CD & ST

• Jean Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory

  • the 1960s; his ideas were strongly influenced by his history and background

  “According to Piaget everything that we know and understand is filtered through our current frame of reference. In other words, we construct new understandings of the world based on what we already know.”
• • Constructivist approach

  “...if children are to know something, they must construct that knowledge themselves.”
• • “Children’s constructions of reality (that is, their interpretations of objects and events) depend on the knowledge they have available to them: the more immature the child’s cognitive system, the more limited his or her interpretation of an event.”
• • The basic unit of understanding was a scheme

  Reflective actions: sucking, looking, and grasping
• • Innate processes to explain how children modify schemes
  • Organization. Predisposition to group particular observations into coherent knowledge, and it occurs both within and across stages of development.
  • Adaptation. To adapt to environmental demands, we also need to incorporate new ideas
  • Assimilation. Incorporating the [new] information into their existing schemes.
  • Accommodation. Adjusting to their existing concept/idea of something
• Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development


  A theory that describes the stages children go through in their cognitive development
• We are, by nature, constantly motivated to be able to fully assimilate and accommodate objects and situations in our environment
• We aim to reach a state of cognitive equilibrium
• Shifts to new levels of thinking stages

  • New levels of understanding converge
  • Major reorganization in the structure of our thinking
• Invariant developmental sequence
• There are tremendous individual differences in the ages at which children enter or emerge from any particular stage
• Cultural factors and other environmental influences may either accelerate or retard a child’s rate of intellectual growth
• Sensorimotor stage


  Birth to 2 years
• All that infants know is derived from information that comes in through the senses and the motoric actions that they can perform
• Object permanence


  The idea that objects continue to exist when they are no longer visible or detectable through the other senses
• Sub-stages of the sensorimotor stage

  • Reflexive schemes substage
  • Primary circular reactions
  • Secondary circular reactions
  • Coordination of secondary schemes/reactions
  • Tertiary circular reactions
  • The beginning of thought/symbolic problem solving
• Reflexive schemes substage


  • Innate reflexes; sucking, grasping
• Primary circular reactions


  • 1-4 months, coordination between senses and motor behavior
• Secondary circular reactions


  • 4-10 months, becoming more aware of the external world, starting to reach and grasp objects
• Coordination of secondary schemes/reactions

  • They begin to engage in goal-directed behaviors
• Tertiary circular reactions


  • 10-12 months, they begin to systematically experiment, now begun to walk
• The beginning of thought/symbolic problem solving

  • 18-24 months, infants begin to internalize their behavioral schemes to construct mental symbols
• Deferred imitation


  The capacity to imitate another person’s behavior sometime after the behavior was observed
• Enduring mental representations


  Children can mentally experiment
• Six sub-stages


  • Reflexive schemes substage
  • Primary circular reactions
  • Secondary circular reactions
  • Coordination of secondary schemes/reactions
  • Tertiary circular reactions
  • The beginning of thought/symbolic problem solving
• Reflexive schemes substage


  Innate reflexes; sucking, grasping
• Primary circular reactions


  Coordination between senses and motor behavior
• Secondary circular reactions


  Becoming more aware of the external world; starting to reach and grasp objects
• Coordination of secondary schemes/reactions

  Engaging in goal-directed behaviors
• Tertiary circular reactions


  Systematically experimenting; begun to walk
• The beginning of thought/symbolic problem solving

  Infants begin to internalize their behavioral schemes to construct mental symbols
• Deferred imitation


  The capacity to imitate another person’s behavior sometime after the behavior was observed
• Enduring mental representations


  Children can mentally experiment
• 1. The beginning of thought/symbolic problem solving - (18-24 months), infants begin to internalize their behavioral schemes to construct mental symbols
  2.  Deferred imitation is the capacity to imitate another person’s behavior sometime after the behavior was observed.
  3. Enduring mental representations also means that children can mentally experiment
• Preoperational stage


  2 to 7 years
• Preoperational stage


  • Impressive increase in mental representation
  • Equally impressive limitations
• Sub-stages of preoperational stage


  • Symbolic substage
  • Intuitive thought substage
• Symbolic substage


  2 to 4 years old
• Symbolic substage


  Children acquire the ability to mentally represent an object that is not physically present
• Symbolic substage


  • Child uses external props with high levels of similarity to symbolize the referent
  • Children can use external props that are dissimilar to the referent
  • Children can just imagine the referent