GCSE Psychology: Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development Guide

Schemas

Piaget believed children build mental structures called schemas to understand the world, adapting them through assimilation (fitting new information into existing schemas) and accommodation (changing schemas to fit new information).

Stages of development

Piaget proposed four stages: sensorimotor (birth-2), preoperational (2-7), concrete operational (7-11) and formal operational (11+), each marked by different cognitive abilities.

Object permanence and conservation

Object permanence, understanding that objects still exist when out of sight, develops in the sensorimotor stage. Conservation, understanding that quantity stays the same despite a change in appearance, develops in the concrete operational stage.

Evaluating Piaget's theory

Piaget's theory has been influential in education, but later research suggests some abilities may develop earlier than Piaget proposed, and that his stages may be less rigid than originally described.

Common mistakes

• Mixing up assimilation (fitting new information in) and accommodation (changing existing schemas).
• Getting the order or age ranges of Piaget's four stages wrong.
• Confusing object permanence with conservation — they develop at different stages.