Final answer:
Jean Piaget's stages of cognitive development must be understood in order, from birth to adulthood: Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete Operational, and Formal Operational. In these stages, children and adolescents develop key concepts like object permanence, egocentrism, conservation, and abilities in deductive and abstract reasoning.
Step-by-step explanation:
Jean Piaget, a renowned psychologist, proposed a theory of cognitive development that comprises four main stages. These stages help us understand the cognitive abilities that develop from infancy to adulthood. Below are the stages in order, with the key concepts the question has mentioned:
- Sensorimotor Stage (Birth to 2 years) - The infant explores the world through senses and actions (looking, touching, mouthing, grasping). During this stage, they develop the concept of object permanence, understanding that objects continue to exist even when they are out of sight.
- Preoperational Stage (2 to 7 years) - In this stage, symbolic thinking grows, mental reasoning emerges, and the use of concepts increases. However, children's thinking is still not logical. Key concepts include egocentrism, where a child sees the world only from their own perspective, and animism, the belief that inanimate objects have feelings and intentions.
- Concrete Operational Stage (7 to 11 years) - Children start to think logically about concrete events. They understand the concept of conservation; realizing that changes in the form of objects do not imply changes in quantity and can perform elementary logical operations on concrete objects.
- Formal Operational Stage (11 years and older) - This is the stage of adolescence to adulthood. The individual develops the ability to think about abstract concepts. Skills such as logical thought, deductive reasoning, and systematic planning also emerge. Abstract thought and inductive/deductive reasoning are part of this stage.
Piaget's theory of cognitive development indicates that as we grow from infancy to adulthood, we move through these stages, which are marked by new intellectual abilities and a better understanding of the world.