Piaget's theory of cognitive development

Piaget's theory of cognitive development

When talking about children's development psychologists have been interested in how children learn to think? How children learn to process information about the world around them? 

And the first major theory of cognitive development, was given by a French biologist and philosopher by the name of Jean Piaget.  

Jean Piaget observed his own children in such depth and in such detail that one is astonished. He would write detailed accounts of little babies noting every little sound they made, every little gesture they made, every time they smiled, every time they looked at an object. Noted in the minutest detail his children's actions at different ages.  

And he came up with the idea, that you can actually divide child development or cognitive development into four distinct stages. 

But before we talk about these distinct stages, it is important to understand Piaget's idea of how learning takes place. 

Example: 

Let's take an example, you're driving down the road and the little child who is two and a half and you own a dog so, he's quite familiar with the dog but he's never seen a goat before at least not in his conscious experience so, near the time of Eid-Ul-Azah, he sees a goat down the street and he says look mama doggy and mama says no, not doggy, goat and he says no mama doggy, what is this. This process is called assimilation. 

Assimilation and Accommodation: 

Assimilation means that, when we first encounter something new, we incorporate it into our world, using our words, our language. We do not change ourselves; we do not really learn something new; we just think it is more of what we already know so, that process he calls assimilation. 

After enough exposure, enough experience, and enough time, given the discriminations, the fine differences between the dogs and the goats the bow wow of the dog and the ba-ba of the goat, he starts to distinguish between these things. 

And that process Piaget calls accommodation, that is accommodating oneself to the new knowledge and he says that all knowledge is acquired by this dual process. 
 

Even as adults when we're told something new our first reaction is denial we get into an argument. When somebody tells us something that we were not there in our knowledge we say no, no, no it's not like that. But after a while once we understand that the other person is right, once we understand that we knew nothing about it before, we accommodate ourselves to incorporate that new knowledge and make it a part of us. So, whenever we as adults even learn something new. We first simulate it based on what we already know then we change ourselves to accommodate ourselves according to the world. 

So, that I believe was his major contribution. Although there are other parts of his theory that people have very strongly contested. 

Piaget's four stages of cognitive development of children: 

But any case, let's look at Piaget's four stages of cognitive development of children. 

Sensorimotor Stage: 

The first stage Piaget says is the sensorimotor stage. 

In the sensorimotor stage, the child starts his journey of exploration. Piaget believes that as adults we probably lose the scientific, the curious, the exploratory nature that a child has. The sensorimotor child, even when he starts to crawl is crawling all over the place, trying to climb heights while crawling, trying to climb down the stairs while crawling, and taking the risk of falling down. 

The child is being propelled by his scientific nature. He's curious about the world and wants to explore it like a scientist would. He experiments with things, he puts things in his mouth trying to taste it, trying to make sense of the world around them. 

So, he says that through sensory experiences as well as through his movements, the child explores the world around them. Piaget says that in this stage, which lasts from zero from birth to around a little before two years of age, a child does not even know that things exist even after they disappear. 

So, for them if you roll a ball in front of them, they will chase it but if the ball goes behind the sofa or the curtain and they can't see it anymore they stop looking as if the thing is vanished. Piaget says that that is why games like peek-a-boo, Peek-a-boo are so fascinating for them because they actually believe that the object of their attention has disappeared, has vanished, has in fact ceased to exist. 

One criticism of this has been that they still recognize their mothers they most likely have a sense of object permanence. Piaget conducted a whole range of experiments to show that, as far as these little objects were concerned the child lost an interest immediately as soon as the object was out of sight, no matter how fascinated they were when the object was in front of them.  

Animism: 

Another strong highlight of this period in the child's life is Animism. Since the child's first experience is with living being a child tends to think that every object has life and that every object does things purposefully so, that is why their experience of playing with the doll is very different from an older child's playing with dolls. According to Piaget children in this age group, actually believe that their stuffed toy is alive and has feelings and does purposeful thing. 

Pre-operational Stage: 

Then around the age of two starts, what he calls the pre-operational stage.  

