Activity 3.2: Cognitive Development

           When reading James and looking for connections between Piaget’s stages of development and the chapters we were assigned this week, one that stuck out to me the most came from chapter 14: Apperception.  In this chapter, James says, “ We hate anything absolutely new, anything without a name, an for which a new name must be forged.  So we take the nearest name, even though it be inappropriate” (p. 78).  Here, he is clearly talking about assimilation, as Piaget explains it.  Before this passage, James even says the word “assimilate,” but I chose this passage for two reasons: a.) the way that James describes assimilation was perfect, and understandable to his audience; and b)just the fact that James talked about this phenomena in 1892, and then Piaget included it in his own theory of development some 40 years later absolutely fascinates me!