Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

(The Sensory Motor Stage)

You are playing with a rattle. You drop it and cry. What are you thinking?

• A. "I'm a bad baby for dropping the rattle!"

• B. "The rattle disappeared! where did it go?"

• C. "Mommy will get the rattle back for me."

(The Preoperational Stage)

You are playing with playdough. you mold it into a ball and then flatten it into a pancake. you claim the amount of play dough magically increased. What does this demonstrate?

• A. Your ability to conserve quantity

• B. Your understanding of cause and effect

• C. Your egocentric thinking (believing your perspective is the only one)

(The Concrete Operational Stage)

You have two rows of 5 candies each, arranged differently. An adult asks you, "Do both rows have the same number of candies?" What do you say?

• A. "No, the longer row have more!" (focusing on appearance)

• B. "Yes, they both have the same number!" (understanding conservation)

• C. "I'm not sure, can you count them for me?"

(The Formal Operational Stage)

You are reading a science fiction story about time travel. You start thinking, "If I could travel back in time, what would I change?" This demonstrates:

• A. Your ability to perform mental operations on concrete objects

• B. Your understanding of object permanence

• C. Your ability to think abstractly and consider hypothetical situations

(The Sensorimotor Stage )

You are playing with a jack-in-the-box. You press the lever, and the toy pops out, making you laugh. You press it again and again. What are you learning?

• A. The concept of object permanence

• B. Cause and effect relationships

• C. The importance of repetition

(The Preoperational Stage)

You are drawing a picture of your family. You draw yourself as the biggest person, even though your dad is much taller. what might you do that?

• A. You lack good drawing skills

• B. You believe you are the most important person in the family (egocentric)

• C. You are saving space on the paper

(The Concrete Operational Stage)

You see a friend drinking juice from two glasses. One glass is tall and thin, and the other is short and wide. You know both glasses originally contained the same amount of juice. Your friend pours all the juice from the tall glass into the short, wide glass. You insist your friends now have less juice. What does this demonstrate?

• A. You haven't yet grasped conservation of volume

• B. You are jealous of your friend's juice

• C. You prefer tall glasses

(The Formal Operational Stage)

You are reading a news article about pollution. You start thinking about ways to reduce your impact on the environment. This demonstrates:

• A. Your ability to think about long-term consequences

• B. Your understanding of abstract concepts like pollution

• C. Both A and B

You are babysitting your 5-year-old cousin. He built a tall tower out of blocks and is very proud. You accidently bump the table, knocking the tower over. Your cousin starts crying and yells, "you broke it all!"

Based on Piaget's theory, what stage of development in your cousin likely in?

• A. Concrete Operational Stage

• B. Sensorimotor Stage

• C. Preoperational Stage

You are 16 years old and debating a friend about climate change. You argue that even small actions by individuals can make a difference in reducing greenhouse gases. Your friends insists that individual actions are pointless because big corporation are the main polluters.

• A. Concrete Operational Stage

• B. Formal Operational Stage

• C. Preoperational Stage