Cognitive Development

The development of the ability to think, including the construction of thought processes, learning structures, and systems in the brain, including remembering, symbolizing, problem solving, categorizing, reasoning, judging, creating, and decision making.

Jean Piaget developed the most influential and widely used theory of cognitive development. His genetic epistemological theory focused on the ability to more accurately represent the world. A process fundamental to this development is the construction of schemata (schemes), mental structures that are an organized way of making sense of experience and the world. Schemes change with age and cognitive expansion. Schemata are constructed through two processes. Adaptation, in which schemes are built through direct interaction with the environment, consists of the complementary activities of assimilation (the use of existing schemata to interpret the external world) and accommodation (the adjustment of old schemata or the creation of new ones after seeing that existing schemes do not accurately represent the [Page 82]world). Organization is the internal reorganization of schemes and linkage with other schemes to form a strongly interconnected cognitive system. Piaget posited that schemata become increasingly sophisticated as human beings move through four basic periods of developmental growth:

1. Sensory-motor period (years 0–2): Infants learn to “think” by interacting with the world through their five senses. They begin to develop essential spatial abilities and an understanding of the world by enacting goal-directed behavior, appreciating physical causality, anticipating events, internally representing absent objects and past events, imitating, and playing make-believe.

2. Preoperational period (years 2–7): This is a period of rapid development of representational or symbolic activity. Children learn to represent objects by using images and words, are able to classify objects according to simple criteria (all blue pegs), and are able to understand spatial symbols (e.g., simple maps). However, thought is generally not logical and includes animism and elements of egocentrism.

3. Concrete operational period (years 7–11): Children demonstrate the beginnings of thought that is logical, flexible, and organized when applied to concrete information and experience (e.g., hierarchical classification and seriation). However, there is a lack of capacity for abstract thinking.

4. Formal operational period (years 11 and older): This signals the development of abstract scientific thinking and the ability to reason logically and draw conclusions from the information available.

Challenges to Piagetian theory focus on (a) whether cognitive growth is a matter of domain-general changes or involves a variety of domain-specific changes, (b) the role of language in cognitive development, and (c) whether a constructivist approach provides a fully accurate account or whether human beings are born with an innate body of knowledge. For more information, see Gruber and Vonèche (1977).