Piaget’s stages of intellectual development

• What did Piaget state about his theory of cognitive development?

  That all children go through the same stages in the same order, but not at the same rate. He states that these stages are universal and follow the same, unchanging order.
• what are the 4 stages of development?

  sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational
• what is the main characteristic of the sensorimotor stage?

  object permanence
• what age is the sensorimotor stage

  birth - 2 years
• what is the age of the pre operational stage

  2 - 7 years
• what is the main characteristic of the pre operational stage

  symbolic thought
• what is the age of the concrete operational stage

  7-11 years
• what is the main characteristic of the concrete operational stage

  logical thought
• what is the age of the formal operational stage

  12+
• what is the main characteristic of the formal operational stage

  scientific reasoning
• what is the study for the sensorimotor stage?

  visual cliff experiment - Gibson and Walk
• what was the aim of the visual cliff experiment?

  to investigate the ability of newborn animals and humans to detect depth, by crawling over an apparent cliff.
• what were the findings of the visual cliff experiment?

  even when encouraged by mothers, 92% of babies refused to cross the cliff, even if they patted the glass first. No animals crossed to the deep side. When the deep side was lowered, they froze into a defensive position.
• what was the conclusion of the visual cliff experiment?

  depth perception is an innate process
• A positive of the visual cliff experiment?

  Rigorously controlled lab test : this offers a reliable and safe measure of depth perception. it ensures a valid test
• a negative of the visual cliff experiment?

  ethical issues. looking at the drop may have cause the babies to become distressed, as they didn’t know that the glass was there to save them.
• at what age does object permanence develop?

  8 months old
• What is the study for the pre operational stage?

  The policeman-doll study - Hughes
• what was the aim of the policeman-doll study?

  to analyse egocentric thinking in children
• what did Hughes believe about Piaget’s 3 mountain task?

  that it was too difficult for children to understand, and that children are less egocentric than Piaget initially concluded.
• what was the conclusion of the policeman-doll study?

  children aged 4+ don’t demonstrate as much egocentrism as initially thought by Piaget. this shows that Piaget’s test was reductive.
• positive of the policeman-doll study

  it is more reminiscent of a situation a child might find themselves in in real life. therefore, the results are more valid than those from Piaget’s experiment.
• negative of the policeman-doll study

  only used British boys. the findings cannot be generalised to the wider population, negatively impacting the validity of the results.
• what are the 4 main characteristics of the pre operational stage?

  egocentric, child cannot conserve, child cannot use operations, animism
• what happens by age 2 in the pre-operational stage?

  a child makes progress towards detaching their thoughts from the physical world, but thinking is still intuitive and egocentric.
• What is the study for the concrete operational stage?

  3 mountains task - Piaget and Inhelder
• what is the aim of the 3 mountains task

  to investigate the age at which children begin to take the perspective of others
• what was the conclusion of the 3 mountains task?

  children under age 7 have difficulty taking the perspective of another
• what is the positive of the 3 mountains task?

  it collects both qualitative and quantitative data, allowing for an in-depth understanding
• negative of the 3 mountains task

  no real-life application. the task was too hard for the children and doesn’t relate to their everyday scenarios.
• What is the study for the formal operational stage?

  The pendulum task - Piaget and Inhelder
• what was the conclusion of the pendulum task?

  The systemic approach showed that children were thinking logically in the abstract, and that they could see the relationship between things
• what are the characteristics of the formal operational stage?

  Abstract thinking, hypothetical reasoning, logical reasoning, and problem-solving.