3: Cognitive Development - Piaget
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Outline
– What is cognition?
– Piaget’s Theory
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Overview
Features of the theory
Sensorimotor stage
Preoperational stage
Concrete operations stage
Formal operations stage
– Problems with the theory
– Learning Outcomes
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What is cognition?
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Virtually everything we do involves
thinking or cognitive functioning
– Recalling a phone number
– Remembering a list
– Following directions
– Reading your watch (how much time until…?)
How do children become able to do all
these things?
 Why are some better at some tasks?
 Why are some quicker to develop?
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Overview of Piaget’s theory
Very influential
 Stage theory
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– 1) Sensorimotor stage
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0-2 years
– 2) Preoperational stage
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2-7 years
– 3) Concrete operational stage
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7-11 years
– 4) Formal operation stage
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11+ years
Stages are invariant and universal
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Features of Piaget’s theory
genetic epistemology
 biological approach
 structuralism
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Mechanisms of development
– Cognitive organisation
– Cognitive adaptation
Assimilation
 Accomodation
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– Cognitive equilibriation
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Sensorimotor stage
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6 substages:
– Modification of reflexes (0-1 month)
– Primary circular reactions (1-4 months)
– Secondary circular reactions (4-8 months)
– Coordination of secondary schemes (8-12
months)
– Tertiary circular reactions (12-18 months)
– Mental combinations (18-24 months)
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Trends in sensorimotor stage
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Rigidity  flexibility
– Behaviour adapts to larger range of stimuli
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Isolation  coordination
– Series of different actions can be performed
on an object
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Reactivity  intentionality
– Progression to planned behaviour
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Overt actions  mental representations
– Objects and people are represented
symbolically
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Object permanence
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Objects are tied to infant’s awareness of
them
– “out of sight, out of mind”
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Hidden toy experiment
– 4 months: no attempt to search for hidden
object
– 4-9 months: visual search for object
– 9 months: search for and retrieve hidden object
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A-not-B task (Diamond, 1985)
– 9 months: A/B error after 1/2 second delay
– 12 months: 10 second delay needed to produce
error
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Preoperational stage
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Egocentrism
– 3 mountains
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Rigidity of thought
– Cannot mentally reverse sequences
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Therefore no addition or subtraction
Semilogical reasoning
– Transductive reasoning
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“I haven’t had my nap so it isn’t afternoon”
Limited social cognition
– Lack of awareness of intentions in others
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Concrete operations stage
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Seriation
– mentally arrange items along a dimension
(e.g. height, weight, time or speed)
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Classification
– Sort objects into groups
– Class inclusion
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Number concepts
– Numbers are arbitrary
– Invariance of number
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Conservation
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Formal operations stage
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Reasoning about abstractions
– Hypothetical and abstract notions
Future
 ‘other worlds’
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Applying logic
– Deductive reasoning (“if … then…”)
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Advanced problem solving
– Systematic
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Pendulum task
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Problems with Piaget
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Did Piaget underestimate children’s
abilities?
– Object permanence in 3-month-olds (Bower,
1974)
– Number conservation in 4 year olds
(McGarrigle & Donaldson, 1974)
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Does development take place in stages?
– Domain specficity vs. domain generality
 Perspective-taking
– Perceptual
– Affective
– Cognitive
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Problems with Piaget
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What about culture?
– Piaget’s tasks are culturally biased
– Schooling and literacy affect rates of
development
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e.g. Greenfield’s study of the Wolof
– Formal operational thinking is not universal
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e.g. Gladwin’s study of the Polynesian islanders
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Learning outcomes
Demonstrate an understanding of Piaget’s
theory.
 Be familiar with the experiments carried
out by Piaget
 Show an awareness of the strengths and
weaknesses of the theory.
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Reading
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Just about every book on developmental
psychology has a section on Piaget.
– e.g.:
– Bee, H. (2000). The developing child. Boston, MA:
Allyn & Bacon. Ch. 6
– Bukatko, D. & Daehler, M. W. (2001). Child
development. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. Ch. 8
– Dworetzky, J. P. (1996). An introduction to child
development. St Paul, MN: West. Ch. 9.
– Seifert, K. L. , Hoffnung, R .J. & Hoffnung, M. (2000).
Lifespan development. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
– Smith, P. K. & Cowie, H. (1992). Understanding
children's development. Oxford: Blackwell
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