Jean Piagets Stage Theory of Cognitive Development BASIC

Jean Piaget’s Stage Theory of Cognitive Development BASIC PRINCIPLES 1. We naturally organize our observations and experiences so that they fit together in a coherent, understandable manner. A set of interrelated ideas about our experiences is called a schema. 2. We use the schema to adapt to new experiences. This process of adaptation takes two forms: Assimilation: We first try to fit a new experience into our existing schema, like studying for your first college exam in the same way as you studied for high school exams. Accommodation: If that doesn’t work, then we make changes to our schema so that it works better, like trying out new study strategies. Bottom line: to grow intellectually, we constantly need new experiences to challenge our existing schemas.

Jean Piaget’s Stage Theory of Cognitive Development The theory says that cognitive development occurs in four, age-related stages. This means that at certain ages there abrupt shifts in thinking, with a lot of changes taking place at the same time. STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT Concrete Operational Preoperational Sensorimotor Birth 2 Years 7 Years 11 Years Formal Operational

Jean Piaget’s Stage Theory of Cognitive Development The Sensorimotor Stage Development mostly consists of coordinating actions with sights and sounds, like hearing a parent’s voice and then the infant turns her head in the direction of the voice. Main Characteristics 1. Learns simple habits (like grasping a rattle). 2. Begins to understand object permanence: objects continue to exist when they are not perceived (starts about 8 months)… Out of sight, out of mind. Sensorimotor Birth 2 Years

Jean Piaget’s Stage Theory of Cognitive Development Object Permanence Object permanence requires forming a mental representation of the object. This is necessary for thinking, which is defined as the mental manipulation of information. Here’s an older child. He’s got a mental representation of the toy… Sensorimotor Birth 2 Years

Jean Piaget’s Stage Theory of Cognitive Development The Preoperational Stage An operation is a mental manipulation that follows logical rules. So in this stage thinking is generally not logical. It’s intuitive, based on how things look. Main Characteristics 1. Rapid language learning. 2. Full object permanence. 3. Animism: the belief that everything is alive and has human characteristics. Preoperational Sensorimotor Birth 2 Years 7 Years

Jean Piaget’s Stage Theory of Cognitive Development The Preoperational Stage An operation is a mental manipulation that follows logical rules. So in this stage thinking is generally not logical. It’s intuitive, based on how things look. Main Characteristics 1. Rapid language learning. 2. Full object permanence. 3. Animism: the belief that everything is alive and has human characteristics. Preoperational Sensorimotor Birth 2 Years 7 Years

Jean Piaget’s Stage Theory of Cognitive Development The Preoperational Stage An operation is a mental manipulation that follows logical rules. So in this stage thinking is generally not logical. It’s intuitive, based on how things look. Main Characteristics 1. Rapid language learning. Three Mountains Experiment 2. Full object permanence. 3. Animism: the belief that everything is alive and has human characteristics. 4. Egocentrism: seeing things only from one’s own point of view. Preoperational children often pick picture showing what they see, don’t take other’s perspective. Child looks at entire landscape. Then doll placed on one side, child on other. What does doll see?

Jean Piaget’s Stage Theory of Cognitive Development The Preoperational Stage An operation is a mental manipulation that follows logical rules. So in this stage thinking is generally not logical. It’s intuitive, based on how things look. Main Characteristics 1. Rapid language learning. Test for Conservation 2. Full object permanence. 3. Animism: the belief that everything is alive and has human characteristics. 4. Egocentrism: seeing things only from one’s own point of view. 5. Failure to grasp Conservation principle: a quantity of matter stays the same regardless of changes in its appearance, as long as nothing is added or taken away. The child says the two glasses have the same amount of water.

Jean Piaget’s Stage Theory of Cognitive Development The Preoperational Stage An operation is a mental manipulation that follows logical rules. So in this stage thinking is generally not logical. It’s intuitive, based on how things look. Main Characteristics 1. Rapid language learning. Test for Conservation 2. Full object permanence. 3. Animism: the belief that everything is alive and has human characteristics. 4. Egocentrism: seeing things only from one’s own point of view. 5. Failure to grasp Conservation principle: a quantity of matter stays the same regardless of changes in its appearance, as long as nothing is added or taken away. Do they now have the same amount? Or does one have more?

