Piagets Stages of Cognitive Development How do we develop mentally?

Sensorimotor Stage (birth – 2 yrs old) Info is gained through the senses and motor actions

Object Permanence The understanding that objects exist independent of one’s actions or perceptions of them http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjBh9ld_yIo

Preoperational Stage (2-7 years) Emergence of symbolic thought Egocentrism- “ Does your sister have a sister” http://bcs.worthpublishers.com/psychsim5/Cognitive%20Development/PsychSim_Shell.html Lack the concept of conservation These are speaker notes

Conservation Tasks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtLEWVu815o

Concrete Operational Stage (7-12 years) Can Conserve Mass, Weight and Numbers Classification and categorization Less egocentric Inability to reason abstractly or hypothetically http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw36PpYPPZM

Formal Operational Stage (age 12 - adulthood) Hypothetical-deductive reasoning Pendulum Problem Adolescent egocentrism illustrated by the phenomenon of personal fable and imaginary audience

Personal Fable…. “Nobody understands me." "My parents just don't know what I'm going through-- what do they know about what it's like being a teenager?" "You just don't know how it feels." "I just got dumped by the girl I love, and nobody could ever experience the crushing sadness I'm going through."

Imaginary Audience… On Stage feeling in Adolescence

Critique of Piaget’s Theory Underestimates children’s abilities Underestimates the role of the social environment Lack of evidence for qualitatively different stages