According to Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development, which stage is characterized by the child acquiring logical abilities such as 'conservation', 'decentration', and 'seriation', but remaining unable to perform abstract thinking?

Detailed Explanation

According to Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development, the Concrete Operational Stage (approximately 7 to 11 years of age) is the phase where children acquire key logical operations:

• Conservation: Understanding that altering an object's appearance does not change its basic properties (mass, volume, length).
• Decentration: The ability to focus on multiple aspects of a problem rather than just a single dimension.
• Seriation: The ability to mentally arrange items along a quantifiable dimension, such as height or weight.

However, children in this stage can only apply logical thinking to concrete (tangible, physical) objects and events. Abstract or hypothetical thinking only develops later in the Formal Operational Stage (starting around 11-12 years).