(Theory by Jean Piaget)

Ms. Andrea B. Martinez

Department of Behavioral Sciences
UP—College of Arts and Sciences
Jean Piaget’s Cognitive
Development Theory
• Piaget’s concept
Human revolutionized thinking
developmentabout children and their
behavior.

• The nature of knowledge in

Genetic
young children and how it
epistemology
changes with development.

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What is cognitive development?
Cognitive development
• Refers to how a person
perceives, thinks, and gains
understanding of the world
through the interaction and
influence of genetic and
environmental/learned
factors.

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 What is
constructivism?

A child acts like a little

scientist actively involved
in making guesses or
hypothesis about how
the world works.

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What is constructivism?
Constructivism
• Children are active thinkers who are
constantly trying to construct more
accurate or advanced understanding
of the world around them.
• Children are not limited to receiving
knowledge from parents or teachers;
they actively constructed their own
knowledge.

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 What do children use in actively
constructing their cognitive world?

Schema
• Children use schemas—
concepts or frameworks that
already exist in a person’s
mind which organizes and
interprets information.
• Schemas help us to
understand the world.

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How do children build their schema?

Through What are the components of

adaptation,
individuals
adaptation?
build mental
representa--
representa Accommodation is the
tions of the Assimilation is the tendency to alter existing
world by tendency to fit new concepts or mental
direct information into existing frameworks in response to
interaction cognitive structures. new information that is too
with it. different or too complex.

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Process of Cognitive Growth

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What is the importance
of adaptation?
Importance of adaptation
• Every experience a person has
involves both assimilation and
accommodation.
• Events for which the person has
corresponding schema are readily
assimilated, but events for which
the organism has no existing
schema necessitate
accommodation.

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Process of Cognitive Development
But eventually, the cognitive
system—because of both
biological maturation and
past experiences—has
completely mastered one
level of functioning and is
ready for new, qualitatively
different challenges—the
child moves to a new stage
of development.
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 Stages of Cognitive
Development
(Theory by Jean Piaget)

Piaget’s theory of
cognitive development
is a stage theory—all
human beings move
through an orderly and
predictable series of
changes.
What are the stages of
cognitive development?
Stages of Cognitive
Development
• Piaget believed all children pass
through these phases to advance
to the next level of cognitive
development.
• In each stage, children
demonstrate new intellectual
abilities and increasingly complex
understanding of the world.

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What are the stages of
cognitive development?
Stages of Cognitive Development
• Stages cannot be "skipped"; intellectual
development always follows this
sequence.
• The ages at which children progress
through the stages are averages—they
vary with the environment and
background of individual children.
• At any given time a child may exhibit
behaviors characteristic of more than one
stage.

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What are the stages of
cognitive development?

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 Stage 1.
SENSORIMOTOR
This stage lasts
from birth until 18 to
24 months
 Stage 1. Sensorimotor stage
An infant ’ s knowledge Children
the world is limited to
their sensory perceptions
and motor activities.
Behaviors are limited to
simple motor responses
caused by sensory stimuli.
of utilize skills and
abilities they were born
with, such as looking,
sucking, grasping, and
listening, to learn more
about the environment.
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Sensorimotor Stage
• During this period, infants are
busy discovering the
relationships between their
bodies and the environment.
• This stage involves the use of
motor activity without the use
of symbols and knowledge is
limited as it is based on
physical interactions and
experiences.

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 1. Sensorimotor stage
!Piaget calls this the
sensorimotor stage
because the early
manifestations of intelligence
appear from sensory
perceptions and motor
activities.

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 1. Sensorimotor stage
Two most important features of
sensorimotor thought
coordination Mental development is
of sensation characterized by
and action considerable progression in
the infant’s ability to
non- organize and coordinate
symbolic sensations with physical
aspect movements and actions.

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Major Cognitive Accomplishments
of Sensorimotor Stage
Ideas of separate selves
• Infants develop the concept
of separate selves—that is,
the infant realizes that the
external world is not an
extension of himself.
• The child differentiates
himself from objects.

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Major Cognitive Accomplishments
of Sensorimotor Stage

Ideas of cause-and-effect
• Things are understood with
respect to what actions can be
performed on them.
• Through the concept of
causality, infants realize that
an object can be moved by
hand.

