Piaget’s word for the basic actions of knowing, including both physical actions (sensorimotor schemes, such as looking or reaching) and mental actions (such as classifying, comparing, and reversing). An experience is assimilated into a scheme, and the scheme is created or modified through accommodation.

The process of deriving generalizable schemes from specific experiences.

Mental representations of the basic properties of objects in the world

Mental representations of the logical connections among objects in the world.

The processes through which schemes change.

That part of the adaptation process proposed by Piaget that involves absorbing new experiences or information into existing schemes. Experience is not taken in “as is,” however, but is modified (or interpreted) somewhat so as to fit the preexisting schemes.

That part of the adaptation process proposed by Piaget by which a person modifies existing schemes as a result of new experiences or creates new schemes when old ones no longer handle the data.

The third part of the adaptation process proposed by Piaget, involving a periodic restructuring of schemes to create a balance between assimilation and accommodation.

Term used by Piaget for complex, internal, abstract scheme, first seen at about age 6.

Piaget’s term for the first major stage of cognitive development, from birth to about 24 months, when the child uses sensory and motor skills to act on the environment.

Piaget’s term for the second major stage of cognitive development, from about 24 months to about age 6, marked by the ability to use symbols

Piaget’s term for the stage of development between ages 6 and 12, during which children become able to think logically.

Piaget’s name for the fourth and final major stage of cognitive development, occurring during adolescence, when the child becomes able to manipulate and organize ideas or hypothetical situations as well as objects.

The many simple repetitive actions seen in substage 2 of the sensorimotor stages each organized around the infant’s own body; the baby repeats some action in order to have some desired outcome occur again, such as putting his thumb in his mouth to repeat the good feeling of sucking.

Repetitive actions in substage 3 of the sensorimotor period that are oriented around external objects; the baby is now repeating some action in order to trigger a reaction outside his own body, such as hitting a mobile repeatedly so that it moves.

The deliberate experimentation with variations of previous actions, characteristic of substage 5 of the sensorimotor period, according to Piaget.

The understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be directly perceived.

A cognitive state in which the individual (typically a child) sees the world only from his own perspective, without awareness that there are other perspectives.

The understanding that the quantity or amount of a substance remains the same even when there are external changes in its shape or arrangement.

The young child’s tendency to think of the world in terms of one variable at a time.

Thinking that takes multiple variables into account.

The understanding that another person might have a false belief and the ability to determine what information might cause the false belief.

Ideas that collectively explain other people’s ideas, beliefs, desires, and behavior.

A theory of cognitive development that assumes that Piaget’s basic ideas are correct but that uses concepts from information-processing theory to explain children’s movement from one stage to the next.

A neo-Piagetian term for working memory capacity.

A neo-Piagetian term for the number of schemes an individual can place into working memory at one time.

One of the most critical of the operations Piaget identified as part of the concrete operations period: the understanding that actions and mental operations can be reversed.

The principle that subordinate classes of objects are included in superordinate classes.

Reasoning from the particular to the general, from experience to broad rules, characteristic of concrete operational thinking.

Reasoning from the general to the particular, from a rule to an expected instance or from a theory to a hypothesis, characteristic of formal operational thinking.

Piaget’s term for school-aged children’s inconsistent performance on concrete operations tasks.

The number of elements in a problem and the complexity of the relationships among the elements

The ability to make inferences about logical relationships in an ordered set of stimuli

The ability to use a rule to put an array of objects in order.

This developmental stage is typically defined as the period during which adolescents learn to reason logically about abstract concepts.

A more sophisticated kind of reasoning that involves using deductive logic, considering hypotheses or hypothetical premises, and then deriving logical outcomes.

The belief that one’s thoughts, beliefs, and feelings are unique

The belief that the events of one’s life are controlled by a mentally constructed autobiography

An internalized set of behavioral standards usually derived from a teenager’s peer group

The ability to keep track of where a piece of information originated

The ability to recall information from long-term memory without effort

Ways of manipulating Information that increase the chances that it will be remembered

A pattern whereby an individual can use some mental strategy if reminded to do so but fails to use the strategy spontaneously

Using some specific mental strategy without deriving benefit from it

Knowledge about one’s own memory processes

General and rather loosely used term describing knowledge of one’s own thinking processes: knowing what one knows, and how one learns.

Cognitive skills that allow a person to devise and carry out alternative strategies for remembering and solving problems.

The ability to control responses to stimuli.

A set of powerful, abstract schemes that are critical building blocks of logical thinking, providing internal rules about objects and their relationships

A somewhat more sophisticated rule in which the child starts with the larger number and then adds the smaller one by counting