Cognitive Development is the name given to a subset of the more widely studied area of Developmental Psychology which looks at how the mind develops throughout the lifecycle. Cognition refers to mind processes which take place such as learning, perception, and emotion. Other subsets include social, neurobiological and moral development.

Piaget is one of the early pioneers of cognitive development theory. His work centres around the central theme that cognitive processes go through different stages of development from birth through to adolescence. His theory categorises each stage of development. However, much of Piagets theories have fallen out of favour in modern times, perhaps due to the emergence of other theories which seek to incorporate other factors that affect development such as culture and the interaction of innate human characteristics with environmental factors (nature v nurture debate).

The nature v nurture debate has particular relevance when considering the merits of Piaget’s theories. Some believe (nurture) that cognitive ability is already present at birth and is a result of the passing on of genetic information from one human being to the next. Others might say (nature) that cognitive ability and the development of, are shaped by a person’s surrounding and can be changed as a result of those surroundings. Now-a-days most academics would agree that there is an interaction between the two. However one possible flaw of Piaget’s theories could be that the assumptions underpinning them are more skewed to the ‘nature’ side of the debate.

Piaget believed that human behaviour throughout early development was deterministic and resulted from different stages of learning. In some ways his theories are similar to those of the behaviourists who would argue that we learn and develop through a process of cause and effect. This approach could be considered a little confined in the sense that they also do not take into account the same social and cultural factors already mentioned. Another criticism of his theory is that it only concerns itself with child development. He suggests that the mind stabilizes after adolescence which others would argue is not true and that in fact development continues throughout life until old age. It could be that Piaget was right and that much of what shapes a child’s development is universal and can be documented into particular phases regardless of environment. Perhaps, social and environmental factors become more important as we advance into adulthood when we become more a product of our own decision making.

Piaget was able to form conclusions about many of his theories by conducting large amount of qualitative research. His methods included performing a lot of experiments with babies / toddlers / children to ascertain how they might behave in certain situations as well as asking lots of questions and gathering of empirical data. Some might argue that such methods are non scientific and therefore cannot be relied upon. Others on the other hand might say that this type of data gathering is rich in content and is ideally suited to studying the behaviour of children. Whether the methods used by Piaget to add substance to his theories are considered credible or not much of his work still stands the test of time. The fundamental stages of development that he talks about help shape the way that both parents and teachers offer encouragement and formulate learning strategies.

Finally, Piaget’s theories when applied to the acquisition of language during childhood gain more ground when compared to other theories such as those put forward by Skinner (behaviourist approach) which rely on complex mechanisms of stimuli and response as part of his overall Operant Conditioning model.