Piaget’s Theory Of Cognitive Development

Jean Piaget was a child psychologist who studied how children think, and how this ability develops as they grow older.

His interest into the child mind came as a result of his interest in epistemology, which is a branch of philosophy that studies knowledge and how we acquire that knowledge.

As a result, Piaget wanted to know how we know what we know, and he did this by focusing his study on children.

The Phenomenological Method

To study the child mind Piaget used a method known as the phenomenological method.

This method of investigation involves asking a child a series of carefully worded questions about something in their immediate environment.

The answer the child gave would then reveal how they see and interrupt the world around them.

As a result of Piaget’s investigations, he came to the conclusion that there are four stages of cognitive development (the development of we think) :

• The Sensorimotor Stage

• The Preoperational Stage

• The Concrete Operations Stage

• The Formal Operations Stage

According to Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory a child is faced with an increasingly difficult set of challenges, which they must overcome before they are able to move onto the next stage.

Let us look at each of these four stages now.

The Sensorimotor Stage (birth – 2 years old)

The sensorimotor stage occurs in infancy from birth to two years of age.

The infant is aware (conscious) of their surrounding environment, but has not yet developed the ability to become self conscious (aware of themselves).

The infant also possesses reflexes, and will react to a stimulus with a predictable motor response. For example, touching the soles of the infant’s feet will cause them move or twitch.

This is why Piaget called this stage the “sensorimotor” stage, because the infant is able to sense the world and react to it, but does not necessarily think about it or reflect upon the experiences they have in it.

As the infant gets older their actions start to become more intentional, although they still lack the ability to realise that they exist in the same way that you or I do.

However it is important to point out that there is no way to verify this, as infants cannot speak and therefore we cannot question them to ascertain a definitive answer.

We can only infer from the actions the infant makes as to the degree in which they are or are not self conscious.

For example, if an infant is shown their reflection in a mirror, they may reach out to touch their reflection but do not seem to realise that they are seeing themselves.

If a mark is placed on the child’s face, again they may become interested, but make no effort to remove that mark from their face.

When this test is performed on children over two years of age, they are able to recognise their reflection and will attempt to remove the marks from their face.

We can therefore conclude that infants in the sensorimotor stage lack the ability of self awareness (self-consciousness).

However it could be argued that the reason the infant does not recognise their reflection in the mirror is because they have never seen a mirror before (and do not know what it does) and so have never seen themselves before, or learnt to associate what the mirror reflects with themselves.

Interesting the same thing happens when animals are shown their reflection in a mirror.

They may look at it briefly, but altogether seem uninterested in it and do not appear to “understand” they are seeing themselves.

Overall we can summarise the sensorimotor stage by saying that children under two years of age are able to experience and react to the world they live in, but have not yet the developed the ability of self-consciousness.

The Preoperational Stage (ages 2-7)

The preoperational stage is associated with children aged two to seven years old (toddlers & preschoolers).

This stage is characterised by the child’s inability to grasp the concept of cause and effect, and instead tends to think in “magical terms”.

Magical thinking is a phrase used to describe thought that does not take into consideration the laws of nature.

For example, a child in the preoperational stage who is shown a picture of a person flying would not consider it to be unusual or unreal.

Two other characteristics of the preoperational stage are anthropomorphic thinking and egocentrism.

Anthropomorphic Thinking

Anthropomorphic thinking simply means giving non human things human characteristics. 

A good example of this can be found with speaking animals in children’s cartoons, who are given human characteristics such as emotions and the ability to talk.

Egocentrism

The second characteristic of egocentrism describes how the child tends to see themselves as the centre of the universe.

For example, a child walking outside with their parent at night may think that the moon is following them. Or if they are shown a globe, they may think that people in Australia walk upside down.

The preoperational stage can be summarised by saying that the child is able to analyse the world they see, but do so in a way that does not accurately reflect reality.

The Concrete Operations Stage (ages 7-12)

The concrete operations stage occurs at age’s seven to twelve, and marks the beginning of the child’s ability to think in terms of cause and effect.

The term “concrete” is used to describe the fact that the child is able to understand what they see and experience, but cannot yet understand abstractions (form ideas from examples that are given).

For example, a child in the concrete operations stage can understand that 5 + 5 = 10 because they can add these two values together on their fingers.

However if the child is asked what X represents in X + 6 = 11, they are unable to determine that the answer is 5.

In these examples, the child is able to understand arithmetic but cannot understand algebra, because their thinking cannot yet deal with abstractions.

Children in this stage tend to be interested in how things work, and what causes things to happen. They also like to build things, such as with Lego or models.

The concrete operations stage can be summarised by saying that children can understand what they see, but do not fully understand what they don’t see.

The Formal Operations Stage (ages 12 onwards)

The formal operations stage is associated with adolescence (12-13+) and adulthood, and it is during this stage that abstract thinking begins to develop.

They are able to understand algebra and form complex ideas based on information they are given.

As a result, the formal operations stage allows the adolescent to use both inductive and deductive logic for the first time, which lets them form conclusions based on facts rather than speculation.

Overall the formal operations stage can be summarised by saying that adolescents develop a higher level thought, which subsequently allows them to see the world for how it really is.

Summary

• Piaget wanted to understand how we know the things we know, and investigated this by studying the child mind.

• The study of epistemology is the study of knowing (metathought, thinking about thinking).

• The phenomenological method involves asking children questions about their surrounding environment to determine how they perceive their world.

• There are four stages in Piaget’s theory of cognitive development.

• The sensorimotor stage describes how an infant can experience and react to the world, but they do not analyse or reflect upon it and lack self-consciousness.

• In the preoperational stage children think of the world in magical terms, meaning they do not take into consideration the laws of nature.

• Anthropomorphic thinking means giving something which is not a human, human characteristics.

• Egocentrism describes the belief that the world revolves around you.

• During the concrete operations stage the child cannot deal with abstractions.

• The formal operations stage is when adolescents are able to see the world for how it really is.