Piaget, Chomsky, Vygotsky

Question 1

What were Piaget’s fundamental assumptions?

Answer 1

Firstly, Piaget assumed humans are born as a blank slate
He assumed we have no innate knowledge, but have a repertoire of innate behaviours (eg: kicking feet in water)
He assumed we gain knowledge through sensorimotor interactions with our surroundings, experiences, not sitting down and been told stuff

Question 2

What did Piaget aim to explain?

Answer 2

Where knowledge comes from

Question 3

What was his explanation of change during the sensorimotor period, and how did this relate to his aims and assumptions?

Answer 3

Change through experience.
Assimilation and accommodation of schemas.
Equilibration

Question 4

What were Chomsky’s and Vygotsky’s arguments against Piaget? They weren’t about the empirical pattern. Why did they challenge his assumptions?

Answer 4

Chomsky - language. How can you give such an incremental, constructivist account. It’s just too difficult to learn through only experience.
Vygotsky - social learning, how do we learn about all the stuff we can’t learn through experience eg: history

Question 5

List Piaget’s 4 stages and the age at which they occur.

Answer 5

1) Sensorimotor (0-2)
2) Pre-operational (2-7)
3) Concrete operational (7-11)
4) Formal operational (11+)

Question 6

Distinguish between Piaget’s ideas of assimilation and accommodation.

Answer 6

Assimilation = dealing with new experiences in terms of existing schemas
Accommodation = adjusting existing schemas to deal with new experiences