Sensorimotor Stage
Infants learn from the world using these
What are the senses?
Children in this stage struggle to see the world from another person’s perspective.
What is egocentrism?
Children in this stage can now solve conservation tasks because they understand this principle.
What is the invariance of quantity?
According to Piaget, this is the approximate age at which a child enters the formal operational stage, which then lasts into adulthood
what is 11 years of age?
These mental structures organize knowledge and guide behavior.
What are schemas?
This milestone, often tested using the “hidden object task,” marks the beginning of mental representation.
What is object permanence?
This is the realization that objects can remain the same quantity despite changes in their physical appearance, a concept typically lacking in the preoperational stage
What is conservation?
The ability to organize objects into groups based on shared characteristics is known as this.
What is classification?
Adolescents in this stage can think about hypothetical situations and generate predictions
What is hypothetical‑deductive reasoning?
When new information fits into an existing schema, this process occurs.
What is assimilation?
Focusing on one aspect of a situation while ignoring others leads to errors in conservation tasks.
What is centration?
Ordering objects by size, length, or another dimension reflects this skill.
What is seriation?
The ability to think about other types of concepts—such as morality or justice—emerges here.
What is abstract reasoning?
When a schema must change to incorporate new information, this complementary process occurs.
What is accommodation?
this allows babies to visualize things that are not physically present, signaling the transition to the next stage
What is symbolic thought?
When a child cannot mentally reverse an action, such as pouring water back into a container, they show this limitation
What is irreversibility?
Although logical thinking improves, children in this stage still require this type of information to reason effectively.
What is concrete or tangible information?
Believing that others are constantly observing or judging them reflects this adolescent cognitive distortion
What is the imaginary audience?
Piaget’s theory is considered this type of approach because it views children as active builders of knowledge.
What is a constructivist theory?
Repetitive behaviors like kicking a mobile or shaking a rattle illustrate these learning mechanisms.
What are circular reactions?
Piaget used the “three mountains task” to demonstrate this characteristic limitation of preoperational thought.
What is egocentrism?
Systematically manipulating variables to test hypotheses reflects this hallmark of formal operational thinking.
What is scientific reasoning?
Piaget’s name for the study of the origins of thinking, combining the scientific study of where things come from with the framework of intelligence
What is genetic epistemology?