Piaget's theory of cognitive development was an advance to the time by posing the human being as an active subject in learning about it. His fundamental interest was in investigating the process by which people acquire knowledge, not so much what or how much we acquire.
In the following Psychology-Online article we will see the most important aspects of Piaget's theory of cognitive development. Specifically, we will talk about the four stages of cognitive development that he raises: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operations and formal operations.
Piaget's theory introduced a revolutionary concept to contemporary learning theories. He introduced children as active subjects of their learning, that interact with their environment to interpret it. This reciprocal interaction is predetermined by various evolutionary stages that will progressively develop from the maturation and interaction of the child with her environment. Piaget's main interest in cognitive learning centered on how people process information throughout their life development.
In the following article you will find more information about the Piaget's learning theory.
Cognitive development would be the process by which the human being obtains knowledge through his interaction with the environment that surrounds him. The psychologist Jean Piaget was one of the great theorists who investigated this aspect and elaborated cognitive development theory. According to Piaget's cognitive theory, this development occurs throughout four evolutionary stages that occur in humans from birth to adulthood.
The basic principles that govern cognitive development and the progressive evolution from one stage to another are:
- Organization and adaptation: Innately, people organize the information we receive into mental maps and, in turn, adapt to the demands of the environment in which we develop
- Assimilation and accommodation: we mold the information we receive to accommodate the mental schemes of the moment. If you disagree with our current mindsets, we will adjust them to accommodate this new information.
- Mechanisms of development. The mechanisms that condition cognitive development and the passage between the different stages is determined by the maturation of the structures Inherited physics, by physical experiences with the environment, by the social transmission of information and by the continuous search for balance.
Piaget's theory of cognitive development has shed much light on pedagogy in developing educational applications.
Piaget's theory of cognitive development exposes knowledge evolves through four qualitatively and quantitatively different stages. Piaget's stages of cognitive development share four characteristics:
- The sequence of appearance follows a fixed predetermined order.
- Each Piaget stage has its own overall structure and mode of operation.
- The stages are hierarchically inclusive, that is, each stage includes the previous ones.
- The transition between the stages is gradual, not abrupt, and presents great individual variability.
Piaget's stages range from birth to adolescence and in each of them, boys and girls learn specific cognitive abilities. The four Piaget stages are as follows:
- Sensorimotor stage (0-2 years): boys and girls interact with their environment through the senses and motor actions carried out through their bodies. The repetition of innate reflexes allows you to interact with your body, first, and later, with the outside through the senses and concrete actions.
- Pre-operational stage (2-7 years): on the preoperational stage infants initiate a mental integration of all the actions-reactions carried out in the previous period. They begin to abstract all this information through mental schemes, which allow the development of language, and symbolic games.
- Stage of concrete operations (7-11): at the stage of concrete operations reasoning processes become logical. The cognitive processes of seriation, classification of concepts and conservation are developed. The new logical structures allow children to solve specific social problems.
- Stage of formal operations (11 years and older): At this stage, adolescents are capable of inductive and deductive logical reasoning. This allows you to develop your perception of yourself and your moral values.
In this table we will see what Cognitive abilities the little ones learn in each of Piaget's stadiums.
This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
