The Psychology of Intelligence

by Jean Piaget

ΣTIΣ ΣHMANTIKEΣ MEΛETEΣ TOY ΠIAZE "H ΨYXOΛOΓIA THΣ NOHMOΣYNHΣ" KATEXEI EΞEXOYΣA ΘEΣH. TO EPΓO ΓPAΦTHKE TO 1947 KAI AΠOTEΛEI TOMH ΓIA TA BAΣIKA ΘEMATA ΠOY O ΠPΩTEPΓATHΣ KAI ΘEMEΛIΩTHΣ THΣ ΠAIΔIKHΣ ΨYXOΛOΓIAΣ EΠEΞEPΓAΣTHKE.O ZAN ΠIAZE ΓENNHΘHKE TO 1896 ΣTO NEUCHATEL THΣ EΛBETIAΣ. H ΣYMBOΛH TOY ΣTH BIOΛOΓIA, ΣTHN EΠIΣTHMOΛOΓIA, ΣTH ΦIΛOΣOΦIA KAI IΔIAITEPA ΣTHN ΨYXOΛOΓIA TOY ΠAIΔIOY TOY 20OY AIΩNA EINAI TEPAΣTIA. EΓINE ΔIΔAKTOPAΣ EΠIΣTHMΩN (ES SCIENCES) ΣTO ΠANEΠIΣTHMIO TOY NEUCHATEL TO 1918, KAΘHΓHTHΣ THΣ IΣTOPIAΣ THΣ EΠIΣTHMONIKHΣ ΣKEΨHΣ ΣTO ΠANEΠIΣTHMIO THΣ ΓENEYHΣ TO 1929, ΔIEYΘYNTHΣ TOY ΠANEΠIΣTHMIAKOY KENTPOY ΠAIΔAΓΩΓIKΩN EΠIΣTHMΩN TO 1933, KAΘHΓHTHΣ THΣ ΨYXOΛOΓIAΣ TOY ΠAIΔIOY ΣTH ΣOPBONH TO 1952 KAI IΔPYTHΣ TOY ΔIEΘNOYΣ KENTPOY ΓENETIKHΣ EΠIΣTHMOΛOΓIAΣ ΣTH ΓENEYH TO 1955.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Science, Education, Parenting, Sociology

202 pages, Paperback

Published June 28, 2001

About the author

Jean Piaget (1896 - 1980) was a Swiss philosopher, natural scientist and developmental theorist, well known for his work studying children, his theory of cognitive development, and his epistemological view called "genetic epistemology." In 1955, he created the International Centre for Genetic Epistemology in Geneva and directed it until his death in 1980. According to Ernst von Glasersfeld, Jean Piaget was "the great pioneer of the constructivist theory of knowing."

Reviews

[Lena Mccain · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an avid reader of child psychology and learning theories, it is in my opinion that this book is an essential part of understanding at least 1/4 of how individuals develop and learn. It is in this book that one is able to understand that Piaget was the first theorist to realize that intelligence is the level that an individual is able to manage their environment through their own experience of life. Furthermore, Piaget thus proves that learning is a developmental cognitive process where individuals create knowledge based on experiences that are both determined and related to their biological, physical, and mental stages of development. In order to understand any portion of learning, for the child and the adult, this is a must read!

[Steve]

This book is written for academics, those pursuing a degree in psychology, or those in the social sciences generally, meaning this work is a difficult read. Despite its density, I was able to gather a few kernels along the way, though much of this work was beyond my understanding. I noted M. Piaget’s definition: “intelligence constitutes the state of equilibrium toward which tend all the successive adaptations of a sensori-motor and cognitive nature, as well as all assimilatory and accommodatory interactions between the organism and the environment.” He echoes this concept of equilibrium throughout. I failed to grasp what he meant with either that definition or the repeated references, however. He also refers to grouping, perception, and intuitive thought as he describes human development from infancy onward, where I felt a bit more at ease.

