Piagets Cognitive Stages Jean Piaget Born in Neuchtel

Piaget’s Cognitive Stages

Jean Piaget • Born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, on August 9, 1896 • Found that children don't think like grownups • Believed that children’s thought processes that had their own order and their own logic • Career spanned 75 years • He developed new fields: developmental psychology, cognitive theory and what came to be called genetic epistemology

Sensory-Motor Stage • Ages: birth to 2 years • Babies apply skills they are born with (sucking and grasping) as a way to explore the world around them • Create categories or schemes: toys that make noises, foods that taste good, etc.

Sensory-Motor Stage • During this stage, babies develop object permanence- that realization that objects and people exist even when they are out of sight

Sensory-Motor Stage – Birth- 1 month: No object permanence – 1 -4 months: Do not show interest or surprise if object vanishes – 4 -8 months: Infant drops object, they will look for it – 8 -12 months: *Object permanence develops* Infant looks for toys hidden under blankets – 18 -24 months: Children can form a mental representation meaning that children can picture an object and follow its movement in their imagination

Examples From Sensory Motor: http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=ue 8 y-JVhj. S 0&NR=1

Preoperational Stage • Ages: 2 -7 years old • Engage in symbolic play (imagination) • Egocentric: cannot see another person’s point of view

Preoperational Stage • Do not understand the laws of conservation

Examples of Preoperational: http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=GLj 0 IZFLKvg http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=Oinq. Fgs. Ibh 0&NR=1

Concrete Operational • Ages: 7 -11 years old • Become more flexible in thinking • Can see issues from multiple view points • Understands conservation

Example of Concrete: http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=g. A 04 ew 6 Oi 9 M&NR=1

Formal Operational • Ages: 11 -15 • Abstract thinking • Hypothetic deductive reasoning- can form a hypothesis about the world around them

Example of Formal Operations: http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=zj. Jdc. XA 1 KH 8&NR=1

Criticisms of Piaget • Are there actually distinct stages? • Do we all progress/ develop at the same rate? • Can you skip a stage? • Assumes young infants know very little • Theory does not address human diversity