Piaget's Theories

• Sensorimotor Stage

  Infants develop their understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences with motor abilities
• Object Permanence


  Is the understanding that objects still exist even if they cannot be seen or touched
• Goal-directed behaviour

  Is carrying out behaviour which has a particular purpose
• Pre-operational stage


  Children become increasingly able to internally represent events (able to assimilate and accommodate)
• Symbolic Thinking

  Is the increasing ability to use symbols such as words and pictures to represent objects or events.
• Ego-centrism

  Is the difficulty in seeing things from another person's perspective
• Animism

  Is the belief that everything which exists has some kind of consciousness or awareness
• Transformation

  Understanding that something can change from one state to another
• Centration

  Individuals can focus on only one quality or feature of an object at a time
• Reversibility

  Is the ability to follow a line of reasoning back to its original starting point
• Concrete operational stage


  Revolves around what they know and what they can experience through their senses; that is, what is concrete and logical.
• Conservation

  Is the idea that an object does not change its weight, mass, volume, or area when it changes shape or appearance.
• Classification

  Is the ability to organise information into categories based on common features that make them different from other classes or groups.
• Formal operational stage


  More complex thought processes become evident and thinking becomes increasingly sophisticated
• Abstract thinking

  Is a way of thinking that does not rely on being able to see or visualise things to understand concepts
• Logical thinking

  Is developing plans to solve problems, identify a range of possible solutions to problems, develop hypotheses and systematically test solutions.