PSY 2105 Lecture Notes - Jean Piaget, Object Permanence, Almost Surely
11 Feb 2013
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Document Summary
Piaget was a biologist with strong interests in how children acquire knowledge. Piaget argued that the nature of children"s knowledge changes as they develop: Organized ways of making sense of experience. Schemes reflect an object in the environment and the child"s reaction to that object. For piaget, development is the reorganization of knowledge into more complex schemes. Later move to a mental (thinking) level. We are born with lots of knowledge and the sequence of development is predetermined. Piaget recognized that others can influence a child and their growth, but only if biological maturation and acquired experiences by the child allow him to assimilate the knowledge in question. Although maturation may be important, if a child does not experiment with the environment around him, he won"t be able to learn. This is why we necessarily want to understand new information. We are constantly adapting to our environment, we aim for harmony. New knowledge must be merged with old knowledge.
