Information Processing Theories of Development - Essay Example

The developmental theory of Jean Piaget identifies four distinct stages that children progress through as they experience cognitive development. The four stages in order from birth are sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete, and formal operational. Piaget suggested that these states were triggered and functioned innately. The neo-Piagetian theorists agreed with the core of Piaget’s theories (the stages) but also placed attention on non-psychological influences such as biological, social, and cultural factors, making their developmental approaches malleable depending upon the physical environmental situation of the child in question.

The psychometric approach to development relies on a behaviorist style of interpretation, negating true psychology as unobservable and focusing on measurable representations. This approach would agree with the innate function description of development as set out by Piaget, but would not agree with the measurement design of anything claiming to directly measure development. Production theory places much of the emphasis on developing cognitive-building activities to produce learning in children, while the other approaches are more observational in nature.

The approach also goes well with behavioral stimulus-response theories by considering these connections in learning design. Cognitive evolution theory and the connectivist approach are similar methods that center on the progression of learning as building up to more complex cognitive processes, though they differ in the specific mode of this learning (evolutionary vs. guided). While each developmental theory has its place in observational studies, I believe that the neo-Piagetian approach gives the wide amount of attention that is necessary to accommodate for all of the variables that can potentially influence a child’s developmental process.

The stages, as adopted from Piaget, are appropriate and succinct so that it does not become an overly technical task to distinguish the features of each. The acknowledgement of biological, social, cultural, and other external facts is critical to accurately describing development.Referenceshttp://www2.honolulu.hawaii.edu/facdev/guidebk/teachtip/piaget.htmhttp://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm