Final answer:
Today's developmental psychologists view cognitive development as more continuous and nuanced than Jean Piaget's stage theory suggested, recognizing that cognitive milestones can be reached earlier and development extends actively into adulthood.
Step-by-step explanation:
Contemporary Views on Cognitive Development:
Today, developmental psychologists see cognitive development as a nuanced and multifaceted process. Earlier theories by scholars like Jean Piaget proposed that cognitive development occurred in discrete stages, but modern research has often supported a more continuous model. For instance, while Piaget suggested children must reach certain age milestones to understand certain concepts, recent research indicates that children can grasp complex ideas about objects and their properties much earlier. Additionally, current theories recognize a potential postformal stage of cognitive development in adults, where logic is combined with emotion and judgments are based on situational contexts.
Specifically, theorists now recognize that infants as young as 3 months have a certain understanding of physics, counter to Piaget's stage theory which assumed a progressive maturation and interaction with the environment. This suggests that cognitive development is not as linear and stage-bound as Piaget posited. Also, there's a growing emphasis on the recognition that development continues actively into adulthood, which may include the dynamic process of postformal thought.