Piaget underestimated the cognitive abilities of the child during the first two years of life Flashcards
Piaget identified four major periods, or stages of what?
cognitive development
Piaget identified four major periods, or stages of cognitive development: what were they?
the sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years), the preoperational stage (2-7 years), the concrete operational stage (7-11 years), and the formal operational stage (11 years and beyond).
To Piaget, these stages of intellectual growth represented what 2 things?
qualitatively different levels of functioning, and formed an invariant developmental sequence
structure? 4 points
- Intro and structure
- Describe sensorimotor stage
- Problem solving
- imitation
- development of object permanence - Neonativist critique.
- object permanence
- imitation and symbolic representation - Conclusion
What 3 things are implicated in the sensorimotor period
- Problem solving
- imitation
- development of object permanence
The first stage of Piaget’s theory lasts from birth to approximately age 2 and is centred on …
the infant trying to make sense of the world.
During the sensorimotor stage, and infant’s knowledge of the world is limited to …
his/her sensory perceptions and motor activities
the co-ordination of sensory inputs and motor capabilities form …
schemes that allow them to learn about their environments
Over the course of two years, the infant changes from mainly a X to Y being - an [blank]
reflexive
reflective
active problem solver
What are the 6 sub-stages of the sensorimotor period?
- Reflex activity (0-1 month)
- Primary circular reactions (1-4 months)
- Secondary circular reactions (4-8 months)
- Coordination of secondary schemes (8-12 months)
- Tertiary circular reactions (12-18 months)
- Invention of new means through mental combinations (18-24 months)
There are three aspects of development that are central to the sensorimotor period:
problem solving skills, imitation, and the growth of object permanence.
According to Piaget the earliest forms of problem solving behaviour occurs in the X sensorimotor stage
4th
coordination of secondary reactions (8-12 months)
What happens in the 4th sensorimotor stage? give an example
The infant begins to coordinate two or more actions to achieve simple objectives.
For example, if you were to place an attractive toy under a cushion, a 9 month old might lift the cushion with one hand, while using the other to grab the toy. In this case, the act of lifting the cushion is not a pleasurable response in itself, nor is it executed by chance. Rather it is part of a larger intentional scheme in which two initially unrelated responses – lifting and grasping – are coordinated as a means to an end.
According to Piaget, this problem solving ability then develops in sophistication during the X and Y sensorimotor stages; this culminates in
5th (12-18 months)
6th (18-24 months)
the infants ability to use inner experimentation to solve simple problems on a mental level without having to rely on trial and error.
Piaget recognised the adaptive significance of [blank], and he was very interested in its development.
imitation
His own observations led him to believe that infants are incapable of imitating novel responses displayed by a model until …
the 4th sensorimotor stage ( 8 – 12 months of age)
These imitations became more precise age
12-18 months.
What is deferred imitation?
the ability to reproduce the behaviour of an absent model
According to Piaget, deferred imitation – the ability to reproduce the behaviour of an absent model – first appears at …
18 to 24 months of age (Piaget, 1951).
Perhaps the most notable achievement of the sensorimotor period is …
the development of object permanence,
What is object permanence?
The idea that objects continue to exist when they are no longer visible or detectable through the other senses
Piaget found that X-Y month old infants will not search for attractive objects that are hidden from view
1-4
at X-Y months infants will retrieve toys that are partially concealed or placed beneath a semi-transparent cover, but their failure to search for objects that are completely concealed suggested to Piaget that…
4-8
from the infant’s perspective, disappearing objects no longer exist.
Clearer signs of emerging object concept appear by 8-12 months – here infants will look for the object, but they are likely to make …
the A-not-B error where they will search for the hidden object where they found it previously, rather than where they last saw it.
What age are infants likely to make the A not B error?
8-12 months of age
What is the A not B error?
the tendency of 8-12 month olds to search for a hidden object where they previously found it, even after they have seen it moved to a new location
Between 12-18 months of age [blank] improves
object concept
Between 12-18 months of age object concept improves. Toddlers …. However, object permanence is not complete because…
now track the visible movements of objects and search for them where they were last seen.
because the child cannot make the mental inferences necessary to understand invisible displacements. So if you conceal a toy in your hand, place your hand behind a barrier and deposit the toy there, remove your hand, and then ask the child to find the toy, 12-18 month olds will search where the toy was last seen (in your hand) – rather than looking behind the barrier.
By X - Y months toddlers are capable of mentally representing such invisible displacements; at this point they fully understand that…
18 – 24 months
objects have a ‘permanence’ about them.
Piaget was an amazing observer of infants, and …, Piaget’s account of infant development is generally accurate, although somewhat incomplete (Bjorklund, 2011).
at the level of describing infant problem solving that most people actually see
Yet Piaget generally underestimated infants’ cognitive capabilities, and many researchers today believe …
that new theories are needed to completely capture the richness of infant intelligence.
The most articulate criticism of Piaget’s infancy theory comes from proponents of what?
neo-nativism
what is neo-nativism?
the belief that infants are born with substantial innate knowledge about the physical world, which requires less time and experience to be demonstrated than Piaget proposed (Gelman & Williams, 1998; Spelke & Newcomb, 1998).
