PIAGET’S COGNITIVE

DEVELOPMENT THEORY
 WHO WAS PIAGET?
• Jean piaget was born in 1896 in
neuchatel, Switzerland, and died in
1980 in Geneva, Switzerland.
• At the age of 11, he wrote a paper on an
albino sparrow, which was published
and became the start of his famous
career.
• After graduating highschool, he
attended the University of Zurich,
where he became interested in
psychoanalysis.
• He worked for several decades on
understanding
children’s cognitive development
• Most widely known theory of cognitive
development.
• Was intrigued by kids’ thoughts &
behavior, & worked to understand their
cognitive development
• Wrote on mollusks, based on
these writings was asked to be
curator of mollusks at a
museum in Geneva (he
declined in order to finish
secondary school)
• Earned his doctorate in natural
sciences at 21
 WHAT IS COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENT
• It describes how these mental processes develop
from birth until adulthood. And by which people’s
thinking changes across the lifespan.
• The acquisition of the ability to think, reason, and
problem solve.
• The growing apprehension and adaptation to the
physical and social environment.
HOW COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
OCCURS:

• It is gradual, orderly, changes by which mental

process become more and more complex and
sophisticated.
• The essential development of cognition is the
establishment of new schemes
• Assimilation and accommodation are both processing
ways of cognitive development.
• The equilibration is the symbol of a new stage of the
cognitive development
PIAGET’S STAGES OF COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENT
- A child’s capacity to understand certain concepts is
based on the child’s developmental stage
 PIAGET’S FOUR STAGES

• Believed that all children develop according to

four stages based on how they see the world.
• He thought the age may vary some, but that we all go
through the stages in the same order.

1. Sensori-motor (birth –2 years)

2. Preoperational (~2-7)
3. Concrete operational (~7-11)
4. Formal operations (~12-15)
FIRST STAGE - SENSORIMOTOR
STAGE
• Birth to about 2 years, rapid change is seen
throughout
• The child will:
• Explore the world through senses & motor
activity
• Early on, baby can’t tell difference between
themselves & the environment
• If they can’t see something then it doesn’t exist
• Begin to understand cause & effect
• Can later follow something with their eyes
 SECOND STAGE -
PREOPERATIONAL STAGE
• About 2 to about 7
• Better speech communication
• Can imagine the future & reflect on the past
• Develop basic numerical abilities
• Still pretty egocentric, but learning to be able to
delay gratification
• Can’t understand conservation of matter
• Has difficulty distinguishing fantasy from reality
(ex: cartoon characters are real people).
 MORE PREOPERATIONAL
• Conservation of matter – understanding that
something doesn’t change even though it looks
different, shape is not related to quantity
• Divided into two sub-stages:
• Preconceptual stage(2 to 4 years)
- cognitive development becomes increasingly
dominated by symbolic activity.
• Intuitive stage (5 to 7 years)
- characterized by the way in which children
base their knowledge on what they feel or sense to
be true
 STAGE THREE - CONCRETE
OPERATIONAL STAGE
• From about 7 to about 11
• Abstract reasoning ability & ability to generalize
from the concrete increases
• Understands conservation of matter
• Understanding of conservation(physical
quantities do not change based on the
arrangement and/or appearance of the object)
 STAGE FOUR - FORMAL
OPERATIONS
• From about 12 to about 15
• Be able to think about hypothetical situations
• Form & test hypotheses
• Organize information
• Reason scientifically
 5 IMPORTANT HIGHER-LEVEL
COGNITIVE ABILITIES
1. hypothetico - deductive reasoning
-ability to plan systematic tests to explore
multiple variables
2. Abstract thought
-thought about things that are not real or
tangible
3. Separating reality from possibility
- direction of thinking about reality and
possibility reverses
-reality is thought of as only one of many
possible outcome
 5 IMPORTANT HIGHER-LEVEL
COGNITIVE ABILITIES
4. Combinational logic

-thinking about multiple aspects and

combining them logically to solve
problems
5. Reflective thinking
-thinking about your own thinking
 PIAGET’S DEVELOPMENT

• Development happens from one stage to another

through interaction with the environment.

• Changes from stage to stage may occur abruptly and

kids will differ in how long they are in each stage.

• Cognitive development can only happen after

genetically controlled biological growth occurs.
 PIAGET’S DEVELOPMENT

• Development leads to learning

• Drive for development is internal
• The child can only learn certain things when she
is at the right developmental stage
• Environmental factors can influence but not
direct development
• Development will happen naturally through
regular interaction with social environment
 PIAGET & EDUCATION

• Piaget did not think it was possible to hurry along or

skip stages through education

• Regardless, many American schools will try to teach

to the stages in an attempt to accelerate
development
 PROBLEMS WITH PIAGET’S
THEORY

• Children often grasp ideas earlier than what Piaget

found

• Cognitive development across domains is

inconsistent (e.g. better at reading than math)

• Studies have shown that development can to some

degree be accelerated