Jean Piaget s Theory Of Cognitive Development - 1641 Words

Jean Piaget (1936), was a developmental psychologist from Switzerland. He was known to be one of the first psychologists to study cognitive development. His contributions include an in depth theory of cognitive child development. His studies include many detailed child observations and a series of simple but ingenious tests to reveal a child cognitive abilities. Before Piaget’s theory of development many psychologists believed that children were just less competent thinkers then adults. Piaget argues that this was in fact incorrect and children just thought differently to adults (simplypsychology.org). Piaget argued a child’s cognitive development occurred in four distinct and separate stages. The first stage was the sensori-motor stage†¦show more content†¦To test his theory of ego-centrism, Piaget and Inhelder (1956) developed a task known as ‘The Three Mountains Task’ (Berk, L 2012). The aim of this study was to find out what age a child is no longer ego-centric. The method used in this task was to ask children aged between 4 to 8 years to sit at a table with a model of 3 mountains placed in front of them. The model also showed a house, snow, bushes and a red cross. The children were asked to walk around the model and look at it from every angle. They were then asked to sit down. A doll was then place on the opposite side of the model to the children. The children was then shown 10 photographs of the model taken from different angles and asked which card showed the view of the doll. Piaget believed that if the child picked out the correct child they were not ego-centric. After completing the task Piaget and Inhelder found that the children aged 4 always chose the card that matched their own view. The children aged 6 were able to show some awareness of alternative perspectives. It was only the children aged between 7 and 8 years that could pick the correct card every time. Piaget concluded that ego-centrism ended at the age of 7 years (simplypsychology.org). It is also during the pre-operational that a child cannot develop or understand centration. This means they lack the ability to concentrate on more than one part of a