Cognitive Development Quiz

Cognitive Development: Jean Piaget and Other Theories

• Cognitive development is a field of study in neuroscience and psychology that focuses on a child's development in terms of information processing, conceptual resources, perceptual skill, language learning, and other aspects of the developed adult brain and cognitive psychology.

• Qualitative differences between how a child processes their waking experience and how an adult processes their waking experience are acknowledged.

• Jean Piaget was a major force establishing this field, forming his "theory of cognitive development". He proposed four stages of cognitive development: the sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational period.

• In recent years, alternative models have been advanced, including information-processing theory, neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development, theoretical cognitive neuroscience, and social-constructivist approaches.

• Other researchers, in multiple disciplines, had studied development in children before Piaget, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, James Sully, Sigmund Freud, Maria Montessori, Arnold Gesell, Erik Erikson, Urie Bronfenbrenner, and Lawrence Kohlberg.

• The first stage in Piaget's stages of cognitive development is the sensorimotor stage. This stage lasts from birth to two years old.

• The preoperational stage lasts from 2 years of age until 6 or 7. It can be characterized in two somewhat different ways.

• The concrete operational stage lasts from 6 or 7 years until about 12 or 13. During this stage, the child's cognitive structures can be characterized by reality.

• The formal operational stage lasts from 12 or 13 until adulthood, when people are advancing from logical reasoning with concrete examples to abstract examples.

• Many of Piaget's claims have fallen out of favor. For example, he claimed that young children cannot conserve numbers.

• Piaget's theory of cognitive development ends at the formal operational stage that is usually developed in early adulthood. It does not take into account later stages of adult cognitive development as described by, for example, Harvard University professor Robert Kegan.

• Piaget largely ignores the effects of social and cultural upbringing on stages of development because he only focuses on the individual's cognitive processes.

• Cognitive development is how a person perceives, thinks, and gains understanding of their world through the relations of genetic and learning factors.Cognitive Development: Theories and Influences

• Theories of cognitive development include Lev Vygotsky's theory, which emphasizes social learning and the role of adults in a child's development, and Jean Piaget's theory, which emphasizes stages of cognitive development.

• Vygotsky's theory includes the zone of proximal development, which is when a child cannot accomplish a task alone but can accomplish it with the help of a more knowledgeable other, and the importance of culture in cognitive development.

• Researchers speculate about innate core systems of cognition, such as infants' subitizing system for small numbers and their ability to navigate.

• Language acquisition is a major aspect of cognitive development, and there is debate about the role of genetics versus social experience in this process.

• Neuroscience research has revealed complex relationships between brain development and cognitive development, as well as between cognitive development and motor development.

• Cultural influences can shape cognitive development and neural activity, and research has shown differences in neural responses and activity between cultures and groups, such as East Asians and Americans.

• Being deaf or hard-of-hearing can impact cognitive development, particularly in language acquisition and social development.