Cognotive Development Have you ever wondered how our brains develop from infancy to adulthood? There are many theories floating around as to how we develop, our initiative response would be learning from our surroundings and what we are taught by adults as we continue to develop. Developmental psychologists have been studying cognotive development and some have come to a conclusion that we develop based on maturation and physical abilities that come at different levels or stages of life. This theory was further explored by the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget who studied cognotive development in infants and young children for 50 years.
Study Piaget’s study was mainly focused on infants and young children and how they react and adapt to games that he would play
with them. These games were used to test their level of learning skills and adaptation to change, he was mainly focused on seeing when object permenance was achieved because he believed that was the beginning of true thinking. Piaget came up with stages that have a specific age range that are when the infant begins to develop, these are averaged based on all the tests he has done with different children.
Criticism Many psychologists in the developmental field use Piaget’s stages to further their study. There are some psychologists that are against his theory because they believe that development happens continuously rather than in set stages. Others say that his age ranges are incorrect because some psychologists have found evidence that object
permenance can be observed from as young as 2½ months, and that some other characteristics are observed at birth.
Results Piaget had tested multiple children and had averaged his results and came up with stages of cognotive development that are still used today. These stages can be visualized in a table that Piaget created so that it can be easier for someone to use and visualize.