cognitive development

• cognitive development refers to the growth and maturation of mental processes such as perception, remembering and reasoning
• Cognition: ability to think, understand, and organise information from our internal and external environments

  • Cognitive development refers to the growth of these processes
• Piaget believed that an individual’s cognitive development moves through four distinct stages in childhood 
• Jean Piaget proposed that cognition (thinking) of children develops through exposure to environments.
• A schema is a mental representation that you develop through experiences. We create schema to help us understand the world we live in.
• Schemas can be:

  • perceptions
  • ideas
  • actions
• Schemas help us mentally adapt so we can take in new information, interpret, and organise it so it can make sense to us 
• Jean Piaget - mental adaption 


  how out schemas adapt to new information takes place through two different processes:

  • assimilation
  • accomodation
• assimilation is the process of applying existing schema to a new experience.
• accomodation is the process of modifying existing schema to fit in new information
• example of assimilation

  Seb’s favourite toy is a hammer, but he gets a spanner.

  He will use the spanner for hitting (like a hammer)

  He has assimilated its use into his existing understanding
• examples of accomodation

  Seb uses the spanner and tightens/ loosens bolts, 

  His schema has changed to accommodate and produce a new response to new information
• Piagets stages of cognitive development

  • sensorimotor stage
  • preoperational stage
  • concrete operational stage
  • formal operational stage
• 1. sensorimotor stage

  • infants 0-2 years
  • explore world through senses and motor actions
  • develop object performance (peekaboo)
• object performance is the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they are out of sight.
• 2. pre operational stage

  • 2-7 years
  • begin to use symbols to represent objects and events (language and play)
  • are egocentric - they have difficulty in seeing things from others perspectives
  • animism - belief that inanimate objets possess lifelike feelings and emotions
• 3. concrete operational stage

  • 7-11 years
  • develop ability to think logically about concrete objects and events
  • understand that properties of objects remain the same even if the appearance changes
  • can mentally reverse actions ( what happened before this?)
• 4. formal operational stage

  • 11+ years
  • can think in abstract
  • engage in hypothetical and deductive reasoning
  • solve complex problems
• criticisms of Piagets theory

  • underestimated children's abilities
  • Piaget gave too little credit to the effects of learning