Piaget’s theory of cognitive development

• Piaget proposed that cognitive development was a result of two influences…


  maturation and the environment.
• Maturation is due to the biological process of ageing. It is a linear process that cannot be regressed.
• The environmental influence on cognitive development involves the child interacting with their surroundings and learning about them through experience. This makes their understanding of the world more complex.
• Schemas play a large role in cognitive development as they represent concepts, learned from interactions with the environment.
• Infants are born with a few, simple schemas, such as the difference between an object and a human face.
• Piaget suggests that schemas become more complex by…


  Assimilation and Accomodation
• Assimilation: when an infant uses an existing schema when attempting to learn new information. Thus it involves incorporating new info into the existing schema.
• Accomodation: adapting existing schemas to understand new information that doesn’t fit. This is used when new information cannot be assimilated into existing schema, so a new one must be created.
• Piaget also proposed that the motivation for learning was a result of experiencing cognitive disequilibrium. In order to restore equilibrium (balance) an individual seek to equilibrate, either accommodating or assimilating new info into schemas.
• Study for AO3: Fantz


  • Infants (4 days old) measured by time spent looking.
  • Preference for schematic face over jumbled up features (control).
  • Research support for innate schemas.
  • May be due to symmetry - extraneous variables.
  • Low internal validity.
• Study for AO3: Bennett


  • Children taught via formal methods read/wrote did math better.
  • Lack of success for discovery learning.
  • More time spent on core topics in formal learning.
  • Discovery learning: more sensitivity and experience needed.