Cognitive Development - Piaget

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Cognitive Development - Piaget

• Piaget

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Constructivism

• The belief that children actively create
  knowledge rather than passively receiving it from
  the environment.
• Knowledge is constructed from experience
• Born with ability and desire to learn.
• Must be active to learn.
• Thinking/learning is internalization of physical
  knowledge.

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Adaptation

• Fundamental process by which schemes are altered
  through experience.
• Comprised of two complementary processes.

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Mechanisms of Change

• Assimilation
  information that fits
  into existing cognitive
  structure
• schemas

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Mechanisms of Change

• Accommodation
  changing beliefs to
  fit new conceptual
  information

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Equilibration

• Equilibration regulatory process that maintains
  a functional balance between assimilation and
  accommodation

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Process of Equilibration

• Children are satisfied with mode of thought
  (equilibrium)
• Become aware of shortcomings in existing
  knowledge (disequilibrium)
• Adopt a more sophisticated mode of thought
  (return to equilibrium)

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Figure - Equilibration
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Characteristics of Stages of Cognitive Development

• Each stage represents a qualitative change in
  thinking
• Culturally Invariant
• Includes structures and abilities of previous
  stages

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Stages of Cognitive Development

• Sensorimotor
• Preoperational
• Concrete Operational
• Formal Operational

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Sensorimotor Stage

• Birth to 2 years of age
• Use senses, motor skills to gain knowledge

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Piaget Object Permanence
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Preoperational Stage

• 2 to 6/7 years
• Representational skills
• Egocentric thought
• Magical thought
• Animism

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Concrete Operational

• 6/7 to 11/12 years
• Understand concrete problems
• Decentration

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Conservation
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Formal Operations

• 11/12 years through adulthood
• Logical and abstract thought
• Adolescent egocentrism Elkind
• Imaginary Audience
• Personal Fable

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EVALUATION OF PIAGETS THEORYStrengths

• Children do move from being more egocentric to
  less egocentric
• Also move from being less systematic and able to
  use logic to being better able to think in these
  ways
• Children do pass through stages in same order
• Constructivistic view of development

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Criticisms of Piagets Theory

• Findings may only work with Piagets tasks
• Can have skills characteristic of two stages at
  one time period

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Criticisms cont.

• Not all reach formal operational stage

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Postformal thought

• Characterized by recognition that
• 1) truth may vary from situation to situation
• 2) solutions must be realistic in order to be
  reasonable
• 3) ambiguity and contradiction are the rule
  rather than the exception
• 4) emotion and subjective factors usually play a
  role in thinking

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Themes

• Continuity vs. Discontinuity
• Nature vs. Nurture

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Schaies Perspective on Adult Cognitive Changes

• Achieving stage (early adulthood)
• Responsibility stage (early to middle adulthood)
• Executive stage (middle adulthood)
• Reintegrative stage (late adulthood)

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William Perry

• Adolescents dualistic thinking
• Young adults
• Multiple thinking
• Relative subordinate thinking
• Full relativism