Author: Azhar Ali
1
Psychology A2
Describe & evaluate Piaget’s theory of cognitive development in children.
Intelligence for Piaget is the means by which human beings adapt to their
environment. It is a process, which involves the individual trying to construct an
understanding of reality through interacting with it; knowledge does not come ‘readymade’ but has to be discovered actively (or even invented), in Piaget’s words.
Piaget proposed that development should be thought of as a spiral (implying a
continuous process) rather than as a step-by-step, discontinuous process (as implied
by a stage theory proper). To Piaget children did not simply make errors. Rather it
seemed to Piaget that older children seemed to organise their thinking in different
ways to give better answers to questions i.e. their minds worked differently to that of
adults. Piaget argued strongly that knowledge was discovered and constructed through
the child’s own activity. Piaget noted that all babies are born with similar biological
‘equipment’ (Piaget used the term ‘structures’).
He introduced the term ‘schema’ to mean a psychological structure that
represented everything that the baby or child knew about an object or action. Schemas
develop from the child’s own interactions with the environment. New experiences
would lead to new schemas being developed. According to Piaget, cognitive
development is a progressive move away from thought that is centred on the child’s
own body. At first, everything is seen from the child’s point of view and only from
that, producing a profound egocentrism.
In his view adaptation has two components. These are assimilation and
accommodation. Assimilation- the process of fitting new information and experiences
into existing schemas, while Accommodation is the process of changing the existing
schemas when new information cannot be assimilated.
Piaget believed that cognitive development went through stages. When a child
shows similar ways of thinking across a wide range of situations or problems there is
relative stability. But if this thinking is challenged by new information or are
experiences that cannot be assimilated, then this may lead to a major reorganisation of
schemas. Thus, accommodation would allow understanding at a new level or stage.
Piaget has identified four major stages in the development of the child’s
thought. Each of these stages needs to be completed successfully before the nest one
is commenced. The ages at which these stages occur are approximate depending on
the intelligence and cultural background of the child. The four stages are: Sensori
motor, Pre-operational, Concrete operational and Formal operational. Sensory-motor
(birth – 2years) – This is when the child differentiates self from objects, achieves
object permanence i.e. realises that things continue to exist even when no longer
present to the senses. Pre-operational (2 – 7years) – This is when the child is animistic
and classifies objects by a single feature. At this time the child is still egocentric.
However the child does learn conservation of number, volume and mass. The last
stage is Concrete-operational (11years and up) – At this time the child can think
logically about abstract propositions and test hypotheses systematically. The child
also becomes concerned with the hypothetical, the future, and the ideological
problems.
Piaget has made a huge impact on child psychology and the understanding of
how children develop, but he is not without criticism. Other's, such as child
psychologists and develop mentalists, have identified a number of criticisms against
Piaget's four stages of child development.
Author: Azhar Ali
2
Psychology A2
While most develop mentalists accept Piaget's outline of cognitive growth in
infants, there are questions about his measures of assessing their development. It is
agreed that object permanence is developed as the child develops an understanding of
the permanence of objects, and that uncovering a hidden toy is a demonstration of
this, but it is felt that Piaget did not take into account the need for motivation in order
for children to search, or the fact that very young infants may not have the knowledge
of how to search. Kagan's theory of object permanence is that 9-month-old infants
show an ability to search for hidden objects because they have had a growth in
memory capacity, rather than because they have a new cognitive structure as stated by
Piaget (Kagan, cited in Berger, 1988).
Other develop mentalists claim that Piaget's description of sensorimotor
intelligence overemphasises the motor aspects of cognitive development to the
detriment of the sensory aspects. Piaget believed children showed intellectual
development through their actions, but perception researchers believe that infants
know more than they can physically demonstrate with limited motor actions. They
have found that newborn infants try to look for sounds, grasp objects and respond to
human faces, and believe that perceptual learning occurs, particularly aural, before
birth. It is now accepted that Piaget may have underestimated early perceptual
abilities and cognitive development during the first six months of life (Beger, 1988).
