Piaget's theory of cognitive development is a comprehensive theory about the nature and development of human intelligence first developed by Jean Piaget. It is primarily known as a developmental stage theory, but in fact, it deals with the nature of knowledge itself and how humans come gradually to acquire it, construct it, and use it. Moreover, Piaget claims the idea that cognitive development is at the centre of human organism and language is contingent on cognitive development. Below, there is first a short description of Piaget's views about the nature of intelligence and then a description of the stages through which it develops until maturity. Contents * 1 The Nature of Intelligence: Operative and Figurative Intelligence * 1.1 Assimilation and Accommodation * 1.2 Sensorimotor stage * 1.3 Preoperational stage * 1.4 Concrete operational stage * 1.5 Formal operational stage * 1.6 The stages and causation * 2 Challenges to Piagetian stage theory * 3 Post Piagetian and Neo-Piagetian stages * 4 Postulated physical mechanisms underlying "schemes" and stages * 5 Piagetian and post-Piagetian stage theories/heuristics * 6 References * 7 External links |
The Nature of Intelligence: Operative and Figurative Intelligence
Piaget believed that reality is a dynamic system of continuous change, and as such is defined in reference to the two conditions that define dynamic systems that change. Specifically, he argued that reality involves transformations and states. Transformations refer to all manners of changes that a thing or person can undergo. States refer to the conditions or the appearances in which things or persons can be found between transformations. For example, there might be changes in shape or form (for instance, liquids are reshaped as they are transferred from one vessel to another, humans change in their characteristics as they grow older), in size (e.g., a series of