Piaget and Cognitive Development

Cognitive Development Theory – based upon how physical development and environment affect a person’s use of intelligence. Broke down into ‘levels of cognition’ (or thought). These are affected by how well a person can adapt to the environment either through assimilation – being able to  see how current environment relations to previous environment  - and then accommodation – being able to take the information gathered through assimilation and add/change current schemas based on new information.

(a)              Schemas – ability to repeat actions based on remembering prior success

(b)              Structures – ability to take schemas and link together to create more complicated actions and world views

(c)               Operations- ability to use and re-organize schema and structures and use logic to solve a problem or understand a situation better

There are 4 stages of cognitive development that Piaget states everyone goes though:

#	Stage	Age Range	Description
1	Sensorimotor Stage	Birth – 2 years	World consists of only what their senses tell them. Actions that are instinctual become controlled as they receive the desired results and they create a schema
2	Preoperational Stage	2-7 yrs	Rely on physical senses to learn. Limited in how they see things and can only see one aspect of object or problem at a time (cannot see things from someone else’s shoes. Unlikely able to take stored schemas and restructure them.
3	Concrete Operational Stage	8-puberty	Children can group objects into groups based on similarities and differences. Ability to understand math functions (symbols). No focus on ideas… just things
4	Formal Operational Stage	Adolescence	Able to think over problem theoretically and imagine different aspects of problem. Can change single parts of a solution and visualize possible results. Can theorize best solution w/o having to test

It is also important to note that according to Piaget, these stages are developed and progressed through in a smooth transitional process.

References:

Atherton J S (2011) Learning and Teaching; Piaget's developmental theory [On-line: UK] retrieved 8 January 2013 from http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/piaget.htm  
Zastrow, C.H. & Kirst-Ashman, K.K. (2004). Understanding Human Behavior. Thomson Learning, Inc., Belmont, CA. p. 254-255