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Subject PSYCHOLOGY

Paper No and Title Paper no. 11: HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

Module No and Title Module no. 13: PIAGET’S THEORY OF COGNITIVE

DEVELOPMENT
Module Tag PSY_P11_M13

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Learning Outcomes
2. Introduction
3. Major elements and concepts of Piaget’s theory
3.1 Schema
3.2 The Processes that enable transition
3.3 The Stages of Cognitive Development
4. Critiques of Piaget’s Theory
5. Summary

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1. Learning Outcomes
After studying this module, you shall be able to

 Understand Piaget’s idea of cognitive change.

 Understand the characteristics of stages of cognitive development
 Criticisms evaluate the theory
 Relevance of Piaget’s theory in educational settings

2. Introduction
Jean Piaget has been one of the most influential researchers in the field of developmental
psychology. He was majorly interested in the influence of biology on child development and the
origin of knowledge. He was also interested in the developmental stages that individuals move
through as they acquire knowledge (Singer & Revenson, 1997, p.13)
According to Piaget's theory, a child plays an active role in the development of intelligence and
learns by doing or experimenting with things. Piaget considers the child as a philosopher who
perceives the world through his/her own experience. Piaget’s research in cognitive and
intellectual development began by careful observation of his own children as infants and later on
studying larger samples of children.
Piaget’s theory is based on stages wherein each stage characterized by a qualitatively different
type of thinking and behavior. This means that thinking in stage 1 will be different from thinking
in other stages and children who are in lower stages cannot think in ways that children in higher
stages can. Piaget's theory like other stage theory assumes that individuals follow the same
sequences of stages regardless of individual differences and so the stages are constant or
invariable. These stages are also universal which means that children all over the world go
through these stages in the same fashion. Transition from one stage to another can be fast.
According to Piaget cognitive development is also cumulative which means that a new
experience is based on or grows from a previous learning experience.
Piaget in his theory emphasized that the environment and child interact in the process of cognitive
development. According to Piaget, a child learns only by interacting with the environment,
making mistakes, learning from them and modifying them. For him children were "lone
scientists" who could learn and develop through their interaction with the environment and did
not require teachers or adults for cognitive development. Piaget believed that children are born
with cognitive mechanisms and through their interaction with the environment can learn on their
own.

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3. Major Elements and Concepts of Piaget’s Cognitive Development

Theory
There are three major concepts or elements in Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development. They
are:

1. Schemas
2. The processes that enable the transition from one stage to another
3. The four stages of cognitive development

3.1 Schema

A schema can be considered as the basic building and organizing block of all intelligent behavior.
A schema is a form that an individual uses to organize the information and also to interpret things
that he/she perceives such as sights, sounds, tastes, odors (Singer & Revenson, 1997).A schema
can include objects, actions and abstract concepts.

Schemata are cognitive structures and help in representing and understanding aspects of the
world. Schemas includes categories that help in simplifying and organizing information but also
has pre-conceived ideas in them. We store schema and apply them in our day to day life while
responding to situations. For instance schema of festival Diwali includes images of lights, rangoli,
crackers and ideas of pleasant weather, Lord Ram etc. So there are all kinds of schemata for
organizing information. There can be schemata for self known as self schemata, schema for older
people known as people schemata, schemata for events or situations known as event schemata
and schemata for roles/occupations known as role schemata.
3.2 The Processes

 Assimilation
A child acquires a lot of information through the interaction with the world and
sometimes that information can be combined with an already existing schema. So
assimilation involves fitting new material into an already existing model of the world.
This process saves a lot of time as the categories are already there and the new
information has to be added or combined. But this process can also result in stereotyping.
For example if a lady sees teenagers on a bike that is out of the speed limits and sees
them stealing a chain, then she might assimilate violence, impulsivity into her schema of
a teenager. The next time she sees a teenager, then she would apply this schema to the
other teenager as well even though that person might be quite different.
 Accommodation
The child’s dog schema may have characteristics such as “four legs”, “furry”, “wagging
tail”. When he/she sees another animal such as a cat, he/she might first consider it a dog
because of the similarities and this is the process of assimilation. However when he/she is
told that it is a cat and not a dog, he/she will accommodate the new information into
another schema of a cat which means that when the new information doesn’t fit a
category, it is accommodated into a different and a new category.
 Adaptation

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Adaptation involves both the process of Assimilation

and accommodation. So through the interaction with
the environment, we adapt the schemata into a better representation of the world.

