Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development

by Jenny McAllister

Introduction

Have you ever wondered why children will play with certain toys, but not with others?  This may be due to the child’s level of cognitive development.  Understanding the process of how a child learns is extremely beneficial to a company whose target market are children.  Being aware of how a child learns and processes information enables a company to better develop a product that will fit a certain aged child.  For example, a baby plays with toys that stimulate his or her senses and not with more advanced toys, such as video games.  A video game is just too complex for a baby to understand. A company must know a child’s level of understanding before it can market a toy to that particular child.  This is why understanding a child’s level of cognitive development is vital to a company’s success.

Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was a Swiss psychologist and sought to develop a theory of cognitive development.  Piaget’s cognitive development centers on the formation of schemas or organized mental representations of the world.  Forming mental representations of the environment involves two processes, assimilation and accommodation (Gerow, 90).  Assimilation involves taking new information and fitting it into an existing schema.  Image a child who has never seen a cardinal, sees one and revises his or her schema to include the cardinal, this child has just used assimilation to understand the new bird.  Accommodation involves changing or revising existing schemas in the face of new experiences.  Picture a young child who sees a butterfly and thinks it’s a bird, but when the child’s parent explains that it is not a bird the child revises his or her schema and creates a new schema for butterflies.  Children assimilate and accommodate, because when they confront something new they get confused and go through a period of disequilibrium.  Assimilation and Accommodation help the child to re-achieve equilibrium.  Piaget believes as children assimilate new ideas into existing schemas or make adjustments in old schemas, they pass through four periods of development: sensorimotor period, preoperational period, concrete operations period, and a formal operations period (Gerow. 91). 

Explanation of the Topic

        The sensorimotor stage is from birth to two years.  Children under the age of two do not use language as a means of figuring out their environment.  Therefore, children at this stage discover by sensing and doing.   Infants come to realize that events may have causes, and some behaviors cause certain reactions.  For example, child may realize that pulling a dog’s tail will cause the dog to produce a loud yelp.  During this period, babies will also imitate almost any behavior he/she sees, as long as it is within the baby’s range of abilities.  Later in the period, children begin to learn that objects can exist even when they are not in view.  This is why the game “peek-a-boo” entertains babies, because they think that you really have disappeared.

        At the end of the sensorimotor period, a child now can recognize that he or she is a separate, independent person in the world, which leads to why children become centered on themselves in the preoperational stage (two to six years).  The world is very much me, mine, and I oriented.  Perhaps this is why we refer to children, who are two years old as the “terrible twos”.  Piaget believes that this stage is when children begin to use symbols, but cannot manipulate them.  This means that children cannot take two things into consideration at the same time.  If you were to take something apart and put it back together they would not understand this action, because they cannot think inverse.  Piaget proved this theory with his water level experiment.  A child is presented two identical glasses, which are short and fat (A and B); then the experimenter pours the water from glass B into glass C, which is taller and thinner than A and B.  The child is than asked if glasses B and C have the same amount of liquid.  A preoperational child would say no.  He or she believes that the taller, thinner glass contains more water.

At this period, they still cannot mentally reverse the task.  Piaget believes that the biggest development of children in this period is the ability to represent.  Representing is how one records or expresses information (Dacey, 104).  For example, a child can imitate some objects or activity they have previously witnessed.  This is why children at this stage enjoy symbolic play.  They love to pretend that they are someone or something else, such as when children are playing doctor and patient they get to discover what objects in their environment are supposed to do.  Symbolic play allows children to understand and learn what they have witnessed.  It also allows children to prepare and anticipate for their future roles.

        At the concrete operations period (ages seven to twelve years) children now can solve the water level problem.  They no longer concentrate solely on the height of the glasses, but now consider the width of the glasses.  During this stage, children develop many concepts and show how they can manipulate these concepts (Gerow, 93).  They have the ability to classify, rank, and separate objects.  This means they can group different objects that have something in common.  Another sign that a child is in the concrete operations stage is the ability to solve conservation problems.  Conservation means that changing the appearance of something does not necessarily change what it really is (Gerow, 93).  For example, suppose a child is showed two equally sized balls of clay and then one ball of clay is rolled into a long cigar shape, a child at this stage can tell that each form contains the same amount of clay.  Another major development during this stage is a child’s growing physical abilities.  As they get stronger and bigger they are  enable to interact with more complex objects, which increases their mental abilities lives.  

        At the formal operations stage (ages over twelve years) children can now manipulate abstract concepts.  Children can reason through hypothetical problems, in other words, they can work through problems in their mind (Gerow, 93).  Children can deal with questions that are not factual.  For example, they can answer a question like, “What if you were the only person that had to go to school? ”.

