Cognitive Development Piaget Piaget Constructivism The belief that

Cognitive Development - Piaget • Piaget

Constructivism • The belief that children actively create knowledge rather than passively receiving it from the environment. – Knowledge is constructed from experience – Born with ability and desire to learn. – Must be active to learn. – Thinking/learning is internalization of physical knowledge.

Adaptation • Fundamental process by which schemes are altered through experience. • Comprised of two complementary processes.

Mechanisms of Change • Assimilation: information that fits into existing cognitive structure – schemas

Mechanisms of Change • Accommodation: beliefs to conceptual changing fit new information

Equilibration • Equilibration: regulatory process that maintains a functional balance between assimilation and accommodation

Process of Equilibration • Children are satisfied with mode of thought (equilibrium) • Become aware of shortcomings in existing knowledge (disequilibrium) • Adopt a more sophisticated mode of thought (return to equilibrium)

Figure - Equilibration

Characteristics of Stages of Cognitive Development • Each stage represents a qualitative change in thinking • Culturally Invariant • Includes structures and abilities of previous stages

Stages of Cognitive Development • • Sensorimotor Preoperational Concrete Operational Formal Operational

Sensorimotor Stage • Birth to 2 years of age • Use senses, motor skills to gain knowledge

Piaget – Object Permanence

Preoperational Stage • • 2 to 6/7 years Representational skills Egocentric thought Magical thought – Animism

Concrete Operational • 6/7 to 11/12 years • Understand concrete problems • Decentration

Conservation

Formal Operations • 11/12 years through adulthood • Logical and abstract thought • Adolescent egocentrism: Elkind – Imaginary Audience – Personal Fable

EVALUATION OF PIAGET’S THEORY: Strengths • Children do move from being more egocentric to less egocentric • Also move from being less systematic and able to use logic to being better able to think in these ways • Children do pass through stages in same order • Constructivistic view of development

Criticisms of Piaget’s Theory • Findings may only work with Piaget’s tasks • Can have skills characteristic of two stages at one time period

Criticisms cont. • Not all reach formal operational stage

Postformal thought • Characterized by recognition that: – 1) truth may vary from situation to situation – 2) solutions must be realistic in order to be reasonable – 3) ambiguity and contradiction are the rule rather than the exception – 4) emotion and subjective factors usually play a role in thinking

Themes • Continuity vs. Discontinuity • Nature vs. Nurture

Schaie’s Perspective on Adult Cognitive Changes • Achieving stage (early adulthood) • Responsibility stage (early to middle adulthood) • Executive stage (middle adulthood) • Reintegrative stage (late adulthood)

William Perry • Adolescents: dualistic thinking • Young adults – Multiple thinking – Relative subordinate thinking – Full relativism