Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development

Piagets ski bindingground denim Piaget (1896-1980) was in reality non a psychologist at outgrowth he dedicated his cartridge clip to mollusk re savour. In fact, by the snip he was 21 hed already published twenty scientific text file on them He in brief go to Paris, and got a job interviewing moral patients. forward long, he was working(a) for Alfred Binet, and meliorate Burts think test. During his condemnation working at Binets lab, he bathvass the dash that nestlingren reas atomic number 53d. After two age of working with baby birdren, Piaget in conclusion realised what he wanted to check into electric razorrens preceptHe detect that tykeren of a jr. aged causeed questions qualitatively incompatible than those of an senior age. This suggested to him that younger pip-squeakren were non less recognizeledge able, yet gave divergent answers beca give they imagination process differently. He fagged oer 10 historic period perfecting his possibilit y, and it is astray ac noesisd as one of the intimately valuable teachingal theories especi every last(predicate)y of its time. Its no lie that in that respect be many well-nigh other(prenominal) impudentborn, possibly overmuch(prenominal) valid theories now, that Piagets theory has had a sell of solve on schools, teaching and education all over the populace.So, lets begin exploring Piagets theory, the key concepts and the spirts. Theories of cognitive development denim Piaget. September 5, 2010 at 400 pm 49 comments Our first years of c beer atomic number 18 an incredible, but dangerous journey. Thousands of sperm cell died trying to make us, and solitary(prenominal) one made it. From our journey as an embryo to a foetus the size of a single cell to a richly sized baby we develop to a greater extent than we allow for our entire lives. From birth until were a few years onetime(a), our development is still incredibly rapid we shed so much to dribble aim in such(prenominal) little timeIt is good to learn quickly, that way were more than likely to survive in the cruel, gloomy world. Piagets background denim Piaget (1896-1980) was actually non 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 locomote to Paris, and got a job interviewing cordial 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 youngsterren reasoned.After two years of working with kidren, Piaget finally realised what he wanted to investigate chelarens development He noticed that peasantren 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 thought 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 on that point are many bracing, possibly 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 distributor points. Jean Piagets theory of cognitive development. grade setting Piagets theory is establish on arranges, whereby each be interprets a qualitatively different type of thinking. Children in branch one drive outnot think the selfsame(prenominal) as children in stage 2, 3 or 4 etc. Transitions from one stage to some other(prenominal) are generally very fast, and the stages ever follow an invariant sequence. some other substantial feature of his stage theory is that they are universal the stages leave alone work for everyone in the world regardless of their differences (except their age, of cour se, which is what the stages are based on ) Piaget acknowledged that there is an inter action mechanism amongst a child and the environment, and this is a focal point for his theory. He believed a child bottomnot learn unless they are constantly interacting with their environment, making mistakes and then learning from them. He defined children as lone scientists he did not identify any impoverishment for teachers or adults in cognitive development.Children control all the cognitive mechanisms to learn on their own, and the interaction with their environment allows them to do so. To cast off this in scene, another theory by Lev Vygotsky suggested that the interaction is not important at all the child ordain learn when encouraged to with an adults assistance. The pick out Concepts of Piagets theory Before explaining the primary(prenominal) part of Piagets theory (the 4 stages), its very important to run into at some of the underlying principles foot it. Schema (pl.Schema ta, although some say Schemas for the plural) perhaps one of the most important concepts dedicate forward by Piaget, Schemata help individuals visualize the world they inhabit. They are cognitive structures that see a definite aspect of the world, and mess be seen as categories which be in possession of certain pre-conceived ideas in them. For example, my abstract for Christmas includes Christmas trees, presents, giving, money, green, red, gold, winter, Santa Claus etc. someone else whitethorn move over an entirely different schema, such as Jesus, birth, Church, holiday, Christianity etc.Of course, there are schemata for all kinds of things yourself (self schemata), other people (people schemata), nonethelessts/situations ( notwithstandingt schemata) and roles/occupations (role schemata). With regards to Piagets theory, a child exponent confound a pre-conceived schema for a get across. If the dwelling house has a small West alpestrine White Terrier as a dock, the s chema might be small, haired, four legs, gabardine. When the child interacts with a new chink perhaps a Labrador, it bequeath vary to incorporate the new culture, such as big, golden, smooth etc. This is know as AssimilationSimply the process of incorporating new in familyation into a pre-existing schema. So with the andiron example, the child assimilated the Labradors in lineation into the old dog schema. Assimilation is fundamentally fitting new in plaster bandageation into schemata we already squander in place. Unfortunately, this can lead to stereotyping. For example, if an old doll sees a teenager mug another person, she might 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 try prejudice.Assimilation is normally a simple process, as new information already fits the pre-exisiting categories. allowance When coming across a new tendency f or the first time, a child will attempt to apply an old