D O -N OW 4/27 & 4/28 “Can you recall any funny habits that you had as a young child that seem illogical now?” (for example- breaking up a graham cracker so that you will have “more”)

L ECTURE : P IAGET ’ S T HEORY OF C OGNITIVE D EVELOPMENT U NIT : D EVELOPMENTAL P SYCHOLOGY Ms. Seetin

D EVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY Developmental psychology is the study of age-related changed in behavior and mental processes from conception to death. Development is an ongoing, lifelong process.

J EAN P IAGET Just as a child’s body and physical abilities change, his or her way of knowing and perceiving the world also grows and changes. While this may seem obvious to us, most early psychologists focused on physical, emotional, language and personality development. The one major exception was Jean Piaget

J EAN P IAGET Demonstrated that a child’s intellect is fundamentally different from an adult’s. He showed that an infant begins at a cognitively “primitive” level and that intellectual growth progresses in distinct stages,

T HREE B ASIC C OMPONENTS T O P IAGET ' S C OGNITIVE T HEORY : 1. Schemas Schemas (building blocks of knowledge). 2. Adaptation processes that enable the transition from one stage to another (equilibrium, assimilation, and accommodation).equilibrium, assimilation, and accommodation 3. Stages of Development: Stages of Development 1) sensorimotor, 2) preoperational, 3)concrete operational, 4) formal operational.

P IAGET ’ S S TAGES OF C OGNITIVE D EVELOPMENT A child’s capacity to understand certain concepts is based on the child’s developmental stage

S TAGES OF D EVELOPMENT : Today, we will focus on the PIAGET’S four stages of development. 1) sensorimotor 2) preoperational 3) concrete operational 4) formal operational

S ENSORIMOTOR S TAGE Birth to about 2 years, rapid change is seen throughout The child will: Explore the world through senses & motor activity Early on, baby can’t tell difference between themselves & the environment If they can’t see something then it doesn’t exist Begin to understand cause & effect Can later follow something with their eyes

P REOPERATIONAL S TAGE About 2 to about 7 Better speech communication Can imagine the future & reflect on the past Develop basic numerical abilities Still pretty egocentric, but learning to be able to delay gratification Can’t understand conservation of matter Has difficulty distinguishing fantasy from reality (ex: cartoon characters are real people). =I2SIYq66F98 =I2SIYq66F98

… MORE PREOPERATIONAL Conservation of matter – understanding that something doesn’t change even though it looks different, shape is not related to quantity Ex: Are ten coins set in a long line more than ten coins in a pile? Ex: Is there less water if it is poured into a bigger container?

C ONCRETE O PERATIONAL S TAGE From about 7 to about 11 Abstract reasoning ability & ability to generalize from the concrete increases Understands conservation of matter

F ORMAL O PERATIONS From about 12 to about 15 Be able to think about hypothetical situations Form & test hypotheses Organize information Reason scientifically

… P IAGET ’ S D EVELOPMENT Development happens from one stage to another through interaction with the environment. Changes from stage to stage may occur abruptly and kids will differ in how long they are in each stage. Cognitive development can only happen after genetically controlled biological growth occurs.

…P IAGET ’ S D EVELOPMENT Development leads to learning Drive for development is internal The child can only learn certain things when she is at the right developmental stage Environmental factors can influence but not direct development Development will happen naturally through regular interaction with social environment

P IAGET ’ S FOUR STAGES - STOP

S CHEMA A Schema is the basic building block of intelligent behavior – a way of organizing knowledge. It is useful to think of schemas as “units” of knowledge, each relating to one aspect of the world, including objects, actions and abstract (i.e. theoretical) concepts.

Piaget emphasized the importance of schemas in cognitive development, and described how they were developed or acquired. A schema can be defined as a set of linked mental representations of the world, which we use both to understand and to respond to situations. The assumption is that we store these mental representations and apply them when needed.

The schemas Piaget described tend to be simpler than this - especially those used by infants. He described how - as a child gets older - his or her schemas become more numerous and elaborate.

S CHEMAS, A CCOMMODATION, AND A SSIMILATION yucJw

A SSIMILATION AND A CCOMMODATION Jean Piaget viewed intellectual growth as a process of adaptation (adjustment) to the world. This happens through: Assimilation Accommodation Equilibration

A SSIMILATION – Which is using an existing schema to deal with a new object or situation.

A CCOMMODATION – This happens when the existing schema (knowledge) does not work, and needs to be changed to deal with a new object or situation.

E QUILIBRATION – This is the force which moves development along. Piaget believed that cognitive development did not progress at a steady rate, but rather in leaps and bounds. Equilibrium occurs when a child's schemas can deal with most new information through assimilation. However, an unpleasant state of disequilibrium occurs when new information cannot be fitted into existing schemas (assimilation).