Jean Piaget

An Overview on the Growth of Thought

Cognitive Development Theory

BRIEF BACKGROUND

• Jean Piaget was a Swiss National with an intense interest in Biology ( specifically on biological

bases of knowledge). He earned his Doctorate in Biology at the age of 21 years old and eventually

shifted his focus to Psychology due to his curiosity about how knowledge develop in humans. He

Jean Piaget was interested in learning how a person’s thought process evolves.
(1896 – 1980), 84
The Child Psychologist • His theories and concepts were influenced by Biology & Psychology.

PIAGET’S DEFINITION OF KNOWLEDGE

 Knowledge is mental activity. It is a PROCESS or repertoire of actions and not an inventory of stored information.
 A person’s (child’s) perception is BIASED by the condition of the person’s (child’s) perceptual mechanism.

• It is influenced by the person’s past experiences and the person’s current stage of maturation.

 A person’s past actions can be stored as memories to be retrieved as needed. The quantity of memories INCREASES
with maturation and experience.
 Retrieving vestiges of the past (active memory) is INTERIORIZED recitation or a reconstitution of the past. Remem-
bering is a re-enacting of the original process of knowing.

To put it simply, for Piaget, KNOWLEDGE is a process of acting – physically or mentally – on objects, images,
and symbol that the person’s perceptual lens has cast into patterns that are somewhat familiar to the per-
son.
MECHANISMS OF DEVELOPMENT

SCHEMES/SCHEMA/ FUNCTION OF ASSIMILATION

SCHEMATA
“It is a structure or organization of action as they
are transferred or generalized by repetition in
similar or analogous circumstances”
- It is a technique of adaptation that can be
biological, mental or both.
The process of matching the environmental stimuli to
the existing patterns and re-shapes this stimuli into
something that fits to the person’s existing schemes.
FUNCTION OF
ACCOMMODATION

It is a process of altering existing schemes to

permit assimilation of events that otherwise
would be incomprehensible.
ADAPTATION

The equilibrium between assimilation and

accommodation.

1
MECHANISMS OF DEVELOPMENT (continued…)
What kickstarts the development of knowledge?
The main purpose for thinking and action on our part is adaptation. We want to
be able to adapt to the environment in order to survive.

When a new SCHEMA or new structure or organization of action is introduced,

we are able to learn or acquire and basically repeat and modify in many ways
that we see fit.

BUT when a perceived structure of events does NOT fit a certain schema, there
EXAMPLE
are two consequences that might happen:
A person used to eating at a fast
1. Event is NOT assimilated food restaurant might feel
2. Event is not outrightly rejected but a DISSATISFACTION and continued uncomfortable eating at a fine
efforts are made to achieve a match (to the existing schema) dining restaurant.

UNDERLYING CASUAL FACTORS

Factors that determine how adaptation-organization system will operate in a person’s development

HEREDITY PHYSICAL EXPERIENCE SOCIAL TRANSMISSION EQUILIBRIUM

• Provides the initial equip- • Direct and unguided ex- • EDUCATION from the • Maintains a harmonious
ment to cope with prob- perience with objects in person’s social circle relationship between the
lems the world. other three factors:
• Psychosocial aspect of
• Establishes a time schedule • Spontaneous learning cognitive development • Maturation
for new development pos-
• Physical experience
sibilities to open up at peri-
odic points throughout the • Social transmission
person’s development
through the years (internal
maturation)

Sources:

KITCHENER, RICHARD F. “Piaget’s Theory of Knowledge: An Overview.” Piaget’s Theory of Knowledge: Genetic Epistemology and Scientific Reason, Yale
University Press, 1986, pp. 66–98. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1xp3sbd.6. Accessed 3 Jan. 2023.

Bornstein, Marc H., editor. The SAGE Encyclopedia of Lifespan Human Development. 5 vols. Thousand Oaks,, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc., 2018. SAGE
Knowledge, 3 Jan 2023, doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781506307633.