Cognitive perspective
Jean Piaget
The cognitive perspective focuses on the way that we process, store and respond to
information. Examples of when this takes place os in memory, language and thinking. In
Jean Piaget’s findings, he concluded that there is an occurence of a sequence in
children’s development, which contains 4 stages. Each stage represents an
advancement in the child’s development. These stages are called: sensorimotor,
preoperational, concrete and formal.
Stage 1. The sensorimotor stage takes place at 0-2 years old. During this stage the
child begins to develop a range of skills which include;
● Reflexes
● Habits
● Hand-eye coordination
● Object permanence
● Experimentation and creativity
Stage 2. The preoperational stage takes place at 2-7 years old. They have further
developed on the previous skills and gained some new ones;
● Continue to develop and have object permanence
● Begin to talk and use language to represent objects and ideas
● They begin to become egocentric as they can only see the world through their
own eyes
● They do not understand concepts of conversation at this stage
Stage 3. The concrete operational stage takes place at 7-11 years old. Piaget
considered this stage as a major turning point for the child’s cognitive development
because it marks the beginning of their logical thoughts, which means that they child
can work things out internally in their head.
Stage 4. The formal operational stage in a child's life takes place at the ages of 11 and
upwards. The experiences and thinking process become even more logical within this
stage as a part of more abstract thinking. In solving problems, they will think more
systematically and develop hypotheses about why things happen, test these
hypotheses by the way of deductive reasoning.
A strength of Piaget’s theory is that he has influenced and changed how people view
their methods of studying children. His work also influences a huge amount of research
which has increased our understanding of cognitive development. His ideas have had
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Jean Piaget
The cognitive perspective focuses on the way that we process, store and respond to
information. Examples of when this takes place os in memory, language and thinking. In
Jean Piaget’s findings, he concluded that there is an occurence of a sequence in
children’s development, which contains 4 stages. Each stage represents an
advancement in the child’s development. These stages are called: sensorimotor,
preoperational, concrete and formal.
Stage 1. The sensorimotor stage takes place at 0-2 years old. During this stage the
child begins to develop a range of skills which include;
● Reflexes
● Habits
● Hand-eye coordination
● Object permanence
● Experimentation and creativity
Stage 2. The preoperational stage takes place at 2-7 years old. They have further
developed on the previous skills and gained some new ones;
● Continue to develop and have object permanence
● Begin to talk and use language to represent objects and ideas
● They begin to become egocentric as they can only see the world through their
own eyes
● They do not understand concepts of conversation at this stage
Stage 3. The concrete operational stage takes place at 7-11 years old. Piaget
considered this stage as a major turning point for the child’s cognitive development
because it marks the beginning of their logical thoughts, which means that they child
can work things out internally in their head.
Stage 4. The formal operational stage in a child's life takes place at the ages of 11 and
upwards. The experiences and thinking process become even more logical within this
stage as a part of more abstract thinking. In solving problems, they will think more
systematically and develop hypotheses about why things happen, test these
hypotheses by the way of deductive reasoning.
A strength of Piaget’s theory is that he has influenced and changed how people view
their methods of studying children. His work also influences a huge amount of research
which has increased our understanding of cognitive development. His ideas have had
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