Lecture 5 Piaget Stages of Development Flashcards
What are operations?
special types of schema or mental structure strategies or rules about an object that make thinking more systematic or efficient.
Do kids in the preoperational stage have operations?
Nope
Kids ages 2 to 7 are likely in the __________
preoperational stage
What are the strengths o pre-operational thought?
Symbolic functions
- mental schemes: internal problem solving, language use and symbolic play
Why is symbolic function so important?
Speed- more efficient
Scope - think about past, present and future
Social interaction - broadens what you think about
What are the benefits of symbolic play?
Children who had large segments of play had better impulse control than those who didn’t. Impulse control is more predictive of school success than IQ
What are the weaknesses of Preoperational thought?
Intuitive thinking is not developed. Preoperational thinking is illogical
Thinking that is: Rigid- stuck even with new info insensitive to inconsistencies Focused on superficial aspects Egocentric Is typical of:
Preoperational kids
What are the specific deficiencies of Preoperational thought?
1) Animism
2) Egocentrism
3) Centration
Crediting inanimate objects with life and lifelike properties is an example of ________
Animism
ex. Sun is hiding
Define Egocentrism:
Refers to a childs difficulty in seeing the world from another perspective
What tasks showed egocentrism?
1) Three mountain task
2) egocentric speech
Define Centration:
Narrowly focused thought, Tunnel vision or the tendency to focus on the most salient aspect of the problem.
How is centration tested?
1) conservation tasks
2) Task inclusion tasks
What is a conservation task?
Testing the understanding that the quantity of a substance stays the same despite superficial changes.
Define egocentric speech:
When speaking children leave out essential details, they don’t realize the audience doesn’t know everything that they know. This is shown in Piaget’s fairtale telling experiment.
Describe the 3 mountain task:
Child walks around and describes each side of a mountain. Doll is sat in chair and the child is asked to describe what the doll sees. Children in the preop stage describe what they see.
Describe the conservation tasks and at what age they are acheived:
1) conservation of number (age 5) - centration on length
2) Conservation of volume and conservation of mass (age 6 or 7) - centration on shape (vol) and length(mass)
3) Conservation of Length and Conservation of Weight (age 7 or 8) - centration on length and shape (weight)
Why do properational kids make these mistakes?
Focus on the most salient aspect and ignore the rest of the problem.
Why don’t concrete operational kids make these mistakes?
1) Decentration - focus on many aspects
2) Reversibility - superficial can be reversed
3) Overall logic system - advanced problem solving
Preoperational kids have ________. The failure to understand the structure and logic of classes and subclasses.
categorization inability
What is the structure and logic of classes?
- Can belong to multiple classes
- sub and super ordinate classes
- subclass is more useful
In the wooden bead task kids are told there are 12 wooden bead: 10 red and 2 white. Kids are then asked whether there are more red beads or wooden beads. This is an example of a _________
Class inclusion task
In the wooden bead task inclusion task how do:
Preoperational kids reply
Preop kids know that a wooden necklace would have both red and white beads but still say that a red necklace is longer than a wooden one and that there are more red than wooden beads
In the wooden bead task inclusion task how do:
Concrete operational kids reply
Correctly - they understand different classes and how they relate.
Did piaget underestimate preoperational kids?
- Some theory of mind (lack of egocentrism) evidence preoperational children
- Conservation tasks vary with culture and experience (piaget would agree with this)
Theory of mind evidence in preoperational children:
1) 2-3 year olds adjust to others perspectives in some situations ex. holding up picture
2) 4-5 year olds pass the sally - Ann task and acknowledge that only Sally knows where she put the doll since Ann wasn’t there she doesn’t
How do conservation tasks vary across cultures:
- If kids sell wares for their parents they do better on the conservation of # task
- If kids work around clay they do better on conservation of mass task
- Shows role of experience*
At what age is the contrete operational stage likely to occur?
Age 7 to 11
What are the accomplishments of concrete operational children?
1) sophisticated schemas
2) decentration (categ./ class inclu./ conserv. tsks)
3) Reversibility (conserv. tsks)
4) Decreased egocentrism
What are the shortcomings of the concrete operations stage?
Logic can only be applied to concrete, real world objects and events. No abstract thinking.
Concrete opperational children can’t ____________, can;t__________ and have poor_____________.
solve abstract problems
make contrary to fact premises
systematic problem solving
If 1st graders are kids and all kids are hippos then 1st graders are hippos is a __________ that __________kids won’t be able to solve.
contrary to fact premises
concrete operational kids
Formal operations stage is generally age _______according to Piaget but recent findings show that it may be _______ and ________
age 11 +
much later
many people will never achieve it
What are the achievements of the formal operational stage?
- Hypothetical deductive reasoning
- Systematic problem solving
Algebra, who is tallest problem and contrary to fact problems are examples of __________. You don’t need to rely on problem solving.
Hypothetical deductive reasoning
How do concrete and formal op kids differ in the third eye premise?
Concrete - on face - where eyes go
Formal op - on a tuff of hair, on hand - show speculation and possibility
Piagets pendulum task requires _____ and ______ this is an example of _________.
experimentation
holding variables constant
systematic problem solving
Did Piaget overestimate attainment of formal ops?
Yes possibly
Only ____ of grade 12 students can solve formal op task
50%
De Lisi and Stardt showed what about expertise and formal op?
Study on Pendulum, political and literary problem by physics poli sci and english majors
People are generally good at solving problems in field.
When tested in __________ 90% of people showed formal thought but when tested in _________ it was closer to 50%
their field
another field
Intelligence is defined by Piaget as being able to ____________. Therefore it is not a bad thing that _____ affects how we engage in formal operational thought.
adapt to the world around us
expertise
What are 3 major contributions by Piaget:
- founded discipline of cog. development
- Kids are active
- generally accurate as to how kids think at diff. ages
what were Piagets misses:
- Failure to distinguish competence from performance
- Vague as to what mechanisms and maturational changes are required to move through the stages
