1. James thinks you can’t see him now.

2. Today’s session You are learning about... You are learning to...
Piaget’s preoperational stage (pre-conceptual period)
Tests of egocentric thinking
Compare and criticise ways of investigating infant cognition

3. Piaget’s Stage Theory of Cognitive Development
Characteristics
Typical Age
Sensorimotor stage
Substages 1-3
Ability to deal with situations is limited to:
i) Having sensations and producing actions; ii) The ‘here and now’
0-8 months
Substages 4-6
Intentional actions emerge; trial and error behaviour; object concept – object permanence develops; simple pretend play; language acquisition
8-24 months
Preoperational stage
Preconceptual period
Symbolic thought develops; egocentrism; animism; centration
2-4 years
Intuitive period
Judgements based on appearance not logical thought; less egocentric; unable to conserve
4-7 years
Concrete operational stage
Conservation; seriation; transitivity; class inclusion
7-11 years
Formal operational stage
Abstract concepts; hypothetical thinking; flexibility in thinking
12+ years

4. Pre-operational stage
Children form internal mental representations and think by manipulating them
They lack operations – abstract rules that underpin adult logical thinking
As a result their thinking tends to be inconsistent and irrational from an adult’s perspective

5. Pre-operational stage
Limitations on a pre-operational child’s thinking include:
Egocentrism
Animism
Centration
Children continue to develop their internal representations of the world through adaptation and accommodation of new experiences
This one is named in the spec so you need to know lots about it.

6. Egocentrism

7. According to Piaget...
Young children do not understand that others have a different view of the world from theirs
They assume that anyone else can see what they can see
This egocentrism does not disappear fully until the child is 7 or 8 years old.

8. Three tests of egocentrism
Three mountains task (Piaget & Inhelder, 1956)
Turntable task (Borke, 1975)
Boy and policemen task (Hughes, 1975)

9. Three tests of egocentrism
You need to know:
What is the procedure for the test?
What do the results suggest about egocentrism?
Ask yourselves:
Is this a fair test of egocentrism?
Are there features that make it easy/hard?

10. Compare the tests
Make sure everyone understands all three, then ask yourselves:
What are the similarities and differences?
Which is the fairest test of egocentrism and why?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of each?
What implications do the results have for Piaget’s theory?

11. Three mountains task Involves unfamiliar materials and situation
Makes heavy demands on working memory
Requires the child to respond in a difficult way

12. Turntable task Children have a chance to practise
Uses familiar characters, materials & situation
Makes it easy for the child to respond

13. Boy and policemen task Children have a chance to practise
Only requires the child to consider what can be seen, not how it will look
The task has ‘human sense’ – the motives and intentions of the characters are clear (Donaldson, 1978)

14. Tests of egocentrism
Piaget’s methods make it difficult for younger children to respond correctly – consequently he underestimates their abilities
Children may not fully overcome egocentrism until 7yrs but they start to do so much earlier

15. Homework
Write an evaluation of Piaget and Inhelder’s (1956) ‘three mountains’ test of egocentrism. In your evaluation include:
Reference to competence and performance
Alternative ways of testing egocentrism
Implications for Piaget’s theory