Editing Cognitive development (section)

== Jean Piaget ==
{{Main|Piaget's theory of cognitive development}}
[[Jean Piaget]] was the first psychologist and philosopher to brand this type of study as "cognitive development".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Renner |first=John |title=Research, teaching, and learning with the Piaget model |year=1974}}</ref> Other researchers, in multiple disciplines, had studied development in children before, but Piaget is often credited as being the first one to make a systematic study of cognitive development and gave it its name. His main contribution is the stage theory of child cognitive development. He also published his observational studies of cognition in children, and created a series of simple tests to reveal different cognitive abilities in children. Piaget believed that people move through stages of development that allow them to think in new, more complex ways.

=== Criticism ===
Many of Piaget's claims have fallen out of favor. For example, he claimed that young children cannot [[Conservation (psychology)|conserve]] numbers. However, further experiments showed that children did not really understand what was being asked of them. When the experiment is done with candies, and the children are asked which set they ''want'' rather than having to tell an adult which is more, they show no confusion about which group has more items. Piaget argues that the child cannot conserve numbers if they do not understand one-to-one correspondence.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gelman, Rochel. |title=The child's understanding of number |date=1978 |publisher=Harvard University Press |others=Gallistel, C. R., 1941- |isbn=0-674-11636-4 |location=Cambridge, Mass. |oclc=3770717}}</ref>

Piaget's theory of cognitive development ends at the formal operational stage that is usually developed in early adulthood. It does not take into account later stages of adult cognitive development as described by, for example, Harvard University professor [[Robert Kegan]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kegan |first1=Robert |title=The Evolving Self |date=1986}}</ref>

Additionally, Piaget largely ignores the effects of social and cultural upbringing on stages of development because he only examined children from western societies. This matters as certain societies and cultures have different early childhood experiences. For example, individuals in nomadic tribes struggle with number counting and object counting. Certain cultures have specific activities and events that are common at a younger age which can affect aspects such as object permeance. This indicates that children from different societies may achieve a stage like the  formal operational stage while in other societies, children at the exact same age remain in the concrete operational stage.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Babakr |first1=Zana |last2=Mohamedamin |first2=Pakstan |last3=Kakamad |first3=Karwan |date=2019 |title=Piaget's Cognitive Developmental Theory: Critical Review |url=https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1274368.pdf |journal=Education Quarterly Reviews |volume=2 |issue=3 |page=520 |doi=10.31014/aior.1993.02.03.84 |access-date=2023-03-21}}</ref>

=== Stages ===

==== Sensorimotor stage ====
Piaget believed that infants entered a sensorimotor stage which lasts from birth until age 2. In this stage, individuals use their senses to investigate and interact with their environment. Through this they develop coordination between the sensory input and motor responses. Piaget also theorized that this stage ended with the acquisition of [[object permanence]] and the emergence of symbolic thought.

This view collapsed in the 1980s when research was put out showing that infants as young as five months are able to represent out-of-sight objects, as well their properties, such as number and rigidity.

==== Preoperational stage ====
Piaget believed that children entered a preoperational stage from roughly age 2 until age 7. This stage involves the development of symbolic thought (which manifests in children’s increased ability to ‘play pretend’). This stage involves language acquisition, but also the inability to understand complex logic or to manipulate information.<ref>"Piaget's Preoperational Stage of Cognitive Development | Lifespan Development". courses.lumenlearning.com. Retrieved 2023-10-31.</ref>

Subsequent work suggesting that preschoolers were indeed capable of taking others' perspectives into account and reasoning about abstract relationships, including causal relationships marked the demise of this aspect of stage theory as well.<ref>Spelke, E. S. (2022). What Babies Know: Core Knowledge and Composition Volume 1 (Vol. 1). Oxford University Press.</ref>

==== Concrete operational stage ====
Piaget believed that the concrete operational stage spanned roughly from age 6 through age 12. This stage is marked by the development and achievement of skills such as [[Conservation (psychology)|conservation]], classification, serialism, and spatial reasoning.

Work suggesting that much younger children reason about abstract ideas including [[Categorization|kinds]], [[Logical connective|logical operators]], and causal relationships rendered this aspect of stage theory obsolete.

==== Formal operational stage ====
Piaget believed that the formal operational stage spans roughly from age 12 through adulthood, and is marked by the ability to apply mental operations to abstract ideas.<ref name="ReferenceB">McShane, John. "Cognitive Development: an information processing approach". 1991</ref>