Piaget and Stages of Cognitive Development

Question 1

Piaget viewed children as…

Answer 1

• qualitatively different from adults (not simply as inexperienced adults)
• viewed children as active learners

Question 2

Jean Piaget introduced

Answer 2

the idea that cognitive development occurs in four stages

Question 3

Piaget’s Stages in Cognitive Development

Answer 3

1) sensorimotor
2) preoperational
3) concrete operational
4) formal operational

Question 4

Sensorimotor Stage (birth - 2)

Answer 4

(At the beginning)

• infants acquire information about the world through their senses and motor skills
• no sense of object permanence
• coordination of sensory impressions is not yet developed

(At end)

• understand object permanence by age 2
• differentiates self from objects
• develops long term memory

Question 5

Preoperational Stage (2-7)

Answer 5

In this stage, the child lacks:

• the ability to take the perspective of another person (egocentrism)
• the concept of conservation (quantity of a substance is conserved despite changes in its shape)

Question 6

Concrete Operations Stage (7-11)

Answer 6

Child can:

• see from others’ perspective
• tell that a given quantity remains the same no matter how its shape changes
• can replace physical actions with mental ones
• think logically about concrete things

Question 7

Formal Operational Stage (12+)

Answer 7

• can think in abstract terms (e.g. deductive reasoning)
• can see reality from multiple view points on an abstract subject (e.g. moral judgement)