Lesson Notes

Lesson 9.3a  Stages of Cognitive Development: Birth to Adolescence

Before you get too deep into this lesson, ensure that you are familiar with Piaget’s three main concepts: Schemas, Assimilation, and Accommodation. Schemas begin to develop very early on in our development. For example, a baby develops a schema to determine what is a mother or father. Assimilations and accommodations develop out of our schemas. We either get new information to add to our present schemas (assimilation) or if this new information does not fit an existing schema we develop new ones (accommodation). An example would be the first time you saw an iPod. You may have grown up with CDs, so when the iPod was developed it fit into your existing schema of a portable music player. But, when you realized that the iPod didn’t use CDs a new schema had to develop to one that distinguished devices that play MP3s.

 

Once you understand how these three concepts interrelate, learning about Piaget’s stages of cognitive development will be much easier. Piaget believed that all children go through four stages of cognitive development. Each of these stages has distinct skills that need to be acquired before going onto the next stage. Be sure that you can differentiate between each of theses stages. Keep in mind that the ages Piaget described are not set in stone, but rather guidelines for typical development in children.

 

          Sensorimotor Stage (Birth to 2 years of age)

                   Object permanence

 

          Preoperational Stage (2 to 7 years of age)

Egocentrism, lacks ability to reverse thinking, thinking is  animistic

 

          Concrete Operational Stage (7 to 11 years of age)

                   Conservation

 

          Formal Operational Thought (begins at age 11 and continues)

                   Abstract thinking

                   Problems: Personal fable and Imaginary audience

 

Lesson 9.3b  Assessing Piaget’s Theory: Criticisms and Contributions

Although Piaget’s contributions to cognitive development have been important, there are some researchers who believe Piaget’s theory not only underestimates the abilities of some children, but he also does not take genetic and cultural influences into account. In this lesson explore these two main criticisms to Piaget’s theory.

 

Lesson 9.3c  Information Processing: A Computer Model of Cognition

In this lesson, you will examine a different theory to explain our cognitive development. Some researchers liken our cognitive abilities to that of a computer. This model has been most influential in offering insight into the aspects of attention and memory.

 

As we age our memory can be affected. For example, fluid intelligence, tends to decrease with age, while crystallized intelligence, continues to increase well into old age. To test your fluid intelligence, go to https://similarminds.com/int.html