 Equilibrium
Piaget believed that all individuals wish to attain cognitive equilibrium. Cognitive
equilibrium means a balance between assimilation and accommodation. There has to be a
balance between incorporating information into already existing schema which is the
process of assimilation and changing the schemata and building new categories if it does
not fit reality or into the already existing schemata. There is a imbalance or
disequilibrium when the schema doesn't fit reality. Assimilation and accommodation go
on till the balance is achieved and this process of equilibration produces more effective
schemas.

3.3 Stages of Cognitive Development:

Piaget in his theory of cognitive development talked about four stages in cognitive development.

 Sensory-Motor Stage (From Birth To Two Years)

 Preoperational (Age Two To Seven)
 Concrete Operations (Age Seven To Eleven)
 Formal Operations (Age Eleven To Sixteen)

STAGE ONE: Sensorimotor stage (from birth to approx. 2 years)

In this stage, information coming from the environment is acknowledged through all the sense
organs. During this stage, the child tries to make sense of the world with the use of senses and
motor abilities. The child uses innate behaviors to improve the learning process. Early on the
child uses only reflexes and innate or inherited behavior. Towards the end of this stage, the child
starts using complex sensorimotor skills to perceive the environment. Because the difference
between a newly born infant and a 2 year old is so vast, this stage is divided into 6 substages.

1. Reflexes (Birth-1 month): The child uses only reflexes that are innate or the child is born
with. These are unlearned reflexes. The sole purpose of these reflexes is to keep the child
active and to let the child live.
2. Primary Circular Actions (1-4 months): The child in this stage is preoccupied with his/her
own body as they gain voluntary control over their actions. The baby repeats actions
continually on themselves and so it is a circular action.
3. Secondary Circular Reactions (4-8 months): Around 4 months of age, the child begins to
develop curiosity about the objects in the external surroundings. Children by this age
begin to notice that they can manipulate events in their surroundings through their own
actions. But the infant’s manipulation is not intentional and they do not make or are not
aware of associations between what they do and the consequences. Children just observe
and manipulate objects because of their interesting effects.
4. Co-ordination of Secondary Circular Reactions (8-12 months): During this period, the
child starts engaging in goal-directed behavior. This means that they begin to observe
and understand cause-effect relationships. At this stage, object permanence develops

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which is the understanding that an object continues to

exist even though the object is out of sight.
5. Tertiary Circular Reactions (12-18 months): Infants during this stage are able to
understand cause and effect relationships between physical events. This enables them to
be more creative and flexible with their actions leading to a variety of different and newer
outcomes and it also leads to a more advanced understanding that objects exist even
though they might not be visible also known as object permanence.
6. Symbolic/Mental Representation (18-24 months): When infants are given a problem, they
usually use trial and error method to solve it. But it is during this stage that they show the
ability to mentally construct the problem, various actions possible and their consequences
and then plan their actions accordingly. This ability to mentally represent objects is
known as symbolic thought and it emerges around the end of infancy period.

The emergence of mental representation in this stage is evident in

object permanence and deferred imitation.

Object permanence is the ability to understand that the objects exist even though they might not
be visible. According to Piaget, infants in the first three sub-stages do not show object
permanence as they do not search for the object when it is hidden from their view. In the fourth
sub-stage they begin showing the ability of object permanence. But this ability is not fully
developed. If the child and adult are playing with an object and the adult shows the child that the
object has been placed in a different second location, they try to find the object while also
constantly looking at the first place even though they have seen that the object has been moved
from the original location. This is called "A not B search error". Around sub-stage 6, infants
develop the ability to mentally represent the object. So even if the object is not visible, they can
mentally represent the object and the movements and then explore and look for the object. They
also continue their search for the object till they are able to find it because children of this age are
aware that the object exists even though it is not visible at present.

Deferred imitation Children during the end of sub-stage 1 begin to mentally represent objects and
behaviors they see in their surroundings. They are able to mentally act on their representations
and so are able to copy the behaviors that they have seen later when the person is absent.

