The word cognitive means of, or relating to mental activity such as thinking, remembering, learning or using language. As you have guessed, cognitive perspectives examine development in terms of mental processing. The two major views within this perspective are cognitive developmental theory and information processing theory.

Cognitive Developmental Theory was advanced byJean Piaget.. Piaget claims that cognitive thought develops in four qualitatively different stages. Each stage represents a different mode from which we view our world. Piaget's four stages are:

Information Processing Theory was advanced by Atkinson and Shiffrin. The IP theorists claim that our cognitive processes are like that of a computer. Here is an example to help you better understand the concept behind this theory.

First you receive a stimuli through your senses, an example would be hearing a red bird chirp in the morning. After you hear the sound, your brain puts this information into the sensory register. Then the information is placed into short term memory. If the information is not encoded from short term memory to long term memory, the information is lost. However, once in long term memory the information is ready for retrieval. Now, the next time you hear the chirping of a red bird, you will know that it is a red bird and not a bluebird.

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