It is believed by develop mentalists that the three-mountain task that Piaget
asked three-year-old children to solve was too complex to test children's ability to see
someone else's perspective. It is now believed that young children can see someone
else's point of view in a simple way. Similarly, the conservation tests may also have
been too complex, and further research has indicated that if a conservation task was
presented in a simplified, fun manner, children were able to understand the concept of
it much more easily. Piaget was correct in that, while children are capable for showing
some understanding of these concepts, it does take maturity and experience before
children can fully master logical structures and apply them to daily life.
A major problem with Piaget's Sensori-motor tasks is that they required an
active response from the infant (e.g. removing a cloth and grasping an object). Child
may be limited by other factors (e.g. immature motor skills) rather than lack of
understanding of situation.
Pre-operational criticisms have suggested that Piaget's tasks at this stage may
have underestimated the child's abilities due to a number of factors including:
- complicated language.
- Unfamiliar materials.
- Lack of context.
- Children misinterpreting experimenter's intention.
More recent studies have attempted to ask questions more clearly and to present
situations to which children can relate more easily.
Light et al.
- children shown two identical beakers with same amount of food in each.
- Experimenter then points out that one of the beakers is chipped, and suggests putting
the contents in a third, different shaped container for the sake of safety. More children
correctly say that there is still the same amount of food. This suggests that context of
task may be important for children's understanding of the situation. As far as children
are concerned, adults rarely do something without a reason (e.g. they wouldn't pour
liquid from one place to another unless they wanted to change something; they
wouldn't ask a question unless something had in fact changed). By providing a clear
Author: Azhar Ali
3
Psychology A2
reason for making the change (e.g. the chipped beaker) this allows some children to
concentrate more on the materials.
Hughes.
- Devised a version of the Piagetian perspective-taking task, which would make
'human sense' to a child.
- Children shown a board with two barriers.
- Toy policemen placed at the end of each barrier.
- Child asked to place a model boy in the layout where the policeman can't see him.
Many preoperational children succeeded in placing model boy in section 'd'
suggesting that they could understand the perspective of the two policemen.
Criticisms of the Concrete-operational stage are that It is felt that Piaget spent
too much time explaining the typical child, and did not take into account the
individual differences of children, or the differences caused by heredity, culture and
education. It is felt that he put too much emphasis on the individual's internal search
for knowledge, and not enough on external motivation and teachings (Berger, 1988).
Piaget did little research on the emotional and personality development of children
and possibly would have been more accurate to view cognitive development as a
gradual and continuous rather than having definite demarcation stages. Piaget's
information processing approach provides a good way of assessing intelligence and
gathering information about memory development and other cognitive processes, but
does not take into account the importance of creativity and social interaction (Paplia,
Olds, and Feldman, 1998)
Also Piaget's last stage of formal operations is not an accurate description of
cognitive development. Nearly a half of adults do not attain the level of formal
operations, and not everyone appears to be capable of abstract reasoning. These
people are possibly not cognitively immature, but have different aspects of mature
thought not covered by Piaget. Formal logic as defined by Piaget consists of measures
such as the pendulum problem and conservation of volume, which indicates that
Piaget believes cognition is bound by mathematics and scientific thinking. However,
this form of formal logic is not as important in non-scientific fields such as the arts,
history, social understanding and personal judgement. It also does not cover other
aspects of mature intelligence such as practical problem solving, and acquired wisdom
and experience (Paplia, Olds, and Feldman, 1998). Piaget's description of overall
cognitive events indicates that once a new stage of cognition has been achieved,
individuals will reflect it in all areas of their lives. However, it has been shown that
cognitive development may occur in some areas of thinking and not in others. A more
accepted view of cognition development is that it is an uneven process, with children
arriving at each new stage piece by piece as each new skill and behaviour is acquired
(Berger, 1988).