In the pre-operational stage, child starts to use symbols. He can actually take a small object and pretend that it's an Aeroplan, or a rocket, or a ship, or even a person, even if it does not look like a person they can pretend to play. 

So, this is the beginning of their symbolic life and that is why play becomes very important in this age because, they not only learn by direct experience of things as in the sensory motor stage, zero to two years but, they also start to learn about an imaginative life in which they learn by playing, they learn by manipulating symbols. But even at this age, while they're doing all these symbolic operations, they cannot do more complex concrete operation. 

Example: 

For instance, for children of this age, height seems more prominent than weight in one example which is called a conservation task. Piaget takes water from a glass and puts it in a glass where it is thinner than the previous one but taller and since when you pour water from a normal glass into a glass which is much thinner what would happen is the height of the water will increase the water level will appear higher and so when children in this particular age group are asked which had more water this one or that one, they will invariably say the thinner glass has more water. Because they at this stage cannot process the height and the width together. They cannot process the fact that the thinner glass yes it has higher level of water it is much less wide and therefore is equal, so they don't even have a sense of conservation they don't even have the idea that water remains the same the amount of the water remains the same in this stage the child is also very egocentric. 

It cannot take the perspective of the other person. 

Example: 

So, for instance if you look at an object from the front and somebody else is sitting on the other side and the child is asked what do you see child will tell them this is what I see but, if they are now asked what is the other person seeing they will not be able to tell you what they think the other person is seeing they will only tell you what they are seeing and they'll say the other person is also seeing the same thing. So, for instance, if I show you a doll with its front towards the child and the back towards the other person. I ask what you see, they will say the person's face and you ask them what the other person see who's behind the doll, they will say the doll's face. 

Egocentrism:  

Even after you question them and try to even teach them that the other person is seeing, the hair or the back of the head they'd find it difficult to believe because that is not their experience. 

This Piaget calls egocentrism meaning they think that their view is the only view. 

Concrete operations stage: 

Then comes concrete operations stage, from the age 7 to 11. 

Logical thinking emerges in this age. The child can conserve, the child learns that the quantity of water may look different because of the height but since its weight has reduced in fact it is the same amount of water as before they can conserve, they can reverse, you know put the water back and decide it's the same amount of water they can also make deductions to some extent. But they still struggle with abstract ideas, they still have black and white thinking. 

If you have 7 to 11 years age children in your home, do this experiment yourself. Ask them if their favorite hero can have anything negative in that or can their most hated villain can have some good qualities in them, chances are they will reject the idea and so, this black and white thinking and this concrete operation stage ends at around 11. 

Formal operations stage: 

Ends at around 11, when a child may enter formal operations stage. Here abstract ideas can be entertained. Here other people's perspectives can be taken much more seriously. Here a sense of tolerance and morality develops. 

But unfortunately, Piaget says that a lot of these things while there is a potential to learn these. These have to be taught and as is evident by looking at the world around us. Not many people ever complete entering into the state. Many people still have difficulty with abstract ideas. Many people still have ideas such as their view is the only legitimate view. Many people still believe that the way they look at the world, is the only way to look at the world they're unable to perform formal operations. Formal operations require some schooling. Formal operations require some education in this area to help develop higher moral ideals and higher abstract concepts. 

These kids understand that 2 plus two equals four. They also understand that two times three equals three times two. They also understand that four plus one equals three plus two, and so on. 

But if they're asked, what do you think about democracy, they would think that their view is the only view. If you ask them what your view about religion is, they will say that their view of the religion is the only valid view and nobody else who disagrees with them can be correct. 

And that shows absence of formal operation. Piaget while he concludes that after the age of 12, children can learn formal operations. He leaves it wide open and claims that not everybody develops the stage of formal operations fully. He claims that not everybody can reach the desired outcome of the stage of formal operation. 

I ask you do you think you have achieved formal operation? Do you think that you can entertain other people's views as valid while believing in your ideas? Do you think other people have the right to believe what they believe?