Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development - City University of New York
Piaget¡¯s Theory of Cognitive Development
Cognitive theories focus on how our mental processes or cognitions change over time. Cognitive
theories describe an interaction between the child and the environment, in which development
occurs through a ¡°constant process of going back and forth between the person and the
environment¡± (Piaget, 1929). Theorists who studied cognitive development include Jean Piaget
and Lev Vygotsky. John Dewey, an American educational philosopher and psychologist, also
proposed important concepts about children think and learn.
Jean Piaget (1896-1980) envisioned the developing child as an actor within a social world of
embedded meanings. Piaget is recognized as one of the most influential cognitive theorists in the
field of child development. He was one of the first to recognize and map out the ways in which
children's intelligence differs from that of adults (Piaget, 1929). His perspective on development
was shaped by his early interest in the natural sciences, while his views on cognition began to take
form while he worked with Theodore Simon trying out new reasoning (IQ) tests on children.
Piaget was not interested in whether a child¡¯s answer was right or wrong, but rather in the
underlying reasoning process that led to the answer¡ªthe logic behind the answer. He spent the
rest of his life studying the intellectual development of children. His theory continued to evolve
throughout his lifetime, based on repeated naturalistic observations of children, including his own
three children. Piaget proposed that children¡¯s intellectual skills change over time and that children
of different ages interpret the world differently. He believed that young children construct
knowledge in the course of thinking about physical actions and that children are continually
reorganizing their ideas about the world as they interact with people and objects.
Piaget theorized that, as their brains mature and children experience the world through action, they
progress through four broad stages of thinking. Each stage is qualitatively different and more
adapted to understanding the world. The four cognitive stages are:
?
?
?
?
Sensorimotor
Preoperational
Concrete Operational
Formal Operation
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These broad stages of cognition are summarized in the table below. It is important to remember
that the age ranges are approximate and are influenced by the child¡¯s experiences and environment.
There is considerable variation across cultures in what children are able to do at certain ages:
Piaget¡¯s Stages of Cognitive Development
Stage
Sensorimotor
Preoperational
Concrete Operational
Formal Operational
Approximate Description
Age Range
Birth ¨C 2 years ? Infants and toddlers understand the world in
terms of physical actions on the environment.
? Infants move from simple reflexes to an
organized set of behaviors.
2 ¨C 7 years
? Young children concentrate on constructing a
world of permanent objects.
? Preschool children can use mental symbols to
represent objects and events.
? Language is developing rapidly through
dramatic play.
? Social games and games with rules emerge as
children become increasingly involved in social
play with peers.
7 ¨C 11 years
? Children¡¯s reasoning skills become more logical.
? Thinking becomes decentered, dynamic and
reversible.
? Children can organize objects into hierarchies of
classes.
? Children have developed a theory of mind,
although they may still have difficulties taking
on the perspective of another person.
? Children are beginning to take intentions into
account in their moral judgments.
11 years on
?
?
?
Adolescents can think systematically, can
reason about abstract concepts, and can
understand ethics and scientific reasoning.
Adolescents can generate hypotheses.
Moral reasoning has evolved to understand that
rules are a result of mutual agreement
References
Piaget, J. (1929). The child¡¯s conception of the world. London: Routledge.
Piaget, J. (1950). The psychology of intelligence. London, UK: Routledge
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