Comparing Piaget and Vygotsky :: Theories on Cognitive Development Process

Cognition is the process involved in thinking and mental activity, such as attention, memory and problem solving. In this essay on cognitive phylogeny I will compare and contrast the theories of Pi geezerhoodt and Vygotsky, who were both powerful in forming a more scientific approach to analyzing the cognitive development process of the boor active construction of knowledge. (Flanagan 1996 P.72). I will accordingly evaluate the usefulness of these theories in understanding a childs development.Both Piaget and Vygotsky concord that childrens cognitive development took place in stages. (Jarvis, Chandler 2001 P.149). However they were distinguished by different styles of thinking. Piaget was the first t reveal that children reason and think other than at different periods in their lives. He believed that all children progress through and through four different and very distinct stages of cognitive development. This theory is cognise as Piagets Stage Theory because it deals with f our stages of development, which are sensori labour, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational. (Ginsburg, Opper 1979 P. 26). In the first stage sensorimotor, which occurs from birth to the age of two is the time in an infants life when the child basically deals with what is presented to him. They learn about physical bearings and are concerned with motor skills and the consequences of some of their actions. (Thomson, Meggit 1997 P.107). During this stage children will learn the concept of object permanence. This is where an object will continue to exist even if it is out of sight. (Ginsburg, Opper 1979 P.48) The preoperational stage work from two to seven years. In this stage it becomes possible to carry on a conversation with a child and they also learn to keep down and use the concept of numbers. This stage is divided into the preoperational phase and the intuitive phase. Children in the preoperational phase are preoccupied with verbal skills and try to make brain of the world but have a much less in advance(p) mode of thought than adults. In the intuitive phase the child moves away(p) from drawing conclusions based upon concrete experiences with objects. One problem, which identifies children in this stage, is the inability to cognitively conserve relevant spatial information. This is when, when a stuff is manipulated and no weeklong matches the cognitive image that a child has made, that child believes the amount of material has been altered instead of just its shape. (Jarvis, Chandler 2001 P.