Jean Piaget 's Study Of Cognitive Development

Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development proposes that the developmental process of a child is the result of their brains maturity, their nervous system, and environmental factors. He believes the foundation of a child's ability to learn is through discovery learning (Gordon & Browne, 2016). Piaget suggests that a child’s logic of thinking is different from that of an adults. Children’s cognitive performance is directly related to the stage of development that they are in currently. Additionally, these stages are divided into sub-stages to provide greater insight into a child’s cognitive growth process. The initial stages of development is considered a difficult point to try to determine a child’s developmental

Jean Piaget, was a trained biologist who was employed at the Binet Institute, where his main job was to develop a French version of an intelligence test. Piaget was very interested in the reason why children would give wrong answers to questions which called for some type of logical thinking. It was believed by Piaget that these wrong answers showed some very drastic differences between the way children and adults both thought ( McLeod, 2015), this is where his theory of Cognitive Development came in, Piaget’s work is described as being the origins of thinking or genetic epistemology (McLeod, 2015), Genetics is where one studies the origins of something. Epistemology discusses the categories of thinking, basically, it shows the properties of structural intelligence. Piaget’s Cognitive Development theory branched off into three different branches, the first one being Schema, the Adaption Process that allow transitions from one stage to another, and finally the four Stages of Development

Jean Piaget was a theorist that focused on individual’s mental processes (Rathus, S., & Longmuir, S., 2011, p.10). Piaget analyzed how children distinguish and mentally show the world and how there, logic, thinking and problem-solving ability is developed (Rathus, S., & Longmuir, S., 2011, p.10). Piaget believed that children’s cognitive processes develop in an orderly sequence (Rathus, S., & Longmuir, S., 2011, p.10). It has 4 stages such as, sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and, formal operational (Rathus, S., & Longmuir, S., 2011, p.11). In this paper, I will discuss how Piaget developed his theory and how toys can meet each need during the 4 specific stages.

Piaget, Erikson, Skinner and Vygotsky all have similarities and differences within their approaches in regards to cognitive development. Firstly, Piaget’s theory of cognitive development describes the changes in logical thinking of children and adolescents. Piaget suggested that children proceed through four stages that are based on maturation and experience. Piaget managed numerous intelligence tests to children and this led to him becoming interested in the types of faults children of different ages were most probable to make. Piaget hypothesized that cognitive development proceeds in four genetically determined stages that always follow the same sequential order (Developmental and Learning Theories, 2011). The four stages in Piaget theory are the Sensorimotor stage (infancy), the Pre-operational stage (Toddler and Early Childhood), the Concrete operational stage (Elementary and early adolescence), and the Formal operational stage (Adolescence and adulthood). Furthermore, Piaget’s theory is guided by assumptions of how learners interact with their environment and how they integrate new knowledge and information on existing knowledge. In brief, Piaget proposed that children are active learners who build knowledge from their environments and they learn through assimilation and accommodation, and complex cognitive development occurs through equilibration (Developmental and Learning Theories, 2011). Piaget also believed that the interaction with physical and social

For example, an infant’s sucking will led to where an infant will unintentionally touch his fingers to his mouth, which will later develop into a purposeful and reproduced incident of sucking his thumb, this is known as a primary circular reaction. Another primary circular reaction is the development from grasping to when an infant will open and close their hands in front of their face for visual appeal; unfortunately infants with visual impairment are unable to visually stimulate themselves in this manner. Secondary circular reactions make stimulating things occur externally from one’s body by means of purposeful movement. For example, a child accidentally hits a mobile causing it to move; a typical child will continue to hit the mobile when he has figured out that it was he who caused the desired movement. Children with visual impairments lack the visual information to determine the self-created movement; therefore there is a lack of motivation to repeat the behavior. Tertiary circular reactions which usually occur between twelve-eighteen months of age are evident when children experiment with objects to determine their use, an example in the video is when a young girl was playing with a teething ring. The girl experimented with the teething ring to determine if it was a crown, necklace and earring before deciding to use it as a bracelet. Children with visual impairments may lack the knowledge of body concepts to experiment with items in such a way. The acquisition of object concept and permanence occurs throughout the sensorimotor stage.

Jean Piaget theorized that the mind develops by forming schemas that help us assimilate our experiences and that must occasionally be altered to accommodate new information. Piaget’s studies led him to believe that a child’s mind develops through a series of stages, in an upward march from the newborn’s simple reflexes to the adult’s abstract reasoning power. The first Piaget’s stage of cognitive development is the sensorimotor stage; from birth to nearly two years, babies take in the world through their sense and actions - through looking, hearing, touching, mouthing, and grasping. The preoperational stage range from age two to about six or seven years. During this stage a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete (such as imagining an action and mentally reversing it.)

In the sensorimotor stage babies take in the world through their senses and actions. But infants lack object permanence, which makes the game of peekaboo work much better in younger babies.

The sensorimotor stage illustrates how infants from birth until two years of age experience the atmosphere around them through the use of their senses and motor skills (Grison et al., 2015). As a result of what they experience, they begin to act intentionally by associating objects with their

The Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980) is considered one of the 20th Century’s most influential naturalistic researchers in clinical psychology and child development. Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is based in the belief that childhood plays a vital and crucial role in later development to an adult.

Can Piaget’s Experiments Be Replicated in Worthing and If Not What Are the Implications on His Theory of Cognitive Development?

Piaget’s theory of cognitive development was based around his belief that children will develop their intelligence through a series of stages: Sensorimotor (birth – 2yrs), Preoperational (2-7yrs), Concrete Operational (7-11yrs) and Formal Operational (11+). He believed these stages to be invariant, the same stages taking place in a fixed order, and universal, the same for every child regardless of their background or culture. (McLeod, 2015)

Jean Piaget believed that cognitive development was a progression occurring as a result of biological growth and the connection each child had with its environment. To create their individual cognitive worlds, each individual child learns to organize their experiences and differentiate the least important from the more important ones. In addition, they adjust their individualized thinking and add new ideas and connect the ideas together for further understanding. He found that adolescents use schemas to help construct their world better. He described a schema as a mental structure that is used to arrange and make sense of information given to an individual. He was specifically interested in how children use theses schemas and found further

Jean Piaget is considered to be very influential in the field of developmental psychology. Piaget had many influences in his life which ultimately led him to create the Theory of Cognitive Development. His theory has multiple stages and components. The research done in the early 1900’s is still used today in many schools and homes. People from various cultures use his theory when it comes to child development. Although there are criticisms and alternatives to his theory, it is still largely used today around the world.

Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development Very briefly describe Piaget’s stages of cognitive development and explain what he meant by saying that young children are egocentric. Use experimental evidence to consider this claim. Cognitive development is what psychologists talk about when discussing a child’s intellectual growth. Jean Piaget (1896 to 1980), a Swiss psychologist developed a theory of cognitive development, which is still much discussed and critiqued today. Providing a firm building block to all work done in the study of child development and the concept that young children are egocentric.

The first stage of Piaget’s development theory is the sensorimotor stage which takes place in children most commonly 0 to 2 years old. In this stage, thought is developed through direct physical interactions with the environment. Three major cognitive leaps in this stage are the development of early schemes, the development of goal-oriented behavior, and the development of object permanence. During the early stages, infants are only aware of what is immediately in front of them. They focus on what they