Name: Luke Witham

PY111 – Homework Assignment #4

Due Friday, October 5th by 5:00pm via email
Directions:
Review Piaget’s theory of cognitive development in your textbook and in two other online resources
(please do not use Wikipedia). Write a 1,000-word summary of his four main stages and the importance
his research had on cognitive psychology today. For example, how did his research influence children’s
experiences in the classroom?

Jean Piaget released his theory of cognitive development; his theory explains how
children create mental models of the world around them. Piaget’s theory is like Gardner’s
Theory of Multiple Intelligences. One of the largest similarities is the fact they both denounce
the idea that intelligence is a fixed genetic trait. However, Gardner focused on the different types
of intelligences and Piaget delved into how the intelligences are formed. Piaget believed that
cognitive development stemmed from interactions and experiences, and biological maturation.
While working on intelligence tests he noticed that children often gave similar wrong answers
and became curious on the reason why. His theory included 4 main periods of child
development. The first stage is the sensorimotor stage, this included children from birth to
around age 2. When in this stage children depend on and utilize skills they were born with to
help them. Some of these needed skills are grasping, sucking, looking, and listening, they use
these to learn about the world around them and gain experience. It was realized that when
children learn through there motor skills their cognitive growth skyrockets in a very short period.
The sensorimotor stage has several substages. The first substage,” Reflexes” is very short it lasts
for about a month, the main focus is the child learns about their environment solely through there
reflexes. Over the next three months of life the child enters the Primary Circular Reactions Stage.
The most important development in this stage is the child starts to form their own schema for
various things. A schema is a theory or representation of certain objects or scenarios formed by
experience. For example, a young child my accidently poke themselves in the eye, then they
always try to avoid poking themselves in the eye, or when a young child accidently sucks their
thumb the action becomes a habit because they found it enjoyable. The third subcategory is 4-8
months of life. It is known as the Secondary Circular Reactions Stage, this is when kids turn to
reactions. It has been observed that children start to repeat actions to generate a reaction or a
response in the environment, a parent my think their child has a favorite tow because of
something like color but, the child just likes to put it in their mouth because it is pleasurable.
When a child is 8-12 months they enter the Coordination of Reactions Stage. Children start to
explore the environment and start performing learned behaviors. Another part of development is
doing clearly intentional actions, and sometimes even combine schema to produce a desired
response. In addition, children start to make connections between objects and certain responses,
they will make the connection between their tow fire truck and the noises it makes. The 5th
substage is the Tertiary Circular Reactions Stage from 12-18 months however this stage is also
closely related to the 6th stage, Early Representational Thought, children start to use mental
Name: Luke Witham

processes to understand the environment. They will start to use trial and error to determine
outcomes, this creates the use of sounds and actions. Children will start to use placing their hand
on their belly to show they are hungry or make certain sounds specific to them being angry. On
top of, all this the development of object permanence is one of the most impressive feats. This is
the understanding that objects exist even if they are not currently present. The next stage of
cognitive development is the Preoperational Stage. This is between the ages of 2-7, it does not
rely heavily on subgroups but major topics and turning points. During this time children become
more adept at manipulating symbols to garner results. One major accomplishment in this stage is
talking. Children in this stage are unable to use concrete logic or manipulate information
mentally. As a result of this children cannot take the opinions of other and are egocentric, they
also cannot “put themselves in others shoes” and rely almost solely on their observations and
experience. Another idea children in this stage struggle with is conservation, they still struggle
with the idea that two cups of equal volume may be different in size and shape. Because of this
play and pretending is extremely important, the increase in play will allow children to become
even better with using symbols and they start to use roleplaying. Much of Piaget’s study in this
stage was what children cannot do yet, which supported his idea that children were not small
adults and needed development. The third stage is known as the Concrete Operational Stage.
This occurs between the ages of 7-11. Many of the things that happen in this stage are important
to life. One of the biggest milestones during this period is that children finally start to use logic.
Their thinking is still very much a concrete in nature, but they can now connect the dots. For
example, if a child in this stage is allergic to peanut butter, they will use logic to come to that
conclusion, when they eat peanut butter their throat swells and closes. So, they now that they are
allergic, same deal if they were allergic to dogs and every time they go near a dog they get itchy.
Another breakthrough in this stage is the concept of reversibility. “An example of reversibility is
that a child might be able to recognize that his or her dog is a Labrador, that a Labrador is a dog,
and that a dog is an animal.” Children are also finally able to understand the concept of
conservation. They now can grasp the idea that two cups of different size and shape can have the
same volume. A couple skills start to develop, observations and breaking down problems into
steps also begin to develop during this time; the egocentric mindset starts to be replaced with a
more sociocentric. The final stage of development begins at age 12 and lasts into adulthood. It is
called the Formal Operational Stage. This stage is one that over the course of the subjects life
continuously grow and improve. Hypothetical and abstract thinking becomes a prominent
cognitive function. Children can now be tasked with thinking outside the box and can learn
nonconcrete ideas. Also children are much more able to think deeper and speculate in addition to
complex problem solving.