Jean Piaget Group Project

Jean Piaget Theory:
Four stages of cognitive development

Daniel Contreras






Psychology 101-A
Professor Arellano
October 25, 2010
Porterville College
Jean Piaget Theory:
Four stages of cognitive development
Jean Piaget was a 20th century world renowned researcher, mainly known for his great contributions in the area of developmental psychology. Piaget's theory of cognitive development (also known as the four stages of development) was his most recognized and influential theory; in particular to many educational theorists. Originally, Piaget was trained and considered a biologist, more exactly a malacologist, who studied mollusks until he began working in the school of Alfred Binet, inventor of the first usable intelligence test. (Boeree, 2006)
Piaget began to wonder why older children answered so differently than younger children. The older children had obtained more skills and experience. Piaget called these skills and experiences schemas, mental structures that represent some aspects of the world. For example, a child might have a schema about a type of toy, such as a ball. If the child's initial experience has been with a round soccer ball, the child might believe that all balls are colored black and white, bouncy, and round. Assume that the child's second experience was with a volley ball. Since it is bouncy, white, and round, the child takes in this new information and stores it within the existing schema. This process is called assimilation. Suppose then that the child's third encounter was with a football, which is not as round, bouncy, or black and white. The child will then absorb this new information, modifying the previously existing schema about balls to include this new information. Piaget called this process Accommodation. Piaget would consider both assimilation and accommodation as forms of learning, or adaptation which is biologically inevitable because all things learn to adapt. (Atherton, 2010)
Also, both accommodation and assimilation work together like the sides of a scale, equally balancing the environment and the structure of the mind in a state known as equilibrium. An observation that Piaget made was that there were certain time frames when equilibrium, assimilation or accommodation dominated. The stages of cognitive development soon developed after this observation. (Boeree, 2006)
Piaget's first of four phases of cognitive development is known as the sensorimotor stage. Newborns up until about the age of two are within this stage. The sensorimotor stage has six smaller sub stages that are divided within the two year time frame. (Huitt & Hummel, 2003)
According to the article “Stages of Intellectual Development” (2010), the sensorimotor stage begins with the stage known as the reflexive stage that spans from birth to the first month. What occur in this stage are little more than merely simple reflexes, such as sucking and grasping. These inborn reflexes help the baby interact with the new world both cognitively and physically. For example, if one put a finger in the baby’s hand, the child would respond by grabbing onto the finger. However as time passes, the child may modify his or her tendency to hold onto things or any other reflex. (Ormrod, 2008)
Following the reflexive stage is the primary circular reactions stage. This stage occurs within the first month up until the fourth month of the child's life. Piaget termed it the primary circular stage because children's behavior in this stage is almost entirely focused on his or her own body and the procedures and actions are repetitive. It is at this stage that a baby might begin to open his or her hand and decide to put it inside their mouth. (Ormrod, 2008)
The third sub stage of the sensorimotor stage is called the secondary circular reactions stage. The secondary circular reactions stage begins on the fourth month and ends on the eighth month after the child's birth. Children in this stage become more aware of their environment and begin modifying their primary actions to secondary actions (how the child's actions or behavior affect the environment around him or her). For example, the child may shake a rattle to see what happens. Even though the child hears a noise, hey or she may not consciously connect the noise with the rattle.
Another process that a child learns in the fourth stage of sensorimotor is called object permanence. Object permanence is the ability to recognize that objects continue to exist even if they are out of sight. (Tavris & Wade, 2009) For instance, if the caregiver hid the child’s toy under the blanket the child will know that the toy, even though not in sight, still exists and is underneath the blanket.
The fifth sub stage is called the tertiary circular reactions stage. A child from the age of twelve months until he or she is eighteen months old experiences this stage. It is at this time that children behave like "little scientists", testing out what consequences their actions will make. (Tavris & Wade, 2009) Consider this observation of 14 month old Jacqueline, Piaget's own daughter.
Jacqueline holds in her hands an object which is new to her; a round, flat box which she turns all over, shakes, rubs against the bassinet, etc. She lets it go and tries to pick it up. But she only succeeds in touching it with her index finger,
without grasping it. She nevertheless makes an attempt and presses on the edge.
The box then tilts up and falls again. Jacqueline, very much interested in this
fortuitous result, immediately applies herself to studying it....
Jacqueline immediately rests the box on the ground and pushes it as far as
possible (it is noteworthy that care is taken to push the box far away in order to
reproduce the same conditions as the first attempt, as though this were a necessary
condition for obtaining the result). Afterward Jacqueline puts her finger on the
box and presses it. But as she places her finger on the center of the box she
simply displaces it and makes it slide instead of tilting it up. She amuses herself
with this game and keeps it up (resumes it after intervals, etc.) for several
minutes. Then, changing the point of contact, she finally again places her finger
on the edge of the box, which tilts it up. She repeats this many times, varying the
conditions, but keeping track of her discovery: now she only presses on the edge!
(Piaget, 1952, p. 272)(Ormrod, 2008)
The last sub stage of the sensorimotor stage is known as the mental representation stage; it begins when a child is eighteen months and continues until the child turns two years old. During this later part of the child's second year, the child will begin to not only hold an image in their about immediate experiences but he or she may also begin to recall some past experiences in an ability called symbolic thought. For example, a child may drop his ball which rolls underneath the sofa. The child now understands that the ball will appear on the other side. (Ormrod, 2008)
With the capacity of the child's mental representation another ability called deferred imitation occurs. This ability allows the child to be able to mimic actions that he or she has seen hours, even days after the child has observed them. The child can now pretend play such as driving with their car seat steering wheel or talking on the toy telephone. Mental representation goes hand in hand with mental combinations which is the ability to solve simple problems. For example, setting down a bottle of milk to open a door. (Boeree, 2006)
After a child has reached the age of two, he or she begins entering the preoperational stage. Like sensorimotor, the preoperational stage also has sub stages. The first half of this stage, which spans from two to roughly four years of age is called the preoperational phase. In this stage, children can now use symbols(language, words, and images) that represent objects. Even though the child is able to think of events that aren't occurring in the present they have difficulty understanding other's point of views because their thinking is still dominately egocentric. (Atherton, 2010)
At around four years old, the child begins to become more social and less egocentric as he or she enters the intuitive phase that lasts until the age of seven. Children obtain a more logical grasp of some aspects, but they focus specifically in one area, while ignoring others. For example, if a child in the intuitive phase was shown a collection of red objects constituted primarily of red squares, he or she will say that there are more red squares than red objects.("Stages of Intellectual Development In Children and Teenagers.",2010)
Piaget explored the idiosyncratic logic of childhood while asking open ended questions. Consider Piaget's study with 5 year old Julia.
“What makes the wind?”

