Logic problems Of problems A and B, which is harder/easier and why?

Today’s session You are learning about...You are learning to... Piaget’s concrete operational stage Tests of transitive logic & class inclusion Compare and criticise ways of investigating children’s cognition

The Concrete Operational Stage Operations refer to logical thought processes. These include: – Conservation – Seriation & transitivity – Class inclusion According to Piaget they are absent in preoperational children (<7yrs) and their appearance marks the transition to the next stage.

Operations Seriation – Magnum < Jeroboam < Methuselah < Balthazar Transitivity – Magnum is smaller than Methuselah; Balthazar is bigger than Methuselah; therefore Balthazar is bigger than Magnum.

Piaget called the logical thought processes of 7-11 year-olds concrete because they are restricted to physical entities. It is only in the following stage that the child can think using formal (i.e. Abstract) operations.

Which is the odd one out?

Odd one out How did you decide which was the odd one out? Why is it that we can have more than one correct answer to this problem?

Class Inclusion Piaget & Szeminska (1941) – 20 wooden beads: eighteen brown, two white

Three questions: 1)Are the beads all wooden? 2)Are there more brown beads or white beads? 3)Are there more brown beads or more beads? Which question is most likely to produce wrong answers? Why?

Class Inclusion: Piaget & Szeminska (1941) Questions 1 & 2 require an understanding of two separate classes of objects Question 3 requires an understanding of overlapping and super/subordinate classes (e.g. brown beads are also wooden beads)

Wooden beads Brown beads White beads Errors in this task suggests the child may still not be able to decentre; they can only think about one aspect of an object (in this case class) at a time

Donaldson (1978) Three black and one white cow, all lying down ‘sleeping’.

Donaldson (1978) 6 year-olds asked: 1.Are there more black cows or more cows? 2.Are there more black cows or more sleeping cows? Would Piaget expect a difference in correct responses? Do you?

Question% correct responses ‘Black cows’ vs. ‘cows’25% ‘Black cows’ vs. ‘sleeping cows’ 48% What implication do these findings have for Piaget’s account of child development?

Homework Complete the consolidation reading/questions