Piaget:Conservational Tasks

By: Andrea Sanchez & Cecilia Tenreiro

Piaget’s life

Born 1896 1918 1920

Switzerland PhD Binet

Piaget’s Life

1921 1925-1929 1929-1939

Research Professor Research [led to stages]

Piaget: Stages of Cognitive Development

Four periods of development

1. Sensorimotor Intelligence (Birth- 2 yrs)

2. Preoperational thought (2-7 yrs)

3. Concrete operational (7-11 yrs)

4. Formal operational (11 yrs- Adulthood)

Piagetian Terminology

Scheme: any action pattern for dealing with the environment, action-structures

Egocentrism: the inability to distinguish one’s own perspective from that of others.

Object permanence :the idea that an object continues to exist even when it cannot be observed (seen, touched, heard, smelled in any way).

Primary Circular Reactions: a baby chances upon a new experience tries to repeat it

Secondary Circular Reactions: a baby discovers and reproduces an interesting event outside of itself

Tertiary Circular Reactions: a baby experiments with different actions to observe the different outcomes

Statistical Terminology

P-value: a numerical value which either rejects or accepts the null hypothesis

Null-hypothesis: a general statement that there is no relationship between two measured phenomena

Alternative hypothesis: the claim that the researcher believes.

Dependent: determined, influenced, or controlled by something else.

Independent: something that is not determined, influenced, or controlled by something else.

Sensorimotor Stage

1. Reflexes Birth-1 month.

2. Primary Circular Reactions1-4 months: a baby tries to repeat an experience that occurred by accident

3. Secondary Circular Reactions4-8 months: Master the ability to repeat an experience

4. Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions8-12 months: can combine two schemas for an intended result.

5. Tertiary Circular Reactions12-18 months: explore new actions for new results

6. Beginning of Thoughtcan internalize thought before acting

Preoperational thought Stage

2-7 years

Child can use symbolic representations in the world around them

Child is interested and curious about why things are the way they are

Child begins to understand conservation

Concrete Operational thought

7-11 years

Children become aware of logical and systematic ways of understandings of the world.

Child further masters conservation tasks.

Formal Operational Thought

Pre-adolescence or 11yrs - adulthood

He is able to think further than systematic and logical ways– in a “purely abstract and hypothetical plane.”

Variety of Conservation Typical Age

Number 6-8

Liquid 7-8

Mass 7-8

Conservation

Hypotheses

A child’s ability to conserve number, mass, and liquid is independent of age or grade level.

Will any children exhibit patterns that defy the order suggested by Piaget?

Are there any patterns that differ between boys and girls in their ability to conserve number, liquid, and mass?

Participant Data

Example responses

We found that Grade level did not effect a child’s ability to conserve number.

With a p value of .347 we retain the idea that the ability to conserve number is independent of grade level.

WE found that grade level did effect a child’s ability to conserve liquid.

With a p value of .001 we reject the idea that grade level and conservation of liquid are independent.

WE found that grade level did effect a child’s ability to conserve mass.

With a p value of .000 we reject the idea that grade level and conservation of mass are independent.

WE found that Gender did NOT effect a child’s ability to conserve number.

With a p value of .303 we accept the idea that gender and conservation of number are independent.

WE found that Gender did NOT effect a child’s ability to conserve liquid.

With a p value of .629 we accept the idea that gender and conservation of liquid are independent.

WE found that Gender did NOT effect a child’s ability to conserve mass.

With a p value of 1 we accept the idea that gender and conservation of mass are independent.

Comparisons

CONSERVATION TASK

WE FOUND PIAGET

Grade v. Number Independent Dependent

Grade v. Liquid Dependent Dependent

Grade v. Mass Dependent Dependent

Gender v. Number Independent Independent

Gender v. Liquid Independent Independent

Gender v. Mass Independent Independent

CONCLUSIONs OF Hypotheses

A child’s ability to conserve number, mass, and liquid is independent of age or grade level. TRUE.

Will any children exhibit patterns that defy the order suggested by Piaget? YES, ONLY ONE. [NOT SIGNIFICANT]

Are there any patterns that differ between boys and girls in their ability to conserve number, mass, and liquid? NO.

Nature v. nurture

ROUSSEAU--------------------------------------------------------LOCKE

limitations

Small sample size.

Group setting could have influenced the children’s answers.

After gathered our data and further researched Piaget’s claims we realized that we misunderstood the conservation tasks of liquid and volume.

bibliography

Crain, William. Theories of Development, Concepts and Applications. 5th ed. New Jersey.

Piaget, Jean and Inhelder, Barbel. The Psychology of the Child. New York. 1969.