Evaluation: According to the results of a study by Bowler (1982), children show object
permanence much earlier than what Piaget proposed. Infants are shown an object moving behind
a screen many times to habituate them. In another instance or a trial when infants are shown an
object that goes behind the screen but disappears when the screen is removed, they show surprise.
This indicates that children have some understanding of objects continuing to exist even though
object that moves behind the screen but disappears when the screen is removed then they show
surprise. This indicates that the infants understand that objects continue to exist even though they
may be invisible. Also in another study by Williats (1989), children were able to plan and move
through the problems in their way to reach to their goal. Their planning ability appeared much
earlier than what Piaget proposed.

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STAGE TWO: The Pre-operational Stage (2-7 years)

At the end of sensory-motor period the emergence of mental representation results in an effortless
transition to what is called as symbolic functioning in the pre-operational stage. Symbolic
functioning means that one object can be used in place of another object and so it symbolically
represents the other object. For example a child may use a block or a torch to pretend that he/she
has a mobile. Language itself is a representational system and by this stage children can
understand the connection between language, actions and objects.
A major characteristic of this stage according to Piaget is egocentrism. Egocentrism according to
Piaget is the major feature of this stage. Egocentrism is the tendency to think only from one's own
point and inability to consider others’ perspectives. Piaget in his study showed children the 3d
model of the mountain that looked different from different positions. He then gave children
pictures of that mountain that were taken from different position and asked them to select the
picture that indicates the doll's view of that 3D model.

Piaget : Three Mountains Task (1956)”]

The children in the study struggled to pick up the correct picture and understand that what the
doll saw could be different from what they were seeing.
Another important feature of this stage is conservation. Children of this age have difficulty to
understand that certain properties of objects remain same even though their appearance may
change. Piaget used different tasks to understand whether children understand that certain
properties such as mass, volume, number etc can remain the same even though their outward
appearance changes. For conservation of liquid, Piaget used two different glasses, one that was
short and broad and the other that was thin and long. When the water is poured from the short and
broad glass to the other glass, the child is asked if there is same amount of liquid in both the
glasses. The child who is unable to conserve would say that there is more amount of liquid in the
taller glass because it looks taller. Thus children in preoperational period focus more on
appearances rather than the process to figure out whether there is any change in the properties of
the object.
According to Piaget children of this stage are not able to conserve because of three reasons:

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 Centration is the inability to focus on all the aspects

of the problem or an object. So a child may focus on
only one aspect such as perceptual appearance and may ignore other aspects of the object.
Because of this tendency children cannot categorize or organize things on more than one
level, also called hierarchical classification.
 Irreversibility is the inability to mentally reverse or undo an operation. Children of this
age cannot visualize objects or numbers reversed to their previous form.
 Egocentrism is the tendency to think only from one's own point and inability to consider
others’ perspectives. Egocentrism also gives rise to another important feature of pre-
operational period called animism. Animism is a belief that inanimate objects are living.
Evaluation: Studies such as these suggest that the methods used by Piaget were not completely
appropriate for children. When researchers used simpler methods that were more interesting and
simpler in the language used, children's performance on the task improved. These studies show
that Piaget’s methodology was perhaps more complex for children’s cognition and he
underestimate their capabilities because of complexity of his method.

STAGE THREE: The Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 years)

There are numerous changes in thinking and cognitive development in Concrete Operational
Stage. Children in this stage are able to do conversation tasks such as conservation of number,
weight and volume by the age of 11. Taking others' perspective into consideration becomes easier
for children of this stage and they also start understanding basic principles of "class inclusion".
But children of this stage have difficulty in using concepts and applying them to things which are
not physically present or cannot be manipulated. As children have difficulty in abstract concepts
and their thinking is limited to concrete objects and events, this stage is called concrete
operational stage.
Children in the pre-operational stage cannot successfully perform tasks of conservation. But in
this stage, children develop and acquire abilities of conservation, reversibility and decentration.
 Reversibility means the ability to mentally reverse actions and operations.
 Decentration involves focusing on various aspects of a problem to understand and solve
it.
 Less Egocentric- Children in this stage are able to consider different point of views
while looking at a problem.
However, as this stage is concrete, Piaget suggests children will have difficulties in solving
abstract problems. Children are able to perform operations only with tangible and real objects or
events. For example, when seriation tasks are used, children are asked questions such “Meeta is
taller than Rita. Meeta is shorter than Anya. Who is the tallest?” Children in concrete operational
stage fail to provide a correct answer because the situation is very abstract for them. But when
dolls are used to represent Meeta, Rita and Anya, the children are able to answer because now the
situation is concrete.

