PIAGET’S THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

By
Dr. Waleed khan
PGR Psychiatry
Hayatabad Medical Complex
PRESENTATION OUTLINE
 About Jean Piaget
 Stages of cognitive development
 MCQS
Introduction
 Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was one of the 20th century’s most
influential researchers in the area of developmental
psychology.
 He was originally trained in the area of biology and
philosophy and considered himself a genetic Epistemologist.
 Piaget wanted to know how children learns through their
development in the study of knowledge.
 He administered Binet’s in Paris and observed the children’s
answers were qualitatively different.
 Piaget’s theory is based on the idea that the developing child
builds cognitive structures.
 He believes that the child’s cognitive structure increase with
the development.
Piaget's theory of cognitive development proposes 4 stages of
development.
1) Sensorimotor stage: birth to 2 years
2) Preoperational stage: 2 to 7 years
3) Concrete operational stage: 7 to 11 years
4) Formal operational stage: ages 12 and up
 
The Sensorimotor Stage
Ages: Birth to 2 Years
Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes:
 The infant learns about the world through their inborn motor and sensory reflexes
( Sucking, grasping, looking and listening).
 Until around 6 months is a transitory phase, when a child believes that an object hidden from
view no longer exists.

Example:
 If you show a 3 month old child an eye catching toy and then cover the toy with a pillow, the
child will not attempt to search for the toy.
 For a very young child “out of sight” can literally mean “out of mind”.
 This is why playing peekaboo(taa) amuses infants, as they think that if you are hidden, you do
not exist and when you reappear, they are surprised.
SENSORIMOTOR STAGE CONTINUED……

 After the age of 18 months, the concept of object permanence begins to

emerge.
 Object permanence is the understanding that the toy still exists and now the
child will search for it.
The Preoperational Stage
Ages: 2 - 7 Years
Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes:
 Toddlers and young children acquire the ability to internally represent the world
through language and mental imagery.

 During this stage, young children can think about things symbolically. This is
the ability to make one thing, such as a word or an object, stand for something
other than itself (semiotic fuction).

 Child’s thinking and reasoning are illogical at this stage and make conservation
errors, where they believe that simply changing the appearance of objects can
change their quantity.
 
THE PREOPERATIONAL STAGE CONTINUED…..

 The child is also egocentric (they feel everything is about me) and unable to take the
point of view of other people.
Thought processes exhibited during this stage include the following:
Animism: This is the tendency for the child to think that non-living objects (such as
toys) have life and feelings like a person’s.
Artificialism: Natural events are attributed to the action of people e.g. child may say
it is windy outside because someone is blowing very hard.
Authoritarian morality: It is believed that wrongdoing, including breaking the rules of
a game, should be punished according to the degree of the damage caused, whether
accidental or not, rather than according to motive.
Egocentrism
 Precausal reasoning: Based on internal schemes rather than the results of
observation e.g. the same volume of liquid poured from one container to
another with a different height and diameter may be considered to have
changed volume.

 Syncretism: Everything to be connected to everything else.

 Semiotic function: Uses symbols for actions-language.

The Concrete Operational
Stage
Ages: 7 - 11 Years
Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes:
 During this stage, children begin to thinking logically about
concrete events.
 Children begin to understand the concept of conservation;
understanding that, although things may change in
appearance, certain properties remain the same.
 During this stage, children can mentally reverse things (e.g.
picture a ball of plasticine returning to its original shape).
. During this stage, children also become less egocentric and

begin to think about how other people might think and feel
The Formal Operational Stage
Ages: 12 and Over
Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes:
 Concrete operations are carried out on things whereas
formal operations are carried out on ideas. Formal
operational thought is entirely freed from physical and
perceptual constraints.
 During this stage, adolescents can deal with abstract ideas
(e.g. no longer needing to think about slicing up cakes or
sharing sweets to understand division and fractions).
 They can follow the form of an argument without having to
think in terms of specific examples.
 Adolescents can deal with hypothetical problems with many
possible solutions. E.g. if asked ‘What would happen if
money were abolished in one hour’s time? they could
speculate about many possible consequences.
MULTIPLE CHOICE
QUESTIONS
 1) Which of the following piagetian stages is correctly matched to the time
period it covers?

a. Concrete operational 11years onwards

b. Formal operational 0-2 years
c. Concrete operational 2-7 years
d. Preoperational 2-7 years
e. Sensorimotor 7-11 years
2) Which of the following is not a feature of the sensorimotor stage of development?
a. Object permanence
b. Primary circular reaction
c. Secondary circular reaction
d. Animism
 3) According to piaget’s theory of cognitive development, a child of four shows
one of the following characteristics?
a. Achievement of conservation of volume
b. ability to percieve another person point of view
c. Can perform simple mental operations
d. Has conventional morality
e. Ability to think symbolically
 5) A young boy who can judge the difference between the amounts of water
held in a tall, narrow glass vs a short, wide brimmed glass would be placed in
which piaget’s stages of development?
a. CONCRETE OPERATIONAL STAGE
b. PREOPERATIONAL STAGE
c. FORMAL OPERATIONAL STAGE
d. SENSORIMOTOR STAGE
 6) Child attends clinic for a developtmental assessment. They walk unassited, can stand on
tiptoes and can build a tower of six cubes on their own but are unable to sort objects into
simple categories. Assuming their development is normal, how old would you estimate they
are?
a. 15 months
b. 18 months
c. 24 months
d. 36 months
e. 48 months
 7) which of the following begins in piaget’s formal operational stage?
a. Object permanence
b. Use of language and symbols
c. Logical thinking and hypothesis testing
d. Conservation of weight
Thank you