His framework for intelligence caused me to think about the impossibility of artificial intelligence, a topic au courant. Perception? Intuition? Those don’t seem likely outputs from a computer. Maybe the AI chatter is over-hyped? A computer may fool a human, or an entire society, but will the inner workings evolve to mirror a human mind? Based on this work, I don’t think that will ever happen, though it may be possible for a computer to outperform a human in most objective tasks provided sufficient direction and engineering.

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a good book by one of the great child psychologists. I gave it a 4 rather than a 5 because it is a difficult read. First of all the concepts are difficult but they are made especially harder by the esoteric style in which Piaget writes. He gives you no less than a dozen definitions (made up by himself) and you have to hold these definitions in your head during the entire read--respectable in some regards.

Some of his concepts are: intelligence is an equilibrium between conceptual relations that are reversible and abstracted (that is, not embodied in "concrete" objects)... Logic mirrors thought in the sense that logical thinking is a developmental contingency, rather than something that exists outside of human parameters... Intelligence is functionally capable of encompassing the entire universe in its abstractions, but has humble roots in the immediacy of an infant's sensory experiences.

If that sounded confusing to you, try reading it in Piaget's cluttered language.

[William Bies · Rating 5 out of 5]

An impressive display of Piaget’s erudition and keenness of observation. Five stars. Moreover, very approachable to an outsider to the field of psychology such as this reviewer, as technical jargon is kept to a minimum. The advent of large language models raises in an altogether novel way a very topical question as to what constitutes the nature of intelligence itself—which may well emerge as the defining issue of our age, just as, say, the question as to the nature of mechanism was that of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Now, intelligence seems to be connected somehow with problem-solving (of a kind such as typically set in IQ tests or on standardized tests such as the GRE), but what determines the relevant domain? This query leads one back to the environment in which intelligence is to function, hence to the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget’s central concepts of accommodation and assimilation.

Psychology figures as among the softer of the so-called humanistic disciplines founded during the nineteenth century. At the time, pioneering works by Herbert, Wundt and James, inter alia, helped to demarcate psychology methodologically. But the contents of these disciplines remained known but little as more than a natural classification. Piaget’s developmental psychology, on the other hand, confers a causal dynamics that can, in principle, be reconstructed via a sufficiently astute analysis. Piaget, in particular, posits a dialectic between adaptation (reflecting the biological needs of the organism) and assimilation (or a felicitous embodiment of the faculties the individual enjoys by right of its biological make-up).

What the author means by his operations are those of grouping according to certain definite structures. This reviewer has always looked on Piaget’s actual words as too structuralist? For, 1) the axioms of a group, ring, field etc. are far too specific to characterize, eo ipso, the nature of all intelligence as such; 2) in any case, as any mathematician knows, there are plenty of other structures around (semigroups, algebraic varieties, sheaves, cohomology theories and so on) while Piaget restricts himself to the real number line + 3d Euclidean vector space. NB, Levi-Strauss has the same problem, an overemphasis on a certain kinship relationship in aboriginal tribes he discovered to map into a formal algebraic structure. True enough, but then he tries to use this isomorphism to explain everything about culture.

The fact however that (displacements in) space and time as we experience them (i.e., through concrete operations) do correlate to group operations (i.e., to logico-arithmetic axioms) is central to the child’s acquisition of formal intelligence. A problem with David Bentley Hart’s otherwise excellent critique is that he sovereignly skates over any such technical considerations but, in so doing, indicates why it would be pointless to try to teach high-school students any higher mathematics, such as they will encounter as advanced undergraduates or graduate students (if they go that far).

From the preface (by Piaget himself): ‘if intelligence is thus conceived as the form of equilibrium towards which all cognitive processes tend’, is then adult life just a continuation of an equilibrium maintained after it is first achieved in late adolescence? Or could there be more stages to life? Yes, if we trust the tradition of mystical theology, many more. Therefore, Gregory of Nyssa’s epikstasis would be a picture truer to lived experience, at least in religious life. Attend while reading this book, to what intelligence as Piaget pictures it involves that AI doesn’t have. For instance, the whole side of affect is missing. A prompt cannot serve as a substitute for affect, for it comes merely from outside. All the LLM really does is to follow a certain gradient (with noise) in a high-dimensional landscape in a space of concepts. Isn’t this, then, essentially how Piaget can imagine intelligence as adaptation, and, adaption as return to equilibrium? If he were right, AI could be deemed intelligent in a human sense (in principle).

