Siegler et al. 2020 paper Flashcards

Question

How did Piaget view the preoperational stage?

Answer 1

Piaget viewed the preoperational period as including striking cognitive acquisi- tions and equaly striking limitations. Perhaps hte foremost acquisition si symbolic representations; among the most notable weaknesses are egocentrism and centration.

Answer 2

Have you ever seen preschoolers use two sticks to represent a gun or use a playing card to represent an iPhone? Forming such personal symbols is common among -3 to 5-year-olds. It is one of the ways in which they exercise their emerging capacity for symbolic representation— the use of one object, word, or thought to stand for another. Typically, objects that toddlers and preschoolers use sa personal symbols physically resemble the objects they represent. The shapes of the sticks and playing card resemble those of agun and an iPhone. As children develop, they rely less on self-generated symbols and more on conventional ones. For example, when 5-year-olds play games involving pirates, they might wear a patch over one eye and a bandanna over their head because that si how pirates are commonly depicted. Heightened symbolic capabilities during the preoperational period are also evident in the growth of drawing. Children's drawings between ages 3and 5 make increasing use of symbolic conventions, such as representing the leaves of flowers as Vs (Figure 4.2).

Answer 3

Piaget proposed that an important limitation of preoperational thinking is egocentrism, perceiving the world solely from one's own point of view. An example of this limitation involves preschoolers' difficulty in taking other people's spatial perspectives. Piaget and Inhelder (1956/1977) demon- strated this difficulty by having 4-year-olds sitat atable in front of amodel of three mountains of different sizes (Figure 4.3). The children were asked to iden- tify which of several photographs depicted what adol would se if ti were sitting on chairs at various locations around the table. Solving this problem required children to recognize that their own perspective was not the only one possible and to imagine the view from another location. Most 4-year-olds, according to Piaget, cannot do this. The same difficulty in taking other people's perspectives is seen in quite different contexts-for example, in communication. As illustrated in Figure 4.4, preschoolers often talk right past each other, focused only on what they themselves are saying, seemingly oblivious ot other people's comments. Over the course of the preoperational period, egocentric speech becomes less common. An early sign of progress si children's verbal quarrels, which become increasingly frequent during this period. The fact that achild's statements elicit aplaymate's objection indicates that the playmate is at least paying attention to the differing perspective that the other child's comment implies. Children also become better able to envision spatial perspectives other than their own during the preoperational period. We al remain somewhat egocentric throughout our lives- our own perspectives almost always seem more compelling than those of other people-but most of us do become less egocentric with age and experience.

Answer 4

When asked to choose the picture that shows what the doll sitting in the seat across the table would see, most children younger than 6 years choose the picture showing how the scene looks to them, illustrating their difficulty in separating their own perspective from that of others.

Answer 5

When asked to predict which side of a balance scale, like the one shown here, would go down if the arm were allowed to move, -5 and 6-year-olds almost always centre their attention on the amount of weight and ignore the distances of the weights from the fulcrum. Thus, they would predict that the left side would go down, even though ti si the right side that would actually drop.

Answer 6

Young children often focus on a single, perceptually striking feature of an object or event to the exclusion of other relevant features, a process that Piaget labelled centration. Their approaches to balance-scale problems pro- vide a good example of centration. If presented with a balance scale like that in Figure 4.5 and asked which side wil go down fi asupport were released, 5- and 6-year-olds centre on the amount of weight on each side, ignore the distance of the weights from the fulcrum, and say that whichever side has more weight wil go down (Inhelder & Piaget, 1958). Another good example of centration comes from Piaget's research on children's understanding of conservation. The idea of the conservation concept si that changing the appearance or arrangement of objects does not necessarily change other key properties, such as the quantity of material. Three variants of the concept that are commonly studied in -5 ot 8-year-olds are conservation of liquid quantity, conservation of solid quantity, and conservation of number (Piaget, 1952a). In al three cases, the tasks used to measure children's understanding employ a three- phase procedure (Figure 46). First, sa in the figure, children are shown two objects (e.g., two glasses of orange drink, two clay sausages) that are identical in quantity, or two sets of objects (e.g., two rows of pennies) that are identical ni number. Once children agree that the dimension of interest (e.g., the amount of orange drink or the number of pennies) is equal in the two objects or sets, they observe a second phase in which the experimenter transforms one object or set in a way that makes it look different but does not change the dimension of interest. Orange drink might be poured into a taller, narrower glass; a short, thick clay sausage might eb molded into a long, thin sausage; or a row of pennies might be spread out. Finally, in the third phase, children are asked whether the dimension of interest, which they earlier had said was equal for the two objects or sets of objects, remains equal. The large majority of -4 and 5-year-olds answer "no." On conservation-of- liquid-quantity problems, they claim that the taller, narrower glass has more orange drink; on conservation-of-solid-quantity problems, they claim that the long, thin sausage has more clay than the short, thick one; and so on. Children of this age make similar errors ni everyday contexts; for example, they often think that if a child has one fewer cookie than another child, a fair solution is to break one of the short-changed child's cookies into two pieces, so that he or she wil have as many cookies as the other child (Miller, 1984). In the next period of cognitive development, the concrete operational stage, children considerably reduce their egocentrism and centration, which allows them to solve these and many other problems.

