Piaget's Theory of Intellectual Development

Question 1

What did Piaget say about how children go through the stages of intellectual development?

Answer 1

Children may not all go through the stages at the same age (due to varying factors) but they will go through them sequentially.

Question 2

What is the first stage of Piaget’s Intellectual stages of development?

Answer 2

Sensorimotor (0-2 years)

Question 3

What did Piaget say develops in the Sensorimotor stage?

Answer 3

Basic physical coordination. Basic language.
Object permanence around 8 months.

Question 4

What is object permanence?

Answer 4

The ability to realise that an object still exists when it passes out of the visual field.

Question 5

What is the second stage in Piaget’s Intellectual stages of development?

Answer 5

Pre-operational (2-7 years)

Question 6

What happens during the pre-operational (2-7) stage of development?

Answer 6

Toddlers become more mobile, can use language but still lacks adult reasoning ability.

Question 7

What three key things happen during the Pre-operational stage (2-7)?

Answer 7

Conservation starts to develop
Egocentrism
Class inclusion starts to develop

Question 8

What is conservation?

Answer 8

The ability to realise that quantity remains the same even when the appearance of an object or group of objects change.

Question 9

What is egocentrism?

Answer 9

The child’s tendency to only be able to see the world from their own point of view.

Question 10

What is class inclusion?

Answer 10

An advanced classification skill in which we recognise that classes of objects have subsets and are themselves subsets of larger classes.

Question 11

What is the third stage of Piaget’s stages of intellectual development?

Answer 11

Concrete Operations (7-11)

Question 12

What did Piaget say occurs in the Concrete Operations stage (7-11)

Answer 12

Most children can conserve and perform much better on tasks of egocentrism and class inclusion.
Now have better reasoning abilities but they are only concrete (can only be applied to physical objects in the child’s presence).

Question 13

What is the final stage of Piaget’s theory?

Answer 13

Formal Operations (11+)

Question 14

What occurs in the formal operations stage (11+)?

Answer 14

Children are capable of formal reasoning, become able to focus on the form of an argument not just its contents

Question 15

What did Piaget do to test conservation?

Answer 15

Placed two rows of counters that had the same number.
Young children said that they were the same on both rows.
But, when the coins on one row were pushed closer together, pre-operational children usually said there were now less.
Also did this with liquid (tall/short glass).

Question 16

What did Piaget and Inhelder do to test egocentrism?

Answer 16

Three Mountains Task.
Children shown three model mountains each with a different feature (cross/house/snow).
Doll faced at the model so it faced a different angle to child.
Child asked to choose what the doll would see. Pre-operational children found and mainly mentioned their own perspective.

Question 17

What did Piaget do to test class inclusion?

Answer 17

Showed 7-8 year old children pictures of 5 dogs and two cats and asked “are there more dogs or animals”.
Children tended to respond more dogs

Question 18

What is a limitation of Piaget’s conservation research?

Answer 18

Investigator effects- the researcher moved the coins/changed the liquid and then asked the same question again. May have implied there needs to be a different answer to the children.

Question 19

What research replicated Piaget’s conservation task?

Answer 19

McGarrigle & Donaldson.
Replicated Piagets procedure found similar results.
But, changed it so a naughty teddy accidentally knocked the counters closer.
Then, 72% correctly said there were the same no. of counters

Question 20

What research replicated Piaget and Inhelders 3 Mountains Task?

Answer 20

Martin Hughes (1975)
Used a model with two intersecting walls and 3 dolls, a boy and two police officers.
Children as young as 3.5 years were able to position the boy doll where one police officer could not see him 90% of the time and 4 years old could do this 90% of the time with two police officers.