Name:______________________ Semester_______ Date__________________

Piaget’s Four Stages of Cognitive Development

Test

Read each statement below and decide what stage of Piaget’s Cognitive Development it
illustrates. Explain your thinking. The first one is done for you. Write your answers on a
separate sheet of paper. Send this test to my e-mail or upload it in the Moodle platform on
or before Tuesday, October 12, 2021.

1. Young babies tend to cry when their parents leave the room because they think the parents are
gone.  Sensorimotor stage. Young babies lack object permanence, so
they don’t understand that the parents continue to exist once they leave
the room.

2. Elizabeth can solve equations and do complex multiplications mentally.

3. Betty only had three cookies to share with her sons. So, she takes one of the cookies and
breaks it in half. Now she has four, of different sizes. Her sons, however, do not mind, because
they each get 2.

4. Noah is crying because according to him, his cousin Alice has more juice. But in fact, they
both have the same amount of juice. Alice’s cup is taller and thinner.

5. Noah and Alice are playing house.

6. Maria’s baby loves playing with Jack in a box. She is always surprised to see when the little
clown comes out of the box.

7. Reina gave her daughter a new toy and she automatically put it in her mouth.

8. Nine-year-old Mary’s birthday is coming up, so her mom takes 3-year-old Arthur to the toy
store to choose a present for his sister. He selects an Iron Man action figure for her, thinking that
if he likes the toy, his sister Mary will too.
Name:______________________ Semester_______ Date__________________

9. Joel is yelling at Suzy for not seeing a cup behind a dresser, even though Suzy is not able to
see this cup from across the room.

10. John and his son are playing peek-a-boo. His son is amazed every time his vision is blocked
and then unblocked.

11. For Laura, her teddy bear, for example, can be a baby or the queen of a faraway land.

12. Rodolfo doesn’t understand what you mean when you tell him that a pound of feathers is the
same as a pound of bricks. He knows the difference.

13. Mia can solve equations without writing them out.

14. Mario pretends that his broom is a horse.

15. Dad gave a slice of pizza to 10-year-old Mary and another slice to 3-year-old Jennie. Jennie’s
pizza slice was cut into five pieces, so Jennie thinks that she got more pizza than her sister and
tells it to her. Jennie did not understand that cutting one slice of pizza into smaller pieces did
not increase the overall amount.

16. Instead of being egocentric, kids in this stage start becoming more sociocentric. In other
words, they start to understand that other people have their own thoughts.

16. Create 4 new scenarios.

17. What kinds of books can children be given in each one of the cognitive stages?