assimilation. The
process is somewhat subjective because we tend to modify
experiences and information slightly to fit in with our
preexisting beliefs. In the example above, seeing a dog and
labeling it "dog" is a case of assimilating the animal into the
child's dog schema.
3. Accommodation
Another part of adaptation involves changing or
altering our existing schemas in light of new information, a
process known as accommodation. Accommodation involves
modifying existing schemas, or ideas, as a result of new
information or new experiences. New schemas may also be
developed during this process.
4. Equilibration
Piaget believed that all children try to strike a balance
between assimilation and accommodation, which is achieved
through a mechanism Piaget called equilibration. As children
progress 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). Equilibration helps
explain how children can move from one stage of thought into
the next.
Piaget Stages of Development
(WebMD, n.d.)
The Piaget stages of development is a blueprint that
describes the stages of normal intellectual development, from
infancy through adulthood. This includes thought, judgment,
and knowledge. The stages were named after psychologist
and developmental biologist Jean Piaget, who recorded the
intellectual development and abilities of infants, children, and
teens.
Piaget's four stages of intellectual (or cognitive)
development are:
•
•
•
•
Sensorimotor. Birth through ages 18-24 months
Preoperational. Toddlerhood (18-24 months)
through early childhood (age 7)
Concrete operational. Ages 7 to 12
Formal operational. Adolescence through adulthood
new intellectual abilities and a more complex understanding
of the world.
Sensorimotor Stage
During the early stages, infants are only aware of
what is immediately in front of them. They focus on what they
see, what they are doing, and physical interactions with their
immediate environment.
Because they don't yet know how things react,
they're constantly experimenting with activities such as
shaking or throwing things, putting things in their mouths,
and learning about the world through trial and error. The later
stages include goal-oriented behavior which brings about a
desired result.
Between ages 7 and 9 months, infants begin to realize
that an object exists even if it can no longer be seen. This
important milestone -- known as object permanence -- is a
sign that memory is developing.
After infants start crawling, standing, and walking,
their increased physical mobility leads to increased cognitive
development. Near the end of the sensorimotor stage (18-24
months), infants reach another important milestone -- early
language development, a sign that they are developing some
symbolic abilities.
Preoperational Stage
During this stage (toddler through age 7), young
children are able to think about things symbolically. Their
language use becomes more mature. They also develop
memory and imagination, which allows them to understand
the difference between past and future, and engage in makebelieve.
But their thinking is based on intuition and still not
completely logical. They cannot yet grasp more complex
concepts such as cause and effect, time, and comparison.
Concrete Operational Stage
At this time, elementary-age and preadolescent
children -- ages 7 to 11 -- demonstrate logical, concrete
reasoning.
Children's thinking becomes less egocentric and they
are increasingly aware of external events. They begin to
realize that one's own thoughts and feelings are unique and
may not be shared by others or may not even be part of
reality.
During this stage, however, most children still can't
think abstractly or hypothetically.
Formal Operational Stage
Piaget acknowledged that some children may pass
through the stages at different ages than the averages noted
above and that some children may show characteristics of
more than one stage at a given time. But he insisted that
cognitive development always follows this sequence, that
stages cannot be skipped, and that each stage is marked by
Adolescents who reach this fourth stage of
intellectual development -- usually at age 11-plus -- are able
to logically use symbols related to abstract concepts, such as
algebra and science. They can think about multiple variables
in systematic ways, formulate hypotheses, and consider
Downloaded by Allen Bercasio (xianelldave16@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|29902747
possibilities. They also can ponder abstract relationships and
concepts such as justice.
develops into an individual who can reason and think
using hypotheses.
Although Piaget believed in lifelong intellectual
development, he insisted that the formal operational stage is
the final stage of cognitive development, and that continued
intellectual development in adults depends on the
accumulation of knowledge.
To Piaget, cognitive development was a progressive
reorganization of mental processes as a result of biological
maturation and environmental experience. Children
construct an understanding of the world around them, then
experience discrepancies between what they already know
and what they discover in their environment.
Jean Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development
There Are Three Basic Components to Piaget's Cognitive
Theory:
(McLeod, 2018)
Piaget's (1936) theory of cognitive development
explains how a child constructs a mental model of the world.
He disagreed with the idea that intelligence was a fixed trait
and regarded cognitive development as a process which
occurs due to biological maturation and interaction with the
environment.
Piaget was employed at the Binet Institute in the
1920s, where his job was to develop French versions of
questions on English intelligence tests. He became intrigued
with the reasons children gave for their wrong answers to the
questions that required logical thinking. He believed that
these incorrect answers revealed important differences
between the thinking of adults and children.
