Piaget's Theory of Childhood Cognitive Development

The following research paper presents an early middle childhood and adolescent Piaget activity. An experiment with young and adolescent children was performed and findings are presented. An introduction to Piaget's theory of cognitive development is followed by a description of the sample and procedures, observations, and analysis of the results. Conclusions present a discussion of findings, what was learned, and implications of results.

Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

Piaget hypothesized that infants are born with schemes or mental organizations operating at birth, called reflexes. Human beings use these reflexes to adapt to the environment until they are replaced with constructed schemes. Piaget described assimilation and accommodation, two processes used by the individual in its attempt to adapt to the environment. Both of these processes are used throughout life as the person increasingly adapts to the environment in a more complex manner (Atherton, 2003).

Piaget identified stages of cognitive development (Freeman, Simon, Beutler, & Arkowitz, 1989; Inhelder & Piaget, 1969): The sensorimotor stage (Birth û 2 years) is demonstrated through motor activity without the use of symbols. At early stages the child is egocentric and learns to differentiate the self from objects. Knowledge is built based on physical interactions and experiences. Children acquire object permanence at abou

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econd experiment, combinatorial thinking included two problems: The first requited finding all four-digit numbers that can be formed from four different digits; and the second problem required the creation of a flag using 3 of 5 different colors. Participants were asked about how they made their choices. Observations for the second experiment were as follows: Problem 1: Yahmire: Didn't follow directions and only provided two correct responses (with two incorrect responses); stated "I copied the one you had and then I started looking" Levan: Provided six responses; stated "I just did." Preston: Provided eight responses; stated "I just wrote them" Problem 2: Yahmire: Provided five responses; stated "Figured out about the American flag and then I thought about Puerto Rico's flags and other states" Levan: Provided ten responses; stated "Common sense" Preston: Provided two responses; stated "I don't know" Analysis of Results Analysis of results for the first experiment were as follows: Part 1: Jasmine: demonstrated some ability for conservation of substance since she concluded that the same amount of clay remained, however her reasoning showed that she may not fully understand why the amounts were the same. Kelech
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Approximate Word count = 1996
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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