Title: Cognitive Development in Infancy and Childhood: Piaget
1Cognitive Development in Infancy and Childhood
Piagets Cognitive Stages
2Question to ponder
- Do Kids think differently than adults?
- Do freshmen think differently than Seniors?
3Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development
- Jean Piaget (18961980) Swiss psychologist who
became leading theorist in 1930s - Piaget believed that children are active
thinkers, constantly trying to construct more
advanced understandings of the world - These understandings are in the form of
structures he called schemas
4Piagets Approach
- Primary method was to ask children to solve
problems and to question them about the reasoning
behind their solutions - Discovered that children think in radically
different ways than adults - Proposed that development occurs as a series of
stages differing in how the world is understood
5Cognition
- All the mental activities associated with
thinking, knowing, and remembering - Children think differently than adults
6Stage 1- Sensorimotor Stage
- From birth to about age two
- Child gathers information about the world through
senses and motor functions - Child learns object permanence
7Sensorimotor Stage (birth 2)
- Information is gained through the senses and
motor actions - In this stage child perceives and manipulates but
does not reason - Symbols become internalized through language
development - Object permanence is acquired
8Object Permanence
- The understanding that objects exist independent
of ones actions or perceptions of them - Before 6 months infants act as if objects removed
from sight cease to exist - Can be surprised by disappearance/reappearance of
a face (peek-a-boo)
9Object Permanence
- The awareness that things continue to exist even
when they cannot be sensed - Out of sight, out of mind
10Object Permanence
11Stage 2- Preoperational Stage
- From about age 2 to age 6 or 7
- Children can understand language but not logic
- Fantasy Play
12Preoperational
- Symbolic functioning is that a child uses to
represent something that is not physically
present like the use of mental symbols, words, or
pictures
13Preoperational - Egocentrism
- The childs inability to take another persons
point of view - Includes a childs ability to understand that
symbols can represent other objects
14Concrete Operational Stage (712 years)
- Understanding of mental operations leading to
increasingly logical thought - Classification and categorization
- Less egocentric
- Inability to reason abstractly or hypothetically
15Concrete operational
- Decentering this is where a child considers all
aspects of a problem to solve it - Elimination of egocentrism kids can begin to
see the others point of view
16Conservation
- An understanding that certain properties remain
constant despite changes in their form - The properties can include mass, volume, and
numbers.
17Conservation
18Conservation
19Conservation
20Conservation
In conservation of number tests, two equivalent
rows of coins are placed side by side and the
child says that there is the same number in each
row. Then one row is spread apart and the child
is again asked if there is the same number in
each.
21Conservation
In conservation of length tests, two same-length
sticks are placed side by side and the child says
that they are the same length. Then one is moved
and the child is again asked if they are the
same length.
22Conservation
In conservation of substance tests, two identical
amounts of clay are rolled into similar-appearing
balls and the child says that they both have the
same amount of clay. Then one ball is rolled out
and the child is again asked if they have the
same amount.
23Formal Operational Stage (age 12 adulthood)
- Hypothetico-deductive reasoning
- Adolescent egocentrism illustrated by the
phenomenon of personal fable and imaginary
audience
24Stage 4- Formal Operational Stage
- Child can think logically and in the abstract
- Can solve hypothetical problems (What if.
problems)
25Critique of Piagets Theory
- Underestimates childrens abilities
- Overestimates age differences in thinking
- Vagueness about the process of change
- Underestimates the role of the social environment
- Lack of evidence for qualitatively different
stages