According to Piaget at what stage in cognitive development is one able to think abstractly and in complex ways?

The sensorimotor stage occurs from birth to approximately 2 years of age, where infants learn through direct sensory and motor interactions with their environment. During this stage, cognitive development is focused on understanding the world through physical actions rather than abstract reasoning. Therefore, it lacks the capacity for complex and abstract thinking.

The preoperational stage spans ages 2 to 7, where children begin to use language and engage in symbolic play but still struggle with logical reasoning. Their thinking is egocentric and intuitive, lacking the ability to perform operations mentally or understand abstract concepts. Thus, this stage does not support complex cognitive processing.

In the concrete-operational stage, which occurs from ages 7 to 11, children develop logical thinking but are still limited to concrete, tangible concepts. They can perform operations related to physical objects but struggle with abstract ideas and hypothetical situations, which are essential for higher-order thinking. This limitation makes the stage insufficient for truly abstract reasoning.