Part III on the development of thought is where Piaget’s analysis really gets to be impressive. Why? For here he weaves together all the concepts hitherto introduced into a genealogy:

When groupings of concrete operations appear, these forms are dissolved or blended into the all-embracing plan and decisive progress is made towards the overcoming of distances and the differentiation of routes; thought no longer masters only fixed states or pathways but even deals with changes, so that one can always pass from one point to another and vice versa. Thus, the whole of reality becomes accessible. But it is still only a represented reality; with formal operations there is even more than reality involved, since the world of the possible becomes available for construction and since thought becomes free from the real world. Mathematical creativity is an illustration of this new power. [p. 166]

Thence, one can see why there is so little creativity these days: people strive merely after being super virtuosic in imitating the paradigms, but never orient themselves to discovery of anything new, any attempt at which is severely discouraged by the academic system. For example, it is known that leading journals will never accept anything original for publication, not even into the peer review process at all, nor will funding agencies support anything that cannot present itself as flashy—that is, superficial, something new and exciting but deep down really just an imitation of pre-existing models with a clever twist. If you can articulate your intended research in the form of an impressive-looking grant proposal, this means almost by definition that it cannot be original, for one has already attained the stage of knowing very well what one projects to accomplish whereas original thought demands a protracted period of groping in the dark sustained only by certain enigmatic clues and a vague intuition of what might down the line prove fruitful. Plainly, one can’t just refer to the literature when one is doing something for the first time.

In particular, in connection with the social nature of cooperation in providing the structure behind the emergence of formal competence: only Kuhnian puzzle solving will ever receive the reinforcement of approval by the academic community; any tendency to originality is discouraged and suppressed as far as possible (at every stage: if you do not fail out of graduate school, you might not get a post-doctoral fellowship; if you do but continue to attempt original work, you probably won’t get a tenure-track position; if you do but continue to attempt original work, you will be failed out at the last stage of tenure).

Piaget turns a line of thought such as this in an interesting direction. For,

Considered from this angle, logic requires common rules or norms; it is a morality of thinking imposed and sanctioned by others. Thus, the obligation not to contradict oneself is not simply a conditional necessity (a ‘hypothetical imperative’) for anybody who accepts the exigencies of operational activity; it is also a moral ‘categorical’ imperative, in as much as it is indispensable for intellectual interaction and co-operation. And, indeed, the child first seeks to avoid contradicting himself when he is in the presence of others. In the same way, objectively, the need for verification, the need for words and ideas to keep their meaning constant, etc. are as much social obligations as conditions of operational thought. [p. 179]

What happens, contrariwise, in the case of adult thought, when the conditions of operational thought are disrespected and disregarded? Manifestly, nothing. For sufficient proof of this deduction, divide one day by the number of days elapsed since January 20, 2025 in order to place an upper bound on the effectiveness of the second Trump administration to accomplish anything whatsoever, period.

[Susan Striepe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A seminal book that should be read in conjunction with Vygotsky's "Mind in Society".

[Rahma.Mrk · Rating 3 out of 5]

قرات هذا الكتاب اثر ترشيح استاذ علم التريبة في اكاديمية نماء و ضمن تكليفات.
الهدف من طرح piaget
إبراز الطبيعة المزدوجة للذكاء فهو ذكاء تكيفي و ذكاء وظيفي منطقي..لا تستطيع الفصل بينهم.
و التأكيد مراحل نمو الفكر و القدرات الفكرية و المعرفية الخاصة بكل مرحلة
إبتداء من الولادة الى سن المراهقة و الرشد
بغية تكريس منظومة تربوية تمدرسية تليق بتلك القدارت و تنميها.
لكن الكتاب كان اكاديمي برشا و صعب .و لم افهم هل هي لغة السيكلوجي piaget
ام المترجم.
قرأته مرتان و لخصته و مازلت على ذلك الراي

[Nina Layla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hope to find more like this ...

