Assimilation is the process of integrating new information into existing cognitive structures or schemas.
Think of schemas as mental frameworks or blueprints that guide individuals in understanding and responding to various situations. Schemas are the building blocks of assimilation.
Accommodation is the cognitive process of modifying existing mental schemas or creating new ones when new information or experiences cannot be adequately interpreted through current mental frameworks.
This process occurs when assimilation alone is insufficient, requiring the learner to adjust their understanding to accommodate new information (Piaget, 1976).
For example
While accommodation seeks to create new schemas, assimilation seeks to relate new information to old cognitive structures (schemas).
For example, children initially learn new words by assimilating them into existing schemas based on familiar concepts.
For instance, a child might call all four-legged animals “doggie” because they fit into their existing schema for “dog”.
As they encounter more animals and learn to differentiate between them, they accommodate their language schemas, creating new categories and refining their vocabulary to reflect the diversity of the animal kingdom
How Assimilation Takes Place
Assimilation is the process of integrating new information into existing cognitive structures called schemas, which is inherently conservative, aiming to maintain cognitive stability.
It seeks to fit new experiences into pre-existing mental frameworks, much like trying to fit a new piece into a puzzle.
These schemas can be either innate (such as reflexes) or previously acquired through experience, such as reading a book (Piaget, 1976).
When encountering new information, individuals interpret and understand it using their existing knowledge structures.
This process helps maintain cognitive equilibrium by allowing people to make sense of new experiences through familiar patterns of thinking.
In its initial stages, assimilation is deeply egocentric, meaning individuals tend to interpret new information through the lens of their own needs, desires, and perspectives.
This is particularly evident in young children who struggle to differentiate their internal world from external reality, often projecting their own thoughts and intentions onto their surroundings.
Characteristics of Assimilation
- Conserving Existing Structures: Assimilation is inherently conservative, aiming to preserve existing cognitive structures. It’s like trying to fit a new piece into a puzzle – you look for ways to make it work with the existing pieces.
- Ego-Centric Tendencies: In its early stages, assimilation is heavily egocentric. This means that individuals tend to interpret new information through the lens of their own needs, desires, and perspectives.
- Functional and Generalizing: Assimilation is both functional, meaning it focuses on using the new information to maintain existing actions, and generalizing, meaning it attempts to apply existing schemas to a wide range of situations
When a parent reads to a child about dogs, the child constructs a schema about dogs.
Later, the child sees a dog in the park; through the process of assimilation the child expands his/her understanding of what a dog is.
When the dog barks, the child experiences disequilibrium because the child’s schema did not include barking.
Then the child discovers the dog is furry, and it licks the child’s hand. Again, the child experiences disequilibrium. By adding the newly discovered information to the existing schema the child is actively constructing meaning.
At this point, the child seeks reinforcement from the parent. The parent affirms and reinforces the new information. Through assimilation of the new information, the child returns to a state of equilibrium.
How Accommodation Takes Place
Accommodation involves altering one’s existing ideas (schemas) about how the world operates in response to new information and experiences.
This process is triggered when existing schemas prove inadequate in explaining or interacting with new experiences. Accommodation forces individuals to adjust their thinking, leading to cognitive growth and development.
Accommodation is driven by the constraints and challenges posed by the environment, pushing individuals to move beyond their egocentric perspectives towards a more objective understanding of the world
This enables a child to better deal with the demands of the environment by constantly changing and updating the mental structures associated with it.
For example, a child with a novel problem may not have the skills to deal with it. By experimenting with the problem, they may find a solution.
In this way, they accommodate the demands of the new problem and develop their existing schema in the process.