Piaget (1936) was the first psychologist to make a
systematic study of cognitive development. His contributions
include a stage theory of child cognitive development,
detailed observational studies of cognition in children, and a
series of simple but ingenious tests to reveal different
cognitive abilities.
What Piaget wanted to do was not to measure how
well children could count, spell or solve problems as a way of
grading their I.Q. What he was more interested in was the way
in which fundamental concepts like the very idea of number,
time, quantity, causality, justice and so on emerged.
Before Piaget’s work, the common assumption in
psychology was that children are merely less competent
thinkers than adults. Piaget showed that young children think
in strikingly different ways compared to adults.
According to Piaget, children are born with a very
basic mental structure (genetically inherited and evolved) on
which all subsequent learning and knowledge are based.
1. Schemas (building blocks of knowledge).
- Adaptation processes that enable the transition from
one stage to another (equilibrium, assimilation, and
accommodation).
- Stages of Cognitive Development:
• sensorimotor,
• preoperational,
• concrete operational,
• formal operational.
- Imagine what it would be like if you did not have a
mental model of your world. It would mean that you
would not be able to make so much use of
information from your past experience or to plan
future actions.
- Schemas are the basic building blocks of such
cognitive models, and enable us to form a mental
representation of the world. Piaget (1952, p. 7)
defined a schema as:
"a cohesive, repeatable action sequence possessing
component actions that are tightly interconnected
and governed by a core meaning."
-
-
-
Piaget's Theory Differs from Others in Several Ways:
•
•
•
•
It is concerned with children, rather than all learners.
It focuses on development, rather than learning per
se, so it does not address learning of information or
specific behaviors.
It proposes discrete stages of development, marked
by qualitative differences, rather than a gradual
increase in number and complexity of behaviors,
concepts, ideas, etc.
The goal of the theory is to explain the mechanisms
and processes by which the infant, and then the child,
-
In more simple terms Piaget called the schema the
basic building block of intelligent behavior – a way of
organizing knowledge. Indeed, it is useful to think of
schemas as “units” of knowledge, each relating to one
aspect of the world, including objects, actions, and
abstract (i.e., theoretical) concepts.
Wadsworth (2004) suggests that schemata (the plural
of schema) be thought of as 'index cards' filed in the
brain, each one telling an individual how to react to
incoming stimuli or information.
When Piaget talked about the development of a
person's mental processes, he was referring to
increases in the number and complexity of the
schemata that a person had learned.
When a child's existing schemas are capable of
explaining what it can perceive around it, it is said to
be in a state of equilibrium, i.e., a state of cognitive
(i.e., mental) balance.
Piaget emphasized the importance of schemas in
cognitive development and described how they were
developed or acquired. A schema can be defined as a
set of linked mental representations of the world,
which we use both to understand and to respond to
situations. The assumption is that we store these
Downloaded by Allen Bercasio (xianelldave16@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|29902747
mental representations and apply them when
needed.
- For example, a person might have a schema about
buying a meal in a restaurant. The schema is a stored
form of the pattern of behavior which includes
looking at a menu, ordering food, eating it and paying
the bill. This is an example of a type of schema called
a 'script.' Whenever they are in a restaurant, they
retrieve this schema from memory and apply it to the
situation.
- The schemas Piaget described tend to be simpler than
this - especially those used by infants. He described
how - as a child gets older - his or her schemas
become more numerous and elaborate.
- Piaget believed that newborn babies have a small
number of innate schemas - even before they have
had many opportunities to experience the world.
These neonatal schemas are the cognitive structures
underlying innate reflexes. These reflexes are
genetically programmed into us.
- For example, babies have a sucking reflex, which is
triggered by something touching the baby's lips. A
baby will suck a nipple, a comforter (dummy), or a
person's finger. Piaget, therefore, assumed that the
baby has a 'sucking schema.'
- Similarly, the grasping reflex which is elicited when
something touches the palm of a baby's hand, or the
rooting reflex, in which a baby will turn its head
towards something which touches its cheek, are
innate schemas. Shaking a rattle would be the
combination of two schemas, grasping and shaking.
2. Assimilation and Accommodation
- Jean Piaget (1952; see also Wadsworth, 2004) viewed
intellectual growth as a process of adaptation
(adjustment) to the world. This happens through:
a. Assimilation
• Which is using an existing schema to deal with
a new object or situation.
b. Accommodation
• This happens when the existing schema
(knowledge) does not work, and needs to be
changed to deal with a new object or situation.
