Outline the stages of cognitive development as set forth by psychologist Jean Piaget

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Cognitive development relates to changes over time in how we think. According to

Piaget, in each stage of human development (from birth through adolescence),

children's activities are governed by their perception of the world around them. His

four stages of cognitive development are organized around specific tasks that, when

mastered, lead to the acquisition of new mental capacities, which then serve as the

basis for the next level of development. In the sensorimotor stage (birth to age two),

children understand the world only through sensory contact and immediate action? they

cannot engage in symbolic thought or use language. In the preoperational stage (ages

two to seven), children begin to use words as mental symbols and to form mental

images. They have limited ability to use logic to solve problems or to realize that

physical objects may change in shape or appearance but still retain their physical

properties. In the concrete operational stage (ages seven to eleven), children think in

terms of tangible objects and actual events. They can draw conclusions. Children begin

to take the role of others and start to empathize with the viewpoints of others. In the

formal operational stage (age twelve through adolescence), adolescents have the

potential to engage in highly abstract thought and understand places, things, and events

they have never seen. They can think about the future and evaluate different opinions

or courses of action. Piaget's stages of cognitive development provide us with useful

insights on children's logical thinking and how children invent or construct the rules that

govern their understanding of the world.