Final answer:
Piaget proposed the processes of assimilation and accommodation to explain cognitive adjustments in response to the environment, where new information is either integrated into existing schemata or leads to schema modification. Equilibration is the overarching process of balancing these two.
Step-by-step explanation:
Jean Piaget, a renowned developmental psychologist, proposed two key processes to explain how individuals adjust their cognitive structures in response to the environment: assimilation and accommodation.
When individuals encounter new information or experiences, they first try to fit this new data into their existing mental schemas through the process of assimilation. If the new information aligns with what they already know, it gets incorporated without any changes to the schema.
However, when existing schemas cannot handle the new information, individuals modify or create new schemas to accommodate the new experiences, which is the process of accommodation.
Between the options provided in the question, both assimilation and accommodation explain how people respond to their environment by integrating new experiences into their cognitive structures. The process through which people balance assimilation and accommodation to achieve cognitive equilibrium is referred to as equilibration.