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Young children view
the world very
differently from adults.
E.g. no unusual for a
child to think the sun
follows them.
Field of cognitive
psychology involves
the study of how we
acquire, organise,
remember and use
information.
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Cognitive
development: how
and when we develop
and use mental
abilities and changes
that occur in mental
abilities throughout the
lifespan.
Cannot be directly
observed.
Therefore it is mostly
inferred from overt
behaviour.
Psychologists have learnt
a great deal about the
capabilities of infants in
many areas of
development.
 This was mainly initiated
by Swiss psychologist
Jean Piaget.
 Research has been
translated into English
since the 1920s.
 His views have been
used and refined, but
also criticised since then.
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Assimilation
› Process of taking in new
information and fitting it into
and making it part of an
existing mental idea about
objects or the world.
› We make sense of new info
in terms of our existing
knowledge and
understanding.
› E.g. a child may think a new
toy truck is actually a car
because their existing
mental idea of this object is
a car.
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Accommodation
› We cannot always
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assimilate.
We are forced to change or
accommodate an existing
mental idea to fit in the new
object or experience.
We change an existing
mental idea in order to fit
new information.
More advanced than
assimilation.
Involves modifying existing
mental ideas so new info
can be incorporated.
E.g. The child develops a
new mental idea that allows
them to see the truck as a
truck (not car).
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According to Piaget,
all behaviour involves
assimilation and
accommodation.
Interaction of these
processes allows a
child to progressively
adapt to the world.
Allows child to form a
schema – a mental
idea of what
something is and how
to deal with it.
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Sensorimotor
Preoperational
Concrete
operational
Formal Operational
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Birth to two years
World is experienced
through senses
Motor / perceptual
skills are coordinated
Goal directed
behaviour is carried
out
Idea of object
permanence is
developed ( key
accomplishment)
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Object permanence
refers to the
understanding that
objects still exist even if
they cannot be seen
or touched.
Maybe why ‘peek-aboo’ so exciting for
infants – they really
think you face has
disappeared.
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
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oi
nqFgsIbh0&feature=PlayList&p=24103B3
2984AB4AB&playnext=1&playnext_from
=PL&index=15

Two to seven years
They can assimilate and
accommodate.
Symbolic thinking language & drawings are
used to represent things
symbolically
Thinking shows Egocentrism (inability to
see things from another
perspective).
Animism (everything that
exists has some kind of
consciousness or
awareness.
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Another key
accomplishment is
transformation.
Understanding that
something can
change from one
state to another.
E.g. an ice block is
still the same object
when it is melted.
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Children find the
following difficult:
› understanding the
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principle of
conservation
Focus on more than
one object at a
time (centration)
classifying objects
seeing equivalence
reversing operations
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6
5EJ6gMmA4&feature=related
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7 to 12 years
Children can think logically about
real objects / events
Key accomplishment is
conservation, which refers to the
idea that an object does not
change its eight, mass, volume or
area when the object changes its
shape or appearance.
Classification is another
accomplishment.
The child is able to organise
information into categories based
on common features that sets
them apart from other classes or
groups.
The child begins to move towards
abstract thinking.
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12 years and over.
Thinking becomes more
sophisticated.
Key accomplishment is
abstract thinking, which is a
way of thinking that does not
rely on being able to see or
visualise things in order to
understand concepts.
Logical thinking is another key
accomplishment, such as
developing strategies to solve
problems.
Can understand concepts of
time and distance.
Make plans, set goals, strive to
be something (idealism)
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Used clinical interview method
rather than experimental method :
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No control group
Small samples to gather evidence
Absence of statistical analysis in his
research
No attempt to test representative
samples of children (often his
own)
Selected particular observations
that supported his theory.
He was criticised for asking young
children about things that were
unfamiliar or confusing, resulting in
him underestimating what they
knew and understood.
BUT….
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Piaget was a Constructivist (someone
who believes that learners construct
knowledge for themselves)
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Therefore his scientific orientation was
quite different from the research
traditionally done in American
psychology at the time.
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He believed that small samples and the
clinical methods he used were
adequate, as long as the observer
identified structures common to all
individuals.
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Other researches have refined or
improved Piaget’s methods of
testing/assessing children, revealing a
more accurate understanding of the
ages that children being to develop
key cognitive abilities.
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Some theorists question
whether children’s thinking
develops in stages and
suggest that the term
‘stage’ implies that abrupt
changes occur.
Current researches view
development as a
continuous process than
did Piaget.
Some research suggests
that only one third of the
population actually reach
full formal operational
abilities.
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He also neglected to
account for many
important cognitive factors
such as memory span,
motivation and practice.
Underestimated how social
influences impact on a
child’s cognitive
development, e.g., the role
of society in facilitating and
providing increased
understanding for children.