Theories Of Piaget's Theory Of Cognitive Development

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Akejah McLaughlin Professor Kline Lifespan Development 19 October 2017 Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget pioneered the clinical view of cognitive development, stressing that individuals construct their own knowledge through environmental, biological, and social interactions. To make sense of the world, children attain new information and skills by adapting to changes caused by a disequilibrium in their accustomed knowledge and experiences. Through four overlapping stages of growth, Piaget’s theory of cognitive development emphasizes the role of disequilibrium in infantile schemes, assimilation, and accommodation. Schemes are individual mental representations of the world and one’s understanding of it. Through an organized set of related information stored in long-term memory, a schema arranges cognitive patterns developed from experience into …show more content…

An infant uses a schema to do a task (assimilation), encounters new information that cannot be accurately interpreted by current knowledge (disequilibrium), and as a consequence, modifies or forms a new schema to achieve mental balance (accommodation). Piaget’s theory of cognitive development can be exemplified through motor development illustrated in walking stages. The first stage revolves around a 2-month-old infant learning to lift up their head. Infants do not know how independently lift their heads, resulting in their head always being down (assimilation). When infants hear sounds that are unfamiliar (disequilibrium), they may become curious and will eventually learn to lift their head to notice what is going on (accommodation). Once an infant can lift their head (assimilation), they may want to move toward new sights, sounds, and events (disequilibrium). With progression an infant will learn how to roll over as a method of locomotion by three months

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