Piaget's 4 Stages of Cognitive Development

At a Glance
Jean Piaget helped shape our foundational knowledge of childhood cognitive
development. His theories have influenced not just the field of developmental
psychology, but also other fields, including sociology, education, and more.
Prior to Piaget's theory, children were often thought of simply as “mini-
adults”. Instead, Piaget suggested that “the way children think is fundamentally
different from the way that adults think”.
Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development suggests that children move
through four different stages of learning. His theory focuses not only on
understanding how children acquire knowledge, but also on understanding the
nature of intelligence.
Piaget's stages are:
 Sensorimotor stage: Birth to 2 years
 Preoperational stage: Ages 2 to 7
 Concrete operational stage: Ages 7 to 11
 Formal operational stage: Ages 12 and up

Piaget believed that children take an active role in the learning process, acting
much like little scientists as they perform experiments, make observations, and
learn about the world. As kids interact with the world around them, they
continually add new knowledge, build upon existing knowledge, and adapt
previously held ideas to accommodate new information.
History of Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development
Piaget was born in Switzerland in the late 1800s and was a precocious
student, publishing his first scientific paper when he was just 11 years old. His
early exposure to the intellectual development of children came when he worked
as an assistant to Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon as they worked to standardize
their famous IQ test.
Much of Piaget's interest in the cognitive development of children was
inspired by his observations of his own nephew and daughter. These observations
reinforced his budding hypothesis that children's minds were not merely smaller
versions of adult minds.
Piaget proposed that intelligence grows and develops through a series of stages.
Older children do not just think more quickly than younger children. Instead, there are
both qualitative and quantitative differences between the thinking of young children
versus older children.
Based on his observations, he concluded that children were not less intelligent than
adults—they simply think differently. Albert Einstein called Piaget's discovery "so simple
only a genius could have thought of it."
Piaget's stage theory describes the cognitive development of children. Cognitive
development involves changes in cognitive process and abilities.2 In Piaget's view, early
cognitive development involves processes based upon actions and later progresses to
changes in mental operations.

The Sensorimotor Stage

During this earliest stage of cognitive development, infants and toddlers
acquire knowledge through sensory experiences and manipulating objects. A
child's entire experience at the earliest period of this stage occurs through basic
reflexes, senses, and motor responses.
Birth to 2 Years
Major characteristics and developmental changes during this stage:
• Know the world through movements and sensations.
• Learn about the world through basic actions such as sucking, grasping,
looking, and listening.
• Learn that things continue to exist even when they cannot be seen (object
permanence).
• Realize that they are separate beings from the people and objects around
them.
• Realize that their actions can cause things to happen in the world around
them.
During the sensorimotor stage, children go through a period of dramatic growth
and learning. As kids interact with their environment, they continually make new
discoveries about how the world works.
The cognitive development that occurs during this period takes place over a
relatively short time and involves a great deal of growth. Children not only learn
how to perform physical actions such as crawling and walking; they also learn a
great deal about language from the people with whom they interact. Piaget also
broke this stage down into substages. Early representational thought emerges
during the final part of the sensorimotor stage.
Piaget believed that developing object permanence or object constancy, the
understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be
 seen, was an important element at this point of development.

By learning that objects are separate and distinct entities and that they have an
existence of their own outside of individual perception, children are then able to
begin to attach names and words to objects.
The Preoperational Stage
The foundations of language development may have been laid during the previous
stage, but the emergence of language is one of the major hallmarks of the
preoperational stage of development.
2 to 7 Years
Major characteristics and developmental changes during this stage:
• Begin to think symbolically and learn to use words and pictures to represent
objects
• Tend to be egocentric and struggle to see things from the perspective of
others
• Getting better with language and thinking, but still tend to think in very
concrete terms
At this stage, kids learn through pretend play but still struggle with logic and
taking the point of view of other people. They also often struggle with
understanding the idea of constancy.
Children become much more skilled at pretend play during this stage of
development, yet they continue to think very concretely about the world
around them.
For example, a researcher might take a lump of clay, divide it into two equal
pieces, and then give a child the choice between two pieces of clay to play with.
One piece of clay is rolled into a compact ball while the other is smashed into a flat
pancake shape. Because the flat shape looks larger, the preoperational child will
likely choose that piece, even though the two pieces are exactly the same size.
The Concrete Operational Stage.
While children are still very concrete and literal in their thinking at this point
in development, they become much more adept at using logic.2 The
egocentrism of the previous stage begins to disappear as kids become
better at thinking about how other people might view a situation.
7 to 11 Years
Major characteristics and developmental changes during this stage:
• Begin to think logically about concrete events.
