How would Piaget explained Genie's lack of cognitive development?

Answer 1

Because Piaget's theory relies upon the developmental stages being achieved through personal development as result from experiences and, more specifically, mistakes... it was impossible for the 'wild child Genie' to develop normally. As result of her extreme isolation, she missed out on reaching many of the important milestones (or 'critical periods') required for normal cognitive development. At the start of the documentary there is a professor who knows Genie personally and she talks about the friendship that Genie had with a particular butcher, he would acknowledge her and hand her a piece of meat or fish (unwrapped) and he would let her do "whatever it is she wanted to do with that piece of meat, usually that involved taking it and sort of... rubbing it on her face to feel the sensations of the meat against her skin... as a blind person might."

This suggests to me at least that Genie was still within the realm of Piaget's first stage, known as the 'sensorimotor' stage whereby "{infants} discover aspects of the world through sensory impressions, motor activities and coordination of the two". In normal development, Piaget suggests that the average age that a human moves on from this stage is about 2 years of age. Thus confirming the obvious observation that as result of Genie's extreme isolation, she has been deprived of many opportunities to grow both cognitively and physically and as a result her development has been extremely inhibited.

I'm only a first year psychology/ neuropsychology student so my answer is pretty basic as I have just briefly read about this topic in my textbook today! However, I do hope this helps a little. :)