Piaget

Assimilation

• absorbing new information into a preexisting cognitive structure
• Child sees a zebra and says horse
• child needs to create a new cognitive structure 

Accomodation

• modifying the preexisting cognitive structure in response to new info
• child now knows zebra

Stage 1- sensory motor

• birth-2yrs
• learn through looking, touching, grasping, putting in mouth
• object permanence

Stage 2- preoperational stage

• age 2-7yrs
• still don't grasp abstract principles and mental operations
• don't understand conservation yet (physical property changing)
• egocentric

Stage 3- concrete operational

• age 7-12
• child's thinking is still based on concrete experiences
• understand conservation and cause&effect

Stage 4-formal operational

• age 12-adulthood
• move beyond concrete (things touched, experiences)
• now capable of abstract (cant tough, quantify, haven't experienced)
• compare and classify, search for solutions
• reason about situations not yet experienced

Views of Piaget

• some say cognition develops continuously and not in stages 
• some say preschoolers are not egocentric
• some say cognition is dependent on culture, education, and experiences 
• some say Piaget underestimated infant's cognitive abilities