Editing Jean Piaget (section)

===Biological model of intellectual development===
In this stage, Piaget believed that the process of thinking and intellectual development could be regarded as an extension of the biological process of the (adaptation) of the species, which has also two ongoing processes: assimilation and accommodation. There is ''assimilation'' when a child responds to a new event in a way that is consistent with an existing [[schema (psychology)|schema]]. There is ''accommodation'' when a child either modifies an existing schema or forms an entirely new schema to deal with a new object or event.<ref name="Ormrod">Ormrod, J.E. (2012). ''Essentials of Educational Psychology: Big Ideas to Guide Effective Teaching''. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.</ref>

He argued infants were engaging in the act of assimilation when they sucked on everything in their reach. He claimed infants transform all objects into an object to be sucked. The children were assimilating the objects to conform to their own mental structures. Piaget then made the assumption that whenever one transforms the world to meet individual needs or conceptions, one is, in a way, assimilating it. Piaget also observed his children not only assimilating objects to fit their needs, but also modifying some of their mental structures to meet the demands of the environment. This is the second division of adaptation known as accommodation. To start, the infants only engaged in primarily reflex actions such as sucking, but not long after, they would pick up objects and put them in their mouths. When they do this, they modify their reflex response to accommodate the external objects into reflex actions. Because the two are often in conflict, they provide the impetus for intellectual development{{mdash}}the constant need to balance the two triggers intellectual growth.

To test his theory, Piaget observed the [[habit]]s in his own children.