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Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development. Piaget proposed that cognitive development, or development of mental abilities, occurs as we adapt to the changing world around us.
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Piaget proposed that cognitive development, or development of mental abilities, occurs as we adapt to the changing world around us. • According to Piaget adaption to the world around us occurs through two closely related processes called assimilation and accommodation.
Assilimation • Involves the process of taking in new information and fitting it into and making it part of a existing mental idea (schema) about objects or the world. • For example an infant may see a truck and call it a car because the infants schema only has knowledge of cars.
Accommodation • Sometimes we can not assimilate information into our existing schema therefore we must accommodate. • Accommodation refers to changing an existing schema in order to fit in new information.
Sensorimotor Stage (birth to two years) • In this stage infants construct their understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences with motor abilities. • At the end of this stage an infant should have mastered the following two cognitive accomplishments: • Object Permanence • Goal directed behaviour
Object Permanence • Object Permanence refers to the understanding that objects still exist even if they cannot be seen or touched. • For example peek-a-boo game, out of sight, really is out of mind! • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFUInSY2CeY&feature=related
Goal- Directed Behaviour • An infant at this stage develops goal-directed behaviour which is behaviour carried out with a particular interest in mind. They will be begin to think about things that want and how it get them.
Pre-operational Stage(2-7 years) At this stage the infant becomes more able to think about and imagine things in their own mind. The key cognitive accomplishments at this stage are: • Egocentrism • Animism • Transformation • Centration • Reversibility.
Egocentrism • Children in this stage are unable or have difficulty in seeing things from another person’s perspective. • For example a child may want a toy truck for his birthday, when then child is asked what their mother would like for her birthday the child may say toy truck. • http://www.youtube.com/ • watch?v=OinqFgsIbh0
Animism • The belied that everything which exists has a conscience awareness. • For example a child may tell you off for banging your books on the table because you will ‘hurt’ the table if you bang it too hard
Transformation • Understanding that something can change from one for or state to another. • For example a child may understand an ice block, then a glass of water but not comprehend the melting process of how it has changed forms
Centration • This process involves a child only being able to focus on one quality or feature of an object at a time. Reversibility • The ability to follow a line of reasoning back to its original starting point. • For example Jim was asked if he has a brother, he replied ‘’Yes, his name is Tom”. Jim was then asked does Tom have a brother, he replied “no”.
Concrete Operational Stage(7-12 years) • The thinking of a concrete operational chilld revolve around what they know and what they can experience. The key cognitive accomplishments in this stage are: • Conservation • Classification
Conservation • Refers to the idea that an object does not change its weight, mass volume or area when the object changes its shape or appearance. • http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=55837&title=Piaget_Conservation_Tasks
Classification • The ability to organise information into categories based on common features that sets them apart from other classes or groups. • For example pre-operational child will be able to classify farm animals and understand although they are all together they all belong to different groups.
Formal Operational Stage12 years+ • More complex thought processes become evident in this stage the key cognitive accomplishments: • Abstract Thinking A way of thinking that does not rely on visualising concepts in order to understand them. • Logical Thinking Individuals are able to develop strategies, solve problems and identify solutions to problems.