Cognitive Developmental Stages Emerging from Levels of Learning

Abstract

It is proposed that the environment can be cognized at four different levels: Level 0, without symbolic representation; Level 1, in which symbols are related to external objects and events, and to other symbols, in one-to-one fashion; Level 2, in which symbols are related to one another so as to form systems, and are related to external objects and events as systems; Level 3, in which symbols are related to sets of environment elements at the level of compositions of systems. Recognition of inconsistency requires more information for higher level systems than for lower level systems. Therefore, the highest attainable level of cognitive functioning will depend on information-processing capacity in a predictable way. Two experiments are reported in which level of system and age of children were found to interact in the predicted fashion. It is proposed that cognitive development stages can be accounted for in terms of information-processing factors which limit the highest level of cognitive system with children can attain at any given age.