PMT
Psychology Factsheets
www.curriculum-press.co.uk
Cognitive development: Piaget and Vygotsky
This factsheet summarises two cognitive development theories and their application to education. This topic is in developmental psychology
(AQA) and cognitive, social and development processes (Edexcel).
Note: Terms in bold are important ones that you should know for an exam. The glossary explains terms which are in italics
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development
• Cognitive development is biologically driven through
four stages.
• Individuals acquire knowledge through self-
discovery.
• Piaget proposes that we are born with innate schemas
which:
• develop due to new experiences, and
• become more complex through assimilation and accommodation.
• Disequilibrium occurs if a new experience cannot be assimilated.
Assimilation and accommodation restore balance (equilibration).
Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development
Stage 1: Sensori-motor stage (0-2 years) - knowledge
through action.
• Child interacts with environment using their senses.
Schemas are innate reflexes.
• Child develops object permanence (8 months),
perseverative search (12 months) and deferred imitation (2 years).
Evidence and Evaluation
• Evidence from detailed observation of young infants.
• Piaget may have underestimated some of the age bands (e.g.,
object permanence can occur at 5 months (Bower, 1982; Bower &
Wishart, 1972)).
Stage 2: Pre-operational stage (2-7 years) – knowledge dominated
by perception.
• Child can use symbols and language. Perception dominates
thought.
• Pre-conceptual (2-4 years) – do not have fully formed
concepts (e.g., all animals with four legs are dogs.) No
seriation or syncretic thought. See text box A for
limitations in thought at this stage.
• Intuitive (4-7 years) – child bases knowledge on what they sense
to be true, but cannot explain underlying principles. Can perform
seriation after trial and error. Display limited syncretic thought.
Evidence and Evaluation
• Conservation tasks demonstrate limitations in pre-conceptual thought.
• Conservation studies of volume: children are shown two glasses
of same size, with the same quantity of liquid in each. When
child has agreed that the amount of liquid in each glass is the
same, the liquid in one glass is poured into a thinner, taller glass.
The child is asked again if the quantity is the same in each glass.
Pre-operational children fail to conserve; they believe that the
quantities are different after the transformation.
• However, younger children may fail the conservation task due
to demand characteristics. When Rose and Blank (1974) asked
children just one question, they found pre-operational children’s
performance improved using the number tasks. Samuel and
Bryant (1984) extended these findings to mass and volume.
• Despite the above evidence, studies still find differences between
the age groups.
1
Number 37
Stage 3: Concrete operational stage (7-11 years) – knowledge
through concrete logic.
• Thinking becomes logical in context of concrete information.
• Achieve conservation, seriation, transivity and reversibility.
Evidence and Evaluation
• Children can conserve and demonstrate transivity in relation to
concrete, but not abstract, problems.
• Not all new knowledge relates to mathematics or logic.
• Piaget underestimated the importance of specific experiences
on ability to conserve. For example, children tend to show
conservation of volume for familiar substances before unfamiliar
ones (Durkin, 1995).
Stage 4: Formal operational stage (11+ years) – knowledge through
abstract reasoning.
Able to think logically about potential events or abstract ideas, and
test hypotheses systematically.
Evidence and Evaluation
• Piaget and Inhelder (1956) gave children four beakers
of colourless liquid and asked participants to find
which combination would produce a yellow liquid.
Younger children tried random combinations whereas
formal operational thinkers took a more systematic
approach by forming a principle, deriving a hypothesis and testing
the hypothesis to arrive at the correct answer.
• Children at this stage can solve the ‘pendulum problem’; they are
given a set of weights and a string, and need to determine the
frequency of the pendulum swings.
• This development stage may not be universal. Dasen (1994) claims
only one third of adults ever reach this stage. Wason and Shapiro
(1971) found few students could perform an abstract reasoning task.
• An understanding of mathematics and logic is of limited value in
everyday thinking.
A. Some limitations in pre-operational thought
Egocentrism is viewing the world only from own perspective and
is the inability to distinguish between psychological and physical
events. Egocentrism leads to:
a) realism – regarding psychological events as having a physical
existence;
b) animism – attributing physical objects with psychological
qualities; and
c) artificiality – believing that people created physical objects &
events.
Irreversibility is not having flexible reversibility of thought (e.g.,
cannot appreciate that pouring liquid from one glass to another
can be reversed by pouring it back again).
Centration is focusing on one aspect of a task at expense of other
relevant aspects.
Exam Hint: Do not give too much detail of the stages at the expense of
other aspects of Piaget’s theory. Do not just describe research studies;
use them to build a full and critical comment on Piaget’s theory.
 PMT

37 - Cognitive development: Piaget and Vygotsky Psychology Factsheet

Overall evaluation of Piaget’s theory

• Piaget may have underestimated children’s cognitive abilities
• It was the first comprehensive cognitive development theory.
as his experiments did not distinguish between competence
• It has massively influenced education, research and our
(what a child is capable of doing) and performance (how child
understanding of children.
performs on a task).
• The theory is descriptive rather than explaining how or why
• The age boundaries may be too rigid. However, cross-cultural
such development occurs.
research has replicated Piaget’s findings, supporting his ideas
• There are three criticisms of Piaget’s method of discussing the
of universal biological and qualitative cognitive changes.
task with the child: it relies on language ability, underestimating
• If a child is not biologically ready for the next stage of thought,
children’s cognitive abilities; it is unstandardised; and is not
practice should not improve performance. However, research
very scientific.
shows that practice can improve performance (e.g., Bryant &
• Piaget underplayed the role of language and social factors in
Trabasso, 1971).
cognitive development.

Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development

• Cognitive development depends on social and cultural factors. Knowledge is socially constructed; other people’s
influence drives cognitive development.
• Innate abilities (e.g., attention and sensation) are elementary mental functions. Vygotsky considers these functions
to develop partly by experience and by cultural influences which transform them into higher mental functions (e.g.,
thinking and problem solving). Different cultures result in different higher mental functions (Gredler, 1992).
• Vygotsky proposed four stages in the formation of concept, language and thought development (see text box B). He
identified these stages based on a study where children were presented with wooden blocks that had nonsense symbol labels. Each
nonsense symbol was used in a consistent way to refer to the block’s characteristics. The children had to decide the meaning of each
nonsense symbol.

B. Vygotsky’s four stages

Stage 1. Vague syncretic 2. Complex 3. Potential concept 4. Mature concept
Concept formation Fail to use systematic Use unsuccessful Use limited systematic Uses systematic strategies
strategies. non-random strategies. Use limited systematic strategies. successfully.
Language and Pre-verbal thought and Language and thought Make use of speech of others Private speech becomes
thought pre-intellectual age. develop in parallel but and private speech to assist more internal and used
development Language serves social have little impact on thinking and problem-solving. for problem-solving.
function. each other.

• One key notion is the zone of proximal development (ZPD). ZPD
is the distance between a child’s current ability and potential ability
at any moment in time. Children may lack skills when tested in
isolation, but perform much better in a social context provided by
someone with the necessary knowledge. Movement through this
zone leads to cognitive development.
• Scaffolding assists cognitive development. It is
where knowledgeable people help children
develop their cognitive skills (e.g., by breaking
down the task into manageable steps). As the
child’s knowledge and confidence increases, support is gradually
withdrawn. In time, we all learn to scaffold ourselves (self-
instruction).
• Language also plays an important role in cognitive development
(see text box B). Language becomes more internal with age and is
crucial in learning from social interactions. Intersubjectivity is
where two individuals with differing initial views move towards an
agreed understanding of what is involved.
Evidence for Vygotsky’s theory
• Scaffolding: Studies show that teaching based on the ZPD and
scaffolding is effective. For example, the quality of parents’
scaffolding for 2 year-olds predicted the children’s performance
(Conner, Knight and Cross, 1997).
• Social Context: Wertsch et al. (1980) considered the social factor
of the mother’s looking behaviour on 2 and 4 year-olds’ ability
on a building task. As predicted, the mother’s behaviour had a
greater impact on the younger children.
• Inner speech: Berk (1994) found that 6 year-olds spend an
average of 60% of the time talking to themselves while solving
mathematical problems. Those with very self-guiding speech
performed better at mathematics in the next year. In another
study, Berk (1994) found that the speech of 4 and 5 year-olds
making Lego models became more internalised with each play
session as their model-making abilities improved.
Overall evaluation of Vygotsky’s approach
• Unlike Piaget, Vygotsky acknowledged the key role of the social
environment. Studies of cultural differences support this approach.
• It over-emphasises the social environment, ignoring the role of
motivation and interest in learning.
• It is vague as it does not state which kinds of social interaction are
most beneficial for learning.
• Social interactions do not always have beneficial effects.
• It may not be the instruction in social interactions which benefit
children; it could be due to social facilitation instead (where the
presence of others has a motivational effect).
• The theory ignores biological and individual factors. If learning
was due to only social influences, you would expect learning to be
faster than it is. For example, even with the appropriate help and
support, it can often take some time to master complex skills.
Exam Hint: When evaluating a theory or using terminology, you
need to explain the critical or supportive evidence. For example, for
Piaget’s theory you need to explain concepts such as object
permanence or conservation; for Vygotsky’s theory you need to
explain concepts such as scaffolding and ZPD.

