Schaie’s stages of cognitive development
a stage theory in which human cognitive processes are posited to develop within up to five periods during the lifespan. In the first, the acquisitive stage, an individual’s primary cognitive task is to acquire knowledge and intellectual skills. Corresponding to developmental approaches such as that of Jean Piaget, this stage occurs from infancy through adolescence. The achieving stage occurs next, in young adulthood, during which an individual’s primary cognitive task is to achieve personal goals (e.g., starting a family, establishing a career) by applying the intellectual skills learned during the acquisitive stage. The individual then uses those skills in middle adulthood, during the responsible stage, to manage increasingly complex situations arising from family, community, and career responsibilities. This stage may by followed by the executive stage, during which some middle-aged adults may achieve a high
level of intellectual functioning characterized by a broadened focus on societal rather than on exclusively personal concerns and by an ability to set priorities as well as to assimilate conflicting information. Finally, in the reintegrative stage, individuals in late adulthood apply their intellectual skills to reexamine their life experiences and priorities and to focus their attention on tasks of great personal meaning. Memory storage and retrieval and the speed of other cognitive functions may decline, but general cognitive ability continues to develop during this stage. Also called Schaie’s stages of adult cognitive development. See also Seattle Longitudinal Study. [proposed in the 1970s by K. Warner Schaie (1928– ), U.S. psychologist]