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The Construction of Reality in the Child

Disciplines:
developmental psychology

Summary

Piaget's study of how infants construct the concepts of permanent objects, space, time, and causality through sensorimotor experience — the foundations of reality construction.

Core Contribution

Object permanence: infants under 8 months do not understand that objects continue to exist when out of sight — they must construct this concept through action. Space, time, and causality as constructed rather than innate. The sensorimotor stage: the first 18 months of cognitive development as the foundation of all later knowledge.

Historical Influences

Immanuel Kant Henri Bergson

Intellectual Lineage

Developmental Psychology Genetic Epistemology

Allied Works

The Language and Thought of the Child The Psychology of Intelligence Genetic Epistemology

Contemporaries & Peers

The Origins of Intelligence in Children

Minds Influenced

Developmental Psychology Educational Theory

Intellectual Posterity

Cognitive Development Theory Constructivism

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