Evaluating Piaget’s Theory Is Cognitive Development Really Stage-like? Does Piaget Underestimate Children’s Thinking? Can Cognitive Development Be Trained?

Evidence Against Stage-like Development Decalage Success of Training Studies reinforce correct answer practice reversing transformation create cognitive conflict screen misleading information model higher-order answer Cross-cultural Data

Chronology of Conservation Mastery Age 6 - number conservation Age 8 - solid quantity conservation Age 10 - weight conservation How would you test weight conservation? Age 12 - volume conservation How would you test volume conservation?

CLASSIC STUDY: BRUNER’S SCREENING STUDY Participants: 5 to 8 year old children who clearly failed the conservation of liquid substance task. Step 1: Screen is placed in front of the beakers before the liquid is poured.

CLASSIC STUDY: BRUNER’S SCREENING STUDY Step 2: Blue liquid is poured from one of the tall beakers to the wide beaker. Step 3: Child is asked whether the liquid is still the same amount. Results: When children do not have the misleading visual information, they say “It’s the same, you only poured it”

When a Child Fails a Piagetian Task Why? Piaget: The Child Lacks Relevant Cognitive Skills Alternative View: Piaget’s Method Underestimates the Child’s Skills Perhaps - the instructions/question are not clear - the materials are unfamiliar/novel - child fails to attend to significant factors - there is a memory problem - child performs better in real world context

Classification Skills – A Case Study Piaget: Are there more cats or animals? Restating the Question: Are there more cats or dogs or animals? Redirecting the child’s attention to the superordinate category: animals vs fruit

Role-taking in a Real World Context Theo at 2 yrs of age Theo has been told that he will be spanked for showing anger. I (Mom) tell him he can’t do something, and he stamps his foot in anger. I turn around and give him a serious look. He stamps his foot again, this time saying, “Look at the floor! A spider!” There is, of course, no spider, on the floor.

Role-taking in a Real World Context George at 2 yrs of age George was told he couldn’t have any more jelly beans. Shortly thereafter, while I was sitting watching television, he slowly maneuvered his chair from the table toward the counter where the jelly beans had been placed. He was singing and appeared to be playing with the chair. As he passed by me, he looked out of the corner of his eye. I had failed to catch the drift of his maneuver until he looked back. Our eyes met, and a look of recognition flashed across my face. George smiled -- he had been found out.

Can We Train Cognitive Development? Pro success of training studies some tasks are easier than others, perhaps we can order them from simpler to more difficult then introduce the easier ones sooner Con development is a global, spontaneous process transfer from training is limited