Cognitive Development: Piaget

Question 1

Constructivism

Answer 1

People construct knowledge and understanding of the
world by using what they already know to interpret
new experiences

1. individual cognitive constructivism (piaget)
2. social constructivism (vygotsky)

Question 2

Schemes

Answer 2

• Children begin to form schemes at birth
• Schemes provide organization for different bits of information that are similar
• As child interacts with environment, new info is incorporated into scheme to
increase understanding of the world
• Schemes are individual and based upon each person’s unique interpretation of
the environment

Question 3

Learning

Answer 3

Learning is ACTIVE process

Question 4

Essential processes in cognitive

development

Answer 4

• Organization: tendency to form increasingly coherent
  and integrated structures
  • Organization is based on schemes
  • However, schemes are not always adequate for explaining or
  understanding new information
  • Adaptation: process of changing or adapting a
  cognitive structure and/or the environment in order
  to understand the environment better

Question 5

Assimilation

Answer 5

Incorporate new experiences into
existing schemes using recognizable, but not
fundamental, features
• E.g. “Cow”
• Cognitive Disequilibrium -- confusion

Question 6

Accommodation

Answer 6

modify old schemes and create new
ones
- Cognitive Equilibrium: understanding

Question 7

Reflective Abstraction

Answer 7

noticing and reflecting upon
environment
• The spark of learning

Question 8

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive

Development

Answer 8

Stage 1: Sensorimotor Thought (Birth to 2
Years)
Stage 2: Preoperational Thought (2 to
7 years)
Stage 3: Concrete Operational
Thought (7 to 11 years)
Stage 4: Formal Operational Thought
(Age 12 and Above)

Question 9

Stage 1: Sensorimotor Thought (Birth to 2

Years)

Answer 9

• Understanding of the world based upon SENSORY INPUT and
PHYSICAL/MOTOR ACTION
•In the beginning
•No intentionality
•No symbolic/representational thought
•No object permanence 

Representational Thought
• Begin to perceive cause-and-effect relationships
• 1 year --> language
• Words=mental symbols of objects
• Object permanence
• At birth, “out of sight, out of mind”
• By one year, they KNOW it still exists

Question 10

Stage 2: Preoperational Thought (2 to

7 years)

Answer 10

• Use of representational thought and beginnings of logic
• Symbolic language
• Symbolic play
• Symbolic thought (art)
• Intuitive thought

Question 11

Stage 3: Concrete Operational

Thought (7 to 11 years)

Answer 11

• Child has achieved basic operational thought
• Thinking is decentered and reversible
• Focus on dynamic transformations
• Class Inclusion: objects can be classified in different
ways
• Transitive Inference: process of drawing inferences
by comparing relations among objects
• Thinking is still CONCRETE

Question 12

Stage 4: Formal Operational Thought

Age 12 and Above

Answer 12

• Characterized by higher-order thinking/abilities
• Hypothetico-deductive reasoning
• Abstract thought (freedom, justice, etc)
• Separating reality from possibilities
• Imagination and idealism
• Combinational logic
• Reflective Thinking: thinking about thinking

Question 13

OPERATIONS

Answer 13

• Mental schemes that are reversible
• Actions performed mentally that can be reversed
• Dynamic mental operations are basis for logical thought

Question 14

Conservation Problems

Answer 14

• Child has achieved basic operational thought
• Thinking is decentered and reversible
• Focus on dynamic transformations
• Class Inclusion: objects can be classified in different
ways
• Transitive Inference: process of drawing inferences
by comparing relations among objects
• Thinking is still CONCRETE