Sensorimotor
This is the primary way infants in this stage learn about the world.
Through their senses and motor actions
This stage is characterized by symbolic thought and language development.
The Preoperational stage.
Children in this stage can think logically about concrete events and objects.
The Concrete Operational.
This ability to think about possibilities and hypothetical situations.
Hypothetico deductive.
This is the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they can't be seen.
Object permanence.
A child talking to their stuffed animal as if it's real is an example of this.
Symbolic play.
The ability to mentally reverse a sequence of events or operations.
Reversibility.
This is the final stage of cognitive development where abstract thought emerges.
The formal operational
A baby repeatedly shakes a rattle. This is an example of a...
Circular reaction.
This is the tendency for children to see the world only from their own perspectives.
Egocentrism.
The ability to understand that quantity remains the same despite changes in appearance.
Conservation.
A teenager considering the ethical implications of a new law using this type of thinking.
Abstract thinking.
When a child starts to explore cause and effect through actions like dropping food repeatedly.
Tertiary circular reactions.
The belief that inanimate objects have lifelike qualities.
Anismism.
Sorting objects into categories and subcategories, like organizing toys by type and then by color, demonstrates this skill.
Classification.
Testing hypotheses systematically, like changing one variable at a time in an experiment.
Scientific reasoning.
This is the stage Piaget believed infants move from simple reflexes to goal-directed behavior.
The Sensorimotor stage.
When a child is shown two identical glasses with the same amount of water, and then the water from one is poured into a taller, narrower glass, they may believe the taller glass has more water due to focusing on only one dimension. This illustrates...
Lack of conservation.
A child who can now understand that A > B and B > C, then A > C, is demonstrating this logical thinking ability.
Transitive inference.
This concept, where adolescents can become overly focused on what others think, is often associated with this stage.
Imaginary audience.