Cognitive Development Across the Lifespan

What this topic is about

The review centers on Piaget's account of cognitive development, including schemas and four developmental stages. It also introduces Vygotsky's social and cultural account and compares fluid and crystallized intelligence across adulthood. Vygotsky's zone of proximal development is where support lets a learner do tasks just beyond what they can manage alone.

Key ideas

• Schemas organize information; assimilation adds information to an existing schema, while accommodation changes a schema.
• Piaget's stages are sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational.
• The review uses conservation, reversibility, and animism to explain children's changing reasoning.
• Vygotsky emphasizes social interaction, culture, and guidance from more knowledgeable people.
• Fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence are described as changing differently with age.