Piaget - Conservation

Question 1

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Answer 1

CONCRETE OPERATIONAL STAGE

• 7-11years old, turning point in cog development
• beginning of logical or operational thought
• when children acquire cog operations (internal mental activity) and use them when thinking of objects/experiences to reach logical conclusion
• example: conservation = recognition that properties of object don’t change when appearance is altered

Question 2

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Answer 2

EVIDENCE

• conservation tasks test ability to see properties that are conserved or invariant after object transforms
• experiment: child sees same amount of Louis in two same shaped containers
  Liquid then poured from one container to a thinner glass
• 5y child thinks diff amount and appearance changed
• 7y the majority of children can conserve liquid as they understand that quantity remains same even thou appearance changed

Question 3

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UNDERESTIMATE COG ABILITIES

• Piaget assumed that children below 7 can’t conserve because they don’t have skills of reversibility where they can discover constancy of attributes of mass/volume
• BUT preoperational children can be trained to conserve using identity training
• taught to recognise identities that object is trasnformed in conservation task is still same despite diff appearance
• FIELD supported: 75% of 4y who received training able to solve conservation tasks
• weakens evidence of age of conservation

Question 4

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SOCIAL CONTEXT

• fails to take into account
• ROSE+BLANK when child gives wrong answer to question, question is repeated to hint that first answer is wrong
• which Piaget did, same question asked twice, before and after transformation
• when experiment repeated but question asked only once after liquid poured
  6y olds have correct answer showing early age of conservation
• methodology flawed in evidence

Question 5

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DEMAND CHARACTERISTICS

• SIEGAL: children aged 3+4 tested before procedure and asked same question twice
• observed children repeated procedure and asked to explain what seen
• when child got task wrong the observing ppts explained they only did so to please adults
• children who themselves got it wrong were able to explain why others were getting it wrong

Question 6

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Answer 6

NOT UNIVERSAL

• key concept of Piaget theory is that concepts such as conservation is universal
• but DASEN found aboriginal children performed less well than western on conservation task with skill not developed until 13
• findings not surprising for people who spend time on the love and don’t need to measure amounts
• when aboriginal move to western and receive education they develop skills
• culture influential on such cognitive abilities, goes against the biological roots of Piagets theory