• Begin to understand the concept of conservation; that the amount of
liquid in a short, wide cup is equal to that in a tall, skinny glass, for
example.
• Thinking becomes more logical and organized, but still very concrete.
 • Begin using inductive logic, or reasoning from specific information to a
general principle.
While thinking becomes much more logical during the concrete operational
state, it can also be very rigid. Kids at this point in development tend to struggle
with abstract and hypothetical concepts.
During this stage, children also become less egocentric and begin to think
about how other people might think and feel. Kids in the concrete operational
stage also begin to understand that their thoughts are unique to them and that
not everyone else necessarily shares their thoughts, feelings, and opinions.
The Formal Operational Stage
The final stage of Piaget's theory involves an increase in logic, the ability
to use deductive reasoning, and an understanding of abstract ideas. At this
point, adolescents and young adults become capable of seeing multiple
potential solutions to problems and think more scientifically about the world
around them.
Age 12 and Up
Major characteristics and developmental changes during this time:
• Begins to think abstractly and reason about hypothetical problems
• Begins to think more about moral, philosophical, ethical, social, and political
issues that require theoretical and abstract reasoning
• Begins to use deductive logic, or reasoning from a general principle to
specific information
The ability to thinking about abstract ideas and situations is the key hallmark
of the formal operational stage of cognitive development. The ability to
systematically plan for the future and reason about hypothetical situations are also
critical abilities that emerge during this stage.
Important Concepts
It is important to note that Piaget did not view children's intellectual
development as a quantitative process. That is, kids do not just add more
information and knowledge to their existing knowledge as they get older.
Instead, Piaget suggested that there is a qualitative change in how children
think as they gradually process through these four stages.4 At age 7, children
don't just have more information about the world than they did at age 2; there is a
fundamental change in how they think about the world.
Piaget suggested several factors that influence how children learn and grow.
What Is a Schema in
Psychology?
- Examples
- Types
- How Schemas Change
- Impact on Learning
- Challenges
- Resistance to Change
Simply put, a schema describes patterns of thinking and behavior that
people use to interpret the world. We use schemas because they allow us to take
shortcuts in interpreting the vast amount of information that is available in our
environment.
You may have heard the word schema as it relates to coding, where it refers
to how a database is structured. While a schema in psychology still refers to how
information is organized, it focuses on how the human mind does it.
Schemas are mental models found in long-term memory. The brain utilizes
such models to organize information about the world. Schemas are essentially
built from our memories of our unique experiences.
However, these mental frameworks also cause us to exclude pertinent
information to focus instead only on things that confirm our pre-existing beliefs
and ideas. Schemas can contribute to stereotypes and make it difficult to retain
new information that does not conform to our established ideas about the world.
In psychology, a schema is a cognitive framework or concept that
helps organize and interpret information.
History of Schemas
The use of schemas as a basic concept was first used by a British
psychologist named Frederic Bartlett as part of his learning theory. Bartlett's
theory suggested that our understanding of the world is formed by a network of
abstract mental structures.
Theorist Jean Piaget introduced the term schema, and its use was
popularized through his work. According to his theory of cognitive development,
children go through a series of stages of intellectual growth.
In Piaget's theory, a schema is both the category of knowledge as well as the
process of acquiring that knowledge. He believed that people are constantly
adapting to the environment as they take in new information and learn new things.
 As experiences happen and new information is presented, new schemas are
developed and old schemas are changed or modified.
Schema Examples
For example, a young child may first develop a schema for a horse. She knows
that a horse is large, has hair, four legs, and a tail. When the little girl encounters
a cow for the first time, she might initially call it a horse.
After all, it fits in with her schema for the characteristics of a horse; it is a large
animal that has hair, four legs, and a tail. Once she is told that this is a different
animal called a cow, she will modify her existing schema for a horse and create a
new schema for a cow.
Now, let's imagine that this girl encounters a miniature horse for the first time
and mistakenly identifies it as a dog.
Her parents explain to her that the animal is actually a very small type of
horse, so the little girl must at this time modify her existing schema for horses.
She now realizes that while some horses are very large animals, others can be
very small. Through her new experiences, her existing schemas are modified and
new information is learned.
Types of Schemas
While Piaget focused on childhood development, schemas are something that
all people possess and continue to form and change throughout life. Object
schemas are just one type of schema that focuses on what an inanimate object is
and how it works. People have all types of schemas for all kinds of information,
including schemas about people, objects, places, events, and relationships.
For example, most people in industrialized nations have a schema for what a
car is. Your overall schema for a car might include subcategories for different types
of automobiles such as a compact car, sedan, or sports car.
