Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
1. Why are theories important?
2. Is there one overarching theory of development?
3. Who is the person credited with creating a theory of cognitive development? Do we stick to his
theory today? How do we view his theory?
4. What is constructivism?
5. What is a schema?
6. There are two processes of adaptation, two ways we adapt our schemas when we encounter
new information. What are these two processes?
7. What is an example of assimilation?
8. What is an example of accommodation?
9. What is equilibrium?
10. What is disequilibrium? What happens shortly after we reach disequilibrium?
11. What are Piaget’s 4 stages of cognitive development (in order)?
12. What can kids in the sensorimotor period do?
13. What are habits?
14. What are primary circular reactions? Give an example.
15. What are secondary circular reactions? Give an example.
16. What is coordination of secondary circular reactions?
17. What are tertiary circular reactions? Give an example.
18. What is object permanence?
19. What is the A not B error?
20. What is one way we know that kids at the end of the sensory motor period are capable of
mental representations
21. What is deferred imitation?
22. What is the primary limitation of the sensorimotor period? Can kids in the next stage do this?
What is the next stage?
23. What is symbolic thought?
24. How can words be used as symbols?
25. What is egocentrism? What task did Piaget use to show the egocentrism of Preoperational kids?
26. What is centrism?
27. What is a “mental operation”?
28. What is reversibility?
29. What is the conservation of water task? Who passes this task? Who fails this task (which stage)?
How does centrism relate to children’s performance on this task? how does reversibility relate
to children’s performance on this task?
30. What is the conservation of mass task?
31. What is the conservation of number task?
32. Who consistently fails conservation of quantity tasks, whether of water, mass or number?
(children in which stage)?
33. What is a mental operation?
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What is decentration? Who can do it (what stage children)?
What is classification? Who can do it?
What is seriation? Who can pass these tasks?
What is the major achievement of the formal operations period?
What is an example of an abstract rule?
What are some things that Piaget got right?
What are some critiques of Piaget?
What is object permanence?
What is habituation?
What is the “violation of expectation” task?
How did Baillargeon demonstrate that infants have object permanence?
How did Wynn use the study design developed by Baillargeon to examine mathematical abilities
of children?
46. Are there changes in cognitive abilities in adulthood? What would Piaget say?
a. Describe the theories of Giesela Labouvie-Vief and Schaie