Cognitive
Development Theory Piaget
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Jean Piaget
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Jean Piaget was a developmental
psychologist: He was interested
primarily in how people’s learning and
knowing change as they grow.
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Piaget was most interested in the thinking process that a
child used to produce an answer or solve a problem.
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Piaget thought of himself as a genetic epistemologist: He
wanted to study how knowledge develops in humans, and
how a person’s relationship with knowledge changes over
time.
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Genetic = the genesis (beginning) of a mode of development
Epistemology = the theory of knowledge
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Genetic epistemology: A
constructivist theory
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No innate ideas...not a nativist theory.
Nor is the child a “tabula rasa” with the “real”
world out there waiting to be discovered.
Instead, mind is constructed through interaction
with the environment; what is real depends on
how developed one’s knowledge is
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Piaget’s Concept of Knowledge
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Knowledge is a process. People do not really know something until
they act on it, either physically or mentally.
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For young children, knowing something means physically acting on
it: A two year old knows that he can pick up, press, throw, and taste
an apple. That is all he knows about the apple.
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Older children can use symbols (words or figures) within their
minds to represent physical objects or relationships.
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We can solve the abstract problem 3 + 4 in our heads, but a young child
would have a much easier time with it if he could manipulate 7 objects.
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How does Piaget describe
developmental change?
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Development is a process of constructing new ideas
about how the world works
Development occurs in stages, with a qualitative shift in
the organization and complexity of cognition at each
stage.
Thus, children not simply slower, or less knowledgeable
than adults instead, they understand the world in a
qualitatively different way. A child sees and understands
“reality” differently from an adult.
Stages form an invariant sequence.
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What develops? Cognitive
structures
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Cognitive structures are the means by which
experience is interpreted and organized: reality
very much in the eye of the beholder
Early on, cognitive structures are quite basic, and
consist of reflexes like sucking and grasping.
Piaget referred to these structures as schemes.
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How do cognitive structures
develop?
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Through assimilation and accomodation.
Assimilation: The incorporation of new
experiences into existing structures.
Accommodation: The changing of an old
structures so that new experiences can be
processed.
Assimilation is conservative, while
accommodation is progressive.
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Assimilation & Accommodation
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Remember: People have a certain set of schemes with which they
understand events in the world.
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When a person begins to understand a new event, he/she can
either assimilate it into an existing scheme or accommodate that
existing scheme so that the new event fits.
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Assimilation=fitting the new information to an existing scheme
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Whose Line is it Anyway – Props
We have schemes for different objects. The game Props is really just making
the prop fit into existing schemes!
Accommodation=changing the scheme to fit the new information
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Learning to Drive that Darn Manual Car Again!
Assuming we know how to drive an automatic, we will have to change our
scheme for driving in order to be successful with the manual transmission.
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Assimilation & Accommodation
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Remember: People have a certain set of schemes with which they
understand events in the world.
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When a person begins to understand a new event, he/she can
either assimilate it into an existing scheme or accommodate that
existing scheme so that the new event fits.
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Assimilation=fitting the new information to an existing scheme
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Whose Line is it Anyway – Props
We have schemes for different objects. The game Props is really just making
the prop fit into existing schemes!
Accommodation=changing the scheme to fit the new information
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Learning to Drive that Darn Manual Car Again!
Assuming we know how to drive an automatic, we will have to change our
scheme for driving in order to be successful with the manual transmission.
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Why accomodate?
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Normally, the mind is in a state of equilibrium:
existing structures are stable, and assimilation is
mostly occurring.
However, a discrepant experience can lead to
disequilibrium or cognitive “instability”
Child forced to accommodate existing
structures.
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Active view of development
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Child as scientist
Mental structures intrinsically active constantly
being applied to experience
Leads to curiosity and the desire to know
Development proceeds as the child actively
refines his/her knowledge of the world through
many “small experiments”
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Development
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As children develop, their schemes change in response to:
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Heredity, and the time schedule for growth and change.
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Physical experience with objects & problem-solving in the world.
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Social transmission from parents, school, society…
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Equilibrium (which Piaget added because he believed that
something maintained balance among the other three factors).
As children’s schemes change,
they enter different stages of development.
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Stages of Cognitive Development
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(1) Sensorimotor (0-2 years)
(2) Pre-operational (2-7 years)
(3) Concrete Operational (7-11 years)
(4) Formal Operational (11-16 years)
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Stage One: Sensori-Motor
~ Birth à 2 years old
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Infants first relate to the world only through reflexes
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Then they begin to make many repetitive movements,
practicing grasping objects and making other simple
motions.
At first, they have NO concept of object permanence.
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They begin to recognize simple cause and effect &
object permanence at the end of this stage.
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e.g. Sucking on a bottle
e.g. Once a toy moves out of sight, infants assume it is
completely gone.
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Stage Two: Pre-Operational Thought
~ 2 years old à 7 years old
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Children develop language in this period, first egocentric* & then
more social.
• Egocentric– running self-commentary that accompanies action
Children focus on one characteristic of an object at a time.
• Imagining that both the height & width of a glass of water affect the amount
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of water is difficult for them.
Imagining that increased space between pieces may make one row look longer
than another is difficult.
Thus, children have trouble with conservation.
• Conservation of liquid
• Conservation of number
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Stage Three: Concrete Operations
~ 7 years old à 11 years old
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Children begin to perform operations that are directly related
to objects (but they do not necessarily have to see or touch the
objects.)
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They can solve problems with imagined objects
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e.g. If Alice has 2 apples & I give her 7 more apples, how many does she have
now?
Children begin to develop the concepts of conservation &
reversability. They can comprehend processes.
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e.g. They can understand that there may be the same amount of clay in one
large ball and five smaller balls made from the large one.
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Stage 4: Formal Operations
Lasts from age 11 à...
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Abstract Thought: no longer limited by what they directly see and
hear; can engage in “pure thought independent of actions.”
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They can imagine the past, present, and future conditions of a
process and form hypotheses about possibilities.
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They can solve problems involving complex reasoning with concepts
like transitivity:
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Edith has fairer hair than Susan; Edith has darker hair than Lily. Who has the
fairest hair of the three?
Piaget believed that the most obvious difference between
adolescents & adults is that adolescents expect the world
to conform to logic (bc they have just acquired the
potential for logical reasoning).
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What are the
educational
implications of
Piaget’s work?
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Piaget and Constructivism
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Piaget believed all learning is constructed,
whether it is something we are taught or
something we learn on our own.
Whether or not we are taught in a
“constructivist” manner, Piaget believed we are
constructing knowledge in all our learning.
Active learning as opposed to simply absorbing
info from a teacher, book, etc.
The child is seen as a ‘little scientist’
constructing understandings of the world largely
alone
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Instructional learning viewed as
relatively unimportant
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Teachers should not try to transmit knowledge,
but should provide opportunities for discovery
Child needs to construct or reinvent knowledge
adult knowledge cannot be formally
communicated to the child
Limited importance of socio-cultural context;
importance of peer interaction.
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Questions?
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