Piaget's research and stage theory

• Piaget Background

  • children aren't small adults - qualitatively different in their thinking
  • children are active in their own development - constructivism
  • cognitive development happens over time, as children mature (biological) and the environment demands change
  • thinking develops in stages and concepts can only be understood after certain thresholds
• Object Permanence

  • refers to the understanding that objects exist even when you can't see them
  • develops at 8 months
• Object Permanence - A not B test

  • a toy is hidden under 1 of 2 covers (A or B)
  • the child is observed
  • if they search for the toy, then Piaget argued that this showed that they had a mental representation of the object and therefore understood that it continued to exist when out of sight
• Conservation

  • refers to the understanding that quantities are constant
  • develops at 7 years old
• Conservation task

  • two rows of the same amount of counters
  • one is more spread out further than the other
  • when asked which has more, children tend to select the visually largest until around age 7
• Egocentrism

  • refers to lack of perspective taking
  • 7 years old
• Egocentrism task

  • the child is presented with a model of a mountain scene
  • a doll is placed on the model
  • the child is presented with some photographs depicting different angles of the scene
  • they are asked to choose the one that matches the dolls view
  • children tend to select the one that matched their own perspective until around age 7
• Class inclusion

  • refers to the understanding that you can categories and understand sub groups
  • develops around 7 years old
• Class Inclusion task

  • the child is presented with 2 groups of conseptually linked items
  • the child is asked questions such as "are there more triangles or circles?" in order to confirm their understanding of a number
  • the child is then asked questions like "are there more circles or shapes" in order to check their understanding of sub-categories
  • children tend to select the sub-group of object that is largest until around 7
• Sensorimotor

  • 0-2 years old
  • infants develop the understanding of physical properties of the world (e.g. object permanence)
• Pre-Operational

  • 2-7 years
  • children's reasoning lacks logic, but they are able to think symbolically, talk and engage in pretend play
• Concrete Operational

  • 7-11 years
  • children begin to understand logic and categorisation, can conserve quantities and work things out mentally
  • children can now perspective-take and understand class inclusion
• Formal Operational

  • 11 years
  • children can begin to cope with abstract thinking and can logically and systematically test hypotheses (hypothetico-deductive reasoning)
• Flaws in conservation tasks

  McGarrigle and Donaldson (1974)

  • set up a number conservation experiment in which the counters appeared to be moved by accident
  • they replicated the standard Piaget task with 4-6 year olds and found that most children answered incorrectly
  • however, when a naughty teddy appeared an knocked the counters closer together, 72% correctly said there were the same number as before
  • this suggests that children aged 4-6 could conserve, as long as they weren't put off by questioning
• Underestimated Children's ability to decentre

  Hughes (1978)

  • sample of 30 children aged 1.5-5 years old
  • children were asked to hide the naught boy from the policeman
  • requires being able to see from the policemen's perspectives
  • 90% of those at least 4 years of age were successful
  • this suggested Piaget underestimated younger children's ability to decentre
• Lack of Support for class inclusion

  • children may struggle with the type of questions being asked about class inclusion

  Siegler and Svetina (2006)

  • 100 5 year olds from Slovenia, who each undertook three sessions of ten class inclusion tasks, receiving an explanation of the task after each session
  • in one condition they received feedback there must be more animals than dogs because there were 9 animals but only 6 dogs
  • a different group said there must be more animals as dogs are a subset (correct)
  • contrary to what Piaget believed
• Overestimated older children's abilities

  Bradmetz (1999)

  • longitudinal study of 62 seven year olds
  • regular follow up until 15 years - tested on formal reasoning/logical tasks
  • at age 25, just one participant could reliably carry out abstract logical tasks

  Dasen (1994)

  • presents and discusses findings from cross-cultural studies that have used Piaget's tasks
  • concludes that many adults never reach the formal stage and the majority of non-westerners may be even further behind
  • argues that Piaget's theory (and view of intelligence) is ethnocentric