11.1.2 Piaget: stages of intellectual development ❤️

Define stages of intellectual development

• 4 stages of development that is characterised by a different level of reasoning ability

• All children develop through the same sequence of stages

Define object permanence

Realising an object still exists when it passes out of the visual field

Define conservation

Realising that quantity remains the same even when the appearance of an object changes

Define egocentrism

Only being able to view the world from their own point of view

Define class inclusion

Being able to understand that objects fall into categories and the idea that classification have subsets

What is the sensorimotor stage

• baby’s focus is developing physical sensations and co-ordination through trial and error

• Understands other people are separate objects

• Acquires basic language

• 8 months, can understand object permanence

What ages is the sensorimotor stage

0-2

How did Piaget investigate object permanence

• found that babies before 8 months immediately shifted their attention away from an object when it was out of sight

• After 8 months they would continue to look for it

What ages is the pre-operational stage

2-7

List all of piagets stages in order

• sensorimotor stage (0-2)

• Pre operational stage (2-7)

• Stage of concrete operations (7-11)

• Stage of formal operations (11+)

What is the pre operational stage

• toddler is mobile and can use language

• Still lacks adult reasoning so displays errors in…

• Conservation, egocentrism and class inclusion

How was conservation investigated in the pre operational stage

• Had two identical containers with the same volume of liquid, the children correctly said they were the same

• When one container was taller and thinner, pre operational children believed there was more

How was egocentrism investigated in the pre operational stage

• 3 mountains task, children showed 3 model mountains, each with different features

• A doll faced the scene from a different angle

• Asked to say what the doll would see from a range of pictures

• Pre operational found this difficult and often picked pictures that matched their own point of view

How was class inclusion investigated in the pre operational stage

• found that pre operational children struggled with the idea the classifications have subsets (e.g animals = dogs)

• Showed 7 year olds pictures of 5 dogs and 2 cats, asked if there were more dogs or animals

• Most said dogs

What ages is stage of concrete operations

7-11

What is the stage of concrete operations

• children have better reasoning abilities which are externally verifiable (called operations)

• Can understand conservation and class inclusion

• But these are concrete operations, can only be applied to physical objects

• Struggle with abstract ideas and imagination

What ages is the stage of formal operations

11+

What is the stage of formal operations

• become capable of formal reasoning and abstract ideas

How is stage of formal operations tested

• pendulum task

• E.g ‘all yellow cats have 2 heads, i have a yellow cat called Charlie, how many heads does he have’ - answer is 2

• Younger children became distracted by the content and answered that cats don’t really have 2 heads

Evaluation - influence through the questions

• In the conservation research, the children may have been influenced

• They were asked if it was the same straight after changing the liquid, this may suggest the incorrect answer (that it had changed)

• In another condition a ‘naughty teddy’ knocked counters closer, 72% were correct in saying it was the same amount

Evaluation - class inclusion research

• Seigler and Svetina studied 100 five year olds

• Gave then 10 inclusion tasks (dogs + animals test)

• Gave an explanation of the task after each session, found they improved

• So those under 7 can understand class inclusion if they are taught

Evaluation - ego centrism research

• Hughes asked children to position a doll where a police officer could not ‘see him’

• They could do this 90% of the time

• So children can imagine others perspectives in a scenario that makes more sense

Counterpoint — still found that this improved with age, so the stages are correct. Only the timings/ ages are wrong

Evaluation - autistic children

• not applicable to all children

• Piaget believed that intellectual development is a single process and all aspects of cognition develop together

• However autistic children develop these abilities separately