2

37 - Cognitive development: Piaget and Vygotsky
Application of theories to education
A. Piaget’s approach
Piaget’s theory has been applied to education in three
main ways:
1. What can children learn?
• This depends on the child’s current stage of cognitive
development. They can only deal successfully with tasks that
involve cognitive structures and operations they have
mastered.
• Research does not support this prediction. For example, pre-
school children perform well on concrete operational tasks when
provided with suitable training (Brainerd, 1983).
2. How should we teach children?
• Children should learn best by active self-discovery. Teachers
can encourage self-discovery by creating a state of
disequilibrium (e.g., by asking difficult questions).
• Brainerd (1983) reviewed studies of self-discovery training and
found it to be less effective than tutorial learning (where the
teacher provides knowledge to relatively passive children).
• Piaget’s notion of disequilibrium has been developed to include
socio-cognitive conflict which occurs when exposed to others’
differing views. Evidence supports the importance of such
conflict in learning (e.g., Ames & Murray, 1982).
• Another development of Piaget’s theory is the importance of
social marking. This involves the conflict between an
individual’s cognitive understanding and a social rule. Evidence
supports the view that highlighting social marking improves
performance (e.g., Doise et al., 1981).
3. What should we teach children?
• Piaget’s theory claims cognitive development depends on
learning schemas or cognitive structures, most of which are
based on mathematical or logic principles. Therefore, learning
material should not be too complex or too far removed form the
child’s existing schemas.
• This approach has limited value since it applies to only a few
subjects taught at school, with no relevance to subjects such
as history or foreign languages.
Evaluation of Piaget’s approach
Piaget’s ideas have influenced educational practice in several
countries, but it has been of limited value.
Example exam question: Discuss the applications of theories of
cognitive development.
As both ‘applications’ and ‘theories’ are plural, you need to
discuss more than one. For applications, you may just consider
education, but you need to cover more than one educational
application and do this for all cognitive development theories
(e.g., Piaget and Vygotsky). The factsheet section entitled
‘application of theories to education’ is relevant here. You need
to explain the applications in terms of the assumptions
underlying the theory. You also need to evaluate the applications
by reference to research studies or comparisons between
different theories.
3
PMT
Psychology Factsheet
B. Vygotsky’s approach
1. Scaffolding
Children learn best in a social context through scaffolding.
Therefore, teachers need to reduce their control over the learning
when the child is being successful, or increase control when errors
are made.
2. Peer tutoring
• Peer tutoring, based on the concept of the ZPD, is where the
tutors are children who are slightly older and more advanced
than the child being taught.
• Peer tutoring is increasingly popular in schools and has
generally been shown to be effective (Barnier, 1989) and in
various cultures (e.g., Gauvain, 1992).
3. Collaboration
A small group of children collaborating on their work has been
shown to be effective in some situations, although conflict (as
proposed by Piaget) is sometimes more useful (e.g., Forman &
Cazden, 1985).
4. Learning through play
Through play, children learn specific aspects of their culture (e.g.,
pretending to be a fire-fighter or doctor).
Evaluation of Vygotsky’s approach
• Scaffolding may not be effective if there is too much status
difference between the tutor and learner, or if the tutor and
learner agree that the task is not worth doing properly (Salomon
& Globerson, 1989).
• Durkin (1995) found that this approach may be more suitable
for some tasks (e.g., construction) than for others (e.g.,
conceptual learning).
• The success of scaffolding may depend on the tutor ’s
sensitivity to the learner’s needs.
Glossary
Accommodation: individual adjusts cognitive organisation to the
outside world.
Assimilation: individual re-adjusts interpretation of outside world
to fit existing cognitive organisation.
Demand characteristics: features of an experiment that help
participants work out the aims and adjust their behaviour accordingly.
Deferred imitation: ability to imitate behaviour seen before.
Disequilibrium: a sense of imbalance.
Object permanence: realise that objects continue to exist even when
they cannot be seen.
Perseverative search: search for concealed object where it was
found earlier rather than where it was last seen.
Private speech: talking to yourself.
Schema: an internal mental representation of the individual’s world/
experience.
Seriation: ability to order set of items in terms of dimensions (e.g.,
height, width or both).
Socially constructed: knowledge is relative and ‘facts’ are not
permanent realities.
Transivity: ability to recognise logical relationships within a series.
Reversibility: ability to cancel out the effects of a perceptual change
by imagining the opposite change.
Syncretic thought: ability to select objects that are all alike.
 PMT

37 - Cognitive development: Piaget and Vygotsky Psychology Factsheet

Worksheet: Cognitive Development: Piaget and Vygotsky

Name
1. What are the assumptions of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Briefly describe Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. What are the limitations in thought displayed by children in the pre-operational stage?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Briefly evaluate Piaget’s theory.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. According to Vygotsky, what factors drive cognitive development?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. What support is there for Vygotsky’s theory?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7. How has Piaget’s theory been applied to education? Evaluate this approach.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8. How has Vygotsky’s theory been applied to education? Evaluate this approach.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Acknowledgements: This Psychology Factsheet was researched and written by Louise Hope.
The Curriculum Press, Bank House, 105 King Street, Wellington, Shropshire, TF1 1NU.
Psychology Factsheets may be copied free of charge by teaching staff or students, provided that their school is a registered subscriber. No part of these Factsheets may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any other form or by any other means, without the prior permission of the publisher. ISSN 1351-5136
4