¶ … theorist discussing the cognitive development throughout the lifespan is Jean Piaget. The cognitive development of children is of interest to this writer as a budding pediatric psychologist. Piaget's model, while criticized, has stood the test of time and remains the basic model of cognitive development presented in developmental psychology textbooks as well as a being a general framework for research and theory development in the field (Egan, 2012). Piaget's overall stage theory is briefly discussed in this paper.
Piaget's initial research subjects were children from birth to seven (he also studied people through the age of adulthood). In actuality, Piaget's early subjects were his own children; later he studied children of different ages under laboratory situations (Burman, 2008). In essence Piaget's methods were correlational and consisted of mostly a combination of observation and interview. He relied primarily of presenting the child with a task and observing the child solve the task and then asking the children questions on how they solved tasks. When studying play the child might be given a toy and observed or put in a room full of toys with other children and be observed. For other cognitive principles children were presented with different stimuli, for example a tall thin glass and a shorter stout one (both that held equal amounts of liquid) and then decide which had more water in it (conservation; Berk, 2011; Burman, 2008).
The results of Piaget's research was a stage model of cognitive development including four major stages (Berk, 2011): The Sensorimotor stage (birth to two years of age); The Preoperational stage (two to about seven years of age); The Concrete Operational Stage (seven to about eleven years of age); and The Formal Operational stage (eleven years and beyond). Each of the stages is marked by a particular style of thinking and reasoning. In addition, some stages are further broken down into sub-stages. A brief explanation of each stage follows (Burk, 2011; Egan, 2012):
Sensorimotor Stage: Birth to Approximately Two Years of Age
Many striking changes in behavior...
Piaget's Cognitive Development The Webster Dictionary describes the word cognition as; the psychological means of distinguishing, including features such as consciousness, perception, reasoning and decision making (Cognition). Piaget's Cognitive Developmental theory was a novel idea at the time of its birth. In depth, this theory, was the first on the issue and continued the specification of the field for a while. All through this paper, Piaget's thesis will be torn down
Cognitive, Social, And Emotional Developmental Theories Understanding the concept of child development is critical when the need to appreciate human interaction is required. This is because childhood memories and environments tend to affect their cognitive, social, and emotional development. In fact, children from different backgrounds tend to depict different adulthood behaviors unlike those with shared experiences. For instance, children born and raised in violent homes may become violent in their adulthood
Piaget's And Bruner's Theories For Cognitive Development Cognitive theory, to some extent, is complex and multipart proposition. It puts forward the idea that development in humans is a function of an interaction with their upbringing, surroundings and individual understanding and experiences. Jean Piaget and Jerome Bruner are the two great theorists who constructed cognitive theories (William). Both theories have some similarities and differences which would be discussed in the paper. Piaget's and
Cognitive Development Jean Piage is a luminary as far as cognitive development theory goes. This is because of his contributions in his intellectual development theory. According to Piaget, intellectual development is a continuation of innate biological processes. He emphasizes that children go through four sequential processes of development. These four stages also occur with sub stages within them. The sensory motor stage: 0 to 2 years; intuitive stage: 2 to 7 years;
Procsesing Theory Cognitive development Cognitive development: Information processing theory Information processing theory might view the human mind as a kind of 'computer' but even this construct allows that the cognitive development stage of the individual can affect how the brain processes information. In contrast to Piaget's theory of development which was derived by studying a relatively narrow range of subjects, information processing theory is more expansive (which is why some people resist
____Age Characteristic Infant 0-2 years Affiliation Early Childhood (2-7 years) Play Middle Childhood (7-12 years) Learning Adolescence (12-19 years) Peer Adulthood Work Source: Thomas (2008) III. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PIAGET and VYGOTSKY According to Dr. Michael Thomas in the work entitled: "Cognitive Language and Development" while Piaget was reliant upon the clinical method of using questions that probed and uncovered the understanding of children, Vygotsky was concerned "with historical and social aspects of human behavior that make human nature unique."
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now