Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development: an Appreciation - Essay Example

Number] Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development: an Appreciation Man takes pride of his intellect which according to him separates him from the rest of the animal kingdom. Indeed, the scientific and technological advancement we can see today serves as a living testament to this belief. Such complex undertakings and achievements are due all to the human's mind. The question that invariably rises now is how the human mind achieved this state of being. Research on cognitive development, or the development of thinking processes, has had many enthusiasts -most of them philosophers - who proposed many explanations. However, the most influential theory of cognitive development was that of Jean Piaget. (Piaget,1977) In this paper, we aim to gain a better understanding of Piaget's theory thru a discussion of the concepts he forwarded. We will then try to observe Piaget's theory in operation in two children - one 3 years old and another one 8 years of age. Piaget's Theory Piaget's theory provided many central concepts in the field of developmental psychology and concerned the growth of intelligence, which for Piaget, meant the ability to more accurately represent the world, and perform logical operations on representations of concepts grounded in the world. The theory concerns the emergence and acquisition of schemata-schemes of how one perceives the world-in "developmental stages", times when children are acquiring new ways of mentally representing information. The theory is considered "constructivist", meaning that, unlike nativist theories (which describe cognitive development as the unfolding of innate knowledge and abilities) or empiricist theories (which describe cognitive development as the gradual acquisition of knowledge through experience), it asserts that we construct our cognitive abilities through self-motivated action in the world. Piaget divided schemes that children use to understand the world through four main stages, roughly correlated with and becoming increasingly sophisticated with age: Sensorimotor stage (years 0-2) Preoperational stage (years 2-7) Concrete operational stage (years 7-11) Formal operational stage (years 11-adulthood) Although the task did not mention what stage will the research focus, the age classification of the subjects leads us to focus on the Pre-operational stage and the Concrete Operational stage. We discuss them in the following (Piaget, 2001): Preoperational stage By observing sequences of play, Piaget was able to demonstrate that towards the end of the second year a qualitatively new kind of psychological functioning occurs. (Pre)Operatory Thought in Piagetian theory is any procedure for mentally acting on objects. The hallmark of the preoperational stage is sparse and logically inadequate mental operations. According to Piaget, the Pre-Operational stage includes the following processes: Symbolic functioning - use of mental symbols, words or pictures to represent something which is not physically present. Centration - focusing or attending to only one aspect of a stimulus or situation. For example, in pouring a quantity of liquid from a narrow beaker into a shallow dish, a preschool child might judge the quantity of liquid to have decreased, because it is "lower"--that is, the child attends to the height of the water, but not to the compensating increase in the diameter of the container. Intuitive thought - occurs when the child is able to believe in something without knowing why she or he believes it. Egocentrism - tendency of a child to only think from her or his own point of view Inability to Conserve - lack of perception of conservation of mass, volume, and number after the original form has changed. Concrete operational stage This stage, which follows the Preoperational stage, occurs between the ages of 7 and 11 years and is characterized by the appropriate use of logic. Important processes during this stage are: Decentering - takes into account multiple aspects of a problem to solve it. For example, the child will no longer perceive an exceptionally wide but short cup to contain less than a normally-wide, taller cup. Reversibility - understands that numbers or objects can be changed then returned to their original state. For this reason, a child will be able to rapidly determine that if 4+4 equals 8, 8-4 will equal 4, the original quantity. Conservation - understanding that quantity, length or number of items is unrelated to the arrangement or appearance of the object or items. For instance, when a child is presented with two equally-sized, full cups they will be able to discern that if water is transferred to a pitcher it will conserve the quantity and be equal to the other filled cup. Serialisation - the ability to arrange objects in an order according to size, shape, or any other characteristic. Classification - the ability to name and identify sets of objects according to appearance, size or other characteristic, including the idea that one set of objects can include another. Elimination of Egocentrism - the ability to view things from another's perspective even if they think incorrectly. In the following