deve - piaget and inhelder Flashcards
what was the background if the study piaget and inhelder 1956
according to piagets cognitive development theory, a young child in the pre operational stage can only see the world through their own view point, piaget called this inability egocentrism
three mountain tasks is a part of a series of experiments jean piaget and barbel inhelder carried out to study childrens ways of looking at the world.
they wanted to look at childrens understanding of hroups of objects
what was piaget and inhelders three mountain tasks aims?
- the extent to which children of different ages were able to take the virw of another person
- childrens overall system of putting together a number of different views of what they see
PROCEDURE
describe the number of children studied in piaget and inhelders three mountain task
total 100 children from 4-12
4-6.5 is 21
6.5-8 is 30
8-9.5 is 33
9.5-12 is 16
what were the four main pieces of equipment used by piaget and inhelder three mountain task 1956
- a buildijg model of three mountains using sheets of paper pasted to form a card. 1x1 metre square ranging from 12 to 30 cm high.
- lowest mountain was green and had a house and rosd ontop
- middle sized was briwj and a stream going down
-largest one had a grey snow covered top - ten pictures of the three mountains model from different positions, pictures were taken so that features were visible and colours were clear
- three pieces of carrd the same colour as the mountaisn so that child could arrange to represent the mountains according to a certain viewpoint
- a wooden doll three centimeters high with no facial features
ways of questioning the child
- children were asked to use the cardboard shapes to show how the mountain looked at different viewpoints, asked to place shaped to dhow what the doll positioned by a researcher could see
- the children was shown ten pictures and asked to pickout the pocture thst represented what they could see from diff perspectives
- child chose a picture and had to position the dooll to see that view point
ways of questioning the child done by piaget and inhelder 1956
- children were asked to use the cardboard shapes to show how the mountain looked at different viewpoints, asked to place shaped to dhow what the doll positioned by a researcher could see
- the children was shown ten pictures and asked to pickout the pocture thst represented what they could see from diff perspectives
- child chose a picture and had to position the dooll to see that view point
what were the results of piaget and inhelders 1956 task
pre operational stage
children aged from 4-5 chooses pictures and places cardboard according to their own perspective even if asked of to show the dolls view
unable to position the child where matches the picture the child was shiwn, overall shows they were ego centric
concrete operational stage
children 7 to 9 start to understand that others can look from a different perspective when positioned differently in the model.
9-10 could understand that the doll has a different ciew if in a position diff to their own
gathered qualitative data such as observation about individual children in their report
what was the conclusion to piaget and inhelders three mountain task
concluded that about 7 years old children were egocentric, could not see from a viewpoint other than their own.
towards the end of the pre operational dtage the children were more able to think aboutnsomeone elses viewpoint therefore children in the pre operational stage did not have the understanding of viewpoint yet
older children were non ego centric, able to look at the mountains as objects relating to one another, such as larger one blocking the smaller one
able to position their viewpoint among oyhers and construct mental reprdentstions of what others can see. ability to co ordinate different perspectives,
showed that children in the pre perstional stage were ego centric whereas those in the concrete operational stage could take a different view from their own and coorfinate different view points
strs of piaget and inhelders 1956 study
provided a great deal of detail about what was done and wrote down the results
wrote of individual children giving qualitative data that was rich in detail and depth.
counted number of errors and noted what each child did and said
had reliability as it used experimental mwthods
meant careful controls were in place allowing for comparisions to ve made between cuildren of different results as the same model and questions were keptZ
weaknesses of piaget and inhelders 1956 study
results suggested that childten develop thinking ability progressivelyas they age rsther than in distinct stages. piaget acknowledged thst there was a period of transition vetween staged when performance of a task seemed inconsistent. evidence showing othat stages are not decidively different as the term stage suggests there was a weakness in his use of stages to explain cognitive development
other studies with more realistic scenarios did not give the same findings such as Helen Borke 1975, and Willinghams learning theory w Repacholi and Gopnik
generally thiught that the situation in the stufy aas not sufficicently understood by the children, however children were from switzerland so would have been familiar with mountainous scenery so this may not be the case
describe helen Borke
Helen Borke 1975 changed the piaget and inhelder task to br more appropriate for younger children using a puppet from sesame street(Grover) and let the children turn the model of mountsins on a turntsbld.
79 percent of 3 yrolds could give grovers virwpoiny correctly while 93 percent of 4 yearplds did this time
Suggested thst the three mountsin tasks were simply too hard for the younger l, so not egocentric
Describe Repacholi and Gopniks 1997 theory
1997 theoru
similar to three mountain takss found children of 18 months could show non ego centric behaviour.
in their study children tasted crackers which they liked and broccooli which they did not like, later an experimenter showed dislike of crackers and love of broccoli.
when experimenter placed a bowl of crackers and brocoli and asked the child to pass one of the bowls to the experimenter, 14 month children passed experimenter the food they themselves liked indicating egocentrism
however chuldren aged 18 monthd above passed the experimenter broccoli causenthats what they believes the experimenter liked