3. Equilibration
- This is the force which moves development along.
Piaget believed that cognitive development did not
progress at a steady rate, but rather in leaps and
bounds.
- Equilibrium occurs when a child's schemas can deal
with most new information through assimilation.
However, an unpleasant state of disequilibrium
occurs when new information cannot be fitted into
existing schemas (assimilation).
- Equilibration is the force which drives the learning
process as we do not like to be frustrated and will
seek to restore balance by mastering the new
challenge (accommodation). Once the new
information is acquired the process of assimilation
with the new schema will continue until the next time
we need to make an adjustment to it.
Example of Assimilation
A 2-year-old child sees a man who is bald on top of his
head and has long frizzy hair on the sides. To his father’s
horror, the toddler shouts “Clown, clown” (Siegler et al.,
2003).
Example of Accommodation
In the “clown” incident, the boy’s father explained to
his son that the man was not a clown and that even
though his hair was like a clown’s, he wasn’t wearing a
funny costume and wasn’t doing silly things to make
people laugh.
With this new knowledge, the boy was able to change
his schema of “clown” and make this idea fit better to a
standard concept of “clown.”
Stages of Development
Piaget proposed four stages of cognitive
development which reflect the increasing sophistication of
children's thought:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Sensorimotor stage (birth to age 2)
Pre-operational stage (from age 2 to age 7)
Concrete operational stage (from age 7 to age 11)
Formal operational stage (age 11+ - adolescence and
adulthood)
Each child goes through the stages in the same order,
and child development is determined by biological
maturation and interaction with the environment. Although
no stage can be missed out, there are individual differences in
the rate at which children progress through stages, and some
individuals may never attain the later stages.
Piaget did not claim that a particular stage was
reached at a certain age - although descriptions of the stages
often include an indication of the age at which the average
child would reach each stage.
1. Sensorimotor Stage (Birth - 2 years)
- The main achievement during this stage is object
permanence - knowing that an object still exists, even
if it is hidden.
- It requires the ability to form a mental representation
(i.e., a schema) of the object.
2. Preoperational Stage (2-7 years)
- During this stage, young children can think about
things symbolically. This is the ability to make one
thing - a word or an object - stand for something other
than itself.
- Thinking is still egocentric, and the infant has
difficulty taking the viewpoint of others.
3. Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 years)
- Piaget considered the concrete stage a major turning
point in the child's cognitive development because it
marks the beginning of logical or operational thought.
Downloaded by Allen Bercasio (xianelldave16@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|29902747
-
This means the child can work things out internally in
their head (rather than physically try things out in the
real world).
- Children can conserve number (age 6), mass (age 7),
and weight (age 9). Conservation is the understanding
that something stays the same in quantity even
though its appearance changes.
4. Formal Operational Stage (11 years and over)
- The formal operational stage begins at approximately
age eleven and lasts into adulthood. During this time,
people develop the ability to think about abstract
concepts, and logically test hypotheses.
Educational Implications
Piaget (1952) did not explicitly relate his theory to
education, although later researchers have explained how
features of Piaget's theory can be applied to teaching and
learning.
Piaget has been extremely influential in developing
educational policy and teaching practice. For example, a
review of primary education by the UK government in 1966
was based strongly on Piaget’s theory. The result of this
review led to the publication of the Plowden report (1967).
Discovery learning – the idea that children learn best
through doing and actively exploring - was seen as central to
the transformation of the primary school curriculum.
'The report's recurring themes are individual learning,
flexibility in the curriculum, the centrality of play in children's
learning, the use of the environment, learning by discovery
and the importance of the evaluation of children's progress teachers should 'not assume that only what is measurable is
valuable.'
Because Piaget's theory is based upon biological
maturation and stages, the notion of 'readiness' is important.
Readiness concerns when certain information or concepts
should be taught. According to Piaget's theory children should
not be taught certain concepts until they have reached the
appropriate stage of cognitive development.
According to Piaget (1958), assimilation and
accommodation require an active learner, not a passive one,
because problem-solving skills cannot be taught, they must be
discovered.
Within the classroom learning should be studentcentered and accomplished through active discovery learning.
The role of the teacher is to facilitate learning, rather than
direct tuition. Therefore, teachers should encourage the
following within the classroom:
•
•
•
Focus on the process of learning, rather than the end
product of it.
Using active methods that require rediscovering or
reconstructing "truths."
Using collaborative, as well as individual activities (so
children can learn from each other).
•
•
Devising situations that present useful problems, and
create disequilibrium in the child.
