Notable constructivist influences are detectable (e.g. Hegel 1969; Kant 1999; Darwin 1998) as one approaches Piaget’s chosen term for his synthetico-empirical theory (see Piaget 1972) for the study of the acquisition and growth of knowledge – genetic epistemology (Épistémologie génétique). More commonplace is perhaps the intimate relation (Piaget 1952; 1954; 1973) said to be coextensive between what we perceive and how we act; and conversely, what we act upon and how we perceive. From this understanding the description of the acquisition and growth of knowledge is one entirely formed from reciprocal constructs of understanding (accommodation and assimilation). Knowledge is held as an emergent psycho-biological adaptation, a synthesis born of the gradual experiencing of the immediate environment exclusive to assimilation and accommodation (adaptation). This periphery inwards understanding of and for reasoned knowledge (cognition) is known as the peripheral-origins thesis (e.g. Berkeley 1975; James 1982; von Helmholtz 1926).
One might almost, incorrectly, assume oneself back among the myths of tabula rasa (e.g. Aristotle 1988; Aquinas 1993; Locke 1997; Skinner 1959). Almost, yet not quite, as Piaget was certainly neither for behaviourism nor nativism. For him the balance (equilibration) and organisation (schema) of perceptions and actions were held to be reasoned cognitive processes acquired by adaptation (accommodation and assimilation) to the immediate environment. To Piaget the infants’ sense organs direct motor actions and in combination knowledge of the immediate environment is acquired. Piaget thus refers to infancy as the sensorimotor stage spanning ≤24mths. The sensorimotor stage is further divided into six sub-stages. As secondary circular reactions (i.e. repeated actions characteristic of sub-stage 3 between 4-8mths) give way to coordinated secondary circular reactions (sub-stage 4 between 8-12mths), the abilities of object and event mentalization are suggested to replace those attained at the preceding stage. Which is to say, each stage overcomes the previous stage throughout the developmental stage theory model (i.e. sensorimotor (0-24mths) →pre-operational (2-7yrs) →concrete operational (7-11yrs) →formal operational (11/12yrs+). Mentalization abilities, which Piaget called representation, reach fruition between 18-24mths in the forms of symbolic representation and inchoate semantic representation. Piaget’s descriptions have been replicated widely across cultures (see Dasen 1973) and became an established standard by which child development has been assessed.
Robust challenges to Piaget’s constructivist theory and methods however, from various different laboratories point to: neonates imitating the facial dispositions of an adult (see Meltzoff & Moore 1977); infants as young as 3.5mths perceive the immediate environment as a consistent phenomenal plane of objects; and, infants indeed acting on this plane adaptively, however, with maturation capacities extended and refined - not merely overcome.
See also:
- Piaget, J. (1952). The Origins of Intelligence in Children. New York: International University Press. (Original work published 1936.)
- Piaget, J. (1932). The Moral Judgment of the Child. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co. (Original work published 1932.)
- The construction of reality in the child
- Piaget, J. (1962). Play, Dreams and Imitation in Childhood. New York: Norton.
- The language and thought of the child
- Piaget, J., and Inhelder, B. (1962). The Psychology of the Child. New York: Basic Books.
- Inhelder, B. and J. Piaget (1958). The Growth of Logical Thinking from Childhood to Adolescence. New York: Basic Books.
- Piaget, J. (1928). The Child's Conception of the World. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
- Piaget, J. (1951). The Psychology of Intelligence. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul
- Piaget, J., and Inhelder, B. (1967). The Child's Conception of Space. New York: W.W. Norton.
- Piaget, J. (1983). Piaget's theory. In P. Mussen (ed.). Handbook of Child Psychology. 4th edition. Vol. 1. New York: Wiley.
- Piaget, J. (1952). The Child's Conception of Number. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
- Piaget, J. (1970). Structuralism. New York: Harper & Row.
- Genetic epistemology
- The early growth of logic in the child
- The origin of intelligence in the child
- Piaget, J. (1971). Biology and Knowledge. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- Science of education and the psychology of the child
- The child's conception of physical causality
- Intellectual evolution from adolescence to adulthood
- Six psychological studies
- Piaget, J. (1985). The Equilibration of Cognitive Structures: The Central Problem of Intellectual Development. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (New translation of The Development of Thought)
- Child's Conception of Geometry
- Development and learning
- To understand is to invent: The future of education
- The development of thought: Equilibration of cognitive structures (see Equilibration of Cognitive Structures)
- Language and learning: the debate between Jean Piaget and Noam Chomsky
- The Principles of Genetic Epistemology
- Piaget, J. (1977). The Grasp of Consciousness: Action and concept in the young child. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
- Piaget, J. (1955). The Child's Construction of Reality. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
- The mechanisms of perception
- Piaget, J. (1972). Psychology and Epistemology: Towards a Theory of Knowledge. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
- The child's conception of time
- Piaget, J. (1953). Logic and Psychology. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
- Memory and intelligence
- Piaget, J. (1975). The Origin of the Idea of Chance in Children. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
- Mental imagery in the child
- Piaget, J. (1981). Intelligence and Affectivity. Their Relationship during Child Development. Palo Alto: Annual Reviews.
- Piaget, J., and Garcia, R. (1989). Psychogenesis and the History of Science. New York: Columbia University Press.
- Beth, E. W., and Piaget, J. (1966). Mathematical Epistemology and Psychology. Dordrecht: D. Reidel.
- The growth of the mind
- Piaget, J. (1995). Sociological Studies. London: Routledge.
- Piaget, J. (2000). Commentary on Vygotsky. New Ideas in Psychology, 18, 241-59.
- Piaget, J. (2001). Studies in Reflecting Abstraction. Hove, UK: Psychology Press.