A Note to iPhone Designers: Read Up on Jean Piaget
“If you want to be creative, stay in part a child, with the creativity and invention that characterizes children before they are deformed by adult society.” — Jean Piaget
Jean Piaget was a Swiss psychologist who played a large role in 20th century developmental psychology.
In 2016, when Apple made the controversial decision to remove the headphone jack from the iPhone 7, Piaget would’ve had something to say about it.
Early Inspiration
Piaget’s early passion and findings for the zoology field ultimately led him to studying at The Sorbonne in Paris where he began his research on children’s intelligence.
Initially he began his work by creating and administering literacy tests to children, which led him to study the types of errors that they made on these tests. He also had further exposure to the intellectual development of children when he collaborated with Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon on their IQ test, evaluating children’s answers. In addition, he spent time with his niece and nephew, who inspired some of his later discoveries.
All of these experiences led him to form the theory that intelligence grows and develops in stages as people get older. This was in sharp contrast to the old theory that children were just smaller adults.
Pivotal Theories
The Stages of Cognitive Development defines the progressive stages of a child’s intelligence depending on their age. Along with this theory, there are also four processes that relate, assimilation, accommodation, disequilibration and equilibration.
The Stages of Cognitive Development
The Stages of Cognitive Development are split into four stages with each having different characteristics.
The first one is Sensorimotor, which is from birth to two years old. This stage states that children learn about the world through movement and sensations. Furthermore, it is during this stage that children learn about object permanence, which is when an object still exists even when it isn’t visible.
The Preoperational stage occurs from ages two to six, and is characterized by children thinking symbolically and using words to represent things. However, they still struggle to view situations from other people’s perspectives.
The next stage is Concrete Operational, which occurs from ages seven to eleven. During this stage children begin to understand conservation, and that objects transferred from one object to another still have the same contents. Moreover, they begin to think logically about concrete events.
The last stage is Formal Operational, which ranges from ages twelve and up. During this stage they begin to think more abstractly and can think about hypothetical situations with more ease. Similarly, they can think more logically and use deductive reasoning.
Assimilation and Accommodation
Piaget also states that that there are two processes necessary for cognitive development. Assimilation is how people add information into their existing knowledge, whereas accommodation is when new information results in a person changing their existing knowledge.
Disequilibration and Equilibration
Disequilibration and equilibration are two more terms that Piaget coined that relate to his stages of cognitive development. Disequilibration is when information that is previously known can’t be associated with newly learnt information, causing a state of confusion. Whereas equilibration is the opposite, where no confusion is being caused when learning new information.
Cognitive Development/Processes and Multimedia
The Rise of Assimilation
As technology keeps advancing, the idea of assimilation has become quite prominent. One instance of this was in 2016, when Apple made the controversial decision to remove the headphone jack from the iPhone 7. At the time Apple was the first company to make this extreme change, encouraging people to use Bluetooth headphones instead of wired ones. Initially this was an interesting decision that resulted in much outrage, as they had made it impossible to listen to music and charge your phone at the same time unless you purchased the double adapter. This also meant that you had to adapt your behavior if you typically listened to music while you charged your phone. In 2017 before Bluetooth headphones were a widely owned product, removing this feature diminished its ease of use. Ease of use and understanding is a crucial characteristic in good multimedia, as it helps to ensure that we are interested and motivated to keep playing or using the device. Furthermore, this sudden change to what had become an essential feature caused much confusion, as the wired headphone was a constantly used feature. However, this was all part of a bigger plan that has allowed smartphones to evolve over time. At the time consumers didn’t understand the point of removing the headphone jack, however it has allowed for many loved features, such as wireless charging, better sound output and an edge-to-edge screen as it allowed for the removal of the home button. With that being said, some people do still view this change as negative.
Stage Theory and VR
According to stage theory, children learn about the world through interacting and experiencing it. Due to this VR is a good way to promote curiosity in children. Especially in education, VR gives the child the ability to manipulate their environment instead of learning in a more passive way such as reading. Allowing children to manipulate their environment, and experience their lessons in an interactive way, helps to foster curiosity and creativity, as they are active participants. Curiosity is an important ingredient in stage theory, as without it children will never fully progress to the level of maturity and complex thinking necessary to survive as adults. Similarly, creativity is also a crucial ingredient in stage theory, as it helps to engage children in the activity they are doing, as well as give them the ability to think in the imaginative and hypothetical sense that Piaget states occurs as they reach during the Formal Operational Stage. By incorporating VR into education, it gives children the opportunity to view certain topics in a more efficient way as it has more capabilities than resources that most classrooms currently have. It creates a sense of wonder and excitement that helps to encourage the curiosity that is necessary to grow mentally.
Disequilibration and Touchscreens
As technology has advanced, certain aspects that were once rare have now become everyday features. One of these features that has evolved over time is the increased use of touchscreens on handheld devices. This was a common characteristic that many popular old devices had. Nowadays, children begin using handheld devices such as tablets from a young age, and having them learn through these devices is fairly common. According to PC Magazine, touchscreens became “Widely used on ATM machines, retail point-of-sale terminals, car navigation systems, medical monitors and industrial control panels, the touch screen became wildly popular on handhelds after Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007.” This was the first generation iPhone that was released. Due to this, many children have never used devices that don’t have a touchscreen, and experience disequilibration when given one.
Conclusion
Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development has done wonders to help people understand how a child’s world view changes and adapts as they get older. Similarly the different processes that accompany it show us that learning is not that simple and that it must be approached specifically to not cause disequilibration and make sure it is effective. The removal of the headphone jack shows us that assimilation is a part of life, as things evolve, whether it is viewed as dust or magic is up to interpretation of the individual. VR allows learning through immersive experience, which helps to more effectively engage and teach children through interactive means. The evolution of the touchscreen shows us that although these changes are positive, it is important to remember the past to help make sure we don’t get confused by the future. Where would we have been if Piaget never came up with Stage Theory, and we still viewed children as smaller adults?
Author: Georgia Myers is a student at TCNJ.
