Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development

Piagets background Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was actu whollyy non a psychologist at starting signal of all he dedicated his age to shellfish research. In fact, by the term he was 21 hed already published cardinal scientific papers on them He soon moved to Paris, and got a job interviewing mental patients. forwards long, he was work for Alfred Binet, and refining Burts reasoning test. During his time working at Binets lab, he displacevas the way that peasantren reas angiotensin-converting enzymed. After two years of working with children, Piaget finally make what he wanted to investigate childrens increaseHe sight that children of a young aged answered questions qualitatively opposite than those of an aginger age. This suggested to him that younger children were not less k this instantledgeable, but gave diametric answers beca expend they scene differently. He worn-out(a) oer 10 years perfecting his supposition, and it is widely acknowledge as i of the most valu able developmental theories especially of its time. Its no lie that in that respect be many smart, perhaps more effectual theories now, but Piagets theory has had a manage of influence on schools, teaching and education all over the world.So, lets develop exploring Piagets theory, the key concepts and the acquaints. Theories of cognitive development Jean Piaget. September 5, 2010 at 400 pm 49 comments Our first years of life argon an incredible, but dangerous journey. Thousands of sperm died trying to make us, and and one made it. From our journey as an embryo to a foetus the surface of a single cell to a fully sized tike we develop more than we forget our entire follows. From birth until were a few years old, our development is still incredibly rapid we be m separate so much to subscribe in such(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal) little timeIt is advantageous to learn quickly, that way were more likely to hold in the cruel, unforgiving world. Piagets background Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was actually not a psychologist at first he dedicated his time to mollusc research. In fact, by the time he was 21 hed already published twenty scientific papers on them He soon moved to Paris, and got a job interviewing mental patients. Before long, he was working for Alfred Binet, and refining Burts reasoning test. During his time working at Binets lab, he studied the way that children reasoned.After two years of working with children, Piaget finally realised what he wanted to investigate childrens development He noticed that children of a younger aged answered questions qualitatively different than those of an older age. This suggested to him that younger children were not less knowledgeable, but gave different answers because they approximation differently. He spent over 10 years perfecting his theory, and it is widely acknowledged as one of the most valuable developmental theories especially of its time.Its no lie that there argon many freshly, pos sibly more valid theories now, but Piagets theory has had a lot of influence on schools, teaching and education all over the world. So, lets begin exploring Piagets theory, the key concepts and the presents. Jean Piagets theory of cognitive development. Background Piagets theory is based on shows, whereby each coiffure represents a qualitatively different type of thinking. Children in order one cannot think the same as children in stage 2, 3 or 4 etc. Transitions from one stage to another argon generally very(prenominal) fast, and the stages always follow an invariant sequence. other important singularity of his stage theory is that they atomic number 18 universal the stages ordain work for everyone in the world regardless of their differences (except their age, of course, which is what the stages atomic number 18 based on ) Piaget acknowledged that there is an fundamental interaction between a child and the purlieu, and this is a focal detail for his theory. He believed a child cannot learn unless they argon constantly interacting with their environment, making mistakes and then learning from them. He defined children as lone scientists he did not identify any need for teachers or adults in cognitive development.Children pee-pee all the cognitive mechanisms to learn on their possess, and the interaction with their environment allows them to do so. To effect this in perspective, another theory by Lev Vygotsky suggested that the interaction is not important at all the child will learn when encouraged to with an adults assistance. The Key Concepts of Piagets theory Before explicateing the main part of Piagets theory (the quadruplet stages), its very important to suppose at some of the underlying principles behind it. dodge (pl.Schemata, although some say Schemas for the plural) Possibly one of the most important concepts put forward by Piaget, Schemata help individuals understand the world they inhabit. They ar cognitive structures that represe nt a definite aspect of the world, and can be waitn as categories which own certain pre-conceived ideas in them. For example, my schema for Christmas includes Christmas trees, presents, giving, money, green, red, gold, winter, Santa Claus etc. Someone else may have an entirely different schema, such as Jesus, birth, Church, holiday, Christianity etc.Of course, there are schemata for all motleys of things yourself (self schemata), other people (people schemata), events/ lines (event schemata) and roles/occupations (role schemata). With regards to Piagets theory, a child faculty have a pre-conceived schema for a traverse. If the household has a lilliputian West Highland White Terrier as a cad, the schema qualification be small, hirsute, four legs, white. When the child interacts with a new dog perhaps a Labrador, it will change to incorporate the new reading, such as big, golden, smooth etc. This is know as AssimilationSimply the process of incorporating new in impressa tion into a pre-existing schema. So with the dog example, the child realized the Labradors information into the old dog schema. Assimilation is essentially fitting new information into schemata we already have in place. Unfortunately, this can lead to stereotyping. For example, if an old lady sees a teenager mug another person, she magnate assimilate violence or crime into her teenage schema. Next time she sees a teenager, her schema will be applied to them and although they may be a kind person, she will probably show prejudice.Assimilation is normally a simple-minded process, as new information already fits the pre-exisiting categories. Accommodation When coming crosswise a new intention for the first time, a child will attempt to apply an old schema to the object. For consistency, lets use the dog example again. The child may have four legs, furry in their dog schema. When coming across another similar animal, such as a cat, they might say Look, a dog thats assimilation. However, when told that its actually a cat not a dog they will accommodate the new information into another schema.They will now form a cat schema not all four legged furry animals are dogs some are cats too . They have accommodated the new information. The process just mentioned of assimilation then accommodation is known as Adaptation Assimilation and accommodation are the two split of adaptation which is simply what it says adapting our schemata to make an accurate (enough) model of the world we live in. It is a form of learning, but an entirely different form to the kind youd see in behaviourist psychology for example (such as operant/ course of actionical conditioning). EquilibriumPiaget suggested that humans naturally strive to achieve a cognitive brace there must be a balance between applying prior knowledge (assimilation) and changing schemata to account for new information (accommodation). Piaget suggested that when a child has a schema which doesnt fit reality, th ere is tensity in the mind. By balancing the use of assimilation and accommodation, this tension is reduced and we can proceed to higher levels of thought and learning (equilibration). The pursuance stages form the bulk of Piagets theory STAGE ONE The sensorimotor stage Occurs from birth to approx. years old. During this stage, information is received through all the senses. The child tries to make sense of the world during this stage, and as the name suggests, only senses and motor abilities are used to do so. The child utilizes indispensable behaviours to parent this learning process, such as watching, looking, grasping, crying and listening. To make this even more complex, there are 6 sub-stages of this one stage. To begin, the child uses only reflexes and innate behaviour. Towards the end of this stage, the child uses a range of complex sensorimotor skills. The sub-stages are as follows 1.Reflexes (0-1 month) The child uses only innate reflexes. For example, if a nipple or dummy is put into a babys mouth, they will reflexively suck on it. If an object is placed in their palm, the hand will mechanically grab it. These reflexes have the sole function of keeping the child alive. 2. patriarchal Circular Actions (1-4 months) The child now has a fixation with its own body with regards to behaviour(what Piaget refers to as primary behaviour) they will perform actions repeatedly on themselves (like sucking their own hand). They also begin to refine reflexes here to form more complex versions of them. 3.Secondary Circular Reactions (4-8 months) At just about 4 months, the child begins to take an interest in their environment (their behaviour is secondary). They notice that they can actually influence events in their world, for example they can drop a teddy which bashes a ball on the floor. Although this occurs, the infant will not make conscious connections between what they do and the consequences, they merely observe that their actions have interesting eff ects. 4. Co-ordination of Secondary Circular Reactions (8-12 months) At this point, the child begins to engage in goal-directed behaviour they begin to develop cause-effect relationships.So earlier than crawl over to a teddy in a cart to pick it up, they might instead pull the cart over with the teddy in to set about it. The child effectively knows that their behaviour will have a certain consequence. At this stage, object permanency is formulated but I will explain this after these sub-stages. 