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4.2 Piaget's Stage Theory - Coggle Diagram
4.2 Piaget's Stage Theory
Piaget
founder of child psychology
most influential theory in
cognitive development to date
born in Switzerland and spoke French
research interests in philosophy
and psychoanalysis
worked with
Alfred Binet
on IQ tests
left behind a wealth of detailed
observational data about his three children
pushed the idea that children shape their own learning
constructivist
"
construct their own knowledge structures
via exploration of the world
"
believed children are
little scientists
learn by manipulating the environment
and observing effects of said manipulations
intrinsically rewarded by learning
Features
Universal
"
children all around the world go through the same sequence of stages
"
Invariant
"
fixed order with no skipping
"
Discontinuous
"
each stage is qualitatively different
"
Parallel
"
same growth rate across
multiple cognitive areas
"
if child is at particular stage for
understanding of numbers
will be at similar stage for
understanding of logic or space
STUPID
STages are Universal, Parallel, Invariant, Discontinuous
Learning Processes
Assimilation
"
interpreting new facts in
light of current knowledge
"
having definition of alive
as all things that move
seeing moving sky as
example of living thing
Accomodation
reorganisation of knowledge
structures based on new data
being told clouds, sun
and moon are not alive
changing wrong theories
of move = alive
Equilibration
"
process of using assimilation and accomodation to create
stable
understanding
"
Sensorimotor Stage
infants learn through interactions
between their sensations and actions
chew on things receiving
tactile information about objects
alternate between visual and manual exploration as they grow older
Circular reactions
repeating actions that were
caused by their own movement
Lack mental
representations
At
8 months
pass the search task which
shows
fragile object permanence
At
12 months
make the
A-not-B error
looking under
Box A
even after seeing researcher move object to
Box B
18 to 24 months
Full mental representation appears
Under 8 months
No mental representations
and hence
no object permanence
only if search task is used as
measure of object permanence
VoE method proves object
permanence
as early as 2.5 months
limited to thinking in the present
being able to think about
things available to senses
(dog, mother, father)
0 to 2 years
Pre-operational
2 to 7 years
characterised by ability to
form mental representations
Behavioural
Manifestations
Delayed Imitation
seeing someone throwing a tantrum
and throwing a tantrum later after a delay
Pretend Play
pretending a :banana: or :mans_shoe: is a :telephone_receiver:
benefical for social, emotional
and cognitive development
precursor to sociodramatic play
which involves pretending with others
indication of the presence
of symbolic representation
Drawing
transitioning from scribbling to
drawing things that depict reality
Language
Anticipation in
problem solving
imagining the consequence
of the action mentally
utilise symbols
ability to
internalise actions
Limitations
Rigid, inflexible
thinking
mental representations of
actions on information
that obey logical rules
combining
transforming
not organised into
a
reversible system
Centration
"
focusing on
one aspect
of reality
while ignoring other features
"
unable to focus on two
aspects simultaneously
Assessments
Number Conservation Task
Give child 5 pennies
and yourself 5 pennies
Ask child who has more
Spread out the
child's pennies
Preoperational child will say they have
more because they focus on length
Mass Conversation Task
Clay
Asking child whether two
lumps of clay are similar
Flattening
one clay lump
Preoperational child will
say no longer same
Liquid
Asking if 2 glasses have
same amount of liquid
Pour one cup into
different sized cup
Preoperational child may say
taller
cup
has more or
wider
cup has more
repeated questioning leads
children to answer differently
Solutions
Gelman
scaled-down
number task
Used 2 plates
with 3 or 2 buttons
Point to 3 button plate
and said this is the winner
1 more item...
Reasons it works
Smaller numbers
Reliance on counting
Easier language
1 more item...
Markman
Studied 4 and 5 year olds
Procedure
One group received modified
task using group labels (army)
One group which used
unit labels (soldiers)
modified conservation of number task
Results
Children did better when
using group labels
2 more items...
Hierarchical
Classification
Class Inclusion Task
Presenting picture with
3 :rose: and 2 :sunflower:
Asking "are there more
roses or more flowers"
Preoperational child
says more roses
"unable to focus on whole
and its parts simultaneously"
Relational Errors
Seriation Task
arranging from
biggest to smallest
unable to think of 3 objects relative to
each other in terms of length
Kinship Terms
Aunt cannot be Dad's sister and
Grandma's daughter simultaneously
"cannot think of object in relation to
2 or more
objects even when focusing on 1 dimension"
Unable to think of
appearance
and
reality
simultaneously
Perception Bound
(appearance focused)
Egg Task
Show egg to child
and ask about colour
Put egg behind :green_heart: filter and ask about perceived colour and actual colour
Preoperational child answers
:green_apple: to both questions
Intellectual Realism
(reality focused)
Rock Sponge Task
Give child a rock-looking
sponge to feel
Ask what object is
and what it looks like
Preoperational child answers
sponge to both questions
Egocentrism
Verbal
inability to change to
another conversation topic
colouring descriptions of others with
their own feelings and knowledge
Visual
3 :snow_capped_mountain: Task
asks preschoolers to describe
what they saw and what doll saw
mountains look similar
from most angles
Borke
Procedure
Children did either standard 3 :snow_capped_mountain:
or did modified version
(rich display with lots of objects)
Studied 3
and 4 year olds
Results
Children performed much
better in modified task
"attributing one's perceptions,
feelings and knowledge to others"
Animism
its raining because
the clouds are sad
"attributing animate properties
to animate properties"
Precausal
giving magical explanations
for events
something bad happened to me
because I had mean thoughts
Formal Operational
Concrete
Operational
Other challenges
to Piaget's Ideas
Counting
Piaget claims children
counting is
meaningless
Principles of
Counting
One-One
every object gets one and
only one unique label
Stable Order
no
skipping
,
no
repeats
Cardinality
last number represents
total amount in set
principles can be used to test if
counting is meaningful to children
Gelman
again
studied 3 to 5
year olds
Procedure
ask children to watch
puppet count
children tasked with judging whether
puppet counted correctly
Puppet may violate 1 of
3 counting principles
Eg. Violation of one-one
Puppet counts one object twice
and counts 5 objects as 6
Results
All 3 ages good at detecting
violations of all 3 principles
Number competencies displayed
by as young as age 3
Causality
Piaget claims children give magical causes for events because they don't understand causality
Rosengren
Studied 4-5 year olds
Procedure
Presented different kinds
of transformations to children
Everyday
Transformations
Balloon being blown
up and deflated
Paper being cut
up by scissors
Magical Transformations
Rope cut but
reappearing whole
Repeated experiment
with parents' presence
analysed comments
made by parents
Results
For magical
transformations
4 year olds attributed
to magical causes
parents gave magical
explanations
5 year olds attributed
it to sleight of hand
parents told children
it was a trick
child's responses reflect
parents' teachings
most psychologists no longer hold
stage view
of child development
development is
continuous
Modern Cognitive
Development
attribute changes
in children to
Information
Processing Changes
working memory
gets better
allows them to plan series of actions to complete tasks like search task
inhibit inappropriate actions
Conservation task
able to ignore experimenter's
attempts to focus on height of glass
processing speed gets faster
Increase in
experience and
knowledge