Early Cognitive Development
Mr. Koch
Psychology II
Andover High School
Jean Piaget
• 1896-1980
• Highly influential Swiss
developmental psychologist
• Suggested nature and nurture
work together
• Searched for origins of
intelligence in infancy and
factors that lead to changes in
knowledge over life span
Building Blocks of Cognitive
Development
• Schemas used to understand world
– Generalizations based on experience that form
basic units of knowledge
• Organize past experience, provide framework for
understanding future experience
– Can apply to behaviors, mental symbols, mental activities
Building Blocks of Cognitive
Development
• Adaptation of schema
– Assimilation
• Understand new experiences by fitting them within
existing schema
– i.e. infants will use sucking behavioral schema to experience
everything; children label many animals “doggy”
– Accommodation
• Process of modifying schemas to fit new experiences
when familiar schema don’t work
Piaget’s Four Stages of Cognitive Development
Believed child’s mind develops in series of stages
Sensorimotor Stage
• (Birth - 2 yrs.)
– Take in information through sensory and motor
interactions – seem to live in present
– Before ~6 mo. seem to lack “object permanence”
• Lack awareness that objects continue to exist when not
perceived (“out of sight, out of mind”)
• Begins developing by ~8 mo.
Sensorimotor Stage
(Object Permanence)
Preoperational Stage
• (2 - 6 yrs.)
– Too young to perform mental operations
– Lack concept of “conservation”
• Principle that mass, volume, number are constant despite
changes in form/shape
– May have difficulty distinguishing imagination/reality
– “Egocentrism”
• Inability to take another’s point of view
– Not intentionally “selfish” or “inconsiderate”
– Begin developing theory of mind during this stage (~4 years old)
– Awareness that others may have different thoughts, beliefs, desires,
emotions – and that these mental states underlie their behavior
– ASD (autism) appears to involve a lack of Theory of Mind
– Important period of language development
Preoperational Stage
(Lack of Conservation)
Preoperational Stage
(Egocentrism)
Why does the sun shine?
“To keep me warm”
Why is there snow?
“For me to play in”
Why is grass green?
“Because it’s my favorite color.”
How many brothers do you have?
“One.”
How many brothers does your
brother have?
“None.”
Preoperational Stage
(Developing “Theory of Mind”)
Concrete Operational Stage
• (7 – 11 yrs.)
– Begin to understand :
•
•
•
•
Conservation
Reversibility
Mathematical operations
Concrete analogies
Concrete Operational Stage
(Reversibility)
Formal Operational Stage
• (12 – Adult)
– Abstract reasoning
• Can think of imagined reality, symbols
• Piaget believed this allowed for
development of moral reasoning
Formal
(Deductive Reasoning)
Current evaluation of Piaget’s theories
• Helped reshape the way we view children’s
thinking and its development
– Challenged idea that children’s minds work like
adults, but just know less information
• Many believe the sequence he outlined is
fairly accurate
– But many now view cognitive development as
more fluid and have evidence that some
development happens earlier than Piaget believed