Jean Piaget’s Stage Theory of Cognitive Development The Preoperational Stage An operation is a mental manipulation that follows logical rules. So in this stage thinking is generally not logical. It’s intuitive, based on how things look. Main Characteristics 1. Rapid language learning. Test for Conservation 2. Full object permanence. 3. Animism: the belief that everything is alive and has human characteristics. 4. Egocentrism: seeing things only from one’s own point of view. 5. Failure to grasp Conservation principle: a quantity of matter stays the same regardless of changes in its appearance, as long as nothing is added or taken away. To the child, it’s obvious: The tall one has more.

Jean Piaget’s Stage Theory of Cognitive Development Reasons for Conservation Errors 1. Thinking is perception-bound, based on how things look. 2. Centration: the child focuses on just one dimension of the object—height—and ignores the other dimension—width. She doesn’t see that narrow compensates for tall. 3. Lack of Reversibility in thinking: reversibility means mentally reversing an operation that we have observed. If we poured the water back into the short-wide glass, would it overflow onto the table? Test for Conservation To the child, it’s obvious: The tall one has more.

Jean Piaget’s Stage Theory of Cognitive Development More Conservation Problems Conservation of Substance Conservation of Length Conservation of Number

Jean Piaget’s Stage Theory of Cognitive Development The Concrete Operational Stage In this stage, thinking is logical but children typically apply mental operations only to problems that they can directly observe (problems that are “concrete” rather than abstract, that is, expressed only in words). Concrete Operational Preoperational Sensorimotor Birth 2 Years 7 Years 11 Years

Jean Piaget’s Stage Theory of Cognitive Development The Concrete Operational Stage In this stage, thinking is logical but children typically apply mental operations only to problems that they can directly observe (problems that are “concrete” rather than abstract, that is, expressed only in words). 1. Conservation problems are now solved (they’re concrete). 2. Classification skills: grouping things logically. There are two kinds of classification skills: additive and multiplicative. Additive: understanding how subgroups add up to form larger groups. For example, on a computer the C drive is made up of folders and the folders are made up of files. Multiplicative: being able to repeat (multiply) a logical grouping under different conditions.

Jean Piaget’s Stage Theory of Cognitive Development Testing Additive Classification Skills Children are shown 10 wooden beads, 8 are pink and 2 are blue. Child agrees they’re all made out of wood. Ask child: Are there more pink beads or more blue beads? Preoperational child: Pink. Concrete Operational Child: Pink Now ask: Are there more pink beads or more wooden beads? Preoperational child: Pink. Concrete Operational Child: Wooden The preoperational child just says how things look. Pink stands out more than wood. The concrete operational child keeps the larger category in mind and immediately grasps that pink and blue beads are smaller subgroups.

Jean Piaget’s Stage Theory of Cognitive Development Testing Multiplicative Classification Skills One test is to place a bunch of objects on a table and ask the child to sort them into neat piles. The objects may be various geometric forms of different colors… Preoperational children are often inconsistent in what they put into a pile due to shifting attention. Concrete operational children are logically consistent and can repeat a system under different conditions, like circles, squares and triangles repeated for different rows of colors…

Jean Piaget’s Stage Theory of Cognitive Development Testing Multiplicative Classification Skills This arrangement is another example of how concrete operational children can think in terms of two dimensions at the same time.

Jean Piaget’s Stage Theory of Cognitive Development The Formal Operational Stage This stage goes from puberty into adulthood. Children can now apply logical operations to hypothetical situations and they can reason deductively. Formal Operational Concrete Operational Formal operational children can think more like a scientist, thinking of hypotheses to test possible answers to problems. Preoperational Sensorimotor Birth 2 Years 7 Years 11 Years