Piaget's stages of cognitive development Flashcards
Described by Piaget as the basic building block or unit of intelligent behaviour
Schema
The process described by Piaget of fitting schemas into environmental information
Adaptation
As described by Piaget, where new information is incorporated into an existing schema without restructuring the schema
Assimilation
As described by Piaget, where new information is added to an existing schema which requires the schema to be restructured
Accommodation
As described by Piaget, this occurs when all information properly fits into existing schemas either through assimilation or accommodation
Equilibrium
First stage of Piaget’s cognitive development
Sensorimotor
Second stage of Piaget’s cognitive development
Preoperational
Third stage of Piaget’s cognitive development
Concrete operational
Fourth stage of Piaget’s cognitive development
Formal operational
Average age at first stage of Piaget’s cognitive development
0-2 years
Average age at second stage of Piaget’s cognitive development
2-7 years
Average age at third stage of Piaget’s cognitive development
7-11 years
Average age at fourth stage of Piaget’s cognitive development
11 years to adolescence
Characteristics of the sensorimotor stage of cognitive development at birth to 2 months
Inborn reflexes used to interact with the external world e.g. suckling, grasping
Characteristics of the sensorimotor stage of cognitive development at 2-5 months
Primary circular reactions
Coordinated activity of own body e.g. sucking thumb
Subjective reality - does not seek stimuli outwith field of view
Definition of a circular reaction
A behaviour that produces an event that leads to repetition of the behaviour
A circular reaction which involves only the infant’s own body
Primary circular reaction
A circular reaction that involves the infant’s body but also external objects e.g. shaking a rattle
Secondary circular reaction
Circular reaction that experiments with the different effects the same behaviour can have e.g. rolling a ball and then rolling a block
Tertiary circular reaction
Characteristics of the sensorimotor stage of cognitive development at 5-9 months
Secondary circular reactions
Beginning to act purposefully to change the environment
Characteristics of the sensorimotor stage of cognitive development at 9-12 months
Plays peek-a-boo
Beginning to grasp object permanence
Beginning to understand that objects apart from themselves exist
Characteristics of the sensorimotor stage of cognitive development at 12-18 months
Tertiary circular reactions
Seeking out new behaviours
Characteristics of the sensorimotor stage of cognitive development at 18-24 months
Symbolic thought
Representational play e.g. uses a cup and pretends it is a hat
Signs of reasoning e.g. uses one toy to reach another
Achieves object permanence
Type of magical thinking children display at the preoperational stage of cognitive development where events that occur together are thought to cause one another
Phenomenalistic causality
The ability that emerges during the preoperational stage of cognitive development where children are able to represent something with some kind of signifier
Semiotic function
Characteristic during the preoperational phase of cognitive development where objects are referred to by their function rather than by their appearance
Functional attribution
Characteristic during the preoperational phase of cognitive development where children treat inanimate objects as living things
Animism
Characteristic during the preoperational phase of cognitive development where children reasons on a case by case basis ignoring well-established facts they don’t yet know e.g. thinking pizza is always triangular because they have only seen triangular slices
Transductive reasoning
Faulty thinking displayed by children at the preoperational stage of cognitive development where they think two things are the same because they share a characteristic e.g. butterflies and birds are the same thing because they both have wings
Von Domarus Law
Characteristic during the preoperational phase of cognitive development where children are unable to categorise or sort objects based on an aspect of their appearance
Lack of seriation
Characteristic during the preoperational phase of cognitive development where children are unable to perceive that a quantity of something is unchanged if it is presented in a different way e.g. not understanding that 500ml of water in a tall thin glass is the same volume in a short thick glass
Lack of conservation
Characteristic during the preoperational phase of cognitive development where children are only able to see the world from a single point of view
Egocentrism
Characteristic during the preoperational phase of cognitive development where children link objects and events on the basis of features in common e.g. linking that a red ball and a red cube are similar in some way
Syncretic thought
Order at which children develop conservation of different properties during the concrete operation stage of cognitive development
Liquid Length Count Weight Volume
Ability gained at the concrete operational stage of cognitive development where children are able to recognise that things can change and then change back without loss of the original material e.g. water changing to ice and back again
Reversibility
The ability gained at the concrete operational stage of cognitive development where children are able to combine known statements to reach a logical conclusion e.g. all ocean water is salty, the water at the beach is salty, therefore the water at the beach must be ocean water
Syllogistic reasoning
Ability gained at the concrete operational stage of cognitive development where children are able to see things from multiple points of view - replaces egocentricity
Operational thought
Characteristics of children at the formal operational stage of cognitive development
Ability to think logically and abstractly
Ability to test hypotheses against reality
Ability to grasp the concept of probabilities
Task used in Piaget’s sensorimotor stage to investigate a child’s ability to understand object permanence
Hiding objects
Task used in Piaget’s pre-operational stage used to illustrate ego-centricity
Mountain task
Task used in Piaget’s formal operational stage used to illustrate the ability to consider multiple variables in making a hypothesis
Pendulum task
