Piaget's theory of cognitive development: Difference between revisions

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==Challenges to Piagetian stage theory==

Piagetian accounts of development have been challenged on several grounds. First, as Piaget himself noted, development does not always progress in the smooth manner his theory seems to predict. ''Décalage'', or progressive forms of cognitive developmental progression in a specific ___domain, suggest that the stage model is, at best, a useful approximation.<ref name="go.galegroup.com2">{{cite journal|url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX3466300160&v=2.1&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w&asid=b6bd1ae3a4e93016b772396b5848a349|title=Concrete Operational Period|first=Karen E.|last=Singer-Freeman|date=30 November 2005|journal=Encyclopedia of Human Development|volume=1|doi=10.4135/9781412952484.n148|isbn=9781412904759}}</ref> Furthermore, studies have found that children may be able to learn concepts and capability of complex reasoning that supposedly represented in more advanced stages with relative ease (Lourenço & Machado, 1996, p.&nbsp;145).<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Lourenço | first1 = O. | last2 = Machado | first2 = A. | year = 1996 | title = In defense of Piaget's theory: A reply to 10 common criticisms | journal = Psychological Review | volume = 103 | issue = 1| pages = 143–164 | doi = 10.1037/0033-295X.103.1.143 | s2cid = 32390745 }}</ref><ref>[http://www.saylor.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/psych406-5.3.2.pdf Kay C. Wood, Harlan Smith, and Daurice Grossniklaus. "Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development". pp. 6] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130930233046/http://www.saylor.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/psych406-5.3.2.pdf |date=2013-09-30 }} Retrieved May 29, 2012</ref> More broadly, Piaget's theory is "[[Domain-general learning|___domain general]]," predicting that cognitive maturation occurs concurrently across different domains of knowledge (such as mathematics, logic, and understanding of [[physics]] or language).<ref name="go.galegroup.com2"/> Piaget did not take into account variability in a child's performance notably how a child can differ in sophistication across several domains.

Piaget’s theory has been challenged through research studies on a child’s cognitive development such as the habituation paradigm. Many infants possess “core knowledge” which allow them to have an innate understanding for how things around them work. Infants were found to have coherence (objects move in one piece), continuity (objects follow continuous paths), and contact (objects do not move without being touched). In an experiment conducted by Renée Baillargeon, three month old infants were tested to see if they were surprised when a board fell downward and appeared to pass through a ball hidden behind it.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Baillargeon |first=Renée |date=1987-09 |title=Object permanence in 3½- and 4½-month-old infants. |url=https://doi.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0012-1649.23.5.655 |journal=Developmental Psychology |language=en |volume=23 |issue=5 |pages=655–664 |doi=10.1037/0012-1649.23.5.655 |issn=1939-0599}}</ref> These infants were shocked and confused, despite their ages not aligning with the eight months proposed by Piaget. Thus, it was found that the way in which children learn about the world is not strictly confined through different age groups.

During the 1980s and 1990s, cognitive developmentalists were influenced by [[Psychological nativism|"neo-nativist"]] and [[evolutionary psychology]] ideas. These ideas de-emphasized ___domain general theories and emphasized [[___domain specificity]] or [[modularity of mind]].<ref name="Callaghan, T. C. 2005 pp. 204-209">{{cite journal|url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX1311100053&v=2.1&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w&asid=c822fe0523f5b1258756f6e7855acc8d|title=Cognitive Development Beyond Infancy|first=Tara C.|last=Callaghan|date=30 November 2004|journal=The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Child Development}}</ref> Modularity implies that different cognitive faculties may be largely independent of one another, and thus develop according to quite different timetables, which are "influenced by real world experiences".<ref name="Callaghan, T. C. 2005 pp. 204-209"/> In this vein, some cognitive developmentalists argued that, rather than being ___domain general learners, children come equipped with ___domain specific theories, sometimes referred to as "core knowledge," which allows them to break into learning within that ___domain. For example, even young infants appear to be sensitive to some predictable regularities in the movement and interactions of objects (for example, an object cannot pass through another object), or in human behavior (for example, a hand repeatedly reaching for an object has that object, not just a particular path of motion), as it becomes the building block of which more elaborate knowledge is constructed.