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Feels outdated

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

PIAGET LOOKS AT THE ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT OF ‘INTELLIGENCE’

Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was a Swiss developmental psychologist known for his epistemological studies with children. His theory of cognitive development and epistemological view are known as "genetic epistemology."

He wrote in the Preface to this 1947 book, “A book on the ‘Psychology of Intelligence’ could cover half the realm of psychology. The following pages are confined to outlining one view, that based on the formation of ‘operations,’ and to determining as objectively as possible its place among others which have been put forward… the psychological theory of intellectual mechanisms is only in its infancy, and we are barely beginning to glimpse the sort of precision of which it might be capable. It is this feeling of research in progress that I have sought to express. This little volume contains the substance of the lectures that I had the privilege of giving at the College de France in 1942 at an hour when men felt the need to show their solidarity in the face of violence and their fidelity to permanent values.”

He states in Chapter 1, “Every psychological explanation comes sooner or later to lean either on biology or on logic… For some writers mental phenomena become intelligible when related to the organism… But we can hardly see neurology explaining why … the laws of deduction are forced on the mind of necessity. Thus arises the second tendency, which consists in regarding logical and mathematical relations as irreducible, and in making an analysis of the higher mental functions depend on an analysis of them. But it is questionable whether logic… can in turn legitimately explain anything in psychological experience… So we must start from this dual nature of intelligence as something both biological and logical.” (Pg. 3)

He observes, “Affective life and cognitive life… are inseparable although distinct. They are inseparable because all interaction with the environment involves both a structuring and a valuation, but they are none the less distinct, since these two aspects of behavior cannot be reduced to one another. Thus we could not reason, even in pure mathematics, without experiencing certain feelings, and conversely no affect can exist without a minimum of understanding or of discrimination. An act of intelligence involves, then, an internal regulation of energy… and external regulation… but these two controls are of an affective nature and remain comparable with all other regulations of this type.” (Pg. 6)

He says, “emphasizing the interaction of the organism and the environment leads to the operational theory of intelligence… According to this point of view, intellectual operations, whose highest form is found in logic and mathematics, constitutes genuine actions, being at the same time something produced by the subject and a possible experiment on reality. The problem is therefore to understand how operations arise out of material action, and what laws of equilibrium govern their evolution; operations are thus concerned as grouping themselves of necessity into complex systems, comparable to the ‘configurations of the Gestalt theory…'"(Pg. 16-17)

He asks, “What then are we to think of the concepts successively constructed by the child in the course of the different stages of his development? Do the ‘schemata’ of preverbal practical intelligence ‘subsist’ outside the subject? And what of those of animal intelligence? If we reserve eternal ‘subsistence’ solely for true ideas, at what age does their apprehension begin? And furthermore, even if the stages of development simply mark successive approximations of intelligence in its conquest of immutable ‘ideas,’ what proof have we that the normal adult or the logicians of Russell’s school have succeeded in grasping them and will not be continually surpassed by future generations?” (Pg. 21)

He argues, “The specific nature of operations, as compared with empirical actions, depends … on the fact that they never exist in a discontinuous state. It is only as an entirely illegitimate abstraction that we speak of ‘one’ operation; a single operation could not be an operation, because the peculiarity of operations is that they form systems. Here we may well protest vigorously against logical atomism, whose pattern has been a grievous hindrance to the psychology of thought.” (Pg. 35)

He explains, “In order to foresee an event… there is no need to build up the whole of causality and time, to review all accepted values, etc.; the solution to be found is attained simply by extending and completing the relationships already grouped, except for correcting the grouping when there are errors of detail…” (Pg. 39)

He summarizes, “The psychological explanation of intelligence consists in tracing its development and showing how the latter necessarily leads to the equilibrium we have described. From this point of view, the work of psychology, i.e., a work which… is descriptive and which consists in analyzing the phases and periods of morphogenesis up to the final equilibrium constituted by adult morphology… Our task is therefore clear: we must now reconstruct the development of intelligence, or the stages in its formation, until we are able to account for the final operational level whose forms of equilibrium we have just been describing.” (Pg. 48-49)

