1. Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

2. The Prefrontal Cortex
This portion of the brain (bright blue) shows extensive development from 3 to 6 years of age and is believed to play important roles in attention and working memory
Prefrontal cortex
Figure 8.1

3. 7.2 Piaget’s Four Stages of Cognitive Development
The Sensorimotor Stage
The Preoperational Stage
The Concrete Operational Stage
The Formal Operational Stage

4. Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Inborn Reflexes
Sensorimotor Period
Preoperational Period
Concrete Operations
Formal Operations
(~Birth to 2 yrs)
(~2 to 6 yrs)
(~ 7-12 yrs)
(adolescence to adult)

5. FORMAL OPERATIONAL STAGE 11 Years of Ages Through Adulthood
SENSORIMOTOR
STAGE
PREOPERATIONAL
CONCRETE OPERATIONAL
FORMAL OPERATIONAL STAGE
The infant constructs an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences with physical actions. And infant progresses from reflexive, instinctual action at birth to the beginning of symbolic thought toward the end of the stage
The child begins to represent the world with words and images. These words and images reflect increased symbolic thinking and go beyond the connection of sensory information and physical action.
He child can now reason logically about concrete events and classify objects into different sets
The adolescent reasons in more abstract, idealistic, and logical ways.
Birth to 2 Years of Age
2 to 7 Years of Age
7 to 11 Years of Age
11 Years of Ages Through Adulthood

6. 7.2 The Sensorimotor Stage
From birth to approximately 2 years
Begins with reflexive responding and ends with using symbols
Object permanence: understanding that objects exist independently

7. 7.2 The Preoperational Stage
From approximately 2 to 7 years
Children use symbols but are many errors in thinking
Egocentrism: The inability to distinguish between one’s own perspective and someone else’s perspective.
Centration: Focusing on one characteristic to the exclusion of others
Confuse appearance and reality

8. Three Mountains Problem
7.2: The Preoperational Stage

9. The Three Mountain Tasks

10. Conservation Tasks
7.2: The Preoperational Stage

11. Piaget’s Conservation Task

12. Piaget’s Conservation TaskB C A
Two identical beakers shown to child, and then experimenter pours liquid from (B) into (C)
Child is asked if (A) and (C) have the same amount of liquid. The preoperational child says “no” and will point to (C) as having more liquid than (A).
Figure 8.8

13. NLVM Conservation Applet

14. Some Dimensions of Conservation: Number, Matter, and Length
Type of conservation
Number
Matter
Length
Initial presentation
Two identical rows of objects shown to child
Two identical balls of clay shown to child
Two sticks are aligned in front of child
Manipulation
One row is spaced
Experimenter changes shape of one ball
Experimenter moves one stick to right
Preoperational child’s answer to “Are they still the same?”
“No, the longer row has more”
“No, the longer one has more”
“No, the one on top is longer”
Figure 8.9

15. 7.2 The Concrete Operational Stage
From approximately 7 to 11 years
Thinking based on mental operations (strategies and rules that make thinking more systematic and powerful)
Operations can be reversed
Focus on the real and concrete, not the abstract

16. 7.2 The Formal Operational Stage
From approximately 11 years to adulthood
Adolescents can think hypothetically
Use deductive reasoning

17. Object Permanence and the “Impossible Event”
7.3: Criticisms of the Theory

18. Theory of Mind
7.4 The Child as Theorist

19. The Sociocultural Perspective: Vygotsky’s Theory
Cognitive development is inseparable from social and cultural contexts
Zone of proximal development: difference between what can do alone or with assistance
Scaffolding: teaching style that matches assistance to learner’s needs
The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
student can work with the student can work
assistance of an instructor ________________________ independently
ZPD

21. Comparison of Vygotsky’s and Piaget’s Theories Vygotsky Piaget
Strong emphasis
Social constructivist
No general stages
Zone of proximal development, language, dialogue, tools of the culture
It has a major role in shaping thought
It has a central role
Teacher is facilitator and guide, not director
Piaget
Little emphasis
Cognitive constructivist
Strong emphasis on stages
Schemata, assimilation, accommodation, operations, conservation, classification, hypothetical-deductive reasoning
It has a minimal role
It just defines existing skills
Sociocultural Context
Constructivism
Stages
Key processes
Role of language
View on education
Implications for teacher
Figure 8.11

22. Developmental Changes in Memory Span8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 10
Adult 12
Age (years)
Digit Span
In one study: memory span increased from 3 digits at age 2, to 5 digits at age 7, to 7 digits at age 12.
Figure 8.13

24. Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Sensorimotor
Birth to 2 years
Infants know the world through their senses and through their actions. For example, they learn what dogs look like and what petting them feels like.
Preoperational
2 - 7 years
Toddlers and young children acquire the ability to internally represent the world through language and mental imagery. They also begin to be able to see the world from other people’s perspectives, not just from their own.
Developmental Psychology Lecture 3

25. Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Concrete Operational
years
Children become able to think logically, not just intuitively. They now can classify objects into coherent categories and understand that events are often influenced by multiple factors, not just one.
Formal Operational
12+ years
Adolescents can think systematically and reason about what might be as well as what is. This allows them to understand politics, ethics, and science fiction, as well as to engage in scientific reasoning.
Developmental Psychology Lecture 3

26. Sensorimotor Substages
Description 1
Birth – 1 month
Infants begin to modify the reflexes with which they are born to make them more adaptive. 2
1 – 4 months
Infants begin to organize separate reflexes into larger behaviors, most of which are centered on their own bodies.
Developmental Psychology Lecture 3

27. Sensorimotor Substages
Description 3
4 – 8 months
Infants becoming increasingly interested in the world around them. By the end of this substage, object permanence, the knowledge that objects continue to exist even when they are out of view, typically emerges. 4
8 – 12 months
During this substage, children make the A-Not-B error, the tendency to reach to where objects have been found before, rather than to where they were last hidden.
Developmental Psychology Lecture 3

28. Object permanence Objects are tied to infant’s awareness of them
“out of sight, out of mind”
Hidden toy experiment
4 months: no attempt to search for hidden object
4-9 months: visual search for object
9 months: search for and retrieve hidden object
A-not-B task (Diamond, 1985)
9 months: A/B error after 1/2 second delay
12 months: 10 second delay needed to produce error

29. Piaget’s A-Not-B Task
Developmental Psychology Lecture 3

30. Sensorimotor Substages
Description 5
12 – 18 months
Toddlers begin to actively and avidly explore the potential uses to which objects can be put. 6
18 – 24 months
Infants become able to form enduring mental representations. The first sign of this capacity is deferred imitation, the repetition of other people’s behavior a substantial time after it occurred.
Developmental Psychology Lecture 3

31. Preoperational Stage
A mix of impressive cognitive acquisitions and equally impressive limitations
A notable acquisition is symbolic representation, the use of one object to stand for another, which makes a variety of new behaviors possible
A major limitation is egocentrism, the tendency to perceive the world solely from one’s own point of view
A related limitation is centration, the tendency to focus on a single, perceptually striking feature of an object or event
Preoperational children also lack of understanding of the conservation concept, the idea that merely changing the appearance of objects does not change their key properties
Developmental Psychology Lecture 3

32. Piaget’s Three-Mountain Task
Developmental Psychology Lecture 3

33. Egocentric Conversations
Developmental Psychology Lecture 3

34. The Balance Scale: An Example of Centration
Developmental Psychology Lecture 3

35. Procedures Used to Test Conservation
Developmental Psychology Lecture 3

36. Concrete Operational Stage
Children begin to reason logically about the world
They can solve conservation problems, but their successful reasoning is largely limited to concrete situations
Thinking systematically remains difficult
Developmental Psychology Lecture 3

37. Inhelder and Piaget’s Pendulum Problem
The task is to compare the motions of longer and shorter strings, with lighter and heavier weights attached, in order to determine the influence of weight, string length, and dropping point on the time it takes for the pendulum to swing back and forth
Children below age 12 usually perform unsystematic experiments and draw incorrect conclusions
Developmental Psychology Lecture 3

38. Formal Operational Stage
Cognitive development culminates in the ability to think abstractly and to reason hypothetically
Individuals can imagine alternative worlds and reason systematically about all possible outcomes of a situation
Piaget believed that the attainment of the formal operations stage, in contrast to the other stages, is not universal
Developmental Psychology Lecture 3

39. Implications for Education
Piaget’s view of children’s cognitive development suggests that children’s distinctive ways of thinking at different ages need to be considered in deciding how best to teach them
In addition, because children learn by mentally and physically interacting with the environment, relevant physical activities, accompanied by questions that call attention to the lessons of the activities, are important in educational practice
Developmental Psychology Lecture 3

40. Critique of Piaget’s Theory
Although Piaget’s theory remains highly influential, some weaknesses are now apparent
The stage model depicts children’s thinking as being more consistent than it is
Infants and young children are more cognitively competent than Piaget recognized
Object permanence in 3-month-olds (Bower, 1974)
Number conservation in 4 year olds (McGarrigle & Donaldson, 1974)
Developmental Psychology Lecture 3

41. Critique of Piaget’s Theory
Piaget’s theory understates the contribution of the social world to cognitive development
Piaget’s tasks are culturally biased
Schooling and literacy affect rates of development
e.g. Greenfield’s study of the Wolof
Formal operational thinking is not universal
e.g. Gladwin’s study of the Polynesian islanders
Piaget’s theory is vague about the cognitive processes that give rise to children’s thinking and about the mechanisms that produce cognitive growth
Developmental Psychology Lecture 3