Final answer:
Piaget's cognitive development theory posits that individuals create and modify mental models, known as schemas, through assimilation and accommodation, which are integral to understanding the world around us.
Step-by-step explanation:
Jean Piaget suggested that cognitive development involved an individual's construction of schemas. Schemas are concepts or mental models that are used to help categorize and interpret information. Throughout their development, children, and eventually adults, create schemas for almost everything they encounter.
When children encounter new information, they use two processes to integrate or modify these schemas: assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation occurs when they take in new information that is comparable to what they already know, whereas accommodation happens when they alter their existing schema based on new information. This ongoing interplay between assimilation and accommodation is pivotal for cognitive development as children interact with their environment.