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Major Cognitive Accomplishments
of Sensorimotor Stage
Ideas of the self as agent of
action
• By coordinating sensory experience
with motor actions, infants discover
that they can manipulate objects.
• Infants also recognize themselves as
agents of action and gradually gain
conscious, intentional control over
their motor actions

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 1. Sensorimotor stage
!At the beginning of
this stage, an infant
has one thinking
problem:
remembering that
hidden objects still
exist.
!Thinking is limited to
the here-and-now.

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 Object permanence is an
Object permanence is one of understanding that objects and
the most important cognitive events continue to exist, even
accomplishment s of an infant. when they cannot be directly
seen, heard or touched.24
abmartinez @ upm-psych171
 1. Sensorimotor stage

To have a s ense of object permanence

requires some internal, mental
representation of an object.
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 Object
permanence

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- Stage 1 - Sensorimotor, Object
Permenence
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Cognitive Skills of Sensorimotor Stage

Differentiates self from objects

Recognizes self as agent of action and begins to

act intentionally, such as pulls a string to set
mobile in motion or shakes a rattle to make a
noise

Achieves object permanence: realizes that things

continue to exist even when no longer present
to the sense 27
 Stage 2.
PRE-OPERATIONAL
PERIOD
It starts from 2
years old until 6-7
years old.
Pre-operational Stage
• This stage is marked by
growth of symbolic
activity as children
develop language and
learn to engage in various
kinds of plays.

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 Cognitive Abilities of
Pre--Operational Children
Pre
Representational thought
• The child begins to represent the
world symbolically such as words
or mental images, hence the
emergence of representational
thought.
• Children acquire the ability to use
symbols to solve problems or talk
about things that are not present.

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 Cognitive Abilities of
Pre--Operational Children
Pre
Engaging in imaginative
play activities
• Symbolic play—in which
children pretend that one object
is another.
• Make-believe play—in which
youngsters pretend to perform
various activities they have seen
adults perform.

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 Cognitive Abilities of
Pre--Operational Children
Pre

Development of
language
• Children begin to think in
terms of verbal symbols or
words—the development of
language.

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 Stage 2. Pre-
Pre-Operational stage

Children also Classifies objects

Language Role playing also by a single
become
development is becomes
increasingly adept feature: e.g.
important (e.g.,
one of the at using symbols, groups together
roles of mommy,
hallmarks of as evidenced by the all the red blocks
increase in playing daddy, doctor“ or
this period. teacher regardless of
and pretending shape.

Cognitive Abilities 33
 Cognitive Limitations of
Pre--Operational Children
Pre
!Thinking is intuitive.
– When asked why they knew
something, they do not give
logical answers but offer
personal insights.
– The child solves problem
intuitively instead of in
accordance with some logical
rule.

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 Cognitive Limitations of
Pre--Operational Children
Pre
!Children manifest
egocentrism
– Children have dif ficulty
understanding that others may
perceive the world differently
than they do.
– Egocentrism is the child’s
belief that everyone sees the
world the same way that he
does.
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[www[1].keepvid.com].mp4

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 Cognitive Limitations of
Pre--Operational Children
Pre
!Thinking is uni-dimensional
– Children can think only one
aspect of something at one time,
called centration.
• Lack the grasp of seriation
– Children classif y objects but
only according to single
category.
– Children lack the ability to
arrange objects along some
dimension.
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 Cognitive Limitations of
Pre--Operational Children
Pre
!Lack understanding of
conservation
– Conservation pertains to a
belief in the permanence of
certain attributes of objects
or situations in spite of
superficial changes in
appearance.
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[www[2].keepvid.com].mp4
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 Cognitive Limitations of
Pre--Operational Children
Pre
!Thought is irreversible
– Children think of things in
terms of static configuration
instead of reversible
transformation.
– Children cannot mentally
reverse cognitive operations.

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 Cognitive Limitations of
Pre--Operational Children
Pre
!Difficulty distinguishing
fantasy from reality
– Children believe that
inanimate objects are
alive and have feelings;
they have a hard time
understanding that a
nightmare isn’t real.

