Jean Piaget

Cognitive Development Children do not think about the world in the same way as adults. Children of different ages think in different ways. Object permanence

The 3 model task Prior to being concrete operational (7-11) children are egocentric, they are unable to understand what others think or feel

Stages of cognitive development Piaget argued that children may go through the stages at different speeds but they would always go through the stages in the same order.

Pre-operational stage Children can use symbols e.g. during play a child will pick up a stick and pretend it’s a sword. But children in this stage cannot apply logical mental thought (or operations) to real objects E.g. children cannot conserve because they do not understand that 2 things can remain the same (constant) despite changes in their appearance

Piaget Wanted to investigate conservation in the pre-operational child Used 3 materials Mass - play dough – 2 equal cylinders, then 1 is roles into a sausage Volume – Liquid in the same size glasses, liquid is then poured into a into a narrower or shallower wider glass Number – 2 equal rows of counters, one row then bunched or spread out Asked the question before and after the transformation Found that pre-operational children cannot conserve

Volume

Volume

Number

Mass

To challenge Piaget’s findings by altering the method used by Piaget Samuel and Bryant The aim To challenge Piaget’s findings by altering the method used by Piaget

The participants 252 boys and girls between ages of 5 and 8.5 All in schools and playgroups in and around Crediton, Devon Divided into 4 age groups (63 in each) with average age of 5 years 3 months 6 years 3 months 7 years 3 months 8 years 3 months

The 3 conditions Standard –traditional two question method used by Piaget (child asked about size before and after objects shape is changed One judgement - the question is only asked post transformation (the child is only asked once about the size of the object) Fixed array control – the child only sees the post transformation display (only sees objects once they have been changed)

Controls Each child was given 4 trials with each kind of material They included a control group – fixed array control – this was to make sure that the children who gave the correct answer in the first two conditions did so by bringing over the information from the pre-transformation display They used different age groups They used a standardised procedure – the same materials, the same instructions and the same question Participants were randomly allocated to groups

Findings Researchers recorded the number of errors children made in the tests. They found: Children in the one judgement task found it significantly easier (made less errors) then in the standard condition or in the fixed array control. There was a significant difference between age groups (older children doing better than younger). The children made fewer errors on the number task compared with the other two tasks.

Evaluation Is the study an ecologically valid was of looking at demand characteristics? Is the study unethical? Children under the age of 16 were used and the researchers do not tell us if they had parental consent however its unlikely that the task distressed the children and no deception was used. Was the study reliable? Was there a standardised procedure? Were all variables except the none being investigated (type of questioning) kept constant. Was the sample representative? It was a large sample of 252 children of different ages but they were all from one area in Devon. The data collected was Quantitative data– they counted the number of errors children made - what are the advantages and disadvantages of this type of data? An Independent measures design was used – why is this good or bad? Is it useful – what are the implications for questioning and teaching children?

Boredom and practice effects Each child did 4 trial with each material How would this have affected their performance on the tasks? How does this affect validity?

Advantages of a Lab Experiment P - Lab experiments have a high level of control over variables E – C - Therefore the lab experiment is more reliable as its easier to replicate and get the same results P - An advantage of a lab experiment is that it allows us to infer cause and effect (IV causes DV) C - Therefore is tells us not only that there is a relationship, but the direction of the relationship

Disadvantages of a lab experiment P - Lab experiments lack of ecological validity E – C - Therefore the findings cannot be generalized beyond experimental setting to real life setting P - Demand characteristics are a disadvantage of lab experiments because participants are aware they are being observed C - Therefore lab experiments lack validity as they may not truly be measuring children's true conservation skills, but how eager they are to please the experimenter