The four main types of schemas are:
 Person schemas are focused on specific individuals. For example, your
schema for your friend might include information about her appearance, her
behaviors, her personality, and her preferences.
 Social schemas include general knowledge about how people behave in
certain social situations.
 Self-schemas are focused on your knowledge about yourself. This can
include both what you know about your current self as well as ideas about
your idealized or future self.
  Event schemas are focused on patterns of behavior that should be followed
for certain events. This acts much like a script informing you of what you
should do, how you should act, and what you should say in a particular
situation.
How Schemas Change
The processes through which schemas are adjusted or changed are known
as assimilation and accommodation.
 In assimilation, new information is incorporated into pre-existing
schemas.
 In accommodation, existing schemas might be altered or new schemas
might be formed as a person learns new information and has new
experiences.
Schemas tend to be easier to change during childhood but can become
increasingly rigid and difficult to modify as people grow older. Schemas will
often persist even when people are presented with evidence that contradicts
their beliefs.2
In many cases, people will only begin to slowly change their schemas when
inundated with a continual barrage of evidence pointing to the need to
modify it.
How Schemas Affect Learning
Schemas also play a role in education and the learning process. For example:
 Schemas influence what we pay attention to. People are more likely to
pay attention to things that fit in with their current schemas.
 Schemas also impact how quickly people learn. People also learn
information more readily when it fits in with the existing schemas.
 Schemas help simplify the world. Schemas can often make it easier for
people to learn about the world around them. New information could be
classified and categorized by comparing new experiences to existing
schemas.
 Schemas allow us to think quickly. Even under conditions when things
are rapidly changing our new information is coming in quickly, people do not
usually have to spend a great deal of time interpreting it. Because of the
existing schemas, people are able to assimilate this new information quickly
and automatically.
 Schemas can also change how we interpret incoming
information. When learning new information that does not fit with existing
 schemas, people sometimes distort or alter the new information to make it
fit with what they already know.
 Schemas can also be remarkably difficult to change. People often cling
to their existing schemas even in the face of contradictory information.
Challenges of Schemas
While the use of schemas to learn, in most situations, occurs automatically or
with little effort, sometimes an existing schema can hinder the learning of new
information.
Prejudice is one example of a schema that prevents people from seeing the
world as it is and inhibits them from taking in new information.
By holding certain beliefs about a particular group of people, this existing
schema may cause people to interpret situations incorrectly. When an event
happens that challenges these existing beliefs, people may come up with
alternative explanations that uphold and support their existing schema instead of
adapting or changing their beliefs.
Resistance to Change
Consider how this might work for gender expectations and stereotypes.
Everyone has a schema for what is considered masculine and feminine in their
culture. Such schemas can also lead to stereotypes about how we expect men and
women to behave and the roles we expect them to fill.
In one interesting study, researchers showed children images that were either
consistent with gender expectations (such as a man working on a car and woman
washing dishes) while others saw images that were inconsistent with gender
stereotypes (a man washing dishes and a woman fixing a car).
When later asked to remember what they had seen in the images, children
who held very stereotypical views of gender were more likely to change the
gender of the people they saw in the gender-inconsistent images. For example, if
they saw an image of a man washing dishes, they were more likely to remember it
as an image of a woman washing dishes.
Summary
Piaget's theory of cognitive development provided an important dimension
to our understanding of how children develop and learn. Though the processes of
adaptation, accommodation, and equilibration, we build, change, and grow our
schemas which provide a framework for our understanding of the world around us.
What Is Assimilation in Psychology?
The Importance of Assimilation in Adaptation and Learning
 • Assimilation vs. Accommodation.
• Examples of Assimilation.
• Reasons for Assimilation.
• Equilibriation.
Assimilation is the cognitive process of making new information fit in with
your existing understanding of the world. Essentially, when you encounter
something new, you process and make sense of it by relating it to things that you
already know.1
Assimilation refers to a part of the adaptation process initially proposed
by Jean Piaget. Through assimilation, we take in new information or experiences
and incorporate them into our existing ideas. The process is somewhat subjective,
because we tend to modify experience or information to fit in with our pre-existing
beliefs.
Assimilation plays an important role in how we learn about the world around
us. In early childhood, children are constantly assimilating new information and
experiences into their existing knowledge about the world.
However, this process does not end with childhood. As people encounter
new things and interpret these experiences, they make both small and large
adjustments to their existing ideas about the world around them.
Part of the Adaptation Process
Initially proposed by Jean Piaget, the term accommodation refers to the part
of the adaptation process. The process of accommodation involves altering one's
existing schemas, or ideas, as a result of new information or new experiences.
