Jean Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

Jean Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

Stage	Approximate Age	Significant Characteristics
Sensorimotor	0-2 years	Thoughts are demonstrated by physical manipulation of objects/stimuli
Substage 1: Making use of ready-made reflexes (pure assimilation)	0-1 month	Pure reflex adaptation (e.g., if lips are touched, baby sucks; if object placed in palm, baby grasps)
Substage 2: Primary circular reactions (assimilation, accommodation, and equilibrium are now used as individual grows and develops)	1-4 months	Actions centered on infant’s body and endlessly repeated reflex activities become modified and coordinated with each other with experience. Infant repeats behaviors for sensual pleasure (e.g., kicks repetitively, plays with own hands and fingers, sucking for a long time). Early coordination of selected reflexes (e.g., sucking and swallowing) and schema (e.g., hearing and looking at same object)
Substage 3: Secondary circular reactions	4-8 months	Center of interest is not on own body’s action but the environmental consequences of those actions. Behavior becomes intentional. Baby repeats behaviors that produce novel (e.g., pleasing, interesting) effects on environment (e.g., crying to get caregivers’ attention). Increased voluntary coordination of motor skills enabling exploration (e.g., mouthing objects by combining grasping and sucking). Appears to have cognitive object constancy-an awareness that an object or person is the same regardless of the angle from which viewed (e.g., baby will anticipate eating when they see bottle of formula even if it is upside down and across the room)
Substage 4: Coordination of secondary circular reactions in new situations	8-12 months	Infant consciously uses an action that is a means to an end and solves simple problems (e.g., will reach for a toy and then will use that toy to retrieve another toy originally out of reach). Object permanence appears at approximately 8 months. This is the awareness that an object continues to exist even though one is not in direct contact with that object (e.g., when infant sees someone hide a favorite toy under a blanket, they will attempt to retrieve it from under the blanket). Imitate simple behaviors of others
Substage 5: Tertiary circular reactions	12-18 months	Child now "experiments" (much trial and error) in order to discover new properties of objects and events. Varies approaches to an old situation or applies old approaches to a new problem. Must physically solve a problem to understand cause-effect relationship. Imitates simple novel behaviors
Substage 6: Invention of new means through mental combinations	18-24 months	Invention of new means can occur without actual physical experimentation. Occasional new means through physical experimentation-still much trial and error problem solving. Child begins to mentally represent object/events before physically acting (e.g., can solve "detour" problems to go one small distance to another). Engages in early symbolic play. Both immediate and deferred imitation of actions and words noted
Stage	Approximate Age	Significant Characteristics
Preoperational Divided into two substages:	2-7 years	Increasing ability to make a mental representation for something not immediately present using language as a major tool. Eventually, the child is able to give their reasons for beliefs and rationales for action; however, they remain biased and immature. Magical thought (wishing something will make it so) predominates
Preconceptual (2-4 years) and intuitive (4-7 years) During the preconceptual substage, the child inconsistently assigns any word to several similar stimuli (e.g., child calls all four-legged mammals by their pet cat’s name)		The following characteristics (although they go through modification as the child develops from 2 to 7 years of age) serve as some obstacles to "adult logic": Fundamental egocentrism-never thinks that anything is other than the way they perceive it (e.g., "If I’m going to bed now, every child is going to bed now") Centration-tends to focus on one aspect of an object or experience (e.g., when asked to compare two rows of like objects with one row containing six pennies and the other, a longer row containing three pennies would answer that the longer row is "more") Limited transformation-is not able to comprehend the steps of how an object is changed from one state to another (e.g., could not explain the sequence of events that occurs when an ice cube melts and turns into a puddle of water)
During the intuitive stage, the child begins to realize the ability of a word to truly represent a specific object, event, or action		Action rather than abstraction-perceives an event as if actually participating in the event again (e.g., when asked about riding in a toy car, may imitate turning the steering wheel when they think about it) Irreversibility-unable to follow a line of reasoning back to its beginning (e.g., if child is taken on a walk, especially one with a turn, they are unable to retrace their steps and return to the original point) Transductive reasoning-thinks specific to specific; if two things are alike in one aspect, the child thinks they are alike in all aspects (e.g., child thinks beetle seen on a picnic in the park is the same beetle seen in their backyard) Animism-believes that inert objects are alive with feelings and can think and function with intent (e.g., child thinks that if vacuum cleaner "eats" the dirt, then it can "eat" them)
Concrete operational	7-11 years	Begins to think and reason logically about objects in the environment. Can mentally perform actions that previously had to be carried out in actuality. Reasoning is limited to concrete objects and events ("what is"), but not yet abstract objects and events ("what might be"). Inductive reasoning (specific to general) has begun. Can consider viewpoints of others. Understands and uses time on a clock. Understands days of week, months of year. Best understands years within life experience. Can decenter, understands transformations. Can reverse thoughts
Stage	Approximate Age	Significant Characteristics
		Progressively able to conserve (understand that properties of substances will remain the same despite changes made in shape or physical arrangement) numbers, mass, weight, and volume in that order. Begins to understand relationship between distance and speed. Learns to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. Can organize, then classify objects. Progressively capable of money management
Formal operational	11-15+ years	Develops ability to problem-solve about both the real and the possible. Can logically and flexibly think about the past, present, and future. Possesses ability to think about symbols that represent other symbols (e.g., x = 1, y = 2). Can think abstractly when presented with information in verbal (as opposed to written) form Able to envision and systematically test many possible combinations in reaching a conclusion. Able to generate multiple potential solutions while considering the possible positive/negative effects of each solution. Can perform deductive reasoning (general to specific). Can hypothesize ("If … then" thinking) Can think about thinking (metacognition)

Information from Piaget, J. (1952). The origins of intelligence in children (M. Cook, Trans.). International Universities Press; Piaget, J. (1969). The language and thought of the child (M. Gabain, Trans.). Meridian Books; Piaget, J., & Inhelder, B. (1969). The psychology of the child (H. Weaver, Trans.). Basic Books, Inc.; Piaget, J. (1981). The psychology of intelligence (M.Piercy & D. E. Berlyne, Trans.). Littlefield & Adams; Piaget, J. (1982). Play, dreams and imitation in children (C. Gattengo & F. M. Hodgson, Trans.). Norton; and Schuster, C. S., & Ashburn, S. S. (1992). The process of human development: A holistic life-span approach (3rd ed.). J. B. Lippincott Company.

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Table 4-2