Summary of Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory

             Piaget’s theories about intellectual development are of great importance to understanding a child’s cognitive abilities.  However, some research questions Piaget’s ideas.  The major criticism of Piaget’s theory is that children gradually increase their capacity of memory and underestimates the cognitive abilities of young children (Gerow).  Piaget also fails to mention that culture and gender can also influence cognitive development.  However, Piaget (1973) has acknowledged that his theory might not apply to all cultures, and has showed cultural variation.  Another criticism is Piaget’s theory gives little attention to the impact of language development

            There are definitely limitations in Piaget’s theory and there has been new ways of explaining cognitive development.  Two significant researchers in this area are Sternberg and Gardner.  Robert Sternberg has designed a “Triarchic Model of Intelligence”.  The “Triarchic Model of Intelligence” has three major categories: the component of intelligence, experience and intelligence, and the context of intelligence.  However, Sternberg does not apply his theory to children.  Gardner explains cognitive development with his theory of multiple intelligence.  He explains that there are eight identifiable intelligences.  They are linguistic, musical, logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist.  Gardner’s study recognized that we all have different abilities.

            It seems that some of Piaget’s work and assumptions have been highly criticized.  However, this is to be expected in the field of science with something so complex as the theory of cognitive development.  Jean Piaget has made a great contribution to understanding and explaining how children think and especially in the area of psychology where testing and theories that deal with the brain and how we organize our environment are sometimes impossible to study.  Piaget’s cognitive development theory is so detailed and helpful it will continue to be used for years to come. 

Examples

LeapFrog Enterprises  LeapFrog Enterprises incorporates Piaget’s theory of cognitive development in its toy called, “Discovery Ball”.  The “Discovery Ball” is clearly designed for children in the sensorimotor stage.  At this stage a child discovers by sensing and by doing.  The toy offers a lot of sensory stimulation; the ball spins, flashes bright colors, plays songs, and speaks letters.  This toy allows infants to truly discover by sensing and doing,

FisherPrice  FisherPrice also offers a great toy designed for children in sensorimotor stage, called “Sparkling Symphony Gym”.  This toy allows children to also use their sensory and motor skills.  Babies can reach and bat at hanging toys, which helps their motor skills and allow them to learn by doing.  In example of a toy design for children in the preoperational stage would be Fisher Prices’ “Scannin Talkin Check-Out Center”.  At this stage children enjoy pretending and symbolic play.  This product allows the child to pretend like they are really shopping.  It gives them the opportunity to act out an event that they have previously witnessed.  

Battleship by Hasbro  An example of a toy that is designed for children in the concrete operational stage is the game battleship by Hasbro.  It allows them to classify objects by deciding where to place their ships.  They also must decide which numbers and letters to use for their targets and think about their sequence of moves.  All these activities contribute to the learning that they are engaged in at concrete operational stage.

SimCity  The computer game “SimCity” is a great example of a toy marketed for children in the formal operational period.  This game allows children to reason through hypothetical problems and situations.  “SimCity” lets a person create and control simulated people’s lives.  One can create the simulated person’s personality, skills, appearance, and destiny.

Conclusion

            Piaget’s cognitive development theory enables marketers to fully understand the learning process and steps that children experience throughout their cognitive development.  There are many companies that have taken research on children and successfully applied it to their new product innovations.  Understanding a child’s development process is not easy, that is why with theorists like Piaget companies have a better understanding of their target market.  A company’s understanding of the process is more than vital to their success.

Relevant Web Sites

Sociology and Psychology links  http://www.wiu.edu/users/plf100/

National Council for the Social Studies  http://www.ncss.org

Online library of psychology experiments and data  http://psychexps.olemiss.edu

American Psychological Association  www.apa.org

Some companies featured in this tutorial:

Test for Understanding

1)      Piaget’s theory of cognitive development focused on the formation and development of:

1. model strategies

2. cognitive structures

3. reinforcement schedules

4. social interactions

2)  One of the criticisms of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is that it

1. is too complex

2. is too broad

3. does not address abstract thinking

4. does not address culture and gender influences

3)      What occurs during Piaget’s formal operational stage?

1. ability to manipulate abstract concepts

2. can solve conservation problems

3. begin to interact with more complex objects

4. ability to represent

   4)      A toy design for a child at the preoperational stage

1. a mobile

2. the board game: “Battleship”

3. a firefighter role play set
4. a rattle

5)  At the concrete operations period children can now

1. use symbols, but can not manipulate them

2. recognize he or she is a separate person

3. solve the water-level problem

4. known objects can exist even when they are not in view

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Answers:

1)     B

2)     D

3)     A

4)     C

References

Boden, M (1980). Jean Piaget.

Brief, J (1983). Beyond Piaget

Cegarone, Berard (1996). Piagetian Perspectives on Children’s Cognitive Development.  Association for Childhood Educational International.

Chaille, Christine (1996). Childhood Education .v73n2. “Understanding Through Play”. Association for Childhood Educational International.

Dacey, John S. (2000). Human Growth And Development For Educators. McGraw-Hill, Inc.

Gerow, Josh R. (1996). Essentials of Psychology. New York: HarperCollins, 1996.