Concrete Operational Thought (Piaget)
(Characteristic thinking of children 7-11 years of age.)

The 5-7 shift in intelligence is characterized by an increasing ability to decenter.  This is made possible by an increase in ability to simultaneously remember and compare characteristics of objects/persons etc.


 Many concepts are acquired, including:

Identity
Reversibility
Reciprocity
Classification
(Class inclusion)
Seriation

but these concepts are still somewhat fragile and rational principles are limited to 'concrete', or specific cases [e.g., arithmetic operations (addition/subtraction) more easily performed on objects (e.g., buttons/fingers) than abstract symbols]  


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