Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Piaget's Stage 1 of Cognitive Development01:14

Piaget's Stage 1 of Cognitive Development

869
The sensorimotor stage, the initial phase of Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development, spans the first two years of a child's life. During this period, infants actively engage with their surroundings, building cognitive awareness through direct interaction with the world. This interaction is primarily based on sensory perception and motor actions, allowing infants to gradually understand basic physical properties and predict how objects interact within their environment.
Exploration...
869
Piaget's Stage 3 of Cognitive Development01:17

Piaget's Stage 3 of Cognitive Development

683
During Piaget's concrete operational stage, from ages 7 to 11, children exhibit a marked increase in logical thinking skills, specifically in relation to tangible, real-world events. This stage is characterized by the development of several essential cognitive concepts, including conservation, reversibility, and classification, all of which support the child's evolving capacity for structured thought.
Conservation and Constancy of Quantity
A significant cognitive milestone in the...
683
Piaget's Stage 2 of Cognitive Development01:14

Piaget's Stage 2 of Cognitive Development

259
The preoperational stage, the second of Jean Piaget's four stages of cognitive development, spans approximately ages 2 to 7 and is characterized by the emergence of symbolic thinking. During this stage, children use language, images, and symbols to represent objects and concepts, enabling them to engage in imaginative and pretend play. This symbolic thinking supports children's ability to perform make-believe actions, such as imagining a broom as a horse or their hand as a phone, blending...
259
Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development from Childhood into Adulthood01:25

Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development from Childhood into Adulthood

401
Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development emphasizes the role of thinking in a child's learning process, suggesting that children are naturally curious about their environment. His approach to development is discontinuous, proposing that cognitive abilities progress through distinct stages, each with unique characteristics. Central to Piaget's theory is schemata—mental structures that allow individuals to understand and interpret the world.
Schemata: Building Blocks of Knowledge
401
Language Development01:22

Language Development

473
Children master language quickly and with relative ease, supported by both biological predisposition and reinforcement. B. F. Skinner (1957) proposed that language is learned through reinforcement, while Noam Chomsky (1965) argued that language acquisition mechanisms are biologically determined.
The critical period for language acquisition suggests that the ability to acquire language is at its peak early in life. As people age, this proficiency decreases. Language development begins very...
473
Piaget's Stage 4 of Cognitive Development01:19

Piaget's Stage 4 of Cognitive Development

156
The formal operational stage, as described in Piaget's cognitive development theory, begins around age 11 and extends into adulthood. It marks the emergence of advanced cognitive abilities that differentiate adolescent and adult thinking from those of younger children. This stage is characterized by abstract reasoning, hypothetical-deductive reasoning, and a more complex understanding of self and others.
Abstract Reasoning and Hypothetical-Deductive Thinking
Unlike the concrete operational...
156

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

How do children construct a concept of age?

Developmental psychology·2026
Same author

ManyNumbers 3: A Multi-Lab Study of Demographic Correlates of Early Number Knowledge.

Developmental science·2026
Same author

Training "Zero" in preschoolers: Fast referential learning, slow relational integration.

Cognition·2026
Same author

The role of epistemic reasoning in mutual exclusivity inferences.

Journal of experimental child psychology·2026
Same author

Counting without end: A cross-linguistic exploration of infinity beliefs in English and Hindi learners.

Journal of experimental child psychology·2026
Same author

Back to reality: Children's early temporal reasoning applies to real but not hypothetical events.

Child development·2026
Same journal

Timing and type of domestic violence exposure and adolescents' experiences of peer violence.

Child development·2026
Same journal

Comprehension of "can" predicts performance on a nonverbal measure of modal concepts at 48 but not 36 months.

Child development·2026
Same journal

An associative learning account of how saliva becomes a cue for comfort.

Child development·2026
Same journal

If moms do it, it can't be that important: Children's reasoning about gender disparities in domestic work.

Child development·2026
Same journal

Adapting under stress: How sociocultural stress intensity and fluctuation shape youth school engagement and internalizing symptoms.

Child development·2026
Same journal

Children across diverse societies exchange reasons to resolve disagreements.

Child development·2026
See all related articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Sep 23, 2025

Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm
06:35

Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm

Published on: April 28, 2016

34.2K

Children gradually construct spatial representations of temporal events.

Katharine A Tillman1, Eren Fukuda2, David Barner3,4

  • 1Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA.

Child Development
|May 13, 2022
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Children develop a linear concept of time early on. However, preferences for specific directional timelines, like left-to-right (LR), are acquired later in development, around age five.

More Related Videos

A View of Their Own: Capturing the Egocentric View of Infants and Toddlers with Head-Mounted Cameras
03:56

A View of Their Own: Capturing the Egocentric View of Infants and Toddlers with Head-Mounted Cameras

Published on: October 5, 2018

7.6K
Temporal Ordering of Dynamic Expression Data from Detailed Spatial Expression Maps
11:52

Temporal Ordering of Dynamic Expression Data from Detailed Spatial Expression Maps

Published on: February 9, 2017

6.1K

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Sep 23, 2025

Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm
06:35

Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm

Published on: April 28, 2016

34.2K
A View of Their Own: Capturing the Egocentric View of Infants and Toddlers with Head-Mounted Cameras
03:56

A View of Their Own: Capturing the Egocentric View of Infants and Toddlers with Head-Mounted Cameras

Published on: October 5, 2018

7.6K
Temporal Ordering of Dynamic Expression Data from Detailed Spatial Expression Maps
11:52

Temporal Ordering of Dynamic Expression Data from Detailed Spatial Expression Maps

Published on: February 9, 2017

6.1K

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Development
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Cognitive Science

Background:

  • English-speaking adults commonly use a left-to-right (LR) mental timeline for event representation.
  • The developmental origins of these directional time concepts are not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether preschoolers prefer ordered linear representations of events.
  • To determine if young children prefer culturally conventional time directions.

Main Methods:

  • Participants included 85 English-speaking adults and 513 preschoolers (ages 3-5).
  • Children were presented with three-step stories and asked to select the best matching image sequence from two options.
  • The study assessed preferences for ordered versus unordered sequences and directional choices.

Main Results:

  • Three- and 4-year-olds demonstrated a preference for ordered over unordered event sequences.
  • Directional preferences for time representation, such as left-to-right, did not emerge until approximately age 5.
  • No significant differences were found in directional preferences based on gender or ethnicity.

Conclusions:

  • Preschoolers conceptualize time linearly from an early age.
  • Directional biases in mental timelines are gradually acquired through development.
  • Cultural influences on time directionality become apparent around age 5.