Piaget's Stages of intellectual development

what are Piaget’s four stages

• sensorimotor stage (0-2)

• pre-operational stage (2-7)

• stage of concrete operations (7-11)

• stage of formal operations (11+)

features of the sensorimotor stage

• 0-2 years

• focuses on the principle of object permanence (should be developed by 8 months) = understanding that objects still exist when they’re out of sight

• Piaget observed babies looking at objects and watched as they were moved out of sight

• before 8 months babies immediately switched their attention away from the object

• around 8 months they would continue to look for it = they knew it was still there

features of the pre-operational stage

• 2-7 years

• conservation = quantity remains constant

• P + Inhelder placed 2 identical rows of counters next to eachother then squished 1 row but didnt remove any counters

• children said the squished row had less even though they were the same amount

• egocentrism = only seeing the world from 1 POV

• used the three mountains study and pre operational children couldn’t see from the dolls pov

• class inclusion = idea that objects fall into categories

• P + I asked children to say if there were more dogs or animals in a group of pics of dogs or cats - kids said dogs

features of the stage of concrete operations

• 7-11

• Piaget found children perform better on the same tasks tested in the pre-operational stage and do not make the same errors

• BUT their reasoning is limited to concrete operations - they cannot reason abstract ideas such as morals or imagine objects or situations they cannot see

Features of the stage of formal operations

• 11+

• Capable of formal reasoning

• Used the pendulum task - children 11+ didn’t get distracted by the content like younger children and they worked through systematically to see if the speed increased with the weight of an object or the height of the string

• At this stage children are capable of scientific reasoning and can appreciate abstract ideas

limitation - Ps conclusions about conservation was flawed

McGarrigle and Donaldson -

• replicated the standard P counters task with 4-6 year olds and found most children answered correctly ( like P )

• in another condition, a ‘naughty teddy’ knocked over the counters

• 72% correctly said there were the same number of counters

• this shows they were able to answer if they were not put off by the way there were questions

limitation - contradicting findings to class inclusion

Siegler and Svetina

• gave 100 five year olds from slovenia 10 class inclusion tasks

• in one condition they recieved feedback that there must be more animals than dogs because there were 9 animals but only 6 dogs

• a different group were told there must be more animals because dogs are a subset of animals

• scores improved in the latter group showing they had a real understanding of class inclusion

• P underestimated the abilities of children

limitation - lack of support for egocentrism

Hughes

• tested ability of children to see a situation from two peoples perspectives

• used a model with two intersecting walls, two police men and one boy

• they were asked to place the boy where one policeman couldn’t see him

• 90% of 3.5 year olds could do this and 90% of 4 year olds could make the boy hide from both

• shows children could see different peoples perspectives which P didnt predict

counterpoint for egocentrism research

• acts as a criticism of the ages stages are reached not the characteristics of the stage itself

• Hughes’ point is that children were able to decentre at a younger age than P suggests

• but this ability is still not present in very young children and Hughes’ research also showed ability improved with age

• therefore the principles of Ps stages are unchallenged