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psychlotron.org.uk
Some recurring questions...
• How can we find out what infants and children are thinking?
• How is a child’s thinking different from an adult’s?
• Does nature or nurture have more influence on children’s
development?
• Can a child’s rate of development be accelerated?
psychlotron.org.uk
Jean Piaget (1896-1980)
More complex
More numerous
More abstract
More interconnected
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Cognitive development
The child’s understanding develops because...
• Development is discontinuous
• Each stage is qualitatively distinct
• The sequence is universal and invariant
Piaget said that children’s cognitive development unfolds in
stages.
These statements are true of all stage theories of development.
What might they mean as applied to cognitive development?
Abrupt change
Relative stability
Time
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A Constructivist Approach
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Object permanence
• Understanding identities and categorisation – the idea that people and many
things are essentially the same even if they change form, size or appearance.
Ability to determine the difference between living and non-living things (the
difference between a rock, a person and a doll). Also learn to label people as
‘good’ or ‘bad’ etc
• Understanding Number – by age 4, most children have words for comparing
quantities
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Pre-operational stage (2 years – 7 years)
- Immature aspects
• Egocentrism
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Procedures Used to Test Conservation
2
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Theory of mind –
Sally anne
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PIAget – concrete operational
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Critique of Piaget’s Theory