He states, “Everything indicates, therefore, that perception, obliged to proceed step by step by immediate but partial contact with its object, distorts it by the very act of centering it, although those distortions are reduced by equally partial decentralizations, while intelligence, encompassing in a single whole a much larger number of facts reached by variable and flexible paths, attains objectivity by a much more thorough decentralization.” (Pg. 76)

He continues, “So, in short, we can say that perception differs from intelligence in that its structures are intransitive, irreversible, etc. and thus not composed in accordance with laws of grouping, the reason for this being that the distorting relativity which is inherent in them gives them an essentially statistical nature.” (Pg. 78)

He asserts, “This is why the study of formation of habits, like that of the structure of perceptions, concerns the problem of intelligence to the highest degree. If early intelligence consisted merely in exerting its action … on a completed world of associations and relations… then this action would, in point of fact, be illusory.” (Pg. 92)

He summarizes, “the beginning of thought, while carrying on the work of sensori-motor intelligence, springs from a capacity for distinguishing significants and significates, and consequently rely both on the invention of symbols and on the discover of signs.” (Pg. 126-127)

He contends, “Formal logic is, according to this view, not an adequate description for the whole of living thought; formal operations constitute solely the structure of the final equilibrium to which concrete operations tend when they are reflected in more general systems linking together the propositions that express them.” (Pg. 150)

He concludes, “It is in fact very difficult to understand how the individual would come to group his operations in any precise manner and consequently to change his intuitive representation into transitive, reversible, identical and associative operations, without interchange of thought… But, granting all this and admitting that logical thought is necessarily social, the fact remains that the laws of grouping constitute general forms of equilibrium which express both the equilibrium of inter-individual interaction and that of the operations of which every socialized individual is capable when he reasons internally in terms of his most personal and original ideas.” (Pg. 164-165)

This book will be of keen interest to those who are studying Piaget.

[Andrew]

Jean Piaget presages a lot of contemporary thought in cognitive science, et al. I suppose there was a lot of this book I didn't entirely buy at face value-- at least regarding the logical structures of the human brain-- but there was quite a bit that I did.

Basically, the core of Piaget's theory is as follows: that children's thinking is radically different from adults', and that intelligence is an outgrowth of cognitive skill. As we grow, we become less egocentric and more willing to question our core perceptions of the world around us. Clearly influential on later thought, but fairly intuitive to many modern readers. Still, there's a great deal here to mine.

[Yaaresse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Standard "I read this, but damned if I can remember exactly when or why or enough about it to make detail comments" disclaimer:
My rating is based solely on my memory of how much or little I enjoyed the book at that time. In some cases, "at that time" might mean before most Goodreads users were born. Then again, it could mean a couple years ago and that I have a lousy memory.

Your mileage may vary. Heck, given how all our tastes change over the years and the fickle nature of memory, my own mileage might vary if I re-read it today.

[Benjamin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Without a psychology background this was difficult at first. Piaget writes beautifully, but without the proper context, it seems like gibberish. This book would be appreciated by advanced students in psychology, or by someone reading a more accessible synopsis of Piaget's work in tandem. Piaget's concepts and ideas are spelled out eloquently in this text. This encapsulates his Theories of cognitive development.

[Shenanitims · Rating 4 out of 5]

Piaget's groundbreaking work on what intelligence is, and the factors behind its development. An essential read for anyone working in the education field, or anyone with kids for that matter. A word of warning though, as with the rest of Piaget's work, it is also very technical. He doesn't shy away from proving his theories using math, so some sections can be difficult if math isn't your strong point. I will definitely be reading this again.

[Tanya]

I do not rate it because I can't, I did not finish reading it. It turned to be too complicated for me to understand it in English. Too many unknown words and terms. Unfortunately, my English is not that good to comprehend "The Psychology of Intelligence".

