Samuel & Bryant Flashcards
Outline the main difference between the children’s response to the ‘one question condition’, compared to the ‘two question condition’.
For all age groups (except the 7 years olds), the children performed better on the one question condition than the standard, two question condition. This shows that the form of questioning has an important effect on the ability to conserve.
Suggest one reason for the difference between the children’s response to the ‘one question condition’ and the ‘two question condition’.
Children become confused by having the question repeated (standard condition), it acts as a demand characteristic for children to change their answers to please the experimenter.
Give one piece of evidence that challenges Piaget.
Children who failed the traditional conservation task nevertheless succeeded more often than when only one question was asked.
Give one piece of evidence that supports Piaget.
For every condition the youngest children made the most errors and errors decreased with age. This meant that age has an important effect upon the ability to conserve.
Identify 2 factors that increase the chance of a child giving the correct answer in the conservation experiments. For each factor, explain why it increases the chance of a child giving the correct answer.
- Age: Older children made fewer errors and therefore, bring older would increase your chances of giving a correct answer.
- Condition: A child doing the one question condition would be more likely to get a correct answer as they aren’t subjected to the same confusion as the children in the standard condition.
What is meant by the term ‘conservation’?
The ability to distinguish between reality and appearance, for example to understand that quantity hasn’t changed even when a display is transformed.
Describe one of the ways in which the psychologists tested for conservation.
Children were shown a Plasticine cylinder and this was then transformed into a flatter shape (thus making it look as if there is more Plasticine). The key question was then asked after the transformation; “Are they the same?” This was the one question condition.
Identify 2 conditions from the experiment other than the ‘one question’ condition.
- Standard: The traditional procedure done by Piaget, where the children are asked the question twice, before and after the transformation.
- Fixed array: The child saw no transformation take place, all that was seen was the post-transformation display and were asked the question.
Identify 2 factors that affected the child’s ability to conserve other than the question condition.
- Age difference: Older children performed consistently better than the younger children.
- Materials: All children made fewer errors in the number task and most on the volume task.
Describe one way in which the results show cognitive development has taken place.
For every condition the youngest children made most errors and errors decreased with age. This means that age has an important effect on the children’s ability to conserve.
Suggest one problem that psychologists face when studying development.
Children can become confused.
Describe one difference between the way Piaget tested conservation and the way Samuel and Bryant tested conservation.
- Piaget used the ‘traditional’ procedure, asking the child the question twice, before and after the transformation and only used this single procedure throughout the whole experiment.
- Samuel and Bryant however used 2 other procedures as well as Piaget’s traditional procedure: one question and fixed array. In the one question procedure, the question was asked after the child observed the transformation and in the fixed array procedure, no transformation was displayed and the question was asked based on the post-transformation display.
Outline one way in which the validity of any measure can be tested.
Face validity.
Outline 2 conclusions that can be drawn from the results of the study.
- Children made fewer errors when asked only one question and did worse on the fixed array control condition. Thus shows that children who conserved must’ve been using information from the pre-tranformation display in order to answer the final question correctly.
- For every condition, the youngest children made the most errors and errors decreased with age therefore proving Piaget’s theory that conservation improves with age was correct.
Outline one of the conservation tasks of the study.
Mass: Two equal Plasticine cylinders were shown and for the transformation one cylinder was squashed so it looked like a sausage or a pancake. The child was then asked “Are they the same”. This was the one question condition.
