Kevin Williamson: On Piaget
Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development
Formal Operational Stage
This stage is comprised of the maturity of abstract thinking and logic. This occurs mainly at the adolescent stage through adulthood and is considered the peak level of thinking. People with this level of cognitive development can think of hypothetical situaltions and draw their own inferences and conclusions using the knowledge they know and data they collect.
In this video, this adolescent hypothesizes a world without thumbs, demonstrating the formal operational stage.
Conservation
Within the concrete operational stage, children discover that objects do not change in quantity based on their appearance (ex. how it's arranged, order etc.). Logistics begin to come into play here more prominently and children become even better problem solvers.
In this picture, kids at this level will be able to point out the patterns they see within the design, not just the different colors and shapes. They able to identify many aspects about something.
Perception of Transformation
In this video, a 7 year-old girl cannot deduce that both bottles have the same amount of liquid inside, even though she just points it out.
In the preoperational stage, children form their own ideas about ideas, people, and knowledge, based on how they're presented. They rely on physical perception, rather than mental thinking. This lasts until about 7-8 years of age.
In the sensorimotor stage, children usually can't display "object permanance". This is a process our brains use that lets us know where hidden objects are, even if we can't see them. This stage is most prominent in infants. They also gain a sense of coordination, perception, and reflexes.
This infant learns to crawl and perceive his environment.
