AP Psychology
Mr.OG
Piagets’s Theory: Cognitive Development Developmental psychology is the study of human growth and development which occurs throughout the entire lifespan. Cognitive development is the beginning to the ability to think and understand. Cognitive development focuses on child’s development of information processing, conceptual resources, perpetual skill, language learning, and other aspects of brain development. Piaget has four stages to his theory: Sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. Much of the research has gone into understanding how a child imagines the world. In Piaget’s view, early cognitive development includes processes based upon actions and it later changes in mental operations. The first stage of Piaget’s theory lasts from birth until about age two, and it based upon the baby trying to make sense of the world. During the sensorimotor stage the child uses skills and abilities they were born with such as looking, sucking, grasping, and listening to learn more about the environment. Object permanence is a child’s understanding that objects are still there even though they cannot be seen or heard, and according to Piaget it is one of the most important. By 18 to 24 months children begin to develop symbols to represent events or objects in the world, and children begin to move towards understanding the world through mental operations rather than through just actions.
The preoperational stage occurs between about the ages 2 and seven. One of the milestones at this period is language development. Piaget states that at this stage do not yet understand concrete logic and are unable to take the point of view of other people. Piaget’s focus on this stage is what children could not do yet. Children lack the knowledge that things look different to other people and that objects can change in appearance while still maintaining the same properties In the “Three Mountain Task” children