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Piaget 's Theory Of Cognitive Development

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Psychologist Jean Piaget was the first to make a study surrounding the theory of cognitive development. The interesting thing about Piaget’s way of studying was that he was more concerned about how children’s thoughts got to the answer in relation to their IQ rather than simply their ability to answer a question correctly. The cognitive development theory detailed observational studies of cognition in children by a series of tests, which furthermore revealed different cognitive abilities. Before Piaget’s study, it was assumed that because children are younger, they are less competent thinks than that of adults. However, test results showed that it was actually quite opposite; young children simply think in remarkably different ways than adults. “According to Piaget, children are born with a very basic mental structure (genetically inherited and evolved) on which all subsequent learning and knowledge is based,” (McLeod). What made his theory so much different than his colleagues is that Piaget focused on three aspects: strictly children, development rather than learning, and discrete stages of development marked by qualitative differences rather than a gradual increase. The main goal of this was to explain the process in which infants and children develop into an individual who can reason and think using hypotheses. “[It] was a progressive reorganization of mental processes as a result of biological maturation and environmental experience. Children construct an

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