Evaluation

• Weakness - Flaws in Piaget's conservation task

  McGarrigle and Donaldson (1974) - had issues with Piaget's conservation task, as he asked children the same question multiple times, leading them to rethink and answer differently

  • Sample of 4-6 year olds
  • Replicated conservation of number task with rows of sweets, but instead of moving them apart, a 'naughty teddy' came and moved them
  • 62% of children passed
• Weakness - Piaget Underestimated children's ability to decentre

  Martin Hughes (1975) tested the ability to see a situation from two people's viewpoints using a model with two intersecting walls and three dolls (boy, 2 police)

  Children as young as 3 1/2 were able to position the boy doll where one police officer could not see him 90% of the time, and 4-year-olds could do this 90% of the time when there were 2 police officers

  Studies like this pose a problem for Piaget because they suggest that he underestimated younger children's ability to decentre
• Weakness - Lack of support for Piaget's class inclusion findings

  Siegler and Svetina (2006)

  • Tested 100 5-year-olds from Slovenia, who did three sessions of class-inclusion tasks, receiving explanations after each session
  • they received feedback that there must be more animals than dogs because there were 9 animals but only 6 dogs
  • A different group received feedback that there must be more animals as dogs were a subset of animals
  • the scores improved more for the latter group, suggesting that they have acquired an understanding of class inclusion

  This is contrary to Piaget's research
• Weakness - Piaget overestimated older children's abilities

  Older children who are good at communicating may have trouble understanding the thoughts and feelings of others

  Piaget's theory also overestimated the abilities of adolescents and adults, who often make systematic errors in simple logic tasks

  Keating

  • tested 11-13 year olds on logical reasoning tasks
  • He found that whilst children identified as 'bright' were likely to be able to pass, 'average' children were not
• Strengths

  • Big samples
  • controlled observations
  • Many different studies-replicable
  • RWA - children's learning tasks with water and beakers, etc