[Fred Abraham · Rating 4 out of 5]

An absolute must-read for anyone interested in the workings of the mind. I'm a Psychology major so love reading books on the subject. Piaget is a favorite.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I skimmed this book because I needed information for character development, but must say the book reads like a college textbook.

[Aya Hamouda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started reading this Yesterday , and guess What ?! I couldn't leave the book till I finished it . I read a lot of books in psychology and I can say undoubtedly this book was so fine ..

[Nims DewDropx · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are actually into psychology and how brain, emotions work Go with Jean Piaget.
All the theories and written material are indeed amazing!

[Bethany · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is short, but it's hard to grasp. Jean Piaget, in the 1950's developed some theories about how intelligence (human variety) develops, and tested it on some kids. We start of learning about the world through our senses. We might make some observations of patterns at this point, but we are not reflective, mainly because we don't have language to describe them. A lot of "habits" and patterns are instinctual. He calls this "sensori-motor" stage. Then we hit "preoperational" stage when we start to speak, until about age 7. We don't know logic, but we can recognize patterns and generally follow rules of society. Then we merge into intuitive thought and start putting two and two together effectively. Seven to 11 is "concrete operational" stage and now we can get some logic and think a little outside of ourselves. And, hey! We can classify stuff. Wow. Lastly, "formal operational" stage, 11+ we might develop abstract thinking capabilities and logical thinking.

One interesting thing that popped into my head while reading this, is how his experiments nearly match the question composition on intelligence exams. Even as a grown up. Spotting patterns, analogies, etc. I took one a little over 10 years ago, and especially in the "non-English speaking" version, this was the theme of all the questions.

It's not a bad theory, but I think what he fails to mention is how many people stagnate shortly after that 11 age. But, it does kind of explain "history" when leaders were made leaders at the ripe old age of 12... they basically had all the tools now and just needed the experience. It also goes with the more modern theory of personality development that we are essentially who we are at age 13, we just fine tune preferences and abilities after that.

[Adrian Fanaca · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book about the nature of intelligence, sensori-motor functions, development of thought, and rhythms, regulations and groupings. Specifically, we find out the definition of intelligence, "thought psychology", operations and their "groupings", classification of "groupings", differences between perception and intelligence, about habit and intelligence, differences in structure between conceptual intelligence and sensori-motor intelligence, symbolic and pre-conceptual thought, intuitive thought, the determination of mental age. Chapters include: social factors in intellectual development, the growth of thought - intuition and operations, intelligence and perceptions, "thought psychology" and the psychological nature of logical operations and intelligence and biological adaptation. It is an overly pretentious book. I rate it as average or a bit above average. The information conveyed by the book could not stick to me for some reason. I do not remember anything interesting from the book, except the last thing I read from it. Could have been a bit better written, for example a bit clearer because the author seems great and the topics covered also and also without doubt the author is the expert in the field. Probably the English language translation is also not helping.

[Mathias · Rating 2 out of 5]

Perhaps I am irreversably changed by impressions from succeeding developmental psychologists such as Tomasello, Meltzoff etc. but the content strikes me as too focused on mathematical/logical language, much like Russel and Wittgenstein - to me it is unjustifiedly focused on these aspects of 'cognition' - perhaps this is the Western tendency of 'left hemisphere-thinking' as formulated by McGilchrist.

What I appreciate in Piaget (which perhaps is his contribution to further developments, together with Vygotsky) is the concept of 'cognitive equilibrium', which could be conceptualized as the narrow aspect of computation but also as cognition as such - the human person moves toward the state of equilibrium between environmental forces and endogenous impulses.

The 'shared intentionaliy infrastructure' of Tomasello together with the discovery of the powerful tendency of imitation and recruitment of 'self' through its organization in integrated body representation, ought to be the bedrock of understanding the human psyche

[Ben Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard.

Bought this 3 years ago thinking "I'd like to find out about intelligence and child intelligence", started reading it and couldn't believe or grasp any of the word salad so demoted it to dust-gatherer.