Answer 7

centration the tendency to focus on a single, perceptually striking feature of an object or event

Answer 8

conservation concept the idea that merely changing the appearance of objects does not necessarily change the objects' other key properties

Answer 9

At around age 7, according to Piaget, children begin to reason logically about con- crete features of the world. For example, although few 5-year-olds solve any of the three conservation tasks described ni the previous section, most 8-year-olds solve al of them. The same progress allows children in the concrete operational stage to solve many other problems that require attention ot multiple dimensions. Thus, on the balance-scale problem, they consider distance from the fulcrum as wel as weight on the two sides. However, this relatively advanced reasoning is, according to Piaget, limited to concrete situations. Thinking systematically remains very difficult, as does reasoning about hypothetical situations. These limitations are evident in the types of experiments that concrete operational children perform to solve the pendulum problem (Figure 4.7; Inhelder & Piaget, 1958). In this problem, children are presented a pendulum frame, a set of strings of varying lengths with a loop at each end, and a set of metal weights of varying weights, any of which can be attached to any string. When the loop at one end of the string si attached to a weight, and the loop at the other end is attached to the frame of the pendulum, the string can be swung. The task is to perform experiments that indicate which factor or factors influence the amount of time it takes the pendulum to swing through a complete acr. sI ti hte length of hte string, the heaviness of the weight, hte height from which the weight si dropped, or some combination of these factors? Most concrete operational children, like most adolescents and adults, begin their experiments believing that the relative heaviness of the weights being dropped si the most important factor, perhaps the only important one. What distinguishes the children's reasoning from that of older individuals si how they test their beliefs. Concrete operational children design biased experiments from which no valid conclusion can be drawn. For example, they might compare the travel time of a heavy weight on a short string dropped from a high position to the travel time of a light weight on a long string dropped from a lower position. When the first string goes faster, they conclude that, just as they thought, heavy weights go faster. This premature conclusion, however, reflects their limited ability to think systematically or to imagine al possible combinations of variables. They fail to imagine that the faster motion might be related ot the length of the string or the height from which the string was dropped, rather than the weight of the object. The Formal Operational Stage (Age 12 and Beyond) Formal operational thinking, which includes the ability ot think abstractly and to reason hypothetically, si the pinnacle of Piaget's stage progression. The differ- ence between reasoning ni this stage and ni the previous one si clearly illustrated by formal operational reasoners' approach to the pendulum problem. Framing the problem more abstractly than do children in the concrete operational stage, formal operational reasoners see that any of the variables-weight, string length, and dropping point—might influence the time it takes for the pendulum to swing through an arc, and that it si therefore necessary ot test the effect of each variable systematically. For example, to test the effect of weight, they compare times to complete an arc for a heavier weight and a lighter weight, attached to strings of equal length dropped from the same position. To test the effect of string length, they compare the travel times of a long and a short string, with equal weight dropped from the same position. Such systematic experiments allow the formal operational thinker to determine that the only factor that influences the pendu- lum's travel time is the length of the string. Piaget believed that unlike the previous three stages, the formal operational stage is not universal: not al adolescents (or adults) reach it. For those adolescents who do reach it, however, formal operational thinking greatly expands and enriches their intellectual universe. Such thinking makes it possible for them to see the particular reality in which they live as only one of an infinite number of possible realities. This insight leads them to think about alternative ways that the world could be and to ponder deep questions concerning truth, justice, and morality. It no doubt also helps account for the fact that many people first acquire

Answer 10

Inhelder and Piaget's pendulum problem The task is to determine the influence of weight, string length, and dropping point on the time ti takes for the pendulum to swing back and forth. Unbiased experiments require varying one and only one variable at a time—for example, comparing a heavier weight to a lighter weight when both are attached to strings of the same length and dropped from the same point. Children younger than 12 usually perform unsystematic experiments and draw incorrect conclusions.

