Piaget’s Intellectual Development

Question 1

What are the stages of intellectual development?

Answer 1

-identified 4 stages
-each characterised by a different level of reasoning + ability
-all children go through the same order at the same age
-only progress when completed the previous stage

Question 2

When does the sensorimotor stage occur?

Answer 2

0-2 years

Question 3

What happens during the sensori-motor stage?

Answer 3

-early focus is on physical sensations + on developing basic physical co-ordination
-learn by trial + error that they can move in a particular way - eventually can move objects
-understand that other people are separate objects

Question 4

What is object permanence?

Answer 4

-objects still exist when they are out of sight
-before 8 months = babies switched attention immediately

Question 5

When does the pre-operational stage occur?

Answer 5

2-7 years

Question 6

What is the pre-operational stage?

Answer 6

-more mobile + can use language
-but still lacks adult reasoning abilities

Question 7

What is egocentrism?

Answer 7

-child’s tendency to only be able to see the world from their own POV
-showed through 3 mountain task

Question 8

What is the 3 mountain task?

Answer 8

-each with a different feature (cross, house or snow) + a doll on the side of the model
-asked to choose what the doll would see - pre operational children found this difficult

Question 9

What is class inclusion?

Answer 9

-advanced classification skill
-recognise that classes of objects have subsets and are themselves subsets of larger classes

Question 10

What is some research into class inclusion?

Answer 10

-most pre-operational children can classify breeds as dogs
-Piaget- found that children under 7 struggle with the advanced skill of inclusion
-when showed pics of 5 dogs + 2 cats to 7-8 yr olds
-asked are there more dogs than animals?
-tended to respond that that were more dogs
-children can’t simultaneously see a dog as a member of the dog class + animal class

Question 11

What is conservation?

Answer 11

-basic mathematical understanding that quantity remains consent even when the appearance of objects changes

Question 12

What is some research into conservation?

Answer 12

-placed 2 rows of 8 identical counters side by side
-every child reasoned that each row of counters had the same number
-even when the counters in one row were pushed together - preoperationalised struggled to conserve
-eventually said their were fewer counters

Question 13

When does the concrete operations stage occur?

Answer 13

7-11 years

Question 14

What happens during the concrete operation stage?

Answer 14

-most children can conserve + perform much better on tasks of egocentrism + class inclusion
-if concrete operations = struggle to reason about abstract ideas + situations they can’t see

Question 15

When does the formal operations stage occur?

Answer 15

11+ years

Question 16

What happens during the formal operation stage?

Answer 16

-became capable of formal reasoning
-able to focus on the form of an argument + not be distracted by it’s content

Question 17

How can you test formal operations?

Answer 17

-using pendulum task
-if successful = can process syllogisms
-once children can reason formally - they are capable of scientific reasoning

Question 18

What is support to the stage of intellectual development?

Answer 18

-it has changed how people viewed the child’s world + methods to studying children
-generated a huge amount of research
-increased our understanding of cognitive development
-eg. evidence for pre-operational stage in class inclusion test
-practical use in understanding + communicating with children

Question 19

What is a contradiction to the stages of intellectual development?

Answer 19

-research lacks validity
-Donaldson suggests that in a conservation of number task
-if counters are removed by ‘naughty teddy’ - 72% under 7 would correctly say the number was the same as before
-this underestimated conservation ability in 4-6 years
-may have led children to think something must have changed

Question 20

What is an alternative to the stages of intellectual development?

Answer 20

-Vygotsky - suggests development can be explained in social terms rather than individual factors
-may be more applicable as it can explain cultural differences
-not just maturation

Question 21

What is a practical application of the stages of intellectual development?

Answer 21

-can help in real life learning and has impacted educational practice
-especially the idea that children are not biologically ready to learn certain things
-allowed teachers to tailor info to the age of the children so effective learning can take place
-useful in real life as it can be drawn on extensively + applied to education

Question 22

What is an issue + debate to the stages of intellectual development?

Answer 22

-Piaget’s ideas + research were biased
-based on middle class, academic, European values
-being able to think abstractly might not hold the same level of importance in non-European cultures
-may not be applicable to individuals outside of this culture

Question 23

Outline what is meant by class inclusion

Answer 23

-refers to the advance skill of being able to recognise that one subgroup of a similar object is also part of a larger subgroup

Question 24

Use your knowledge of cognitive development to explain why Amy is surprised that Sam finds her in hide + seek

Answer 24

-she is showing egocentrism where she has the tendency to only see the world from her own point of view
-this is why she is surprised when her brother finds her
-as she doesn’t understand why he can see her

Question 25

Identify and discuss one difference in cognitive ability between children of 2 different age groups that has been identified by Piaget

Answer 25

-10 year olds are able to perform better on tasks of class inclusion
-5 year olds still lack adult reasoning abilities so perform worse than 10 year olds
-due to the differences stated by pre-operational + concrete operation stages