What did Piaget call the process in which people understand an experience in terms of their current stage of cognitive development?
Piaget’s stages are a theory of how a child’s cognition — meaning their knowledge and understanding about the world — develops between birth and adulthood. Show
Jean Piaget was an early psychologist who specialized in child development from the 1920s onward. Piaget developed his theories by watching children and making notes about their progress. The core idea of Piaget’s theory is that children develop by acting as “little scientists” who explore and interact with their world to understand people, objects, and concepts. They do this naturally, even without the help of an adult. This article explains Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development, key concepts, and how people can use them to help children learn and develop. This table and the following sections outline Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development:
From birth to 2 years of age, an infant begins to understand the world around them by using their senses and bodily movements. Experts call this the sensorimotor stage. At first, a baby uses their basic reflex movements, such as sucking and waving their arms, to explore their environment. They also use their senses of sight, touch, smell, taste, and hearing. As a little scientist, they gather information from these experiences and learn how to differentiate between people, objects, textures, sights, and how different situations make them feel. Object permanenceThe most advanced cognitive achievement a child reaches during this stage is object permanence. Object permanence refers to when an infant understands that an object still exists, even when they are not able to see, smell, touch, or hear it. Object permanence is important because it means that the infant has developed the ability to form a mental image, or representation, of an object rather than merely reacting to what they experience in their immediate environment. In the preoperational stage, a child builds on object permanence and continues to develop abstract ways of thinking. This includes developing sophisticated language skills and using words and behaviors to represent objects or events that they experienced in the past. The child displays five key behaviors during this period:
During the preoperational stage, the child is egocentric. This means they only understand the world from their perspective and struggle to see other peoples’ points of view. The concrete operational stage is another major turning point in a child’s cognitive development. The child builds on and masters abstract thought. They become less egocentric and more rational. During this stage, the child acquires the ability to develop and apply logical, concrete rules to objects (but not to abstract concepts — this comes in the formal operational stage). This includes a better ability to classify objects into groups and subgroups, the ability to understand logical orders, such as height and weight, and an understanding of conservation. ConservationConservation is the understanding that an object can change in size, volume, or appearance, but remain the same object. For example, the appearance of water changes when someone pours it from a short, wide glass into a tall, narrow bottle, but the water itself does not change. The child now understands this. Share on PinterestDuring the formal operational stage, children learn to use logic and create theories.In the formal operational stage, which is the final stage of cognitive development, a child learns more sophisticated rules of logic. They can use logical roles to understand abstract concepts and solve problems. The child is now able to analyze their environment and make deductions. They move beyond the limits of understanding objects and facts, toward problem-solving. This involves creating theories about what is possible based on their existing knowledge. The child can now use their existing knowledge to create new theories about the world and make predictions about what will happen in the future. The following sections will explain several important aspects of cognitive development that Piaget proposes as a part of his theory. SchemaPiaget was the first to include the idea of a schema into a theory of cognitive development. A schema is a category of knowledge, or a mental template, that a child puts together to understand the world. A schema is a product of the child’s experiences and can represent objects, events, or concepts. For example, a child can develop the schema of a dog. At first, the word “dog” only refers to the first dog they meet, but over time, the word comes to represent all dogs. When a child is putting this schema together, they may call every furry, four-legged animal a dog before they master the category. In addition to creating new schemas, children can adapt their existing schemas based on new experiences. As a child ages, they form more schemas and adapt existing schemas to allow them a greater understanding of the world. In this sense, schemas are a way of structuring acquired knowledge. Two key concepts related to schemas are assimilation and accommodation:
EquilibrationEquilibration motivates a child to continue through the stages of cognitive development. When a child experiences assimilation, their world view is inaccurate, and they are in a state of disequilibrium. This motivates the child to accommodate new information, to reach a state of equilibrium. Piaget made many significant contributions to how people think about child development with his theory. However, it is not without criticisms, such as:
Piaget’s theory centers on the idea that children, as little scientists, need to explore, interact with, and experiment in order to gain the information they need to understand their world. Caregivers and educators can put Piaget’s theory into practice by providing plenty of opportunities for children to explore their environment. This includes letting them learn by trial and error and by experimenting with their environment. In the early stages, people can help a child learn better by giving them new and interesting toys to play with and answering the questions they ask about the world. Providing challenging new objects and situations can create disequilibrium, which encourages the child to learn to reach equilibrium. In later stages, word puzzles, problem-solving tasks, and logic puzzles will help their cognitive development. Allowing a child to interact with other children may also help enhance their learning, especially those of a similar or slightly higher developmental stage to their own. Piaget’s theory of cognitive development had a significant impact on how people understand childhood development today. Piaget suggests that children go through four distinct stages of cognitive development from birth to adulthood. Each stage includes certain milestones where the child demonstrates a more sophisticated understanding of the world. Piaget believes that development occurs through a continuous drive to expand and adapt schemas, or understandings about the world. However, some people have criticized Piaget’s theory. People can also explore other theories of cognitive development, such as Vygotsky and Montessori theories. What did Piaget call the process in which people understand an experience in terms of their current way of thinking?Assimilation refers to a part of the adaptation process initially proposed by Jean Piaget. 2 Through assimilation, we take in new information or experiences and incorporate them into our existing ideas.
What is the term that Piaget used to explain the process by which people understand?Assimilation. Piaget defined assimilation as the cognitive process of fitting new information into existing cognitive schemas, perceptions, and understanding.
What did Piaget call the process in which people understand quizlet?Through his study of the field of education, Piaget focused on two processes, which he named assimilation and accommodation. Piaget's understanding was that assimilation and accommodation cannot exist without the other.
What does Piaget say about cognitive development?Piaget's stage theory describes the cognitive development of children. Cognitive development involves changes in cognitive process and abilities.2 In Piaget's view, early cognitive development involves processes based upon actions and later progresses to changes in mental operations.
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