Jean Piaget

Jean Piaget (1896-1980) worked on standardising intelligence tests and through his work Piaget concluded that children think differently from adults. From observations Piaget realised that children handle information differently from adults and this is what prompted Piaget to develop a theory of cognitive development and therefore worked in the cognitive area of psychology.

Cognitive development means the development of thinking or mental abilities and Piaget’s theory of cognitive development included:

     Sensori-motor stage (0-2 years)

     Pre-operational stage (2-7 years)

     Concrete - operational stage (7-11 years)

     Formal - operational (12 years onwards)

This cognitive development stage theory suggests that an individual must pass through one stage before they can progress to the next which spans from infancy to adolescence.Piaget’s terminology is quite discouraging to understand and is one of the reasons why Piaget did not influence psychology straight away but later dominated the study of child development.