Today we are dedicating an article to learn about one of the most important legacies of Jean Piaget, experimental psychologistThe work of Jean Piaget, a philosopher and biologist whose work has been widely studied in psychology and pedagogy as well as in other disciplines.
This article is dedicated to the 4 stages of cognitive development proposed by the researcher, and Jean Piaget differentiated these different stages in our lives. As we grow as human beings we go through them, and consequently our cognition acquires a better knowledge of the environment and new thinking patterns.
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Piaget and his conception of cognitive development
In the past, society conceived of childhood as a stage in which one had not reached adulthood and little more. and little more, the individual being only an incomplete version of an adult person.
Piaget understood that it was not a linear and cumulative development, but that it was characterized by a qualitative profile.. He was a reference for questioning the traditional conception of childhood, and devoted much of his life to disprove it. Being in one stage or another has consequences when it comes to learning, behaving, relating to others, etc.
What a person learns in a moment within a phase of his life is not based on what he has already learned previously. What happens is that his brain reconfigures the information it already has and with the new information it expands his knowledge.
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Piaget and the 4 phases of cognitive development
Jean Piaget’s theory of the stages of cognitive development has been indispensable for developmental psychology, even though it was later criticized.although it later received some criticism.
But even today much of his work is still valid, and has served as a starting point for further research. Below we present the four stages of cognitive development according to Piaget, presented sequentially.
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1. Sensorimotor stage
Piaget states that this is the first of the four stages of cognitive development. The sensorimotor stage is located from the moment of birth until the infant is able to speak and produce simple sentences, which is usually simple sentences, which is generally up to two years of age.
The way in which the baby acquires knowledge is basically by interacting with the environment, i.e., by exploring its immediate world throughthat is, by exploring its immediate world through its senses, and by interacting with other people.
It has been demonstrated that babies show the ability to understand that objects exist even though they are not in front of them. They generally show egocentric behaviors, and their eagerness to explore is remarkable and primordial for the stage of cognitive development in which they find themselves.
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2. Pre-operational stage
Once the sensory-motor stage is overcome, the individual enters the second stage of development. Piaget places the preoperational stage between two and seven years of age..
Children in the preoperational stage have matured their capacity for interaction. They are able to play following fictitious roles and use symbolic objects. For example, they can play at cooking dinner for their parents.
In addition, they are now able to put themselves in the place of another person, although they continue to be egocentric. This is a limiting factor in their ability to develop some judgment.
Logical and abstract thinking has not yet blossomed, so there is some information they cannot process to reach certain conclusions.Therefore, there is certain information that they cannot process to reach certain conclusions. That is why this phase is called preoperational, and is that the mental operations of the adult do not yet exist.
The person uses simple associations and the ability to contrast is very low, and may develop magical thinking based on informal assumptions not justified.
3. Stage of concrete operations
The next chronological stage in the cognitive development of children is the stage of concrete operations. The next chronological stage in the cognitive development of children is the stage of concrete operations, and covers more or less the ages between seven and twelve years.
This is a stage in which the person has the ability to begin to use logic to reach conclusions, although it is linked to concrete situations.although it is linked to concrete situations. The capacity of abstraction has not yet acquired a high maturity, corresponding to a characteristic of the next stage.
The abilities that correspond to this stage have more to do with the ability to group objects according to some dimension that you share, order subgroups hierarchically, etc.
This stage also highlights the fact that the type of thinking of the person ceases to be so egocentric.
4. Formal operations stage
The fourth and last stage of cognitive development according to Piaget is the stage of formal operations, which begins at the age of twelve and the individual remains in this stage throughout adulthood.
At this stage, the person can use his mental capacity to carry out logical processes and make use of abstraction to reach conclusions. This means that it is not necessary to start from experiences, being able to analyze and think from zero about anything.
In this way, hypothetical deductive reasoning can appear.. This is based on observing, making a hypothesis about what has been observed to explain the phenomenon in question, and verification of that idea through experimentation.
The ability to use reasoning to the fullest extent can also lead to the generation of some inconsistencies, as is the case of fallacies or manipulation.
Argumentation, therefore, is not free of biases, and it should be noted that egocentrism is no longer characteristic of this stage.
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