Starting to think for yourself

If you hide a ball from a baby he or she might think it's gone forever---why? 

Image

Here are 10 Interesting Facts from an article by Kendra Cherry, a psychology expert:

1. Jean Piaget was the scientist that  discovered that there were four stages of mental development. He wrote about his first scientific paper when he was ten. He was highly successful throughout his high school career and even was offered a job as a curator at a museum, but turned it down because he still had two more years of high school. “While he developed an interest early on in how people come to know the world around them, he didn't receive any formal training in psychology until after he had completed his doctoral degree at the University of Neuchatel. After receiving his Ph.D. degree at age 22 in natural history.”
2. Piaget’s theory describes how children develop cognitively. His interest started when he was watching his thirteen month old nephew playing with a red ball.  “By chance, Piaget observed the toddler playing with a ball. When the ball rolled under a table where the boy could still see it, Gerard simply retrieved the ball and continued playing. But when it rolled under a sofa out of his sight, the child began looking for the ball where he had last seen it, a reaction that struck Piaget as irrational. Based on this observation, Piaget came to believe that children lack what he referred to as the object concept - the knowledge that objects are separate and distinct from both the individual and the individual's perception of that object.”
3. When Piaget was studying his daughter Jacqueline, he realized that she believed that objects cease to exist once they were out of her sight. Piaget realized this when his daughter was a few months old, but when she turned one she started to search for the object rather than just believing that it stopped existing.  By 21 months, Jacqueline had become skilled at finding hidden objects and understood that objects had an existence separate from her perception of them.
4. The first stage of Piaget’s cognitive development is the Sensorimotor stage: This is the stage where infants and toddlers acquire knowledge through their senses. “At this point in development, a child's intelligence consists of their basic motor and sensory explorations of the world. Piaget believed that developing is known as object constancy, the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, was an important element at this point of development. By learning that objects are separate and distinct entities and that they have an existence of their own outside of individual perception, children are then able to begin to attach names and words to objects.”
5. The second stage is known as the Preoperational stage: This is the stage where the children learn from playing pretend. During this stage they often get confused with what’s alive and real, “They also often struggle with understanding the ideal of constancy. For example, a researcher might take a lump of clay, divide it into two equal pieces, and then give a child the option of choosing two pieces of clay to play with. One piece of clay is rolled into a compact ball while the other is smashed into a flat pancake-shape. Since the flat shape looks larger, the preoperational child will likely choose that piece even though the two pieces are exactly the same size.”
6. The third stage is known as the Concrete Operational stage: During this stage of a child’s life they learn to think logically. They tend to struggle with abstract and hypothetical concepts. At this point, children also become less egocentric and begin to think about how other people might think and feel. Kids in the concrete operational stage also begin to understand that their thoughts are unique to them and that not everyone else necessarily shares their thoughts, feelings, and opinions.
7. The fourth stage is known as the Formal Operational stage: In this stage children learn how to base their actions off of deductive reasoning. “At this point, people become capable of seeing multiple potential solutions to problems and think more scientifically about the world around them.It is important to note that Piaget did not view children's intellectual development at a quantitative process; that is, kids do not just add more information and knowledge to their existing knowledge as they get older.”
8. Schema : “A schema describes both the mental and physical actions involved in understanding and knowing. Schemas are categories of knowledge that help us to interpret and understand the world. In Piaget's view, a schema includes both a category of knowledge and the process of obtaining that knowledge. As experiences happen, this new information is used to modify, add to, or change previously existing schemas.” A schema is basically like a mini computer file in your brain where it sorts out important details.
9. Assimilation : “The process of taking in new information into our previously existing schemas is known as assimilation. The process is somewhat subjective, because we tend to modify experiences and information somewhat to fit in with our preexisting beliefs. In the example above, seeing a dog and labeling it "dog" is an example of assimilating the animal into the child's dog schema.” Another example of this is when you learn a topic in math and every year you basically add to that knowledge you already have.
10. Accommodation: “Another part of adaptation involves changing or altering our existing schemas in light of new information, a process known as accommodation. Accommodation involves altering existing schemas, or ideas, as a result of new information or new experiences. New schemas may also be developed during this process.” Another example of this is when you learn something completely different every year in History.

Future Question: How do injuries to the brain affect what people can/can't do? How do people's personalities develop? How different or similar are identical twins if they grow up in similar or different environments?