8. Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development a = accommodation/assimilation; f = flaw Sensorimotor 0 – 2 years Imitation, permanence (a) Preoperational 2 – 7 years Egocentrism (f), centration (f), irreversibility (f) Concrete Op 7 – 11 years Decentration (a), conservation (a) Formal Op 11+ Abstract reasoning
The sensorimotor stage in a child is from birth to approximately two years. During this stage, a child has relatively little competence in representing the environment using images, language, or symbols. An infant has no awareness of objects or people that are not immediately present at a given moment. Piaget called this a lack of object permanence. Object permanence is the awareness that objects and people continue to exist even if they are out of sight. In infants, when a person hides, the infant has no knowledge that they are just out of sight. According to Piaget, this person or object that has disappeared is gone forever to the infant.
Actions are more intentional. Children begin exploring the environment around them and will often imitate the observed behaviour of others. The understanding of objects also begins during this time and children begin to recognise certain objects as having specific qualities.
extended Piaget’s theory into adult development, maintaining the view that development is an active process that involves constructing successively more adaptive levels of activity (Goldhaber, 2000). Labeled as a "neo-Piagetian theory", Goldhaber classifies Labouvie-Vief's theory under the organismic lens; while, Merriam et al (2007) label the theory as clearly contextualist because Labouvie-Vief demonstrates how contextual factors can influence cognitive development. Seemingly then, Labouvie-Vief's theory belongs under a contextualist-organismic lens.
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