“The trees,” five-year-old Julia replied.

“How do you know?” Piaget asked, to which Julia replied, “I saw them waving their arms.”

“How does that make the wind?” Piaget inquired, and Julia answered, “Like this,” waving her hand in front of his face. “Only they are bigger. And there are lots of trees.”

“What makes the wind on the ocean?” Piaget asked, introducing adult logic into the conversation, to which Julia answered, “It blows there from the land. No. It’s the waves. …” Instead of invalidating childhood logic by prioritizing adult logic over it, Piaget respected the cognitive state of childhood. “Children have real understanding only of that which they invent themselves, and each time that we try to teach them something too quickly, we keep them from reinventing it themselves,” he explained. ("Jean Piaget Biography, Life and Career Facts, Invented.", 2010)
The child's egocentric thinking begins to diminish during the concrete operational stage, which is the third stage of cognitive development. Beginning at the age of 7, children start to make rational judgments. The information is allowed to be mentally manipulated by the child, because he or she now has the ability to ask or answer. The term operational refers to the principles that we use while solving problems. Also, children in this stage learn to conserve, or to distinguish that an amount remains the same even if it has changed in appearance. Reversibility is now possible; a child notices two cookies and the caregiver breaks one into three small pieces and the other into two bigger pieces. The child will know that they are equal, regardless of change in shape or form. Reversibility is accompanied by two other abilities called seriation and classification. Seriation is the ability to group objects in the order of size and weight. For example a child could now group their toy cars using size, smallest to largest or largest to smallest. Classification refers back to the red objects; the child now understands that one set can include another. This concrete operational stage lasts up until the age of twelve. (Boeree, 2006)
Lastly, the final stage of cognitive development is formal operational, which begins at the age of twelve and spans into adulthood. This is the stage when hypothetical thinking develops. Hypothetical thinking involves the use of logical operations with an abstract view, rather than a concrete view, to make rational decisions. ("Stages of Intellectual Development In Children and Teenagers.", 2010)
In conclusion, Piaget's four stages of cognitive development have been very influential in the field of child psychology. Infants aren't small adults, as Piaget explained, infants are instead beings with limited experience and understanding of the world until he or she undergoes phases in which cognitive development blossoms, like a flower. It is important to recognize that children are only capable of understanding what they have so far learned. (Atherton, 2010)














References
Atherton, James S. "Piaget's Developmental Theory." Learning and Teaching Home. Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. Web. 20 Oct. 2010. "<"http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/piaget.htm">".
Boeree, George C. "Piaget." My Webspace Files. 1999, 2006. Web. 20 Oct. 2010. "<"http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/piaget.html">".
Henslin, James M. Essentials of Sociology: a Down-to-earth Approach. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon, 2009. Print.
Huitt W., and J. Hummel. "Cognitive Development." Educational Psychology Interactive. Educational Psychology Interactive, 2003. Web. 20 Oct. 2010. "<"http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/cogsys/piaget.html">".
Ormrod, J. E. "Piaget's Sensorimotor Stage." Merrill/Prentice Hall. Pearson Education, Inc, 2008. Web. 20 Oct. 2010. "<"http://www.prenhall.com/ormrod/humanlearning/pdf%20files/4_PiagetSensorimotor.pdf">".
Piaget, Jean. The origins of intelligence in children. New York: International Universities. 1952. Press.
Wade, Carole, and Tavris, Carol. Psychology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2009. Print.
"Stages of Intellectual Development In Children and Teenagers." ChildDevelopmentInfo.com. Child Development Institute. Web. 6 Oct. 2010. "<"http://childdevelopmentinfo.com/development/piaget.shtml">".
"Jean Piaget Biography, Life and Career Facts, Invented." PageRankStudio.com/Blog. 29 Sept. 2010. Web. 22 Oct. 2010. .

Labels: Psychology