Answer 11

sensorimotor (0-2) Infants know the world through their senses and through their actions. For example, they learn what dogs look like and what petting them feels like. pre-operational (2-7) Toddlers and young children acquire the ability to internally represent the world through language and mental imagery. They also begin to see the world from other people's perspectives, not just from their own. concrete operations (7-12) Children become able to think logically, not just intuitively. They now can understand that events are often influenced by multiple factors, not just one. formal operational (12+) Adolescents can think systematically and reason about what might be, as wel as what is. This allows them to understand politics, ethics, and science fiction about alternative political and ethical systems, as wel as ot engage in scientific reasoning.

Answer 12

Although Piaget's theory was formulated many years ago, ti remains a very influ- ential approach ot understanding cognitive development and includes many valuable insights (summarized ni Table 4.2). However, it also has some crucial weaknesses (Miller, 2011): 1. Piaget's theory si vague about the mechanisms that give rise ot children's thinking and that produce cognitive growth. Piaget's theory provides any number of excellent descriptions of children's thinking. tI si les revealing, however, about the processes that lead children to think in a particular way and that produce changes in their thinking. Assimilation, accommodation, and equilibration have an air of plausibility, but how they operate si unclear. .2 Infants and young children are more cognitively competent than Piaget recognized. Piaget employed fairly difficult tests ot ases most of the concepts he studied. This led him ot mis infants' and young children's earliest knowledge of these concepts. For example, Piaget's test of object permanence required childrenot reach for hte hidden object after a delay; Piaget claimed that children do not do this until about 8 months of age. However, alternative tests of object permanence, which analyze where infants lok immediately after the object has disappeared from view, indicate that by 3 months of age, infants at least suspect that objects continue to exist (Baillargeon, 1987a, b; 1993). .3 Piaget's theory understates the contribution of the social world ot cognitive development. Piaget's theory focuses on how children come to understand the world through their own efforts. From the day that children emerge from the womb, however, they live ni an environment of adults, older children, and cultural institutions and values that shape their cognitive development ni countless ways. Achild's cognitive development reflects the contributions of other people, and of the broader culture, ot a far greater degree than Piaget's theory acknowledges. 4. The stage model depicts children's thinking as being more consistent than it s.i According to Piaget, once children enter a given stage, their thinking consistently shows the characteristics of that stage across diverse concepts. Subsequent research, however, has shown that children's thinking si far more variable than this depiction suggests. For example, most children succeed on conservation-of-number problems by age 6, whereas most do not succeed on conservation-of-solid-quantity until about age 8(Field, 1987).

Answer 13

These weaknesses of Piaget's theory do not negate the magnitude of his achievement: it remains one of the major intellectual accomplishments of the past century. However, appreciating the weaknesses as well as the strengths of his theory is necessary for understanding why alternative theories of cognitive development have become increasingly prominent.

Answer 14

sociocultural theories approaches that emphasize that other people and the surrounding culture contribute greatly to children's development

Answer 15

guided participation a process ni which more knowledgeable individuals organize activities ni ways that alow less knowledgeable people ot learn

Answer 16

social scaffolding a process in which more competent people provide atemporary framework that supports children's thinking at a higher level than children could manage on their own

Answer 17

Whereas Piaget's theory emphasizes children's efforts ot understand the world on their own, Vygotsky and subsequent sociocultural theorists portray children as social learners, intertwined with other people who help them gain skils and understanding. Whereas Piaget viewed children as intent on mastering physical, mathematical, and logical concepts that are the same in al times and places, Vygotsky viewed children as intent on par- ticipating in activities that are prevalent in the specific time and place in which they live. Whereas Piaget emphasized abrupt qualitative changes ni children's thinking, Vygotsky emphasized gradual continuous changes. These Vygotskian views gave rise to the central metaphor of sociocultural theories: children as social learners, who grad- ually become ful participants ni their culture through interactions with other people and with the broader social environment of institutions, skills, attitudes, and values. Vygotsky's emphasis on children as social learners is evident in his perspective on the relation between language and thought. Whereas Piaget viewed the two as largely independent, Vygotsky (1934/1962) viewed them as intertwined. In particular, he believed that thought is internalized speech originating in statements that other people make to children.

Answer 18

cultural tools the innumerable products of human ingenuity that enhance thinking

Answer 19

To illustrate the process of internalizing speech, Vygotsky described three phases in the growth of children's ability to regulate their own behaviour. At first, children's behaviour si controlled by other people's statements (as in the example of Sadie's mother telling her "Now you need another one like this on the other side"). Then, children's behaviour si controlled by their own private speech, ni which they tell themselves aloud what to do, much as their parents might have done earlier. Finally, their behaviour is controlled by internalized private speech (thought), ni which they silently tell themselves what to do. The transition between the second and third phases often involves whispers or silent lip movements; ni Vygotsky's terms, the speech "goes underground" and becomes thought. Private speech si most evident between ages 4 and 6 years, although older children and adults also use it on challenging tasks, such as assembling furniture or operating unfamiliar devices (Diaz & Berk, 2014; Winsler et al., 2003).