New schemas may also be developed during this process.
Consider, for example, how small children learn about different types of
animals. A young child may have an existing schema for dogs. She knows that
dogs have four legs, so she might automatically believe that all animals with four
legs are dogs.
When she later learns that cats also have four legs, she will undergo a
process of accommodation in which her existing schema for dogs will change and
she will also develop a new schema for cats.
Schemas become more refined, detailed, and nuanced as new information is
gathered and accommodated into our current ideas and beliefs about how the
world works.
How Accommodation Takes Place
 Accommodation does not just take place in children; adults also experience
this as well. When experiences introduce new information or information that
conflicts with existing schemas, you must accommodate this new learning in order
to ensure that what's inside your head conforms to what's outside in the real
world.
For example, imagine a young boy raised in a home that presents a
stereotyped schema about another social group. Because of his upbringing, he
might even harbor prejudices toward people in this group.
When the young man moves away to college, he suddenly finds himself
surrounded by people from this group. Through experience and real interactions
with members of this group, he realizes that his existing knowledge is completely
wrong. This leads to a dramatic change, or accommodation, in his beliefs about
members of this social group.
Assimilation vs. Accommodation
Piaget believed that there are two basic ways that we can adapt to new
experiences and information: assimilation and accommodation.
Assimilation
 New information is added to existing knowledge
 Schemas remain the same
 Fits into current interpretation of reality
Accommodation
 New information changes or replaces existing knowledge
 New schemas may develop
 Transforms current interpretation of reality
Assimilation is the easiest method because it does not require a great deal of
adjustment. Through this process, we add new information to our existing
knowledge base, sometimes reinterpreting these new experiences so that they will
fit in with previously existing information.
In assimilation, children make sense of the world by applying what they already
know. It involves fitting reality and what they experience into their current
cognitive structure. A child's understanding of how the world works, therefore,
filters and influences how they interpret reality.
For example, imagine that your neighbors have a daughter who you have
always known to be sweet, polite, and kind. One day, you glance out your window
and see the girl throwing a snowball at your car. It seems out of character and
rather rude.
 How do you interpret this new information? If you use the process of
assimilation, you might dismiss the girl's behavior, believing that it's something
she witnessed a classmate doing and that she does not mean to be impolite.
You're not revising your opinion of the girl during assimilation; you are simply
adding new information to your existing knowledge. She's still kind, but now you
know that she also has a mischievous side to her personality.
If you were to utilize the second method of adaptation described by Piaget, the
young girl's behavior might cause you to reevaluate your opinion of her. This
process is what Piaget referred to as accommodation, in which old ideas are
changed or even replaced based on new information.
Assimilation and accommodation both work in tandem as part of the
learning process. Some information is incorporated into our existing schemas
through the process of assimilation, while other information leads to the
development of new schemas or total transformations of existing ideas through
the process of accommodation.
Examples of Assimilation
Piaget did not believe that children just passively take in information. He
argued that they actively try to make sense of the world, constantly forming new
ideas and experimenting with those ideas. Examples of assimilation include:
• A child sees a new type of dog that they've never seen before and
immediately points to the animal and says, "Dog!"
• A chef learns a new cooking technique
• A computer programmer learns a new programming language
Another common example would be how children learn about different types
of animals. A child might begin with a schema for a dog, which in the child's mind,
is a small, four-legged animal.
As the child encounters new information in the world, the new information can
then be assimilated or accommodated into this existing schema.
When the child encounters a horse, they might assimilate this information
and immediately call the animal a dog. The process of accommodation then allows
the child to adapt the existing schema to incorporate the knowledge that some
four-legged animals are horses.
In each of these examples, the individual is adding information to their existing
schema. Remember, if new experiences cause the person to alter or completely
change their existing beliefs, then it is known as accommodation.
Reasons for Assimilation
 Assimilation plays a significant role in allowing humans to adapt to and learn
about their environment—especially during childhood when we're constantly
learning new things.
Assimilation can be viewed as a mental shortcut that lets us process and
categorize massive amounts of information at one time.
Of course, assimilation can have its drawbacks. There are times when new
information doesn't fit neatly into an existing category or schema in our mind. This
may lead to errors in judgment; such as a child calling a skunk a "kitty," for
instance.
However, when the child is taught that this animal is, in fact, a skunk, the
animal will be removed from their existing cat schema and enter a new mental
category.

Equilibriation
also believed that as children learn, they strike a balance between the use
of assimilation and accommodation. This process, known as equilibration, allows
children to find a balance between applying their existing knowledge and adapting
their behavior to new information.
