Jean Piaget

The Swiss psychologist, Jean Paiget's, influence on the field of psychology and the subject of cognitive thinking is immense. His theory on the four stages of cognitive development in children has effected the way we view and educate children until this day. His four stages consisted of:

1. sensorimotor stage: (infancy - 2 years of age) children are only capable of experiencing the world through senses and movement. During this stage they are extremely egocentric, and only see themselves as the center of their world since they are incapable of considering the viewpoints of others. 

2. preoperational stage: (2 - 7 years of age) the child thinks predominantly in terms of magic., while egocentrism weakens. At this point, logical thinking has not yet developed. The child also tends to assign living attributes to inanimate objects. 

3. concrete operational stage: (7-12 years of age) children begin to think logically, however they cannot think concretely. They can sort things out, recognize logical relationships among elements, and take in multiple aspects of a situation to solve a problem.

4. formal operational stage: commences around the age of 12, once puberty is reached. Children begin to think abstractly, draw conclusions, and reason logically.