JEAN PIAGETS THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

How we acquire the ability to learn, think, communicate, and remember; theories of cognitive
development vary in three ways

Stage Continuous

Development Development

Domain-General Domain-Specific

Theories Theories

Differences in the proposed source of learning (causes of cognitive

development)

Jean Piaget (1896-1980)

 Developed the first major theory of cognitive development

 Piaget was a stage theorist who devised a domain-general account and who believed that
learning was experience based
 Viewed children, for the first time, as “little scientists”

Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

 Sensorimotor Stage
- A stage lasting from 0 to 2 years of age in which the world is experienced through senses
and actions, marked by a focus on the here and now with no thought beyond immediate
physical experiences (i.e., mental representations); children in this stage lack object
permanence.
 Preoperational Stage
- A stage lasting from 2 to 6 years of age in which children use words and images to represent
things (i.e., mental representations), but lack logical reasoning; children are limited by
egocentrism and are unable to perform what Piaget called operations.
  Concrete Operational Stage
- A stage lasting from 7 to 11 years of age in which children understand concrete events and
analogies logically but lack abstract logic and moral reasoning abilities.
 Formal Operational Stage
- A stage that emerges in adolescence ( at approximately 12 years of age) in which children
can think abstractly and reason hypothetically.

Limitations of Piaget’s Theory

 Development is more continuous than Piaget believed

 His tests had high task demands
 His theory was based on his observations of his three children

Renee Baillargeon

 Showed that, by creating tests with lower task demands, children performed much better than
Piaget believed and at much earlies ages

Violation of Expectation