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Jean Piaget and other cognitive psychologists developed the cognitive theory of learning, which says that people take in information and construct knowledge within minds. Jean Piaget developed the theory of cognitive development and the stages of cognitive development through his studies of children and his interviews with parents at that time.
Piaget's theory of cognitive development states that individuals are active participants in learning and that our brains organize information in different ways. This also means that there are individual differences in learning and mental processes. For example, what I picture when I say the word “chair” might be a little bit different from what you think of as a chair, even though there might be similar sorts of characteristics in both of our concepts “chair.”
A major part of Piaget’s theory is schema. A schema is the basic mental structure where we construct knowledge within our mind, where we take in knowledge, and we put them together in some way.
EXAMPLE
You may, for example, have a schema of a chair. There might be individual differences on specifics, but most people have the same idea of what a chair is, such as it having three or four legs, a seat, and a back rest.Schema can take different kinds of forms, too. It might not just be our ideas of a specific object.
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We might have stereotypes for different groups of people, or scripts for social situations. For example, it's what you think is likely to occur when you're at a restaurant and a waiter asks what you would like to order. You know what your responses will be; there's a general script for that situation.World views are general philosophies. When someone says, “everyone only looks out for themselves,” this is a philosophy about people and the way they interact with each other.
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Knowledge is constructed into schemas in two different ways. First is assimilation, which is when we add new information to an existing schema.
EXAMPLE
Suppose you have a schema for a chair, and you see a desk chair, one of those wheelie chairs you might find in an office. You would assimilate that information into your existing idea of a chair to say, “That is a chair as well, even if it has some slight differences to it.”The other way that we construct schema is through accommodation. This includes modifying an existing schema or making a new one altogether; it sort of splits up an existing schema.
EXAMPLE
Suppose you see a chair and a stool. You might originally have thought of a chair as having only four legs and a back rest. However, when you see a stool, you might say, “Well, that's a chair as well. I'll put it in with the same category, even though it doesn't have a backrest.” When creating a new schema, you might see a chair and a couch. Originally, you might try to categorize that couch as a chair. But then you realize, “That's not a chair at all. Therefore, I'll create a whole new category for couches, so I can differentiate between those two things.”It's much easier to construct schemas through assimilation and accommodation earlier in your life. Generally, young infants and young children have few schemas. Therefore, they're constantly finding new information in the world and modifying them.
Later on in life, knowledge can be more solidified with set schemas. It's a lot harder to accommodate them, to create new schemas or modify them. This goes along with the proverb, “You can't teach an old dog new tricks.” Our brains aren't necessarily as elastic when we get older, and often we have set schedules, schemas and scripts for different situations. But, through building our self and social awareness skill, we can break down long held stereotypes and biases that may prevent us from truly knowing the people in our lives.
Piaget's studies of children and his interviews with parents were based on questioning the children and having them perform different problem solving tasks. This research led to Piaget's idea of the four stages of growth, which are essentially supposed to be steps. They are meant to be followed in order: each child goes through each of the following four stages in succession.
The first stage in cognitive growth is the sensorimotor stage. The sensorimotor stage occurs from birth up to two years of age. During this period, children are trying to make sense of the world. They don't yet have all of the internal mental constructs, or schemas, needed to help them to sort information about it.
Everything that they know of the world is physical, based on their senses, touching and manipulating things, and their motor skills.
This stage is identified by a lack of object permanence, meaning children think if they can’t see something it no longer exists.
EXAMPLE
At this stage, when you play a game of peekaboo, the child doesn't actually know if you're there anymore when you put the blanket up. He or she thinks you've disappeared completely because you're not in sight!The sensorimotor stage is divided into six sub-stages that illustrate important aspects of this stage:
EXAMPLE
For example, a child might pass their hand over their face over and over to get an idea of what that action is like.EXAMPLE
Children may start yelling to get attention, to see if that behavior will get the parent to look over at them.Piaget's next stage is the preoperational stage. The preoperational stage occurs between two and seven years of age. During this time, children start to make their first mental representations of things. These mental representations are very simple in the beginning.
There are several important aspects of this stage:
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Children at this age are not able to understand conservation, which means that they aren't able to tell that there is the same amount of something regardless of what's holding it. This is an experiment Piaget did: he took the same amount of liquid and put it in a tall, narrow glass and a wide, shallow glass. The same amount of liquid in both glasses was seen as being different amounts by children.EXAMPLE
This means that, children at this age can't draw a picture from someone else's point of view. If you were to ask them, “What do you think mommy sees?” they wouldn't be able to imagine their mother's perspective; they would only show you what they see themselves.Self and Social Awareness: Skill Reflect |
The third stage of development is called the concrete operational stage. This stage occurs between 7-11 years of age. During this time, children are able to begin to think logically about concrete events, ones that are very specific to them, though abstract or hypothetical ideas are harder for them to grasp right now.
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This stage is identified by several characteristics:
EXAMPLE
The same amount of liquid was poured into two different containers—one that was very long and narrow and one that was very wide and shallow. Before this stage, the child wasn't able to tell that it was the same amount, but during this stage, they can.EXAMPLE
For example, when you multiply 2 times 3, you get 6. If you multiply 3 times 2, you get 6. The order is reversible.The final stage in Piaget's theory of cognitive development is the formal operations stage.
The formal operations stage is from 11 years old all the way through adulthood. This is when a person reaches full cognitive development and gets the full range of their cognitive abilities and their reasoning. Some important features at this stage are:
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