Explain Cognitive abilities in sensorimotor stage.

In Jean Piaget's sensorimotor stage of cognitive development, which spans from birth to approximately 2 years old, infants gradually develop essential cognitive abilities as they explore and interact with their environment. The sensorimotor stage is characterized by the integration of sensory experiences with motor actions, leading to the formation of cognitive schemes.

1. Object Permanence: Initially, infants lack object permanence, the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they are out of sight. However, as they progress through the sensorimotor stage, they develop a growing awareness of object permanence, realizing that objects exist independently of their immediate perception.

2. Goal-Directed Behavior: Infants begin to engage in purposeful actions aimed at achieving specific goals. They learn to coordinate their sensory and motor functions to accomplish tasks, such as reaching for and grasping objects.

3. Symbolic Representation: Towards the end of the sensorimotor stage, cognitive abilities extend to symbolic representation. Infants start using symbols or mental representations to understand and represent objects or events in their minds, laying the foundation for language development and more advanced cognitive processes in subsequent stages.

These cognitive abilities in the sensorimotor stage reflect the infant's increasing capacity to mentally represent the world, manipulate symbols, and understand the persistence of objects. These developments set the stage for the emergence of more complex cognitive processes in the later stages of Piaget's theory of cognitive development.