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Development of the Intellect

Infants can represent their world from the earliest moments. Such representations are schemata (a single representation is a schema). These are mental plans that serve to guide actions, provide the basis for interpreting information, and serve to help in problem solving. In a neonate, schemata involve simple actions such as sucking, grasping and looking, which at this stage are mainly reflexes. These gradually become com­bined with others as coordination and thinking develops. (Piaget calls the inborn tendency to coordinate existing schemata and combine them to form more com­plex ones “organization”). With increased experience, schemata become more elaborate, and new ones are formed as the child deals with object and events. As adults, our schemata enable us to integrate ideas. Furthermore we can employ operations (more complicated mental structures), which Piaget saw as representing logical thought. Operations (operational structures, operatory thought) are not present in the newborn child, and are generally only acquired in middle/late childhood (seven to eight years onwards). Although, like schemata, operations are modes of repre­senting information mentally, they are more advanced in that they have the addi­tional characteristic of being reversible. Piaget considered mental operations to be an integral part of thought and incorporated the term into three of his stages of development. He placed much importance on adaptation. Adaptation is brought about by a continual striving (of the child) to achieve balance or har­mony with his or her surroundings. This comes about through the complemen­tary processes ofassimilation andaccommodation.

Assimilation is the individual's efforts to deal with new objects or events in the environment using already existing schemata. Thus new events or objects present no problem as such, because they are interpreted using ideas that are familiar. For example, if a young child learns that objects moving in the sky are called birds, then the next time a bird will be assimilat­ed, as it fits the schema for such objects. However, imagine that the child sees an aero­plane. Because of its different features this cannot be assimilated. Instead the exist­ing schema is modified to cope with the new situation, this process is called accommodation. The next time the child assimilates an aeroplane. Piaget claims that adaptation results in a state of harmony or balance (known as equilibrium), which arises following the assimilation or accommodation of a new object or event (the process of achieving equilibrium is called equilibration). However, because young children are constantly meeting new situations, this state of harmony is only temporary: if a child comes across something new, then disharmony (or disequilibrium) results, and continues until the balance is restored either by assimilation or accommodation. The process continues in this way indefinitely.

Answer the questions:

1. What do mental plans serve to?
2. What are “schemata”?
3. What are stages of schemata development? Give their characteristics.
4. What were Piaget’s views on mental operations?
5. How is adaptation achieved?
6. How is assimilation defined?
7. What process (in psychology) is called accommodation?

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