Piaget

Question 1

what is Piaget’s theory of maturation?

Answer 1

The idea that children don’t know less than adults, they just have a different style of thinking that changes as they grow older

Question 2

How is disequilibrium created?

Answer 2

New information doesn’t fit into existing schemas, or schemas aren’t sufficient in helping a child make sense of the world around them

Question 3

What creates motivation to learn?

Answer 3

disequilibrium arises and children try to learn new things to return to a state of equilibrium, increasing their understanding

Question 4

What are functional invariants?

Answer 4

things that stay the same throughout the developmental process; assimilation, accommodation and equilibration

Question 5

What are variant structures?

Answer 5

things that change/develop as knowledge is discovered; schemas and operations

Question 6

what’s the difference between early schemas and later schemas?

Answer 6

early schemas tend to be external and physical such as sucking, while later schemas tend to be internal and cognitive

Question 7

define the following :
-egocentrism
-object permanence
-conservation
-class inclusion

Answer 7

-egocentrism- the inability to see something from someone else’s perspective
-object permanence- understanding an object still exists when you can’t see it
-conservation- understanding quantity stays the same when appearance changes
-class inclusion- understanding different classifications have sub-sects

Question 8

List Piagets 4 stages of intellectual development

Answer 8

-Sensorimotor stage (0-2)
-Pre-operational stage (2-7)
-Concrete operational stage (7-11)
-Formal operational stage (11+)

Question 9

what is syllogism?

Answer 9

a conclusion drawn based on 2 given/assumed answers

Question 10

What occurs in the sensorimotor stage of development?

Answer 10

-learns object permanence
-egocentric
-establishment of the general symbolic function (GSF)
-6 subsections ->

Question 11

what are the 6 subsections of the sensorimotor stage?

Answer 11

1-Reflexes (0-1m)- innate reflexes are the only way of understanding the world
2-Primary circular reactions (1-4m) coordinating sensations and new schemas
3-secondary circular reactions (4-8m) child attempts to manipulate its environment by repeating actions
4-co-ordination of reactions (8-12m) start to display intentional actions, may combine schemas, increased exploration, imitation, understanding objects begins
5-tertiary circular reactions (12-18m)trial and error experiments
6-early representational thought (18-24m) children can use symbols to represent objects

Question 12

what occurs at the pre-operational stage?

Answer 12

-GSF continues to develop
-egocentric
-children are still influenced by the way things seem rather than logic
-split into 2 sub-stages (pre-conceptual and intuitive)

Question 13

what happens at the pre-conceptual sub-stage?

Answer 13

• 2-4 years old
  -centration (children cant logically classify things)
  -transductive reasoning (based on a single attribute)
  -animistic thinking (inanimate objects are alive)
  -seriation (hard to order items e.g. size, can only identify biggest and smallest)

Question 14

what happens at the intuitive sub-stage?

Answer 14

• 4-7 years old
  -egocentric
  -difficulty thinking logically
  -no conservation

Question 15

what occurs at the concrete operational stage?

Answer 15

-growth of conservation and operation, but only if the objects are present
-liquid quantity = 6-7y/o
-substance quantity and length = 7-8y/o
-weight = 8-10y/o
-volume = 11-12y/o
-decentring
-class inclusion occurs

Question 16

what does horizontal and vertical decalage mean?

Answer 16

horizontal = inconsistencies within an ability/operation
vertical = inconsistencies between abilities/operations

Question 17

what occurs at the formal operational stage?

Answer 17

-hypothetical situations can be thought
-children can manipulate things in their mind
-inferential reasoning can take place
-abstract reasoning of concepts/ideas
-not uniform, some reach it by 15, others by 20, some not at all

Question 18

describe Piaget and Inhelder’s swiss mountain study 1956

Answer 18

model mountains had 3 different features (snow, a house or a cross). preoperational children had difficulty selecting a viewpoint that was different from their own (egocentric)

Question 19

A03 strengths of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development

Answer 19

-several experiments support the theory :
-Swiss mountain study supports egocentrism
-Piaget 1952 conservation experiment
-Piaget 1963 object permanence
-his theory kick-started further research
-helps education e.g. roleplaying
-Piaget wasn’t rigid in his beliefs, he altered his work continuously
-cross-cultural evidence suggests the stages are biologically predetermined

Question 20

A03 weaknesses of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development

Answer 20

conflicting evidence:
-Hughes 1975 police doll study against egocentrism
-McGarrigle & Donaldson 1974 naughty teddy study on conservation
-Seigler & Svetina 2006 class inclusion experiment
methodological problems:
-much of his theory was based on unstructured observations with kids so may be biased
-complicated and unfamiliar situations
Piaget argues cognitive development comes before language development, Vygotsky argues its the other way
Piaget said you couldn’t accelerate the stages but Meadows found they could be with direct tuition
Piaget saw language abilities as reflecting knowledge, Bruner argues its the other way
Piaget ignored the social nature of learning by saying kids were independent in construction