3 years later I can't say I really understood 75% of what was said in this book but I got the overall gist, I watched this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRF27... after finishing it and did the same job apart from the treatise at the start of the book about current theories of intelligence (at the time)

Very technical, would perhaps recommend having a psychology dictionary open while reading, or watching an intro video to Piaget and this book. Even my friend who is a psychologist attests to the difficulty of his writing. I do kind of feel I could have learned the same things much more effectively by not reading his book, but I will return to it in future better prepared as I probably missed a whole lot of nuggets.

[Dmitry Marcautan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Literally had to crawl through the text although I've been reading it in my mother tongue(russian). I don't blame the translation but assume the language of the original text is deliberately dry and 99.99% academic. Taking as a fact, laymen like me weren't the primary target audience I think I took from it something valuable. The greatest lesson learned lies in the realm child development. There's obviously no need to take your baby from the crib and enroll on MBA course in order to make him successful in adult life. In the evolution we couldn't skip any of the stages that led to common human intelligence these days. And in the ontogenetic evolution of a particular human being you can't force jump to the brainiac stage in no time. If you do think you accomplished this you're highly likely delusional. Just be attentive and track the progress giving a hand when needed.

[Wayker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jean Piaget anticipates many aspects of contemporary cognitive science, among others. While I found certain aspects of the book's take on the logical structures of the human brain somewhat questionable, I did find much of it quite compelling.

In essence, Piaget's theory centers on the idea that children's thinking differs significantly from that of adults, with intelligence evolving from cognitive skills. As we mature, we shed egocentrism and become more open to questioning our fundamental perceptions of the world. This has undoubtedly influenced subsequent thought, although it may seem intuitive to many modern readers. Nevertheless, there is a wealth of valuable insights within these pages.

[Quinns Pheh · Rating 4 out of 5]

According to this book, intelligence is active. To find out how the world works, we have to prod and poke at it- literally and metaphorically. We can understand some things we encounter in terms of things we already know; others can't. In the former case, we assimilate; in the latter, we accommodate. These processes are examples of intellectual adaptation to our environment. Both expand our cognitive horizons, driving us through four cognitive development stages until we reach maturity in early adolescence.

[Synthia Salomon · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Intelligence is active. To figure out how the world works, we have to prod and poke at it – literally and metaphorically. Some things we encounter can be understood in terms of the things we already know; others can’t. In the former case, we assimilate; in the latter, we accommodate. These processes are examples of intellectual adaptation to our environment. Both expand our cognitive horizons, driving us through four stages of cognitive development until we reach maturity in early adolescence.”

[Cecillie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have absolutely no interest in child psychology specifically, and more than definitely zero interest in childhood development, if I'm being quite honest. And I can say by now that I'm not really a fan of Piaget's writing, I don't find it to be engaging. However, I had to read his theory about learning for my thesis, so in that respect the book did its job, but I'd never reach for Piaget for some fun leisure reading.

[Jung]

Intelligence is active. To figure out how the world works, we have to prod and poke at it – literally and metaphorically. Some things we encounter can be understood in terms of the things we already know; others can’t. In the former case, we assimilate; in the latter, we accommodate. These processes are examples of intellectual adaptation to our environment. Both expand our cognitive horizons, driving us through four stages of cognitive development until we reach maturity in early adolescence.

[Chintushig Tumenbayar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Хүүхдийн тархины хөгжил, сэтгэл зүй, эрдэм мэдлэг хэрхэн бүрэлдэн бий болдог талаар олон жилийн судалгааны үр дүнд гарсан мэдээлэлүүдтэй танилцаж өөрийгөө өнгийж харах боломж олдлоо. Цаашид бусдыг дүгнэхдээ илүү олон талын мэдээлэлд үндэсэлж гаргасан алдааг нь ямар төрлийн алдаа юунаас болж гаргав гэдгийг олж танихад дөхөм боллоо.

[John Osif · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to really dig deep and pull out my dusty Psychology degree to keep up with some of the verbiage, but the core concepts were easy to follow. Completely fascinating and well written. Childhood development examination could be used heavily these days when trying to understand why sine adults (especially those in power) are the way that they are.