Two references for neo-nativism?
(Gelman & Williams, 1998; Spelke & Newcomb, 1998
Research suggests that infants know something about the permanency of objects very early on; such knowledge does not have to be ‘constructed’ as Piaget proposed, but …
is part of an infant’s genetic heritage
Indeed, who found that infants understand object permanence earlier than Piaget thought?
Renee Ballairgeon
How did Renee Ballairgeon come to the conclusion that infants understand object permanence much earlier than Piaget thought?
in several studies she analysed infant looking responses to the outcomes of events that seemed to violate physics principles – she found that infants as young as 3.5 months will look longer at impossible events indicating that they understand on some level that the object should not just simply disappear.
From what age did Renee Ballairgeon find that infants will look longer at the impossible event?
3.5 months
Similarly to Renee Ballairgeon what did Bower et al (1971) do? what did they find?
Bower et al. (1971) designed a task that used gaze tracking to decipher whether infants of 5 months old understand object permanence
Four month old infants were shown a train moving along a track. The train went behind a screen that blocked the infant’s view.
The infants would direct their gaze to the other side of the screen, where the train would be expected to emerge.
In Bower et al. (1971) sutdy what would the 4 month old infants do when the train went behind the screen that blocked the infants’ view?
The infants would direct their gaze to the other side of the screen, where the train would be expected to emerge.
In Bower et al (1971) study) 4 month old infants were shown a train moving along a track. The train went behind a screen that blocked the infant’s view. The infants would direct their gaze to the other side of the screen, where the train would be expected to emerge - what does this imply?
ThiThis implies an understanding that the train still exists even though the infant cannot see it.
In follow up studies to Bower et als (1971), what happened? what was found?
This implies an understanding that the train still exists even though the infant cannot see it.
According to Piaget, as soon as the train was no longer visible, the infants should…
should lose interest and look elsewhere, since for them the train no longer exists.
According to Piaget, as soon as the train was no longer visible, the infants should lose interest and look elsewhere, since for them the train no longer exists. However, since this study showed otherwise, this suggests that
Piaget underestimated the age at which children develop object permanence.
Why did Piaget believe that older infants are capable of deferred imitation?
) because they can now construct mental symbols, or images of a model’s behaviour that are stored in memory and retrieved later to guide the child’s recreation of the modelled sequence.
) because they can now construct mental symbols, or images of a model’s behaviour that are stored in memory and retrieved later to guide the child’s recreation of the modelled sequence.
Other investigators disagree with Piaget, arguing that …
deferred imitation, and thus symbolic representation, begins much earlier (Gergley, Bekkering & Kiraly, 2003)
In relation to imitation - what has research shown with 6 month olds? Who conducted it?
research has shown that 6 month olds are able to imitate very simple acts (such as button pressing to activate a noise-making toy) after 24 hours (Colin & Hayne, 1999
toddlers have been shown to imitate particularly memorable events up to …
toddlers have been shown to imitate particularly memorable events up to
So a capacity for deferred imitation is present much earlier than Piaget had thought, something that brings into question Piaget’s account of …
the nonsymbolic sensorimotor child.
early display of symbolic ability is illustrated in innovative research by who?
Karen Wynn (1992).
early display of symbolic ability is illustrated in innovative research by Karen Wynn (1992).
What happened in her experiment?
In Wynn’s experiment, 5 month old infants were shown a sequence of events that involved the addition and subtraction of dolls from a model screen; one of the sequences led to a possible outcome, whereas the other led to an impossible outcome.
In Wynn’s experiment, 5 month old infants were shown a sequence of events that involved the addition and subtraction of dolls from a model screen; one of the sequences led to a possible outcome, whereas the other led to an impossible outcome.
What was the procedure? 4 steps
. Infants sat and watched as an object was placed on a model stage.
. A screen was then raised, hiding the object.
The infant then watched as a second object was placed behind the screen
The screen was then lowered revealing either two objects (the possible outcomes), or one object (the impossible outcome).
What did Wynn (1992) conclude from her research?
Infants seem not to be making only a perceptual discrimination between two displays. Rather, when they watch as one item is added to another behind a screen, they expect to see two items when the screen is dropped. This requires a certain level of object permanence and memory, but also some rudimentary ideas about addition.
Wynn’s findings are provocative - why?
They suggest substantially greater symbolic (quantitative) knowledge in young infants than proposed by Piaget.
To conclude… 2 sentences
To conclude, it is clear that Piaget did somewhat underestimate the cognitive abilities of the child in the first two years of life. However, it is important to remember that his work was the first of its kind, many aspects of his theory have been supported by research, and much of the subsequent research critiquing his findings could not have been done without his pioneering work recognising both the central role of cognition in human development, and the child as active in its own development.
Whilst Piaget did somewhat underestimate the cognitive abilities of the child in the first two years of life, what is it important to remember? (3 points)
- That his work was the first of its kind
- That many aspects of his theory have been supported by research
- That much of the subsequent research critiquing his findings could not have been done without his pioneering work recognising both the central role of cognition in human development, an the child as active in its own development
