Lecture 7 - Cognitive Development: Beyond Piaget

Question 1

What did Bower (1965) find that challenged Piaget’s idea of solopism?

Answer 1

1-2 mos understand size constancy.

Question 2

How did Baillargeon et al. (1985) challenge Piaget’s claim of object permanence?

Answer 2

5mos familiarised with drawbridge table, surprised when board apparently moved through solid object = have a notion of object permanence.

Question 3

How did Wynn (1992, 2000) challenge Piaget’s claim of object permanence?

Answer 3

Presented 4mos with 2 toys, put behind screen, removed one then raised screen to show 2 toys remaining. Children surprised = have object permanence.

Question 4

What did Butterworth (1981) find that refutes Piaget’s object permanence idea?

Answer 4

6-8mos follow mother’s gaze, therefore understand that there is a stable world and that it’s not always visible to them?

Question 5

Using the A not B task, what has been suggested about object permanence?

Answer 5

Harris (1973) used a 5 second delay, suggests memory difficulties.
Butterworth (1977) used opaque covers, suggests difficulties with coding spatial organisation.

Question 6

In the light of what studies has poor object understanding been rejected?

Answer 6

Hood and Willats (1986) - 5mos reach for object in darkened room.
Bower et al (1971) and Baillargeon (1986) - 2 yos anticipate a train’s reappearance.

Question 7

What did Baillargeon (1986) do?

Answer 7

6-8mos watched a car rolling down a slope until they were habituated, then a road block was placed either on or next to the track. Infants had prolonged gaze when the track was blocked but not in the other condition.

Question 8

So, do infants have object permanence?

Answer 8

Evidence is mixed, but the A not B error is reliable and real (Harris, 1974; Bremner and Bryant, 1977), so Piaget was right in claiming that perception is subordinate to action, but infants DO have object permanence and some understanding of perspective.

Question 9

What criticisms has Donaldson (1978) made of Piaget’s methodology?

Answer 9

• Children’s failure is a result of not understanding the question.
• The tasks themselves make no human sense, therefore children answer according to what they think makes sense… (CONT)

Question 10

According to Donaldson, why do children fail to conserve number when a row of counters are moved?

Answer 10

They’re asked the same question twice and don’t want to give the same answer - demand characteristics.

Question 11

What did Rose and Blank (1974) hypothesise and find?

Answer 11

As the experimenter changes something, children may feel compelled to say that there’s been a change.
When children were only asked the question once, many more gave a conserving answer.

Question 12

What did McGarrigle and Donaldson (1975) find?

Answer 12

That if the row of counters was spread out by a ‘naughty teddy’, children were more likely to give conserving answers.

Question 13

What is a problem with McGarrigle and Donaldson (1975)’s findings?

Answer 13

Moore and Frye (1986) - when the teddy did add a counter, children still said that the rows were the same.

Question 14

So, do children fail to conserve?

Answer 14

Perhaps - lack of consensus suggests that children may not have the capacity to make logical conservation judgements.
However, they do acquire conservation younger than stated by Piaget.

Question 15

How can the egocentric findings of the 3 mountains task be disputed?

Answer 15

Hughes (1975) found that in a policeman game where children have to say where a naughty doll should hide, 90% of 3-5yos get it right. This suggests that children succeed in tasks that make human sense.

Question 16

What is the problem with the 3 mountains task?

Answer 16

Not only do pts have to work out what someone else would see, but also perform mental rotation.

Question 17

According to Flavell, what are the levels of perspective taking?

Answer 17

1. 3yos understand that others have a different perspective.

2. 4yos understand which perspective the other has.

Question 18

Difficulties in class inclusion tasks may be due to what?

Answer 18

Question misunderstanding - according to McGarrigle and Donaldson (1978), task wording is too complex. Used 4 ‘sleeping cows’, one white three black. 6yos correct answers 25% -> 48%.

Question 19

Who challenged Piaget’s claim that children below 7 do not have the logic for transitive inference?

Answer 19

Bryant and Trabasso (1971), did an inference task without memory. Trained children which of a coloured pair of rods was longer until over-learned, then 4yos performed transitive inferences for non-adjacent pairs.

Question 20

Bryant and Trabasso’s suggestion was that memory made Piaget’s transitive inference tasks difficult, but then why did children over 7 succeed?

Answer 20

Perhaps the problem isn’t with memory - Russell (1978) found no difference in the memory of those passing and failing. The problem may therefore be with logic.

Question 21

Piaget suggested that from adolescence, we have formal scientific reasoning. However…

Answer 21

Adults don’t employ Popper’s falsification criterion, e.g. Wason and Johnson-Laird using the Wason selection task (EK47). A stage of formal operational thinking does not seem to exist.

Question 22

How was Piaget’s claim that knowledge is created through equilibration tested?

Answer 22

Russell (1982) created conflict between two children - A would judge one pencil to be longer, B the other, but it didn’t lead to equilibration - the dominant child’s answer was taken if both were non-conserving (if conserving, their answer taken). This supports social constructivism.

Question 23

What is Vygotsky’s social constructivism?

Answer 23

The idea that intellect and development is situated in a social context. Different contexts lead to different forms of development (not stages).

Question 24

How do cognitive processes develop according to Vygotsky?

Answer 24

Through social interaction - more competent individuals help the learner through scaffolding. Instruction can only be successful within the child’s zone of proximal development.

Question 25

What are the main emphases etc of Vygotsky’s theory?

Answer 25

• Contextualist approach and socio-historical-cultural context.
• Child not in vacuum!
• Zone of proximal development and peer collaboration.
• Educational applications - scaffolding and peer-tutoring.

Question 26

What are the main differences between Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theories of education?

Answer 26

• P=endogenous control, V=exogenous influences.
• P=nature, V=nurture
• P=active learning+search, V=mentors aid and guide.
• P=learning driven by curiosity, V=learning motivated by need for social interaction.