Cognition- Piaget

Cognition- Piaget

1. Infants born with schemas- 'reflexes'

   • Uses them to adapt to their environment
   • Units of knowledge
     • Child shown a picture of a dog= forms a 'schema' of a dog through assimilation
       • Child shown a picture of a cat
         • Must use accomodation to work out what the cat is despite dog like qualities

2. Four stages of Cognitive development

   • Sensorimotor stage (0-2 yrs)
     • Intelligence demonstrated through motor activity without symbols
     • Develop object permanence around 7 months
     • Some language abilities developed at the end of the stage
   • Pre-operational stage (2-7 yrs)
     • Thoughts and communications generally egocentric
     • Animinism
       • Belief that inanimate object have human qualities and feelings
   • Concrete operational(7-11yrs)
     • Beginning of logical or operational thought
     • Child becomes less egocentric and better at conservation tasks
   • Formal operational (11+)
     • Abstract thinking
     • Higher order thoughts
     • Inferential reasoning
       • Think about things the child hasn't experienced and has to draw conclusions from their mind

3. Assimilation

   • Using an existing schema to deal with a new object or situation

4. Accomodation

   • When existing schema does not work and needs to be change to deal with new object or situation