Cognitive equilibrium refers to a state of balance between an individual’s mental schemata, or frameworks, and his or her environment. Such balance occurs when our expectations, based on prior knowledge, fit with new knowledge. Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1896–1980) developed the concept of equilibrium to describe one of four critical factors in cognitive development, along with maturation, physical environment, and social interaction. Piaget described equilibration as an ongoing process intended to refine and transform mental structures, which is the basis of cognitive development. More equilibration action tends to occur as an individual is transitioning from one major developmental stage to the next.
Equilibration also explains individuals’ motivation for development. Individuals naturally seek equilibrium because disequilibrium, which is a mismatch between one’s way of thinking and one’s environment, is inherently dissatisfying. When individuals encounter new, discrepant information, they enter into a state of disequilibrium. In order to return to a state of equilibrium, individuals can ignore the information or attempt to manage it. One option for managing discrepant information is called assimilation, and the other option is called accommodation.
Assimilation is the process of modifying discrepant information so that it matches current schemata. For example, a child visiting a petting zoo may encounter a pony for the first time. The child recognizes some of the features of the animal, so the “dog” schema is activated and the child says, “Dog!” As a second example, a student who knows that the area of a rectangle can be calculated by multiplying the length by the width may attempt to calculate the area of a triangle by multiplying two sides together. In each example, individuals’ assimilations lead to error; however, errors do not always follow assimilations. If the child said, “Dog!” upon seeing a poodle for the first time, or if the student applied the formula for the area of a rectangle in order to calculate the area of a parallelogram, they would be assimilating the new information without error. Erroneous or not, assimilation does not produce cognitive change (which Piaget considers the source of development) because the schemata are unchanged.
Cognitive change, and thus cognitive development, can only be achieved through accommodation. Accommodation is the process of modifying current schemata so that it matches discrepant information. For instance, in the previous example of the child at the petting zoo, the child’s caretaker might have said, “No, that’s not a dog; that’s a pony.” In this case, the child’s old schema did not work so the child must reevaluate the “dog” schema. To do so, the child must determine whether the “dog” and “pony” schemata might both fall under a larger “four-legged animal” schema, whether they can both exist separately from each other, and which characteristics differentiate two animals. The child’s slightly modified “four-legged animal” schema is now less vulnerable to disequilibrium due to discrepant information and is therefore more stable.
While cognitive equilibration is an ongoing process that utilizes the dual processes of assimilation and accommodation, there are certain instances when one of the equilibration processes is more likely to occur than the other. Accommodation is more likely to occur when new information only slightly diverges from current schemata and when an individual is transitioning from one developmental stage to the next. Assimilation is more likely to occur when new information is vastly divergent from current schemata and as a precursor to accommodation. When new information matches existing schemata exactly, the individual remains in a state of equilibrium. It is this state of equilibrium that creates the basis for the disequilibrium and accommodation that propels individuals to subsequent developmental stages and higher levels of adaptability.
References:
- Bjorklund, D. F. (2000). Children’s thinking: Developmental function and individual differences (3rd ). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
- Piaget, (1985). The equilibration of cognitive structures. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- Singer, G., & Revenson, T. A. (1997). A Piaget primer: How a child thinks. (Rev. ed.). Madison, CT: International Universities Press.
- Sternberg, J. (1999). Cognitive psychology (2nd ed.). Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace College Publishers.