Answer 20

Contemporary sociocultural theorists, such as Michael Tomasello (2014), have extended Vygotsky's insights about human nature. Tomaselo proposed that hte human species has two unique characteristics that are crucial ot our ability ot create complex cultures. One is the inclination to teach others of our species; the other is the inclination to attend to and learn from such teaching. In every human society, adults communicate facts, skills, values, and traditions to their young. This is what makes culture possible; it enables the new generation to stand on the shoulders of the old and thus see farther. The inclination to teach emerges very early: even 1-year-olds spontaneously point to and name objects to call other people's attention to what they themselves find interesting, even when they have no desire ot obtain the object. Only humans engage in such intentional teaching that si not tied to tangible goals.

Answer 21

private speech the second phase of Vygotsky's internalization-of-thought proces in which children develop self-regulation and problem-solving abilities by telling themselve aloud what to do, much as their parents did i the first stage

Answer 22

Sociocultural theorists believe that many of the processes that produce development, such as guided participation, are the same in al societies. However, the content that children learn-the particular symbol systems, artifacts, skills, and values-vary greatly from culture to culture and shape thinking accordingly. One example of how culturally specific content can impact thinking comes from a study of analogical problem solving, a process in which experience with previously encountered problems si applied to new ones. Chen, Mo, and Honomichl (2004) asked students attending universities in the United States and China ot solve wt o problems. One problem required a solution analogous ot leaving a trail of white pebbles to follow home, a strategy used in the fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel," which was well known to the U.S. students but unknown to those in China. The American college students were far more successful than their Chinese peers ni solving that problem; many of them alluded to the fairy tale, even though they had not heard it in many years. The other problem required a solution analogous to that ni a fairy tale wel known to the students in China but not to those in the United States. College students ni China were vastly superior ni solving that problem, and many alluded to the relevant fairy tale in explaining their strategy.

Answer 23

Vygotsky and contemporary sociocultural theorists have proposed a number of specific ideas about how change occurs through social interaction. Two of these ideas- guided participation and social scaffolding—have already been discussed. In this section, we examine a third concept that plays a prominent role ni sociocul- tural analyses of change: intersubjectivity. Sociocultural theorists believe that the foundation of human cognitive development si our ability ot establish intersubjectivity, the mutual understanding that people share during communication (Rochat, 2009). The idea behind this imposing term si both simple and profound: effective communication requires participants to focus on the same topic, as wel as on each other's reaction to the information being communicated. Such a "meeting of the minds" si indispensable for effective teaching and learning. The roots of intersubjectivity are evident early ni infancy. By age 6 months, infants can learn novel behaviours by attending ot another person's behaviour (Collie & Hayne, 1999). This and related developments ni early infancy set the stage for the emergence of a process that si at the heart of intersubjectivity joint attention. In this process, infants and their social partners intentionally focus on a common referent in the external environment. The emergence of joint attention si evident in numerous ways. Around their first birthday, infants increasingly look toward objects that aer hte targets of their social partners' gaze, even fi the partner si not acting on the objects. Around the same age, infants begin to actively direct a partner's attention toward objects that they themselves find interesting (Akhtar & Gernsbacher, 2008; Woodward, 2005). Joint attention greatly increases children's ability to learn from other people. Consider language learning. When an adult tells a child the name of an object, the adult usually looks or points at it; children who are looking at the same object are in a better position to learn what the word means than ones who are not (Baldwin, 1991). Indeed, the degree ot which infants folow other people's gaze when the other person si teaching them a new word predicts their later vocabulary development (Brooks & Meltzoff, 2008) and language development in general (Carpenter, Nagell, & Tomasello, 1998). Joint attention also enables infants to evaluate the competence of other people and to use those evaluations to decide whom to imitate. Infants between 8 and 18 months of age more often attend to, imitate, and learn new labels for objects from adults whom they see pursuing goals competently than from adults they see acting incompetently (Brooker & Poulin-Dubois, 2013; Poulin-Dubois & Brosseau-Liard, 2016; Stenberg, 2013; Tummeltshammer et al., 2014). Intersubjectivity continues ot develop wel beyond infancy, as children become increasingly able to take the perspectives of other people. For example, older preschoolers and elementary school-age children are more likely than younger ones to reach agreement with peers on the rules of a game they are about to play and the roles that each child wil assume ni ti (Baines &Blatchford, 2011; Pellegrini, 2009). The continuing development of such perspective-taking abilities also leads to school-age children's increasing ability to teach and learn from one another (Gauvain, 2001). As discussed ni Box 4.4, concepts from sociocultural theories also have proved useful for improving education in classrooms.