Neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development criticize and build upon Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development.
Overview The neo-Piagetian theories aim to correct one or more of the following weaknesses in Piaget's theory:
Piaget's developmental stage theory proposes that people develop through various stages of cognitive development, but his theory does not sufficiently explain why development from stage to stage occurs. Mansoor Niaz has argued that Piaget's stages were merely a heuristic for operationalizing his theory of equilibration. Piaget's theory does not sufficiently explain individual differences in cognitive development. The theory does not account for the fact that some individuals move from stage to stage faster than other individuals. The idea of rigid universal stages of cognitive development is incorrect. Research shows that the functioning of a person at a given age varies significantly from domain to domain (such as the understanding of social, mathematical, or spatial concepts), that it is not possible to place the person in a single stage. To correct these weaknesses of Piaget's theory, various researchers, who are known as neo-Piagetian theorists, produced models of cognitive development that integrate concepts from Piaget's theory with newer concepts from cognitive psychology and differential psychology.
The theory of Juan Pascual-Leone Initially, neo-Piagetian theorists explained cognitive growth along Piagetian stages by invoking information processing capacity as the cause of both development from one stage to the next and individual differences in developmental rate. Juan Pascual-Leone was the first to advance this approach. Pascual-Leone argued that human thought is organized in two levels. This is outlined in the Theory of Constructive Operators (TCO).
The first and more basic level is defined by mental power or capacity. This level involves processes that define the volume and kind of information that the individual can process. Working memory is the functional manifestation of mental power. The capacity of working memory is usually specified in reference to the number of information chunks or units - the memory span - that one can keep in mind simultaneously at a given moment. Therefore memory span can be understood as the quantum of action of thought. The second level involves mental content as such. That is, it involves concepts and schemes about the physical, the biological, and the social world, and the symbols we use to refer to them, such as words, numbers, mental images. It also involves the mental operations that we can carry on them, such as arithmetic operations on numbers, mental rotation on mental images, etc. Pascual-Leone proposed that the increase of the number of mental units that one can represent simultaneously makes the persons able to handle more complex concepts. For instance, one needs to be able to hold two mental units in mind to be able to decide if one number is bigger than another number. To be able to add them, the person needs to be able to hold three units, that is, the two numbers plus the arithmetic operation to be applied, such as addition or subtraction. To be able to understand proportionality, one must be able to keep in mind five units, that is the two pairs of numbers to be compared and their relation. According to Pascual-Leone, mental power is equal to 1 scheme, or unit of information, at 2–3 years of age and it increases by one unit every second year until it reaches its maximum of 7 units at 15 years of age. He studied 8,10,12 and 14 year olds and then adults and found that the development of short-term memory is because of capacity growth. He claimed that Piaget's, classical seven stages – pre-operational, intuitive, early concrete, late concrete, concrete-to-formal transitional, early formal and late formal thought – require a mental power of 7 mental units, respectively. Having a lesser degree of mental power than required by a task makes the solution of this task impossible, because the necessary relations cannot be represented and computed. Thus, each increase in mental power with age opens the way for the construction of concepts and skills to the new level of capacity. Falling short or exceeding the mental power that is typical of a given age, results in slower or faster rates of development, respectively.
The theory of Robbie Case Based on Pascual-Leone, several other researchers advanced alternative models of capacity development. Robbie Case rejected the idea that changes in processing capacity can be described as a progression along Pascual-Leone's single line of development. Instead, he maintained that processing capacity development recycles over a succession of four main stages and that each of them is characterized by a different kind of mental structures. These stages correspond to Piaget's main stages of sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational thought. Each of these four stages involves its own executive control structures that are defined by the medium of representation and the type of relations that are possible at the stage.
Executive control structures Executive control structures enable the person to:
represent the problem situation; specify the objectives of problem solving; conceive of the strategy needed to attain the objectives. Case maintained that there are four types of executive control structures:
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