According to Piaget, the learning process involves the following:
• Assimilation: Attempting to interpret new information within the framework
of existing knowledge
• Accommodation: Making small changes to that knowledge in order to cope
with things that don't fit those existing frameworks
• Equilibration: Eventually adjusting existing schemas or forming new ones in
order to adjust to a new understanding.
Summary
Assimilation and accommodation are complementary learning processes
that play a role at each stage of cognitive development. During the sensor motor
stage, for example, some information is assimilated, while some experiences must
be accommodated. It is through these processes that infants, children, and
adolescents gain new knowledge and progress through the stages of development.
Understanding Accommodation in Psychology
1. Part of the Adaptation Process
2. How Accommodation Takes Place
3. Observations
How do people learn new things? This question seems quite simple, yet it is a topic
that has long been a major subject of interest for psychologists and educators.
Experts agree that there are many different processes by which information can be
learned.
One of these methods that were described by an early psychologist is known as
accommodation. Accommodation is part of the learning process that allows us to
change our existing ideas in order to take in new information.
Jean Piaget Quotes
Jean Piaget was a Swiss developmental psychologist and genetic
epistemologist. Through his studies of his own three children, Piaget developed a
theory of cognitive development that described a series of stages of intellectual
development that children go through as they mature. Prior to Piaget, people
tended to think of children as simply small versions of adults. His work introduced
the idea that children's thinking was fundamentally different than that of adults.
On Genetic Epistemology
"What the genetic epistemology proposes is discovering the roots of the
different varieties of knowledge, since its elementary forms, following to the next
levels, including also the scientific knowledge.
The fundamental hypothesis of genetic epistemology is that there is a
parallelism between the progress made in the logical and rational organization of
knowledge and the corresponding formative psychological processes. With that
hypothesis, the most fruitful, most obvious field of study would be the
reconstituting of human history the history of human thinking in prehistoric man.
Unfortunately, we are not very well informed in the psychology of primitive man,
but there are children all around us, and it is in studying children that we have the
best chance of studying the development of logical knowledge, physical
knowledge, and so forth."
On Education
"The principal goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing
new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done—men who
are creative, inventive, and discoverers. The second goal of education is to form
minds which can be critical, can verify, and not accept everything they are
offered."
"Children have real understanding only of that which they invent
themselves, and each time that we try to teach them something too quickly, we
keep them from reinventing it themselves."
On Cognitive Development
 "Chance... in the accommodation peculiar to sensorimotor intelligence, plays
the same role as in scientific discovery. It is only useful to the genius and its
revelations remain meaningless to the unskilled.
"Every acquisition of accommodation becomes material for assimilation, but
assimilation always resists new accommodations."
"Knowing reality means constructing systems of transformations that
correspond, more or less adequately, to reality. They are more or less isomorphic
to transformations of reality. The transformational structures of which knowledge
consists are not copies of the transformations in reality; they are simply possible
isomorphic models among which experience can enable us to choose. Knowledge,
then, is a system of transformations that become progressively adequate."
"If a baby really has no awareness of himself and is totally thing-directed and at
the same time all his states of mind are projected onto things, our second paradox
makes sense: on the one hand, thought in babies can be viewed as pure
accommodation or exploratory movements, but on the other this very same
thought is only one, long, completely autistic waking dream."
"Mixture of assimilation to earlier schemas and adaptation to the actual
conditions of the situation is what defines motor intelligence. But — and this is
where rules come into existence — as soon as a balance is established between
adaptation and assimilation, the course of conduct adopted becomes crystallized
and ritualized. New schemas are even established which the child looks for and
retains with care, as though they were obligatory or charged with efficacy."
"The relations between parents and children are certainly not only those of
constraint. There is spontaneous mutual affection, which from the first prompts
the child to acts of generosity and even of self-sacrifice, to very touching
demonstrations which are in no way prescribed. And here no doubt is the starting
point for that morality of good which we shall see developing alongside of the
morality of right or duty, and which in some persons completely replaces it."
On Intelligence
"Furthermore, intelligence itself does not consist of an isolated and sharply
differentiated class of cognitive processes. It is not, properly speaking, one form of
structuring among others; it is the form of equilibrium towards which all the
structures arise out of perception, habit and elementary sensori-motor
mechanisms tend."
Additional Reading
For further exploration of Piaget's ideas, consider reading some of the source
texts. The following are a few of Piaget's best-known works.
1. "Origins of Intelligence in the Child," 1936
2. "Play, Dreams and Imitation in Childhood," 1945
3. "Main Trends in Psychology." 1970
4. "Genetic Epistemology," 1970
5. "Memory and intelligence," 1973