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Essay / The stages of Piaget's theory of cognitive development
Over time, the infant refines his movements with external stimuli. Additionally, if one has been with an infant, he quickly learns how the baby will learn that if he repeats a particular action he is rewarded, the more likely the action is to be repeated. During this stage, the infant maintains the concept that the object of his or her attention no longer exists once he or she leaves the infant's line of sight or sound. Once the infant matures at this stage, he or she realizes that the object of attention still exists once it passes beyond the infant's field of vision. They will begin to understand how the object that caught their attention is not only still there, but that the infant will also be able to move away from the object for a longer period of time. (DeWolfe, 2015) The second stage was titled preoperative stage. From the age of 2 to 7, the child's mind grows significantly toward developing the mental construction of familiar, regular objects with which the child frequently interacts. The concepts of these objects are only on the surface level, which means that the child has not yet understood the complexity of these objects. In addition, the child can automatically assume the way his environment (i.e. those around him) shares his likes and dislikes. (De Wolfe,