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 Stage 2. Pre-
Pre-Operational stage

Children are
Children in this Children cannot
unable to take the
stage do not yet mentally
point of view of
understand manipulate
other people,
concrete logic information
called egocentrism

Cognitive Limitations 40
 Stage 3.
CONCRETE
OPERATIONAL PERIOD
This stage lasts
from 7 until about
the age of 11.
Concrete Operational Stage
Piaget referred to this cognitive
stage of development as
concrete operations stage—
referring to reversible abilities
that children have developed.

This stage is marked by the

emergence of logical thought
but only on real, actual,
concrete events.

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For Piaget, thinking
process change
significantly as children
master new skills:
• Classification—the ability
to group objects according
to features
• Serial ordering —the ability
to group according to logical
progression or use of more
than one category (seriation)
• Conservation —the ability to
see how physical properties
remains constant as
appearance and form
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change. abmartinez @Concrete - Reversibility [www[1].keepvid.com].mp4
upm-psych101 43
For Piaget, thinking
process change
significantly as children
master new skills:
• Cause-and-effect relationship
• Transitivity—the ability to
logically combine relations to
understand certain
conclusions.
• Concept of stable identity—
one’s self remains consistent
even when circumstances
change
• Understanding of relationship
between time and speed

abmartinez @ upm-psych101 44
 Cognitive Abilities of
Concrete Operational Children
!Concrete operati onal
stage is also
characterized by a loss
of egocentric thinking.
!Children at this stage do
not anymore confuse
reality with fantasy.

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 Cognitive Limitation of
Concrete Operational Children

!Concrete operati onal stage is characterized

by lack of abstract thinking as thought is
dominated by what is physical or concrete.

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 Stage 3. Concrete Operational stage
Can think logically about objects and
events
Cognitive Skills

Achieves conservation of number

(age 6), mass (age 7), and weight
(age 9)

Classifies objects according to several

features and can order them in series
along a single dimension such as size.
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 Stage 3. Concrete Operational stage
• Inductive logic involves going
from a specific experience to a
general principle.
• Children at this age have
difficulty using deductive
logic, which involves using a
general principle to determine
the outcome of a specific
event.
Logic
• Means an awareness that
actions can be reversed.
• Being able to reverse the
order of relationships
between mental categories.
• Example: A child might be able
to recognize that his dog is a
Labrador, that a Labrador is a dog,
and that a dog is an animal.
Reversibility
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 Stage 4.
FORMAL OPERATIONAL
PERIOD
This stage starts at
age 12 until
adulthood.
!During this stage, the major features of adult
thought make their appearance.
!Thought is more abstract, idealistic and logical.
!Thinking is also in terms of multi-dimensional
and hypothetical possibilities.

Cognitive Abilities of
Formal Operational Stage
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 Cognitive Abilities of
Formal Operational Stage
!Abstract thought
– Adolescents develop the
ability to think about and
solve abstract
problems—they can
deal not only with real or
concrete but with
possibilities—in a logical
manner.

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 Cognitive Abilities of
Formal Operational Stage
!Hypothetical-deductive reasoning
– Adolescents are capable of hypothetical -deductive
reasoning —the ability to formulate hypothesis and
theories about ways to solve problems.
– They can systematically deduce, or conclude, for
them to arrive at a solution to a problem.
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 Cognitive Abilities of
Formal Operational Stage
!Idealist thought
– Adolescents ’ ability to
conceive possibilities
beyond what is present in
reality (e.g. to think of
alternatives) permits them
to be concerned with
philosophical and
ideological problems and
to question the way in
which adults run the
world.
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 Stage 4. Formal Operational stage

Logical thinking Abstract thought Problem-solving

Can think logically Becomes concerned with The ability to
about abstract the hypothetical, the systematically solve a
propositions and test future, and ideological
problems
problem in a logical
hypotheses and methodical way
systematically Begins to consider
possible outcomes and Children are often
Deductive logic requires consequences of actions, able to quickly plan
the ability to use a a type of thinking
general principle to an organized
important in long-term
determine a specific planning.
approach to solving a
outcome. problem. 54
 SUMMARY

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Research on Piaget’s Theory

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Fin.

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