piaget's stages of cognitive development Flashcards
what was the main research he carried out?
he focused on how children acquire the ability to think.
define abstract logical thinking
solving problems using imagination, without being practically involved.
define egocentric thinking
only understanding the world through a child’s perspective.
define concrete logical thinking
solving problems while seeing an individual physically handling the issue.
what are the four stages of intellectual development he identifies? (with age ranges)
- sensorimotor (birth - 2 years)
- preoperational (2 - 7 years)
- concrete operational (7 - 11 years)
- formal operational (11 - 18 years)
what happens during the sensorimotor stage?
infants interact with the world using their eyes, ears, hands and mouth.
e.g. pulling a lever to hear the sound of a music box.
a baby would not have a way of remembering and thinking about the world until about 18 months.
what happens during the preoperational stage?
development of language and make-believe play takes place.
children at this stage cannot properly understand the concept of number, volume and mass.
what happens during the concrete operational stage?
children’s reasoning becomes logical providing issues are concrete.
children may be able to understand simple logical principles
e.g. if a child is asked “who is taller?”, they may need to see them in person or a photograph to identify who is taller.
what happens during the formal operational stage?
their abstract thinking allows adolescents to reason through symbols that don’t refer to objects in the real world
e.g. algebra.
they can think of possible outcomes to a scientific problem, not just one.
critics of piaget
bruner believed that, with adult support, children can be helped to progress to higher level thinking skills.
some critics say that it takes a child longer than 11 years to become skilled at abstract logical thinking.
