Jean Piaget/Cognitive Development

First of all, what is cognition? Cognition refers to all of the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

Piaget Piaget was a Swiss developmental psychologist who, while living in Paris was commissioned to develop intelligence tests for children. He was fascinated by the fact that children of similar ages frequently provided similar wrong answers.

His Quest Piaget spent 50 years on his journey to better understand the developing minds of children. He found that a child’s mind is NOT a miniature models of adults. He found that adults and children reason in different ways and dramatically different fashions.

The Revelation Piaget discovered that through phases children are active thinkers trying to construct more advanced understandings of the world. To this end, the maturing brain builds schemas, concepts or mental molds into which we pour our experiences. Take a moment to relate the terms assimilation and accommodation and discuss how they relate to Piaget’s theory.

Piaget Handout We will now utilize a worksheet that will help us remember the different stages of development that Piaget discussed. Use your textbook to assist you.