A Level Psychology OCR Practice Exam

What are children in Piaget's sensorimotor stage primarily learning through?

1. Abstract reasoning

2. Movement and sensations

3. Language and symbols

4. Social interactions

The correct answer is: Movement and sensations

Children in Piaget's sensorimotor stage, which occurs from birth to around 2 years of age, are primarily learning through movement and sensations. During this stage, infants explore their environment using their senses and motor actions. They learn about the world by touching, grasping, and moving objects, as well as through sensory experiences like seeing, hearing, and feeling. This hands-on exploration allows them to develop cognitive skills by forming associations between their actions and the outcomes. For example, they learn that shaking a rattle produces sound or that reaching for a toy can lead to grasping it. This sensory engagement is vital to their understanding of object permanence and cause-and-effect relationships. As they actively manipulate their surroundings, they build foundational knowledge that supports later cognitive development. In contrast, other options relate to later developmental stages; for instance, abstract reasoning is characteristic of the formal operational stage, while language and symbols begin to take precedence in the preoperational stage, and social interactions play a crucial role in cognitive development during these later stages as well.