This module examines the major theories of cognitive development, how nature and nurture interact to produce cognitive development, whether development is continuous or discontinuous, and ways in which research on lifespan cognition development can be applied to improve education.
Stages of Cognitive Development
Cognitive development is the process of acquiring knowledge and skills needed to function as an adult. Cognition is influenced by many factors such as environment, social and cultural background, genetics, and learning style. It can be developed through activities such as playing games, reading, doing puzzles, and watching tv.
Jean Piaget was one of the first psychologists to create a theory of cognitive development. He believed that children pass through different stages as they develop their thinking skills. He divided the stages into 4: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operations. He believed that these stages are based on children’s real-world experiences.
The sensorimotor stage lasts from birth until around age 2. During this time babies learn the basic principles of object permanence and deferred imitation. The preoperational stage is between ages 2 and 7. During this stage, children develop the ability to use symbols in their play. They also become less egocentric and learn that other people see things differently than they do. The concrete operational stage is between ages 7 and 12 years. During this time, children begin to think logically and understand conservation.
Sensorimotor Intelligence
The first stage of cognitive development is called the sensorimotor period, which lasts from birth until about 2 years. At this stage, infants learn about their environment primarily through sensory perception and motor activities such as reaching and grasping. This is a period of rapid growth and learning as kids discover relationships between themselves, their bodies, and the world around them.
The sensorimotor period includes six substages. The earliest stage involves primary circular reactions and the later stages involve coordination of reactions, tertiary circular reactions, and early representational thought. One of the most important milestones during this stage is when a child achieves object permanence, which means that an object continues to exist even when it’s out of sight. Try a simple game of peek-a-boo with your toddler to help them develop this concept.
Once children reach the preoperational thinking stage, which generally happens around age 2, they start relying on mental abstractions instead of direct physical actions to solve problems. They may use language to communicate with others, but still think in an egocentric way.
Preoperational Thinking
The preoperational thinking stages of cognitive development occur between the ages of 2 and 7. During this time, children move away from perceptive thought towards intuitive thinking. However, they still cannot properly use logic in their reasoning. This stage is characterized by egocentrism, which means that they do not consider the viewpoint of others. For example, if they see a friend playing with a toy and want to grab it, they will do so without asking politely. This may seem selfish to us, but they are just using their brains to make the best judgments that they can.
During this stage, they can also experience difficulty with conservation and class inclusion tasks. For example, if you show a child two rows of coins and ask them which row has more, they are likely to answer that the first row has more because they do not understand that the number remains the same regardless of how it appears. You can test this by spreading the coins in the second row so that they are longer, and then ask them which has more again.
Concrete Operational Thinking
Piaget’s third stage of cognitive development is concrete operational thinking, which occurs between ages 7 and 12. During this time, children become more sophisticated in their reasoning skills. Their thought processes become more organized, logical and systematic, but they still struggle with abstract, hypothetical concepts and problems. They can only solve problems that apply to concrete objects or events. They also begin to understand the concept of object permanence, goal-directed action and deferred imitation.
This cognitive developmental stage also includes the ability to create sub-categories based on shared characteristics (e.g., shapes). Children can also reverse a sequence of events mentally and understand the concept of conservation, or that an object’s mass doesn’t change depending on its shape.
Educational programmes that promote this stage of cognitive development need to offer students new experiences that challenge their existing schemas and provide them with concrete means of learning such as tokens for counting. These programmes should also encourage children to interact with the materials and discover for themselves. Research has shown that instructing students on the use of effective strategies can improve performance.
Formal Operational Thinking
The fourth and final stage of cognitive development is called the formal operational stage. It starts at around age twelve and continues into adulthood. In this stage, children learn to use logical reasoning and think abstractly. They are able to consider multiple solutions and possible outcomes in a situation, a process known as hypothetical-deductive thinking.
They can use this kind of thought to make decisions and solve problems. They also develop deductive logic, which is the ability to use a general principle to come up with a specific conclusion. In this stage, kids can even start to speculate about the future and possible consequences of their actions.
To test this, researchers gave some kids a simple task that involved balancing a scale with weights on each end. While the younger kids struggled to balance the scale, the older kids were able to use their past experiences to formulate a hypothesis and systematically test it. Then they could figure out where to put the weights on the scale so it would be balanced. This type of creative and abstract thinking is characteristic of the formal operational stage.