PURPOSE: To know how an organism adapts to its environment and determine mental organizations that control behaviour
Hypothesis: infants are born with schemes operating at birth Piaget referred to this schemes as reflexes. In human beings as the infant uses these reflexes to adapt to the environment, these reflexes are quickly replaced with constructed schemes. Sensorimotor stage. Jane five months
Infancy. In this period, intelligence is demonstrated through motor activity without the use of symbols. Knowledge of the world is limited (but developing) because its based on physical interactions and experiences. Children acquire object permanence at about 7 months of age (memory). Physical development allows the child to begin developing new intellectual abilities. Some symbolic abilities are developed at the end of this stage. When I hid the toy out of her immediate range of perception as she watched, she acted as if the toy never existed even if she saw me hide it. When the toy was completely hidden, Jane did not look for it, she simply crawled off and got her ball to play with. When I hid the toy and she was not watching, she did not even realize that her toy was missing.
Pre-operational stage. Joy twelve months
Toddler and Early Childhood. In this period, intelligence is demonstrated through the use of symbols, language use matures, and memory and imagination are developed, but thinking is done in a no-logical, nonreversible manner. Egocentric thinking predominates. When I partially hid her toy, she ran for it, grabbed and mumbled with wide open eyes’’uuh, you’’ and a finger pointed at me . When i hid her toy when she was not watching, when she was out playing, the first thing she did when she got back was start searching the house for her toy that used to be in ward 1. Joy was actually showing mastery of object permanence.
Conclusion
As one grows into adulthood, object permanence will be the basis for thought and language. At this point we can use words and symbols to mentally represent something. You can think about the item, have a rough idea of that item in your mind and talk about it even in abs ensure. Therefore object permanence is the very beginning of thought