Infancy and Childhood

Cognitive Development
Piaget’s Theory and Current
Thinking
• Cognition
• Jean Piaget
– Schema: how we organize and interpret
information. Schema Video
– Assimilation: interpreting new information
using our existing schemas
– Accommodation: changing schemas to add
new information
Piaget’s Theory and Current
Thinking
Piaget’s Theory and Current
Thinking
Piaget’s Theory and Current
Thinking
Piaget’s Theory and Current
Thinking
 Piaget’s Theory and Current Thinking
Sensorimotor Stage
• Sensorimotor Stage: birth to 2;
sensory (seeing, hearing,
touching) + motor (movement)
–Object permanence: the awareness
that things exist even when out of
sight.
• “out of sight, out of mind”
 Piaget’s Theory and Current Thinking
Sensorimotor Stage
• Sensorimotor Stage
–Object permanence
• “out of sight, out of mind”
 Piaget’s Theory and Current Thinking
Sensorimotor Stage
• Sensorimotor Stage
–Object permanence
• “out of sight, out of mind”
 Piaget’s Theory and Current Thinking
Sensorimotor Stage
• Sensorimotor Stage
– Object permanence
• “out of sight, out of mind”
• Object Permanence Video
 Piaget’s Theory and Current Thinking
Preoperational Stage
• Preoperational Stage: ages 2-6/7;
understands language, but not
logic and reasoning
–Conservation Con
Piaget’s Theory and Current Thinking
Preoperational Stage
–Conservation: quantity/amount
remains the same, even if it
changes shape or form
–Conservation example video
 Piaget’s Theory and Current Thinking
Preoperational Stage:
Egocentrism
• Egocentric: in the preoperational
stage, the difficulty perceiving
things from someone else’s point
of view
• Egocentric Example Video
 Piaget’s Theory and Current Thinking
Preoperational Stage:
Theory of Mind
• Theory of Mind: the ability to infer
someone’s mental state and take another
perspective
• False Belief Test Video
 Piaget’s Theory and Current Thinking
Concrete Operational Stage
• Concrete Operational Stage: age
6/7 to 11; ability to use logic and
understand concrete events
• Concrete Operational Stage Video
 Piaget’s Theory and Current Thinking
Formal Operational Stage
• Formal Operational Stage; beginning
around age 12
– Abstract concepts
An Alternative Viewpoint: Lev
Vygotsky’s Scaffolding
• Vygotsky: child learns through interaction with
the social environment
– Scaffolding: mentoring child to help reach the
next developmental step
– Zone of proximal development: the space
between what a child can do and what they
cannot yet do – that is the space where
scaffolding should happen
– Vgotsky’s Theory Video
Reflecting on Piaget’s Theory
• Influential theory, but…
• Today’s researchers believe:
• Development is
more continuous
• There is a larger emphasis
on social factors