Cognitive Development: Piaget's Theory and Stages

This essay explores Piaget's theory of cognitive development, focusing on the stages involved and the nature of knowledge acquisition and construction. It discusses the sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational periods. The essay also highlights the significance of cognitive development and its impact on cognitive abilities and processes.

Cognitive development

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ESSAY.............................................................................................................................................1
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................3

ESSAY
Piaget's theory associated with the cognitive development in turn is considered to be as a
comprehensive theory associated with the development and the nature of the human intelligence
(Wartell and Pila, 2020). This theory has been originated by Swiss developmental psychologists
i.e., Jean Piaget. Moreover, this theory mainly deals with the nature of knowledge. It is also
useful in effectively determining how the humans tends to gradually come in order to acquire,
use and construct it. Piaget's theory is also referred to as a developmental stage theory. Also,
Piaget was in turn was also intrigued by the key fact that, children of varied ages tends to make
varied set of mistakes in order top solve the problem. Cognitive development in turn is
considered to be as a specific field of study within the neuroscience as well as the psychology
(Martí, 2020). This eventually focuses on the development of the child in terms of conceptual
resources information processing, language learning, perpetual skills and various other aspects
related with the development of the cognitive psychology and adult brain. Piaget has effectively
proposed the 4 stages for the cognitive development which mainly includes sensorimotor,
preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational period. Jean Piaget was the first who
has mainly linked with the study of developmental process. The first stage of the Piaget's theory
of the cognitive development is sensorimotor stage. However, this stage tends to mainly last
from the year of birth to 2 years old. This is the stage where the behaviour tends to lack sense of
logic and thought. The behaviour at this stage tends to gradually move from acting upon with the
inherited reflexes to the interaction with the environment (Siegler, 2016). here, the children tends
to learn regarding the external world with the use of basic actions like grasping, sucking,
listening and looking. Preoperational stage is the second stage by the Piaget, where it lasts from
2 years of the age until 7 years of age. Children at this stage has difficulty in understanding the
perspective of the others because of egocentric behaviour. At this stage, it has developed the
structuralist theory linked with the cognition. Piaget in his theory has effectively developed the
thought of the child during this period because they have been governed by principles like
animism, ego- centrism and other similar constructs (The 4 Stages of Cognitive Development,
2020). Concrete operational stage is the third stage which mainly lasts from 7 years till 13 years.
This is the stage where the cognitive structure of the child has been characterized on the part of
reality. Individual at this stage understand the concept of conversation. The key achievement
associated with this stage is conservation. The last stage of the formal operational stage is mainly
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linked to last from 13 years till adulthood. This is the key stage where people has been advancing
from the logical set of reasoning and with the concrete set of examples. This is the stage where
the fantasy thoughts has been changes to the realistic thoughts.
Cognitive development is considered to be as a progressive reorganization associated
with the mental process. Such changes mainly results from the biological maturation or the
environmental experience. L. Piaget has a belief that, children tends to construct an effective
degree of understanding associated with the world and experience discrepancies (Bormanaki &
Khoshhal, 2017). J. Piaget in turn has also claimed that, children tends to construct a significant
degree of understanding of the world which is around them. This way it helps in adjusting their
ideas in accordance. Piaget has also effectively claimed that, cognitive development is
considered to be as a centre of human organism and also the language is mainly contingent upon
the understanding and knowledge which has been acquired with the help of cognitive
development. Intelligence is something which tends to grow over a specific period of time. J.
Piaget is considered to be as the first person who has identified that the children thinks
differently when compared to the adults. Older children tends to think more quickly when
compared with the younger children. There seems to be both quantitative and qualitative
difference associated with the key thinking of young children vs older children (Hanfstingl,
Benke and Zhang, 2019). Cognitive development is significant because it tends to involve the
key changes within the cognitive abilities and process. However, early cognitive development
mainly includes process which is based on the actions and the later cognitive development leads
to changes within the mental operations.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bormanaki, H. B., & Khoshhal, Y. (2017). The role of equilibration in Piaget’s theory of
cognitive development and its implication for receptive skills: A theoretical study. Journal
of Language Teaching and Research. 8(5). 996-1005.
Hanfstingl, B., Benke, G., & Zhang, Y. (2019). Comparing variation theory with Piaget’s theory
of cognitive development: more similarities than differences?. Educational Action
Research. 27(4). 511-526.
Martí, E. (2020). Post-Piagetian Perspectives of Cognitive Development. In Oxford Research
Encyclopedia of Education.
Siegler, R. S. (2016). Continuity and change in the field of cognitive development and in the
perspectives of one cognitive developmentalist. Child Development Perspectives.10(2).
128-133.
WartellA, E., & Pila, S. (2020). Piagetian Accounts of Child Development in Media
Research. The International Encyclopedia of Media Psychology, 1-15.
Online
The 4 Stages of Cognitive Development. 2020. [Online]. Available through :
<https://www.verywellmind.com/piagets-stages-of-cognitive-development-2795457>.
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