section, we present the results for the research conducted and critically analyze whether Piaget's concepts are in operation. II. Methodology After permission from the parents and child has been acquired, the children were put to the task conducted in a round table in a living room. Pictures were taken an hour before the scheduled task for the first child so the pictures are close to current conditions. The methods are as follows: Task 1: Conservation of volume task. Pour an identical amount of juice or coloured water into two identical clear glasses. Ask the child if the two glasses have the same amount, and adjust the volume in each glass until the child agrees that both have the same amount. Pour the liquid from one of these glasses into a taller, thinner clear glass. Ask the child if the amount of juice is the same in both glasses or if one has more. If the child says that one has more, ask which one. Have the child justify the judgment of there being the same or a different amount of liquid in the two glasses. Record all responses. Task 2: Conservation of number task. Show the child two identical rows of 7 evenly-spaced coins where the rows are aligned horizontally. Ask the child if they are the same and adjust the rows until the child agrees that they are. Now spread the coins in one row further apart. Ask the child if both rows have the same amount of coins or if one row has more. If the child says that one has more, ask which one. Have the child justify the judgment of there being the same or a different amount of coins in the two rows. Task 3. The Three Objects Task Set up three objects on a empty table and have the child walk around the table to become familiar with what the objects look like from different perspectives. Evenly space three chairs around the table and have the child sit in one directly viewing the objects. Place the same doll in each of these chairs and ask the child to select from a series of three pictures the one that best represents the view that the doll is seeing. Record all responses. III. Results Task 1: Volume Task 3-year old response: One glass has more than the other. Child identifies thinner and taller glass as the one with the larger amount. He tells us that this is because the glass he chose was taller than the other glass. 8-year old response: Both glasses have the same amount. Child explains that if the content of the taller glass was poured back into the original glass which is identical to the first, they will have the same amount. Task 2: Number Task 3-year old response: The row with coins farther to each other has the greater number of coins. When ask why he thought so, the child states that the length of spread is greater for his choice. 8-year old response: Both rows have the same number of coins. Child explains that he can count and that he was able to count as many in the first as in the second. Task 3: Egocentrism Task 3-year old response: Child goes thru the pictures and points to the picture which has his perspective. 8-year old response: Child goes thru the picture and looks at where the doll's eyes are focused. He then identifies the picture with the object which the child thinks the doll's eyes are looking. IV. Discussion The responses of the 3 year old corresponded to the characteristics Piaget categorized in the Preoperational stage. Regarding Task 1 results, the child thought that the amount of juice was larger showed that the child indeed displays the Centration and Inability to Conserve concepts that Piaget forwarded. The child judged that the glass he chose contained the larger amount because it was taller. In spite of the fact that he saw that the colored water came from the glass identical to the other, he forgot this showing lack of perception. He also judged that the glass he chose has the larger amount by virtue of it being tall thereby showing lack of centration. The same also goes true for Task 2 where he forgot that the rows contained the same number of coins. He responded to the expansion as if that action increased the number of coins on the expanded row. Test 3 was very telling for it shows the egocentric characteristic for the category Piaget forwarded. With regards to the 8 year old, the child showed the capability to think logically by being able to judge that the number of coins and the amount of colored water was the same for the containers. Their judgement that the amount of colored water and number of coins hadn't change when it was re-arranged only shows decentralization. The explanation of placing the colored water back resulting to the same level of fill is the reversibility ability. The child also considered the perspective of the doll when choosing at the picture showing that he has already achieved elimination of egocentrism. The correspondence of the observations to the concepts of Piaget was remarkable. The results were very enlightening. I have now gain a better appreciation of not only Piaget's notions but also of how to critically examine the development of the mind. Bibiliography: Piaget, J. (1977). The Essential Piaget. ed by Howard E. Gruber and J. Jacques Voneche Gruber, New York: Basic Books Piaget, J. (2001). Studies in Reflecting Abstraction. Hove, UK: Psychology Press. Read More