Piaget's Concrete Operational Stage Quiz

Cognitive Development Stages

• Piaget termed the age from 7 to 11 as the Concrete Operations stage.
• After concrete operations comes the Formal Operations stage.

Key Milestones and Achievements

• A key milestone of cognitive development is the ability to think logically about how the world works, which is achieved during the concrete operations stage.
• The cognitive achievement of concrete operations that enables children to sort objects or events into the same class based on common characteristics is called classification.
• The cognitive achievement of concrete operations that enables children to arrange things in a logical order is called seriation.
• The ability to combine classes into more general categories is called hierarchical classification.
• The ability to mentally manipulate information instead of relying on physical and sensory associations is called decentration.

Characteristics of Concrete Operations

• Children usually make mistakes when performing tasks requiring an understanding of conservation around age 7-11.
• Seriation is the ability to arrange objects or events in a logical order, such as by length or size.
• Most children can accurately arrange six to eight sticks by length around age 10.
• Piaget found that children can seriate mentally during the concrete operations stage, but may not be able to do so consistently.
• According to Piaget, a key part of learning to think logically and systematically is to understand the principles of concrete operations.

Criticisms and Research

• Research testing Piaget's theory found that children may not develop concrete operations as uniformly as Piaget suggested.
• The difference between Piaget and his critics regarding concrete operations is that Piaget believed that children develop these abilities uniformly, while critics argue that development may be more variable.
• Children under age 7 can learn to perform the tasks of concrete operations with training and instruction, but may not fully understand the underlying principles.
• A child needs to be able to think logically and systematically, and understand the principles of conservation, classification, and seriation to be considered a concrete operational thinker.

Problem-Solving and Seriation

• The purpose of seriating mentally in a problem is to arrange objects or events in a logical order to solve the problem.