Evaluate the level of the child's development so
suitable tasks can be set.
Critical Evaluation
1. Support
The influence of Piaget’s ideas in developmental
psychology has been enormous. He changed how people
viewed the child’s world and their methods of studying
children.
He was an inspiration to many who came after and
took up his ideas. Piaget's ideas have generated a huge
amount of research which has increased our understanding of
cognitive development.
His ideas have been of practical use in understanding
and communicating with children, particularly in the field of
education (re: Discovery Learning).
2. Criticisms
Are the stages real? Vygotsky and Bruner would
rather not talk about stages at all, preferring to see
development as a continuous process. Others have queried
the age ranges of the stages. Some studies have shown that
progress to the formal operational stage is not guaranteed.
For example, Keating (1979) reported that 40-60% of
college students fail at formal operation tasks, and Dasen
(1994) states that only one-third of adults ever reach the
formal operational stage.
Because Piaget concentrated on the universal stages
of cognitive development and biological maturation, he failed
to consider the effect that the social setting and culture may
have on cognitive development.
Dasen (1994) cites studies he conducted in remote
parts of the central Australian desert with 8-14 year old
Aborigines. He gave them conservation of liquid tasks and
spatial awareness tasks. He found that the ability to conserve
came later in the aboriginal children, between aged 10 and 13
( as opposed to between 5 and 7, with Piaget’s Swiss sample).
However, he found that spatial awareness abilities
developed earlier amongst the Aboriginal children than the
Swiss children. Such a study demonstrates cognitive
development is not purely dependent on maturation but on
cultural factors too – spatial awareness is crucial for nomadic
groups of people.
Vygotsky, a contemporary of Piaget, argued that
social interaction is crucial for cognitive development.
According to Vygotsky the child's learning always occurs in a
social context in co-operation with someone more skillful
(MKO). This social interaction provides language
opportunities and language is the foundation of thought.
Downloaded by Allen Bercasio (xianelldave16@gmail.com)
lOMoARcPSD|29902747
Piaget’s methods (observation and clinical interviews)
are more open to biased interpretation than other methods.
Piaget made careful, detailed naturalistic observations of
children, and from these he wrote diary descriptions charting
their development. He also used clinical interviews and
observations of older children who were able to understand
questions and hold conversations.
For Piaget, language is seen as secondary to action,
i.e., thought precedes language. The Russian psychologist Lev
Vygotsky (1978) argues that the development of language and
thought go together and that the origin of reasoning is more
to do with our ability to communicate with others than with
our interaction with the material world.
Because Piaget conducted the observations alone the
data collected are based on his own subjective interpretation
of events. It would have been more reliable if Piaget
conducted the observations with another researcher and
compared the results afterward to check if they are similar
(i.e., have inter-rater reliability).
Although clinical interviews allow the researcher to
explore data in more depth, the interpretation of the
interviewer may be biased. For example, children may not
understand the question/s, they have short attention spans,
they cannot express themselves very well and may be trying
to please the experimenter. Such methods meant that Piaget
may have formed inaccurate conclusions.
As several studies have shown Piaget underestimated
the abilities of children because his tests were sometimes
confusing or difficult to understand (e.g., Hughes, 1975).
Piaget failed to distinguish between competence (what a child
is capable of doing) and performance (what a child can show
when given a particular task). When tasks were altered,
performance (and therefore competence) was affected.
Therefore, Piaget might have underestimated children’s
cognitive abilities.
For example, a child might have object permanence
(competence) but still not be able to search for objects
(performance). When Piaget hid objects from babies he found
that it wasn’t till after nine months that they looked for it.
However, Piaget relied on manual search methods – whether
the child was looking for the object or not.
Later, research such as Baillargeon and Devos (1991)
reported that infants as young as four months looked longer
at a moving carrot that didn’t do what it expected, suggesting
they had some sense of permanence, otherwise they
wouldn’t have had any expectation of what it should or
shouldn’t do.
The concept of schema is incompatible with the
theories of Bruner (1966) and Vygotsky (1978). Behaviorism
would also refute Piaget’s schema theory because is cannot
be directly observed as it is an internal process. Therefore,
they would claim it cannot be objectively measured.
Piaget studied his own children and the children of his
colleagues in Geneva in order to deduce general principles
about the intellectual development of all children. Not only
was his sample very small, but it was composed solely of
European children from families of high socio-economic
status. Researchers have therefore questioned the
generalizability of his data.
Downloaded by Allen Bercasio (xianelldave16@gmail.com)