Piaget's theory of cognitive development Flashcards
What approach did Piaget favour?
Constructivist approach
What are the 4 stages of cognitive development according to Piaget?
Sensori motor stage
Pre-operational stage
Concrete operational stage
Formal operational thinking stage
Describe the sensori motor stage
-0-2 years (during infancy)
-Unable to understand object permanence
-Lack of mental imagery
Describe the pre-operational stage
-2-7 years
-Egocentrism beings to occur
-Looked into operational intelligence, idea that children can solve a problem by thinking about logical reasonings behind it
-Children can’t focus on one thing, instead their attention is broadened
What was the conservation of quantity task?
-Tall thin jar and small wide jar
-Water transferred from one to another
-They responded that the tall thin jar had more water, despite seeing them at the same level prior to this
What was the conservation of length task?
-Two pencils aligned on a table
-One moved so that the tip would stick out compared to the other
-Children stated that one pencil was longer than the other
What was the conservation of mass task?
-Two balls of plasticine
-One flattened out, the other in a ball and the child stated that the one in a ball had more plasticine
What was the conservation of number task?
-Two rows of 5 counters, all equal
-One row had counters more spaced out than the other row
-Children stated that the more spaced out row had more counters
What was the class inclusion task?
-5 red lego bricks and 2 blue lego bricks
-Children asked whether there was more red bricks or more bricks overall, and children stated that there was more red bricks
What was the transitive inference task?
-Two towers of lego bricks which were opposite sides of the room
-Children asked to use a stick to figure out which one is taller
-Unable to do this
Describe the concrete operational stage
-7-12 years
-Child can solve problems using logical reasonings and justifications are provided for their answers e.g. compensation, inversion and identity
-Struggle to apply reasonings to abstract problems
Describe the formal operational thinking stage
-12+ years
-Looks into systematic thinking and logic behind it
Describe Donaldson’s (1978) study and thoughts on Piaget’s theory
-Donaldson argued that the repetition of the question with the counter task creates a biassed response from the children.
-Conducted ‘naughty teddy’ study alongside McGarrigle (1975) where it was found that then the question isn’t repeated, the children tend to give the right answer
Describe Rai and Mitchell (1992) study
-Inference by elimination
-Presented children with a set of cartoon characters, most of which were familiar to them; He-Man, Spiderman and Batman
-They were asked to identify which of the characters was ‘Murkor’ (unknown) and most of the children pointed to the unfamiliar character almost immediately
Describe Russell (1982) study
-Social constructvist view
-Conservation of length
-Children sat on opposite sides of a table with two pencils aligned on the table showing the same length
-The pencils were then moved so that they no longer aligned
-When asked which pencil was longer, both children would say the one that is further away from them
-He then left them in a room with a hidden camera to observe their disagreement and in the end they both agreed which was longer/whether they were the same length
