Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive

Development
 Jean Piaget
 Jean Piaget was a Swiss psychologist.
 Jean William Fritz Piaget
 9 August 1896
 16 September 1980
 Studied children and how they learn
 Piaget’s Theory
 Piaget developed a theory of how we,
as humans, develop mentally, with the
ability to learn.
 Piaget broke his theory up into four
stages
– Sensorimotor
– Pre-operational
– Concrete operational
– Formal operational
 Sensori-Motor Stage
(0-2 years)
 Sensory contact understanding.
 The child explores the world
surrounding them using it’s senses
 Initially sucking/grasping reflex
and moving onto reaching for
objects out of reach.
 Object
permanence………
 Major development within this
stage.

 Initially the baby cannot

understand a object exists out of
sight.
 As the baby reaches around 7/8
months a child will begin to
understand the object/person still
exists when out of sight.
 Pre-Operational Stage
 This is the Second stage of Piaget’s
theory that is broken up into two levels
– (L1) Preoperational Phase
(2-4 years) Egocentric thinking
 The “I’m always right syndrome”
– (L2) Intuitive Phase
(4-7 years) Egocentric thinking fades; still
errors in logical thought
 Concrete Operational
 Occurs between the ages of 7-11
– Characterized by appropriate use of
logic
– Ability to perform multiple
classification tasks
– Order objects in logical sequences
– Comprehend the principle of
conservation
– Some reversibility possible
 3+4=7 and 7-4=3
 Formal Operational
 Ages: 11+
 Final stage of Piaget’s theory
– Linked to ability of abstract thought
– Ability to reason logically
– Ability to use information to draw
appropriate conclusions
– Puberty occurs during this stage
– Ability to understand terms such as:
love, shades of gray, and values
Quick Review
 Factors that Influence how
Children Learn and Grow
 Schema
 Assimilation
 Accommodation
 Equilibration
 SCHEMA
A schema describes both the mental and
physical actions involved in understanding
and knowing. Schemas are categories of
knowledge that help us to interpret and
understand the world.
 ASSIMILATION
The process of taking in new information
into our already existing schemas is
known as assimilation.
 ACCOMMODATION
Another part of adaptation involves
changing or altering our existing schemas
in light of new information, a process
known as accommodation.
 EQUILIBRATION
Piaget believed that all children try to
strike a balance between assimilation and
accommodation, which is achieved
through a mechanism Piaget called
equilibration.