Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development: Infants act on the world. Initially the world is
their own body, but soon includes objects. By the end of the sensorimotor stage, actions on
the world are internalised and there is a concept of permanence of objects across space and
time.
● Inspired by tracking the development of Kant’s conceptions of space, time, causality,
and object (conceived as adult cognition). The theory was built with Piaget’s top-
down understanding of Kant’s concepts and bottom-up observations of his three
children.
Age Stage Description
0-2 years Sensorimotor Child beings to interact with the environment
2-7 years Preoperational Child begins to represent the world symbolically
7-12 years Concrete operational Child learns rules such as conservation
12 years+ Formal operational Adolescent can transcend the concrete situation
and think about the future.
Sensorimotor stage
1. Reflective schemes (birth - 1mo): Newborn reflexes.
2. Primary circular reactions (1-4mo): Simple motor habits centered around the
infant’s own body; limited anticipation of events.
○ Circular reaction: Behaviour occurs by chance initially, then repeated
behaviour patterns occur that prolong or exercise the reflex.
○ Accommodation: The process by which schemas are modified.
3. Secondary circular reactions (4-6mo): Actions aimed at repeating interesting
effects in the surrounding environment; imitation of familiar behaviours.
4. Coordination of secondary circular reactions (9-12mo): Intentional or goal
directed behaviour; Object permanence; improved anticipation of events; imitation of
behaviours slightly different from those the infant usually performs.
5. Tertiary circular reactions (18-24mo): Internal depictions of objects and events, as
indicated by sudden solutions to problems; concept of invisible displacement;
deferred imitation; make believe play.
Preoperational stage
Defined as lacking operational thought (mental actions that obey logical rules), therefore
lacking the ability to conserve.
Centration: The tendency to focus on only one aspect of a situation at one time, ignoring
transformation processed and primarily attending to initial and end states.
Egocentrism: Impacts the ability to take others' perspectives into account.
Representational activities (becoming meta-representational activities):
● Language
, ● Make-believe play
● Magical beliefs become beliefs with plausible explanations
● Appearance-reality problems
→ Also have an inability to process dual representations simultaneously (e.g. can sort by
colour OR shape, if that is the first one but cannot do the second type of sorting)
Concrete operational stage
Able to pass hierarchical classification, conservation tasks, and developed cognitive and
physical maps.
Formal operational stage
Children are limited by the need to perceive the information directly. From 12 years this
limitation is overcome. They are able to reason logically and plan abstract hypotheses.
CRITIQUES
❌ Results from some studies suggest that he underestimated age e.g. neonatal imitation.
❌ Lack of knowledge about neural development.
● Experience-expectant: Synaptic connections increase in the first 2 years, the
greatest density occurring at the end of toddlerhood, so growth overall is ‘waiting’ for
experiences.
● Synaptic Pruning: The refining of neural connections, wherein those that are used a
lot are strengthened, and those that are not used weaken.
● After two years, synaptic growth and pruning continues, but is experience-dependent,
in that it is more specialised and localised according to experience.
❌ Stages may not be the best way to see development; rather, it could be a more gradual
or modular process.
❌ Children can be trained to improve (though this may only be for those close to the next
stage).
● Goldin-Meadows: Conservation can be trained with gestures. Social input could be
more important than Piaget considered.
❌ Did not consider social cognition (joint attention, communication, theory of mind).
● Infants engage differently with social and non-social objects.
● Infants engage in primary intersubjectivity (infant + social partner) at 4 mo.
● Infants engage in secondary intersubjectivity at 9-12mo.
● All engagement of infants with the environment is socially mediated.
their own body, but soon includes objects. By the end of the sensorimotor stage, actions on
the world are internalised and there is a concept of permanence of objects across space and
time.
● Inspired by tracking the development of Kant’s conceptions of space, time, causality,
and object (conceived as adult cognition). The theory was built with Piaget’s top-
down understanding of Kant’s concepts and bottom-up observations of his three
children.
Age Stage Description
0-2 years Sensorimotor Child beings to interact with the environment
2-7 years Preoperational Child begins to represent the world symbolically
7-12 years Concrete operational Child learns rules such as conservation
12 years+ Formal operational Adolescent can transcend the concrete situation
and think about the future.
Sensorimotor stage
1. Reflective schemes (birth - 1mo): Newborn reflexes.
2. Primary circular reactions (1-4mo): Simple motor habits centered around the
infant’s own body; limited anticipation of events.
○ Circular reaction: Behaviour occurs by chance initially, then repeated
behaviour patterns occur that prolong or exercise the reflex.
○ Accommodation: The process by which schemas are modified.
3. Secondary circular reactions (4-6mo): Actions aimed at repeating interesting
effects in the surrounding environment; imitation of familiar behaviours.
4. Coordination of secondary circular reactions (9-12mo): Intentional or goal
directed behaviour; Object permanence; improved anticipation of events; imitation of
behaviours slightly different from those the infant usually performs.
5. Tertiary circular reactions (18-24mo): Internal depictions of objects and events, as
indicated by sudden solutions to problems; concept of invisible displacement;
deferred imitation; make believe play.
Preoperational stage
Defined as lacking operational thought (mental actions that obey logical rules), therefore
lacking the ability to conserve.
Centration: The tendency to focus on only one aspect of a situation at one time, ignoring
transformation processed and primarily attending to initial and end states.
Egocentrism: Impacts the ability to take others' perspectives into account.
Representational activities (becoming meta-representational activities):
● Language
, ● Make-believe play
● Magical beliefs become beliefs with plausible explanations
● Appearance-reality problems
→ Also have an inability to process dual representations simultaneously (e.g. can sort by
colour OR shape, if that is the first one but cannot do the second type of sorting)
Concrete operational stage
Able to pass hierarchical classification, conservation tasks, and developed cognitive and
physical maps.
Formal operational stage
Children are limited by the need to perceive the information directly. From 12 years this
limitation is overcome. They are able to reason logically and plan abstract hypotheses.
CRITIQUES
❌ Results from some studies suggest that he underestimated age e.g. neonatal imitation.
❌ Lack of knowledge about neural development.
● Experience-expectant: Synaptic connections increase in the first 2 years, the
greatest density occurring at the end of toddlerhood, so growth overall is ‘waiting’ for
experiences.
● Synaptic Pruning: The refining of neural connections, wherein those that are used a
lot are strengthened, and those that are not used weaken.
● After two years, synaptic growth and pruning continues, but is experience-dependent,
in that it is more specialised and localised according to experience.
❌ Stages may not be the best way to see development; rather, it could be a more gradual
or modular process.
❌ Children can be trained to improve (though this may only be for those close to the next
stage).
● Goldin-Meadows: Conservation can be trained with gestures. Social input could be
more important than Piaget considered.
❌ Did not consider social cognition (joint attention, communication, theory of mind).
● Infants engage differently with social and non-social objects.
● Infants engage in primary intersubjectivity (infant + social partner) at 4 mo.
● Infants engage in secondary intersubjectivity at 9-12mo.
● All engagement of infants with the environment is socially mediated.
