Piagets Stages Of Intellectual Development

Question 1

What are the 4 stages of intellectual development proposed by Piaget?

Answer 1

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

Question 2

What are the 4 main cognitive abilities according to Piaget?

Answer 2

Object permanence
Class inclusion
Egocentrism
Conservation

Question 3

Outline the sensorimotor stage of intellectual development.

Answer 3

-Between 0-2years.
-Child focuses on physical sensations + develops basic language.
-Develop object permanence around 8ms.

Question 4

Outline the pre-operational stage of intellectual development.

Answer 4

-Between 2-7.
-Abilities of class inclusion, egocentrism and conservation begin to develop.
-Language becomes more sophisticated.

Question 5

Outline the concrete operational stage of intellectual development.

Answer 5

-Between 7-11.
-Children can do conservation tasks.
-Can demonstrate class inclusion.
-Language + logic continues to solidify.
-Unable to do abstract reasoning.

Question 6

Outline the formal operations stage of intellectual development.

Answer 6

-Capable of scientific thinking.
-Able to focus on form of argument and not be distracted by its contents.
-Skills are solidified.

Question 7

What is meant by object permanence?

Answer 7

The ability to understand that an object still exists even when it passes out of the visual field.

Question 8

What is meant by conservation?

Answer 8

The ability to understand that the quantity of an object remains the same even when its appearance changes.

Question 9

What is meant by egocentrism?

Answer 9

A child’s tendency to only view the world from their own point of view and the inability to understand things from different POVs.

Question 10

What is meant by class inclusion?

Answer 10

The ability to understand that a group of objects can form a class and can be a subset of an even larger group

Question 11

Outline the procedure of Piaget’s 3 mountains task.

Answer 11

Assessed egocentrism in children 4-8

Procedure: children shown a model of mountains.
Doll placed on one mountain - children shown various POVs and asked to match to doll’s POV.

Question 12

Outline the results + conclusions of Piagets 3 mountains task.

Answer 12

Results: Children chose the image which represented their own POV.
Conclusions: Children in the pre operational stage are egocentric.

Question 13

Outline the procedure of McGarrigle and Donaldson’s conservation study.

Answer 13

Procedure: Children shown row of pennies - this was rearranged to appear longer by a ‘naughty teddy bear’.
-Children were asked whether there were more pennies after the teddy pushed them.

Question 14

Outline the results + conclusions of McGarrigle and Donaldson’s study.

Answer 14

Results: Children younger than the concrete operational stage stated the number of pennies remained the same.
Conclusions: Children below the concrete operational stage can understand conservation.

Question 15

Give 2 weaknesses of Piaget’s stages of intellectual development.

Answer 15

1. Conflicting evidence.
   Hughes: children between 3 + 4 could position doll where a single police man couldn’t see it. Some able to hide doll from 2.
   Shows pre-operational children can take other POVs.
   Original exp may have been confusing, biasing results.
2. Flawed research.
   McGarrigle + Donaldson: replicated exp and added ‘naught teddy’ condition. 76 % of children stated Number of counters remained the same after teddy pushed them.
   Shows pre-operational children can conserve.
   Piaget was wrong about conservation age.

Question 16

What is one strength of Piaget’s stages of intellectual development?

Answer 16

1. Real life app.
   Parents can teach their children abilities through playing with them e.g using dolls for object permanence + egocentrism.
   Shows abilities can be strengthened.