Neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development

Neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development criticize and build upon Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development.

The neo-Piagetian theories aim to correct one or more of the following weaknesses in Piaget's theory:

To correct these weaknesses of Piaget's theory, various researchers, who are known as neo-Piagetian theorists, produced models of cognitive development that integrate concepts from Piaget's theory with newer concepts from cognitive psychology and differential psychology.

Initially, neo-Piagetian theorists explained cognitive growth along Piagetian stages by invoking information processing capacity as the cause of both development from the one stage to the next and individual differences in developmental rate. Juan Pascual-Leone was the first to advance this approach.

Pascual-Leone argued that human thought is organized in two levels.

Pascual-Leone proposed that the increase of the number of mental units that one can represent simultaneously makes the persons able to handle more complex concepts. For instance, one needs to be able to hold two mental units in mind to be able to decide if one number is bigger than another number. To be able to add them, the person needs to be able to hold three units, that is, the two numbers plus the arithmetic operation to be applied, such as addition or subtraction. To be able to understand proportionality, one must be able to keep in mind five units, that is the two pairs of numbers to be compared and their relation.

According to Pascual-Leone, mental power is equal to 1 scheme or unit of information at the age of 2–3 years and it increases by one unit every second year until it reaches its maximum of 7 units at the age 15 years. He claimed that the classical Piaget's stages of pre-operational, intuitive, early concrete, late concrete, transitional from concrete to formal, early formal, and late formal thought require a mental power of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 mental units, respectively. Having a lesser degree of mental power than required by a task makes the solution of this task impossible, because the necessary relations cannot be represented and computed. Thus, each increase in mental power with age opens the way for the construction of concepts and skills up to the new level of capacity. Falling short or exceeding the mental power that is typical of a given age results in slower or faster rates of development, respectively.

...
Wikipedia