Sixteen-year-old Dave was an exchange student in Europe for a year. When he returned, he had altered many of his ways of thinking about people, because his new experiences did not fit his old concepts. What Piagetian process was at work?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Accommodation is the process that requires schemas to change when a new object or event does not fit. In this example, Dave's old schemas (i.e., concepts) changed because the new European events/experiences did not fit within these schemas. Assimilation, on the other hand, is the process of incorporating new information into existing schemas. In this example, the new information is not merely incorporated into the old (i.e., existing) schemas.

Sixteen-Year-Old Dave Was an Exchange Student in Europe for a Year