Piaget’s Stages Of Intellectual Development Flashcards
What are Piaget’s stages of intellectual development?
Piaget identified 4 stages, each characterized by a different level of reasoning ability.
What is object permanence?
The ability to realise that an object still exists when it passes out of the visual field. Piaget believed this appears around 8 months.
What is conservation?
The ability to realise that quantity remains the same even when the appearance of an object or group of objects seems to have changed.
What is egocentrism?
A child’s tendency to only see the world from their own point of view.
What is class inclusion?
An advanced classification skill where we recognise that classes of objects have subsets.
What happens in the sensorimotor stage (0-2 years)?
Babies focus on physical sensations and developing coordination. They learn through trial and error, recognize people as separate objects, and understand object permanence by 8 months.
How did Piaget test object permanence?
He observed babies watching objects being removed from sight. Before 8 months, they lost interest; after 8 months, they searched for the object.
What are the characteristics of the pre-operational stage (2-7 years)?
Toddlers are mobile and use language but lack reasoning ability.
How did Piaget test conservation?
He used two identical rows of counters. When one row was pushed closer, pre-operational children incorrectly thought there were fewer counters. The same applied to his liquid conservation task.
What was the three mountains task (Piaget & Inhelder)?
Children viewed 3 model mountains, one with a house, one with cross, and one with snow. When asked to describe the scene from a doll’s perspective, they struggled and instead described their own view.
How did Piaget test class inclusion?
Children were shown 5 dogs and 2 cats and asked, ‘Are there more dogs or animals?’. Children under 7 said ‘dogs’, failing to grasp that dogs are a subset of animals.
What are the characteristics of the concrete operational stage (7-11 years)?
Children can conserve and perform better on egocentrism and class inclusion tasks but struggle with abstract reasoning.
What happens in the formal operational stage (11+ years)?
Children develop formal reasoning and can focus on the form of an argument rather than its content.
How is formal reasoning tested?
Using syllogisms, e.g., ‘All yellow cats have two heads. I have a yellow cat called Charlie. How many heads does he have?’ (Smith et al).
What is a criticism of Piaget’s conservation task?
Piaget used leading questions, making children think volume had changed. McGarrigle & Donaldson tested 4-6 year olds: in a standard task, most answered incorrectly, but when a ‘naughty teddy’ accidentally moved the counters, 72% correctly said the number stayed the same.
What is a criticism of Piaget’s class inclusion conclusions?
Siegler & Svetina tested 100 Slovenian 5-year-olds with 3 sessions of 10 class inclusion tasks. Children given feedback (that dogs are a subset of animals) performed best, suggesting they developed a real understanding of class inclusion.
What is a criticism of Piaget’s egocentrism theory?
Hughes used a model with 2 intersecting walls and 3 dolls (a boy and 2 police officers). Children as young as 3.5 could position the boy so that one officer couldn’t see him 90% of the time, suggesting younger children can decentre.
