Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive

Development

1st Semester, S.Y. 2016-2017

Read the situations below. Be able
to answer the follow-up
questions.
 It’s Christmas and Uncle Bob is giving
“aguinaldo” to the children. Three-year old Karen
did not want to receive the one hundred peso bill
and instead preferred to receive four 20 peso
bills. Her ten-year old cousins were telling her it’s
better to get the one hundred bill, but they failed
to convince her.
Question: Why do you think did Karen prefer the 20
peso bill?
 Siblings, Tria, 10; Enzo, 8; and Riel, 4 were
sorting out their stuffed animals. They had
7 bears, 3 dogs, 2 cows and 1 dolphin.
Mommy, a psychology teacher, enters and
says, “ Good thing you’re sorting those. Do
you have more stuffed animals or more
bears? “Tria and Enzo says,”stuffed
animals.” Reil says, “Bears”.
Question: Why do you think Riel answered Bears?
 While eating on her hgher chair, seven-
month old Liza accidentally dropped her
spoon on the floor. She saw mommy pick it
up. Liza again drops her new spoon, and
she does this several times more on
purpose. Mommy didn’t like it all but Liza
appeared to enjoy dropping the spoons the
whole time.
Question: Why do you think baby Liza
appeared to enjoy dropping the spoons?
 Jean Piaget
• Jean Piaget was a Swiss clinical psychologist
known for his pioneering work in child
development.
• Piaget's theory of cognitive
development and epistemo-
logical view are together called
"genetic epistemology".
 Basic Cognitive Concepts
• SCHEMA. This refers to the cognitive
structures by which individuals intellectually
adapt to and organize their environment.
 How schema works?
Characteristics of Dogs
-Four legs
-A tail
-It barks
-It’s furry
 ASSIMILATION
This is the process of fitting a new experience
into an existing or previously created
cognitive structure or schema.
Example:
 Assimilation
- Making sense of what one is seeing
by adding new information to
existing knowledge.
 ACCOMODATION
The process of creating a new schema .

Prior knowledge New knowledge

Characteristics of Dogs
-Four legs
-A tail
-It barks
-It’s furry
 This is a goat not a
dog.
New knowledge
 EQUILIBRATION
-is achieving proper balance between
assimilation and accommodation.
-However, sometimes cognitive disequilibrium
occurs. This means discrepancy between what
is perceived and what is understood.
PIAGET’S STAGES OF COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENT
Stage 1. Sensori-motor Stage.
- corresponds from birth to infancy
- A child becomes more organized in his movement
and activity.
- this focuses on the prominence of the senses and
muscle movement
Therefore, teachers must aim to provide a rich
and stimulating environment with appropriate
objects to play with.
 Object Permanence
This is the ability of the child to know that an
object still exists even when out of sight.
Stage 2. Pre-Operational Stage.
- the pre-operational stage covers from about
two to seven years old, roughly corresponding
to the preschool years.
- Intelligence is intuitive in nature
- stage of making mental representations
- the child is now ever closer to the use of
symbols.
Pre-Operational Stage is highlighted by the
following:
SYMBOLIC FUNCTION. This is the ability to
represent objects and events.
Wherein a symbol is a thing that represents
something else.
Pre-Operational Stage is highlighted by
the following:
EGOCENTRISM. This is the tendency of the child
to only see his point of view and to assume
that everyone also has his same point of view.
- the child cannot take the perspective of
others.
Pre-Operational Stage is highlighted by the
following:
CENTRATION. This refers to the tendency of the
child to only focus on one aspect of a thing or
event and exclude other aspects.
Pre-Operational Stage is highlighted by
the following:
IRREVERSIBILITY. Pre-operational children still
have the inability to reverse thinking.
Pre-Operational Stage is highlighted by
the following:
ANIMISM. This is the tendency of children to
attribute human like characteristics to
inanimate objects.
Pre-Operational Stage is highlighted by
the following:
TRANSDUCTIVE REASONING. This refers to the
pre-operational child’s type of reasoning that
is neither inductive nor deductive .
- If A causes B, then B causes A.
 Stage 3. Concrete-Operational Stage
- this stage is characterized
by the ability of the child
to think logically but only
in terms of concrete
objects, they still struggle
with abstract ideas.
- Covers the ages of 8- 11
years (elementary
school years)
 Concrete Operational Stage is
highlighted by the following:
DECENTERING. This refers to the ability of the
chid to perceive the different features of
objects and situations.

This allows the child to be more logical when

dealing with concrete objects and situations.
 Concrete Operational Stage is highlighted
by the following:
Reversibility. The ability of the child to follow or
solve certain operations in reverse.
 Concrete Operational Stage is highlighted
by the following:
Conservation. This is the ability to know that
certain properties of objects like number,
mass, volume , or area do not change even if
there is a change in appearance.
 Concrete Operational Stage is highlighted
by the following:
Seriation. This refers to the ability to order or
arrange things in a series based on one
dimension such as height, weight, volume or
size.
 Stage 4. Formal Operational Stage
- Covers ages between 12 and 15 years
- Thinking becomes more logical
- Can solve abstract problems and can
hypothesize
Formal Operational Stage is highlighted by
the following:
Hypothetical Reasoning.
This is the ability to come
up with different hypothesis
and to gather and weigh data.

This can be done with the

absence of concrete objects.

The individual can deal

with “what if” questions.
 Formal Operational Stage is
highlighted by the following:
Analogical Reasoning.
This is the ability to
perceive the relationship
in one instance and then
use that relationship to
narrow down possible
answers in another
similar situation or
problem.
 Formal Operational Stage is
highlighted by the following:
Deductive Reasoning.
This is the ability to think
logically by applying a
general rule to a particular
Instance or situation.