Stages of Cognitive Development

Jean Piaget Stages of Cognition

Jean Piaget’s 4 Cognitive Stages

Jean Piaget (1896-1980) introduced the stages that a child passes through on his or her way to the development of formal through processes. He believed human development is based on cognitive functioning, learning, and comprehension by studying his own three children.  Piaget’s theory has been well accepted and included in every developmental text in psychology and education.

–All Psych

The Stages of Cognitive Development

(Stage/Age/Characteristics->The Achieved Goals)

  1. Sensorimotor: Birth to 18–24 months(2y/o): Motor activity without the use of symbols. All things learned are based on experiences, or trial and error ->Object permanence
  2. Preoperational: 2 -7y/o: Development of language, memory, and imagination. Intelligence is both egocentric and intuitive ->Symbolic thought
  3. Concrete operational: 7-11y/o: More logical and methodical manipulation of symbols. Less egocentric, and more aware of the outside world and events ->Operational thought
  4. Formal operational: 11-Adult: Use of symbols to relate to abstract concepts. Able to make hypotheses, reversibility, and grasp abstract concepts and relationships ->Abstract concepts

How can anyone remember these concepts? Somewhat by paying attention to the definition of the stages and process of elimination:

  • Sensorimotor: a baby/infant can only use the senses to identify the object (permanence).
  • Preoperational: a toddler/child performs operations (or interactions) primarily with symbols.
  • Concrete Operational: the child is concrete, using more than symbols but not abstract. Thus, you can rule out the infant, preoperational, and formal operational stages. Operational thoughts before formal thoughts.

Also, note the terms of “logic”: 

  • Reversibility:  the understanding that one thing can turn into another and back again (i.e. water and ice).
  • Conservation: the ability to recognize that an object may change and still maintain its characteristics that allowed the object to be recognized (i.e. clay).

Formal operational: is the mature (formal) child/adult that uses abstract, which is the only stage that uses abstracts. However, according to Piaget not all adolescents or adults reach this stage.

Hopefully, the review made it easier to understand Piaget’s concepts of cognitive development.

References & Additional Links

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