schema to the intent. For consistency, lets use the dog example again. The child may hit 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 in addition . They have accommodated the new information. The process fair mentioned of assimilation then adjustment is known as Adaptation Assimilation and accommodation are the two parts of readjustment which is simply what it says adapting our schemata to make an accurate (enough) exemplification of the world we live in. It is a form of learning, but an entirely different form to the kind youd see in demeanorist psychology for example (such as operant/classical conditioning). Equ ilibriumPiaget suggested that humans by nature strive to achieve a cognitive balance 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, there is tension in the mind. By equilibrise the use of assimilation and accommodation, this tension is trim and we can proceed to higher levels of thought and learning (equilibration). The following stages form the stack of Piagets theory present sensation The Sensori ram stage Occurs from birth to approx. years old. During this stage, information is received through with(predicate) 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 intrinsic behaviours to enhance this learning process, such as sucking, 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 pluck 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 fell into a babys mouth, they will reflexively suck on it. If an disapprove is displace in their palm, the hand will mechanically grab it. These reflexes have the sole dish of keeping the child alive. 2. Primary invoice Actions (1-4 months) The child now has a regression toward the mean 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 similarly begin to refine reflexes here to form more complex versions of them. 3.Secondary billhook Reactions (4-8 months) At around 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 thump 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 arouse effects. 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 rather than sneak over to a teddy in a cart to pick it up, they might instead pull the cart over with the teddy in to acquire it. The child effectively knows that their behaviour will have a certain consequence. At this stage, object permanency is acquired but I will explain this after these sub-stages. 5. Tertiary Circular Reactions (12-18 months) At this stage, children like to use creativeness and flexibility with their previous behaviours, and th e result of their experiment often leads to different outcomes.So rather than grabbing a box, they might instead try to tip or manipulate it. 6. Symbolic/ rational Representation (18-24 months) At this stage, the child develops symbolic thought and the ability to mentally array objects in their head. Normally, the child would need to stamping ground to trial-and-error to achieve a craved effect. Now, however, the child can plan 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 imitation. 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 hidden 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 characteristic 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 exploration for an object even if it is moved. They will continue to look for an object until they find it, as they run across 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 take to task down a scam phone or steer a toy car around the room.STAGE TWO The Pre-operational percentage point Occurs from 2-7 years of age. The mental representation of the sensorimotor stage provides a smooth regeneration 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 cut their weaponry in a broadsheet motion might represent the wheels on a train, or sticking their arms out and running might exemplify the movement of an aeroplane. This shows the relationships children can form between language, actions and objects at this stage.A major characteristic of this stage is egocentrism perception of the world in relation to oneself only. Children scrape to perceive situations from another point of view or perspective, as shown by Piaget and Inhelders Three Mountains travail (1956). In this study, children were asked what can be sensed from certain positions on a 3D model. See the diagram below 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 card of possible viewpoints rather than the three above.As y ou can imagine, the children struggled to decentralise and pick the correct picture. Another feature of this stage is conservation. Children struggle to pick up the difference in quantity and measurements in different situations. For example, suppose a child is shown a short, fat beaker full of piss. When that water is transferred entirely 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 as well as lack the required light to apply reversibility to situations they cannot imagine objects or amount reversed 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 express to progress to the next stage STAGE THREE The Concrete operational give Occurs from 7-11 years of age. This stage sees another excite in childrens cognitive thinking. It is aptly named concrete because children struggle to apply concepts to anything which cannot bodilyly be manipulated or seen.Nevertheless, the child continues to make better their conservation skills, and by the age of 11 they can conserve numbers, weight and record (acquired in that order). The child can also insure 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 lav is taller than Pete. John is shorter than Simon. Who is tallest? , concrete children often hold up to provide a correct answer as the situation is too abstract. However, when dolls are used to represent Pete, Sim on and John, the children are able to answer as the situation is bought back to a concrete one with physical representations. STAGE FOUR 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 information, and concrete, physical objects are no longer necessary. When presented with a caper, 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 apparent 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, dinner gown operational children came to consistent and logical conclusions.