Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive

Development

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 The Prefrontal Cortex
This portion of the brain (bright blue) shows extensive
development from 3 to 6 years of age and is believed to
play important roles in attention and working memory

Prefrontal
cortex

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Figure 8.1
 7.2 Piaget’s Four Stages of
Cognitive Development

The Sensorimotor Stage

The Preoperational Stage
The Concrete Operational Stage
The Formal Operational Stage

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 Piaget’s
Piaget’sStages
Stagesof
ofCognitive
Cognitive
Development
Development
Formal Operations
(adolescence to adult)

Concrete Operations
(~ 7-12 yrs)

Preoperational Period
(~2 to 6 yrs)
Sensorimotor Period
(~Birth to 2 yrs)
Inborn Reflexes

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SENSORIMOTOR
STAGE
The infant constructs an
understanding of the
world by coordinating
sensory experiences
with physical actions.
And infant progresses
from reflexive, instinctual
action at birth to the
beginning of symbolic
thought toward the end
of the stage
Birth to 2 Years of Age
CONCRETE FORMAL
PREOPERATIONAL
OPERATIONAL OPERATIONAL
STAGE
STAGE STAGE
The child begins to He child can now reason The adolescent reasons
represent the world with logically about concrete in more abstract,
words and images. events and classify idealistic, and logical
These words and objects into different sets ways.
images reflect increased
symbolic thinking and go
beyond the connection
of sensory information
and physical action.
11 Years of Ages
2 to 7 Years of Age 7 to 11 Years of Age
Through Adulthood
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 7.2 The Sensorimotor Stage

• From birth to approximately 2 years

• Begins with reflexive responding and ends
with using symbols
• Object permanence: understanding that
objects exist independently

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 7.2 The Preoperational Stage

• From approximately 2 to 7 years

• Children use symbols but are many errors in
thinking
> Egocentrism: The inability to distinguish
between one’s own perspective and someone
else’s perspective.
> Confuse appearance and reality

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Three Mountains Problem

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7.2: The Preoperational Stage
The Three Mountain Tasks

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Conservation Tasks

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7.2: The Preoperational Stage
Piaget’s Conservation Task

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 Piaget’s Conservation Task

A B C A B C

Two identical beakers Child is asked if (A)

shown to child, and and (C) have the same
then experimenter amount of liquid. The
pours liquid from (B) preoperational child
into (C) says “no” and will
point to (C) as having
more liquid than (A).
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Figure 8.8
 Some Dimensions of Conservation:
Number, Matter, and Length
Type of
conservation Number Matter Length

Initial
presentation Two identical Two identical Two sticks are
rows of objects balls of clay aligned in
shown to child shown to child front of child

Manipulation
One row is Experimenter Experimenter
spaced changes shape moves one
of one ball stick to right
Preoperational
“No, the one
child’s answer to “No, the longer “No, the longer on top is
“Are they still row has more” one has more” longer”
the same?”
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Figure 8.9
 7.2 The Concrete Operational
Stage

• From approximately 7 to 11 years

• Thinking based on mental operations
(strategies and rules that make thinking more
systematic and powerful)
• Operations can be reversed
• Focus on the real and concrete, not the
abstract

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 7.2 The Formal Operational
Stage

• From approximately 11 years to adulthood

• Adolescents can think hypothetically
• Use deductive reasoning

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Object Permanence and the
“Impossible Event”

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7.3: Criticisms of the Theory
Theory of Mind

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7.4 The Child as Theorist
 The Sociocultural Perspective:
Vygotsky’s Theory

• Cognitive development is inseparable from social

and cultural contexts
• Zone of proximal development: difference between
what can do alone or with assistance
• Scaffolding: teaching style that matches assistance
to learner’s needs

The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

student can work with the student can work
ZPD
assistance of an instructor ________________________ independently
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 Comparison of
Vygotsky’s and Vygotsky Piaget
Piaget’s Theories
Sociocultural Context • Strong emphasis • Little emphasis
Constructivism • Social constructivist • Cognitive constructivist
Stages • No general stages • Strong emphasis on stages
Key processes • Zone of proximal • Schemata, assimilation,
development, language, accommodation, operations,
dialogue, tools of the conservation, classification,
culture hypothetical-deductive
reasoning
Role of language •It has a major role in •It has a minimal role
shaping thought
View on education •It has a central role •It just defines existing skills
Implications for •Teacher is facilitator •Teacher is facilitator and
teacher and guide, not director guide, not director

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Figure 8.11
 Developmental Changes in Memory Span
8
7
In one study:
6
memory span
5 increased
4
from 3 digits
Digit at age 2, to 5
Span 3 digits at age
2 7, to 7 digits
at age 12.
1
0
2 4 6 8 10 12 Adult

Age (years)
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Figure 8.13
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

Sensorimotor Birth to Infants know the world through their

2 years senses and through their actions. For
example, they learn what dogs look
like and what petting them feels like.

