Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was one of the 20th centuries most influential researchers in the area of developmental psychology. He was a child prodigy who published his first article in a refereed journal at the age of 11. Piaget originally trained in the areas of biology and philosophy and considered himself a “genetic epistimologist.” He was mainly interested in the biological influences on “how we come to know.”

Piaget believed that what distinguishes human beings from other animals is our ability to do “abstract symbolic reasoning.” Piaget's views are often compared with those of Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934), who looked more to social interaction as the primary source of cognition and behavior. This is somewhat similar to the distinctions made between Freud and Erikson in terms of the development of personality.

While working in Binet’s test lab in Paris, Piaget became interested in how children think. He noticed that young children's answers were qualitatively different than older children. This suggested to him that the younger children were not less knowledgeable but, instead, answered the questions differently than their older peers because they thought differently.

This implies that human development is qualitative (changes in kind) rather than quantitative (changes in amount).

There are two major aspects to his theory:
• the process of coming to know and
• the stages we move through as we gradually acquire this ability.
• Piaget’s training as a biologist influenced both aspects of his theory.