Evaluation: Results of Tomlinson-Keasey (1978) corroborate Piaget's finding that conservation

of various properties of objects appear in the same order that Piaget proposed and demonstrated.
But another study by Jahoda (1983) found that even 9 year old Zimbabwean children were skilled
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in the information and knowledge they had of business and

knew a lot of tactics and strategies of business that British children did not. Zimbabwean children
learned all this from an early age because these abilities were very important and prized in their
culture. Thus the major criticism of Piaget’s theory is that it doesn’t acknowledge cross cultural
differences in cognitive development.

STAGE FOUR: The Formal Operational Stage (Age 11 onwards)

Children at this stage develop the ability to think hypothetically and “outside the box”. Children
can think about abstract concepts and no longer need the presence of concrete objects to solve
abstract problems. Unlike the previous stage, children in this stage can derive logical conclusions
from the verbal statements presented to them. When given a problem, children can think about
various aspects of the problem, understand possible solutions and think in a more consistent way.
Children in this stage show the capability of scientific reasoning. Piaget used the "Pendulum
Task" to demonstrate children's emerging abilities of solving abstract problems. In his Pendulum
task, Piaget asked children to determine which factor was most responsible for the speed of swing
of the pendulum. To solve this problem, children had to consider various factors such as the
length of the string, how heavy the weight was and also the strength with which it was pushed.
Piaget observed that children in this stage could come to a more logical conclusion by working
like scientists and varying one factor at a time to see its effect while younger children were
experimenting with it in a random fashion.

Evaluation: Martorano (1977) in his study found that there are major differences and variations
between 12-18 year old females in the USA in their ability to think hypothetically. He found that
the ability to successfully perform formal operational tasks could range from 15-95%. This study
suggests that formal operational principles may be acquired at this stage but the ability to apply it
in different situations may come later. Danner and Day (1977) found that students who were
trained to complete formal operational tasks showed increases in the ability around 17 years of
age. Findings such as these indicate that around the age of 11 which is the start of formal
operational stage, children possess the ability to solve abstract problems and think hypothetically
but it might be difficult for them to develop formal operational thought processes without proper
training. These studies show that Piaget underestimated the role that teaching can play in his
theory of cognitive development.

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A summary of the stages in Piaget’s theory of Cognitive

Development

4. Criticisms of Piaget’s theory

Piaget has been one of the most influential researchers in cognitive development and he
influenced decades of researches on development of cognition in children. But his theory over the
years has also attracted a lot of criticisms for various reasons:

 Recent research has shown that Piaget underestimated children’s abilities at each stage.
Researchers have shown that babies accomplish object permanence much earlier than
what Piaget believed. There have been many other studies on egocentrism and
conservation that show that children perform better with more interesting and simple
tasks and where language is more clear.
 Researchers have also found that children sometimes develop skills that are characteristic
of more than one stage, which questions the notion of stages.

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 Piaget overlooked the role and influence of culture on

cognitive development. Research has shown that
children from different cultures do go through Piaget’s stages in the same order, but the
timing and length of stages can differ from culture to culture.
 Studies have also shown that some people fail to develop or never develop the capacity
for formal reasoning.

5. Summary

 Piaget was interested in how a child acquires knowledge.

 In his research, he was most concerned with the process of maturation and
development

 According to Piaget, children go through various developmental stages in which

each stage builds on a previous stage. All individuals regardless of their culture move
through these stages.

 According to Piaget’s theory of stages of cognitive development, a child goes

through different stages in his/her life and shows new and more advanced capabilities
at each stage.

 Piaget in his theory gave four stages of cognitive development: Sensori-Motor, Pre-
operational, Concrete Operational, and Formal Operational.

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