Chapter 5Cognitive Development – Piaget

Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental Theory

• Schemes – organized ways of making sense of

experience

• Assimilation– using current schemes to interpret the

external world

• Accommodation– adjusting schemes or creating new ones

when current ways of thinking do not fit the environment

Motivation for Learning• Cognitive equilibrium – a steady,

comfortable condition (more assimilation)

• Cognitive disequilibrium – a state of discomfort which creates a shift toward accommodation

Stages of Cognitive Development

• Sensorimotor Birth – 2 years• Pre-Operational 2-7 years• Concrete Operational 7-11 years• Formal Operational 11 years

onward

Sensorimotor Stage• Reflexes

• Circular reactions – stumbling onto a new experience caused by the baby’s motor activity– “circular” because the infant tries to

repeat the event again and again

Sensorimotor Stage – Repeating Chance

Behavior • Newborn reflexes are the building

blocks of sensorimotor intelligence

• By repeating chance behaviors (primary circular reactions), reflexes come under voluntary control and become simple motor habits

Sensorimotor Stage• Primary Circular Reactions (Substages 1-2)

– Centers around the infant’s own bodily sensations

• Secondary Circular Reactions (Substages 3-4)– Manipulation of objects and people

• Tertiary Circular Reactions (Substages 5-6)– Producing novel effects, experimental

Sensorimotor Substages• 1) simple reflexes• 2) 1st habits & primary circular

reactions• 3) secondary circular reactions• 4) coordination of secondary circular

reactions• 5) tertiary circular reactions & curiosity• 6) internalization of schemes

The Sensorimotor Stage

Primary Circular Reactions1 (birth to 1 mo.) reflexes2 ( 1-4 mos.) simple motor

habitsSecondary Circular Reactions

3 (4-8 mos.) repeating, imitation

4 (8-12 mos.) intentionTertiary Circular Reactions

5 (12-18 mos.) exploration6 (18-24 mos.) mental

depictions

Sensorimotor Stage – Intentional Behavior

• Substage 4 (8-12 months)• Deliberately coordinating schemes

to reach a goal or solve a problem• Object permanence – infants

retrieve hidden toys• Anticipate and try to change

events

Sensorimotor Stage – Gaining Object Permanence

• Overall, search strategies improve during the first year.

• Awareness of toy’s disappearance (violation-of-expectations research methods)

• Looks for toy by 8 months (Piaget)• A-not-B search error• Invisible displacement (finds toy

moved while out of sight)

Sensorimotor Stage – More Recent Research

• Violation-of-expectation method – infants look longer at an impossible than at a possible event

• May reflect only infant’s perceptual preferences or limited awareness

• Led to conclusions that infants understand, explore earlier than Piaget believed, possibly from birth

• Renee Baillargeon – possible events• Carrot and screen study• Train through the box study

End of Sensorimotor Stage – Mental

Representations • Internal depictions of information

that the mind can manipulate– Images– Concepts (categories, groups)– Sudden solutions rather than trial

and error– Invisible displacement – finding a toy

moved while out of sight– Deferred imitation

Mental Representations (Memory)

More Recent Research• Piaget says 18 months; others

say 8-month olds recall object locations.

• Deferred imitation, present at 6 weeks (adult facial expression).

• 24-hour memory for activity board objects among 6-9-month olds.

Sensorimotor Stage - Evaluation

• Piaget’s perspective – Skills acquired through learning, motor behavior– Vs.

• Core knowledge perspective – babies are born with innate knowledge systems or prewired understandings– Physical numerical– Linguistic psychological

PiagetPre –Operational Stage

The PreOperational Child• Is age 2-7• Has achieved object permanence• Initiates & explores• Uses mental representations &

symbols (language)• Is not logical

During the Preoperational Stage – ages 2-7

• The child will:– Gain ability to reconstruct in thought

what is experienced in behavior– Gain in ability to use symbols – words,

drawings, images– Form stable concepts – By the end of the stage show an

emerging capacity to reason

Preoperational Symbolic Function Substage

• Egocentric – – cannot take another’s point of view– Three-mountains task

• Animistic – – believe inanimate objects have

lifelike qualities such as wishes, feelings, intentions

• Magical beliefs– Show in drawings

Preoperational Intuitive Thought Substage

• Intuitive thought is a combination of primitive reason and fast acquisition of knowledge.

• Cannot answer the question “what if?”• Asks the question “why?” frequently.• Begin to grasp functionality – that actions and

outcomes are related in fixed ways.• Begin to grasp identity-the reality that some

things do not change (underlies conservation)

Piaget’s Preoperational Stage

• Cannot conserve – Unable to understand that certain

physical characteristics stay the same even though outward appearance changes (identity)

– Because of centration• Unable to classify hierarchically

– Also lack reversibility

Conservation and Logic, cont.

Criticisms of Piaget’s Pre-Operational Stage

• They are not egocentric, the 3 mountains task is the problem

• Animism is overestimated because Piaget asked about objects like the moon with which children have little experience

• They see magic as out of the ordinary, but they do attribute lifelike qualities to dolls and stuffed toys

Summary Criticism of the First Two Stages

• Logic develops more gradually than Piaget believed that it did

• The primary problem of Piaget’s observations was complexity of the task(s)

PiagetConcrete Operational Stage

Concrete Operational Stage

• Piaget said that thought is more logical, flexible and organized at ages 7-11.

• Terms for operations they can perform– Conservation– Reversibility– Classification– Seriation (but not transitive inference)

Concrete Operational Thought

• Children are logical only when dealing with concrete information that they can perceive directly.

• Example is a transitivity task compared to a seriation task.

• Horizonal decalage – development within a stage (working out the logic of each problem separately)

PiagetFormal Operational Stage

Piaget –Formal Operational Stage

• Starts at age 11 - 15

• Develop the capacity for abstract, scientific thinking

Two Major Features• Hypothetico-deductive reasoning

– Deduce hypotheses from theory– Start with possibility and end with reality– Piaget’s pendulum problem

• Propositional thought– Algebra and geometry

Consequences of Abstract Thought

• Argumentativeness• Idealism• Planning and indecision• Self-consciousness

– Imaginary audience– Personal fable

Adolescent Egocentrism• Imaginary audience

• Personal fable– uniqueness– destiny– invincibility

Do all adults reach formal operations?

• No, 40-60% of college students fail the formal operations problems.

• People are most likely to reach it in subjects where they have had experience.

• It may be a culturally transmitted way of thinking.

Piaget & Education• Constructivist approach – set up

classroom for exploration and discovery

• Let learning occur naturally, facilitate

• Consider the child’s knowledge & level of thinking – sensitive to readiness, accept individual differences

• Use ongoing assessment

Piaget and Education

• Too time-consuming to implement, requires individual portfolios

• Educators have always ignored developmental maturation; the system

makes it difficult to deal with individual differences

Summary: Evaluating Piaget

• Still major cognitive theorist

• Criticisms– Cognitive abilities emerge earlier than he

thought– Development more gradual, not as stagelike

as he thought– He ignored culture & education as factors