5. Tertiary Circular Reactions (12-18 months) At this stage, children like to use creativity and flexibility with their previous behaviours, and the result of their experimentation often leads to different outcomes.So rather than grabbing a box, they might instead try to tilt or hedge it. 6. Symbolic/Mental Representation (18-24 months) At this stage, the child develops symbolic thought and the ability to men statelyy represent objects in their head. Normally, the child would need to stamping ground to trial-and- phantasm to achieve a desired effect. Now, however, the child can scheme to some extent and mentally construct the consequences of an action in their head. Of course, predictions are not always accurate, but it is a step up from trial-and-error.There are two key examples of mental representation in children object permanence and deferred extravaganza. Object permanence is when objects exist even when out of sight. In the first three sub-stages, children will not attempt to search for an object which is hush-hush from their view in their mind, the object simply ceases to exist as they cannot see it. At sub-stage four, however, they show this feature of speech of object permanence. If an object is hidden from them, they will attempt to find it, but will repeatedly look in the same place even if the object is moved (the so called A-not-B error).However, by sub-stage 6, the child is able to mentally represent the object in their mind, leading to explor ation for an object even if it is moved. They will continue to look for an object until they find it, as they understand objects exist regardless of where they are. Deferred imitation is simply the imitation of behaviour a child has seen before. As a child can mentally represent behaviour they have seen, they are able to enact it through playing and in other situations. So a child might talk down a dally telephone or steer a toy car around the room.STAGE TWO The Pre-operational Stage Occurs from 2-7 years of age. The mental representation of the sensorimotor stage grants a smooth transition to semiotic functioning in the pre-operational stage. This essentially means that a child can use one object to represent another (symbolically). For example, a child lilt their arms in a circular motion might represent the wheels on a train, or sticking their arms out and running might stage the movement of an aeroplane. This shows the relationships children can form between language, action s and objects at this stage.A major characteristic of this stage is egocentrism perception of the world in relation to oneself only. Children shinny to perceive situations from another point of view or perspective, as shown by Piaget and Inhelders Three Mountains Task (1956). In this study, children were asked what can be comprehend from certain positions on a 3D model. See the diagram down the stairs for a clearer idea. Piaget and Inhelder Three Mountains Task (1956) 1 The child would have been asked, What view does Piaget have? . In the actual study though, they were shown around 8 cards of feasible viewpoints rather than the three above.As you can imagine, the children struggled to decentralise and pick the correct picture. Another feature of this stage is conservation. Children struggle to understand the difference in bar and measurements in different situations. For example, suppose a child is shown a short, robust beaker full of water. When that water is transferred enti rely to a tall, thin beaker we would know the level of water is identical only the beaker has changed. However, a child in this stage will conclude there is more water in the tall beaker, just because the level of water looks higher.Children in this stage also wishing the required cognition to apply reversibility to situations they cannot imagine objects or numbers transposed to their previous form. This will be explored in the next stage (where reversibility IS present). When a child has the ability to decenter, they are said to progress to the next stage STAGE THREE The Concrete Operational Stage Occurs from 7-11 years of age. This stage sees another shift in childrens cognitive thinking. It is aptly named concrete because children struggle to apply concepts to anything which cannot physically be manipulated or seen.Nevertheless, the child continues to make better their conservation skills, and by the age of 11 they can conserve numbers, slant and volume (acquired in that or der). The child can also understand principles of class inclusion perspective tasks become much easier, and children begin to understand that other people actually have different views to themselves. Simple maths, such as addition/subtraction become much easier. However, as this stage is concrete, Piaget suggests children will struggle to apply any prior knowledge to abstract situations.For example, when asked seriation tasks such as John is taller than Pete. John is shorter than Simon. Who is tallest? , concrete children often fail to provide a correct answer as the situation is too abstract. However, when dolls are used to represent Pete, Simon and John, the children are able to answer as the situation is bought back to a concrete one with physical representations. STAGE quatern The Formal Operational Stage. Occurs from age 11 onwards. Children at this stage acquire the ability to think hypothetically and outside the box.Logical conclusions can be inferred from verbal informati on, and concrete, physical objects are no longer necessary. When presented with a problem, children at this stage can consider solutions to the problem in a logical manner. The child becomes increasingly adult-like with regards to their cognitive abilities. Scientific reasoning is unmistakable in this stage, and is indicated by Piaget and Inhelders Pendulum Task (1958). When asked to determine the effect different weights and rope length have on the speed of a swinging pendulum, formal operational children came to consistent and logical conclusions.