Cognitive Scaffold

Preparing your thinking workspace

arrow_back_ios_new
MENTAL MODEL · M6883

Siegler

Siegler
BehaviorHigh supportDevelopmental Psychology
Included
account_tree

Version 1.0.0 · Updated 2026-07-30

CORE DEFINITION

Robert Siegler's "overlapping waves" theory: children possess multiple strategies at the same time, and the frequency of use of different strategies rises and falls during development, rather than a simple stage replacement.

SCAFFOLDING EFFECT

psychology

Reduce cognitive load

A gradual perspective on development. Understanding cognitive development is not a leap but a gradual evolution of strategy combinations.

anchor

Anchor fast decisions

The "overlapping waves" theory opposes Piagetian "stage leaps," arguing that children hold multiple strategies in parallel at the same time, and the frequency of use of each strategy rises and falls with experience and success rate, showing an overall overlapping wave pattern. Development is a gradual weight shift, not an overall replacement of old strategies.

MINIMUM ACTION

In progress 0/4

Practice this model in one real situation:

Check to track your progress (stored locally)
Learning progress0%
account_treeGenealogyexpand_more
menu_bookReferencesexpand_more

Source support: Explicit

RELATED MODELS

Related model

Delay of Gratification

The famous 'Marshmallow Experiment' (Walter Mischel)

arrow_forwardRelated model

Object Permanence

Object permanence is the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be perceived through the senses. This is a fundamental concept in developmental psychology, a subfield of psychology that studies the social and psychological development of infants and children. Currently, there is no consensus in the scientific community regarding the concept of object permanence in human development. Jean Piaget was the first Swiss psychologist to study object permanence in infancy. He considered object permanence to be one of the most important developments in infancy, because without this concept, objects cannot exist independently and permanently.

arrow_forwardRelated model

Reminiscence Bump

The reminiscence bump is the tendency for adults over forty to have increased or enhanced recollection for events that occurred during their adolescence and early adulthood. It was identified through the study of autobiographical memory and the subsequent plotting of the age of encoding of memories…

arrow_forward