Piaget's theory of intellectual development Flashcards
Sensorimotor stage (0-2 years)
Piaget’s stages of intellectual development
Baby’s early focus is on physical sensations and developing some basic physical coordination
Babies learn by trial & error that they can move their body in particular ways & eventually move other objects
Baby develops understanding that other people are seperate objects
Acquire some basic language
At 8 months baby is capable of understanding object perm
From 8 months they would look at object when removed from sight - led Piaget to believe this is when babies understand object perm
Pre-operational stage (2-7 years)
Piaget’s stages of intellectual development
By age of 2, toddler is mobile can can use language but lacks adult reasoning ability
Display some characteristic errors in reasoning
Class inclusion - Meaning & research
Piaget’s stages of intellectual development
Ability to recognises that classes of objects have subsets & are themselves subsets or larger classes
Piaget & Inhelder (1964) found children under 7 struggle w/ more advanced skill of class inclusion
When showed 7-8 year olds pictures of 5 dogs & 2 cats & asked “are there more dogs & animals?” - children responded that there were more dogs
Piaget interpreted that younger children cannot simultaneously see a dog as member of dog class & animal class
Conservation - Meaning & research
Piaget’s stages of intellectual development
Ability to realise that quantity remains th esame even when appearance of object or group of objects changes
Piaget places 2 rows of 8 identical counters side by side - even young kids knew each row had same number of counters
But, when counters in one row got pushed closer together, pre-op kids said there were fewer counters in that row
Piaget found that when 2 identical containers were placed together w/ contents at same height, kids said they contained same volume of liquid
When one container was taller & thinner, younger children believed taller one had more liquid
Egocentrism - Meaning & research
Piaget’s stages of intellectual development
Child’s tendency to only be able to see world from their pov
Applies to physical objects & arguemnets where a child can only appreciate their own pov
Piaget & Inhelder (1956) described how egocentrism was demonstrated in 3 mountains task
Children shown 3 model mountains each w/ diff feature (cross, house or snow)
Doll places at side of model so it faced scene from diff angle to child
Child was asked to choose what doll would see from range of pictures
Pre-op children tended to choose picture that matched their pov
Concrete operations stage (7-11 years)
Piaget’s stages of intellectual development
Piaget foudn that from age 7 most children can conserve & perform better on tasks of egocentrism & class inclusion
However, children now have better externally-verifiable reasoning abilities (operation) - but these strictly concrete operations
They struggle to reason about abstract ideas & to imagine objects or situations
Formal Operations (11+)
Piaget’s stages of intellectual development
Piaget believed from 11 years children became capable of formal reasoning- Children are able to focus on form of arguement & not be distracted by content
Formal reasoning can be tested w/ syllogisms
E.g. “All yellow cats have 2 heads. I have a yellow cat called Charlie. How many heads does Charlie have?” - Correct ans = 2 (Smith et al)
Piaget found younger children become distracted by content & answered that cats don’t have 2 heads
Piaget believed that once children can reason formally they are capable of scientific reasoning & become able to appreciate abstract ideas
Evaluation: Conservation research
Piaget’s stages of intellectual development
Limit - Conservation research was flawed
Children influenced by seeing experimenter change appearance of counters or liquid
McGarrigle & Donaldson (1974) set up study where counters moved by “accident”
In one condition, they replicated Piaget’s task w/ 4-6 yos - most children answered incorrectly, like Piaget found
However, in other condition ‘naughty teddy’ knocked counters closer together - 72% said same as before
There4, children aged 4-6 could conserve as long as they weren’t put off by way they were questioned & suggests Piaget was wrong about age conservation appears
Evaluation: Class inclusion research
Piaget’s stages of intellectual development
Limit - findings on class inclusion contradicted by newer research
Seiger & Sventina (2006) showed children were capable of understanding class inclusion
Gave 100 5yos from Slovenia 10 class-inclusion tasks, receiving an explanation of task after each session
In one condition, they recieved feedback that there must be more animals than dogs because there were 9 animals but only 6 dogs
A diff group recieved feedback that there must be more animals because dogs are subset of animals - true explanation of class inclusion
Scores across session improved more for latter group, suggesting that children had acquired a real understanding of class inclusion
There4, children under 7 can understand class inclusion
