Cognitive Development: Preoperational Stage

In this video I discuss Piaget’s preoperational stage of cognitive development as well as the related issues of conservation, theory of mind, and egocentrism. I also briefly describe autism spectrum disorder, which is associated with deficits in awareness of the … Read More

Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage of Cognitive Development

In this video I begin describing the 4 stages of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. Then I provide details of the sensorimotor stage along with more recent research suggesting that infant understanding of … Read More

Cognitive Development – Piaget: Assimilation & Accommodation

In this video I introduce the work of developmental psychologist Jean Piaget. Piaget proposed a stage-based theory for how we develop our cognitive abilities. Piaget viewed children like “little scientists” who were constantly testing and updating their knowledge structures, or … Read More

Early Brain Development

In this video I discuss brain development and begin with the idea of infantile amnesia. Memories before about the age of 3 are very rare, suggesting that the infant brain is not yet developed to store episodic memories, though it … Read More

Infancy Stage: Motor & Perceptual Development

In this video I introduce some terms for understanding infant development, particularly for motor and perceptual skills. Infants are born with a number of reflexes (such as the rooting reflex and sucking reflex) which are gradually replaced with voluntary control … Read More

Prenatal Development

In this video I discuss prenatal development from conception until birth. This can be divided into the germinal stage, embryonic stage, and fetal stage. Conception occurs when a sperm cell and egg cell join to create a zygote, which then … Read More

Key Terms for Development

Download a free pdf of this key terms list here: Development-Key-Terms Find explanations and examples of all of these key terms and more here: Master Introductory Psychology: Complete Edition         Erik Erikson   oral-sensory, muscular-anal, locomotor-genital, latency   … Read More