Correct Answer - Option 4 : Assimilation and Accommodation
According to Piaget, cognitive development takes place at different rates at different stages of development. At the elementary level, there is not only an increase in children's capacity to learn but also a qualitative change in their thinking process.
- The child actively selects and interprets environmental information in the construction of his/her own knowledge rather than passively copying the information as presented to the senses.
- In fact, the child ‘reconstructs’ and ‘reinterprets’ the environment to make it fit in the existing mental structures. The process of reconstructing and reinterpreting involves two mental processes assimilation and accommodation.
| Assimilation |
Accommodation |
- In the process of assimilation, space is provided to make new stimuli fit into the already existing knowledge.
- Assimilation is understanding new objects or ideas with the existing capacity of understanding.
- When a child learns the word for dog, they start to call all four-legged animals dogs.
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- The child tries to make changes in his/her abilities so that s/he can understand the environment better. These changes that the child makes in his/her mental structure is called the ‘process of accommodation’.
- It is the tendency to adjust to a new object, that is to change one’s understanding to fit in the new object.
- When a child differentiate in four-legged animals (dog and cat) by their sound (bark and meow).
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This constant process of assimilation and accommodation in human beings is the way of interacting with the environment and gradually progressing towards cognitive development. It is the way in which they reconstruct and reinterpret reality.
Thus it is clear that according to Piaget, Assimilation and Accommodation pairs is essential for cognitive development of the child.
According to Piaget, there are four stages of cognitive development-
- Stage I - The Sensory-Motor Stage (birth to 2 years)
- Stage II - The Pre-Operational Stage (2 to 7 years)
- Stage III - The Concrete-Operational Stage (7 to 12 years) and
- Stage IV - The Formal Operational Stage
Schemas: Schemas are categories of knowledge that help us to interpret and understand the world.