Preoperational 2-7 Toddlers and young children acquire

years the ability to internally represent the
world through language and mental
imagery. They also begin to be able
to see the world from other people’s
perspectives, not just from their own.

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Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

Concrete 7 - 12 Children become able to think

Operational years logically, not just intuitively. They
now can classify objects into
coherent categories and understand
that events are often influenced by
multiple factors, not just one.

Formal 12+ years Adolescents can think systematically

Operational and reason about what might be as
well as what is. This allows them to
understand politics, ethics, and
science fiction, as well as to engage
in scientific reasoning.

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Sensorimotor Substages

Sub Age Description

Birth – 1 Infants begin to modify the
1 month reflexes with which they are born
to make them more adaptive.
1–4 Infants begin to organize
2 months separate reflexes into larger
behaviors, most of which are
centered on their own bodies.

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Sensorimotor Substages

Sub Age Description

4–8 Infants becoming increasingly
3 months interested in the world around them.
By the end of this substage, object
permanence, the knowledge that
objects continue to exist even when
they are out of view, typically
emerges.

8 – 12 During this substage, children make

4 months the
A-Not-B error, the tendency to reach
to where objects have been found
before, rather than to where they were
last hidden.
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 Object permanence
 Objects are tied to infant’s awareness of
them
– “out of sight, out of mind”
 Hidden toy experiment
– 4 months: no attempt to search for hidden
object
– 4-9 months: visual search for object
– 9 months: search for and retrieve hidden object
 A-not-B task (Diamond, 1985)
– 9 months: A/B error after 1/2 second delay
– 12 months: 10 second delay needed to produce
error
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Piaget’s A-Not-B Task

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Sensorimotor Substages

Sub Age Description

12 – 18 Toddlers begin to actively and
5 months avidly explore the potential uses
to which objects can be put.
18 – 24 Infants become able to form
6 months enduring mental representations.
The first sign of this capacity is
deferred imitation, the repetition
of other people’s behavior a
substantial time after it occurred.

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Preoperational Stage
 A mix of impressive cognitive
acquisitions and equally
impressive limitations
– A notable acquisition is symbolic representation, the use of
one object to stand for another, which makes a variety of new
behaviors possible
– A major limitation is egocentrism, the tendency to perceive
the world solely from one’s own point of view
– A related limitation is centration, the tendency to focus on a
single, perceptually striking feature of an object or event
– Preoperational children also lack of understanding of the
conservation concept, the idea that merely changing the
appearance of objects does not change their key properties

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Piaget’s Three-Mountain Task

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Egocentric Conversations

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The Balance Scale: An Example of Centration

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Procedures Used to Test Conservation

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Concrete Operational Stage
 Children begin to
reason logically
about the world
 They can solve
conservation
problems, but their
successful reasoning
is largely limited to
concrete situations
 Thinking
systematically
remains difficult

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 Inhelder and Piaget’s Pendulum Problem
 The task is to compare the
motions of longer and
shorter strings, with lighter
and heavier weights
attached, in order to
determine the influence of
weight, string length, and
dropping point on the time it
takes for the pendulum to
swing back and forth
 Children below age 12
usually perform unsystematic
experiments and draw
incorrect conclusions

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Formal Operational Stage

 Cognitive development culminates in the

ability to think abstractly and to reason
hypothetically
 Individuals can imagine alternative worlds
and reason systematically about all possible
outcomes of a situation
 Piaget believed that the
attainment of the formal
operations stage, in
contrast to the other
stages, is not universal

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Implications for Education
 Piaget’s view of children’s cognitive development
suggests that children’s distinctive ways of
thinking at different ages need to be considered in
deciding how best to teach them
 In addition, because children learn by mentally
and physically interacting with the environment,
relevant physical activities,
accompanied by
questions that call
attention to the lessons
of the activities, are
important in
educational practice

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Critique of Piaget’s Theory
 Although Piaget’s theory remains highly
influential, some weaknesses are now
apparent
– The stage model depicts children’s thinking as
being more consistent than it is
– Infants and young children are more cognitively
competent than Piaget recognized
 Object permanence in 3-month-olds (Bower,
1974)
 Number conservation in 4 year olds
(McGarrigle & Donaldson, 1974)

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Critique of Piaget’s Theory
– Piaget’s theory understates the contribution of
the social world to cognitive development
 Piaget’s tasks are culturally biased
 Schooling and literacy affect rates of development

– e.g. Greenfield’s study of the Wolof

 Formal operational thinking is not universal
– e.g. Gladwin’s study of the Polynesian islanders

– Piaget’s theory is vague about the cognitive

processes that give rise to children’s thinking
and about the mechanisms that produce
cognitive growth

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