Jean Piaget’s
Theory of Cognitive Development:
Egocentrism and the Three-Mountain Task
By: Martin Lopez
Jean Piaget
• Born August 9, 1986 in
Neuchatel, Switzerland
• At 10, published first
article on sparrows
• At 15, he decided to
focus his work towards
biological explanation of
knowledge
• At 18, received B.A. from
University of Neuchatel
• At 21, earned a doctorate
in the natural sciences
Jean Piaget
• By 21, he had published 25
professional papers (mostly on
mollusks)
• At 23, he researched children
psychology
• By 30, Piaget was famous for
his works in psychology
• Has honorary degrees from
Harvard, Columbia, University
of Brussels, the Sorbonne, and
Brazil
• Jean Piaget is NOT a
maturationist!!!
Overview of Theory
• Stage theory
• Children pass through these
four stages in an invariant
sequence
• Children use biological
tendencies: assimilation,
accommodations, adaptation,
and organization
• Development is an active
construction process
• It is through children’s activities
is where they build their
cognitive structures
Nature vs. Nurture
• Piaget believed that nature and nurture
interact to yield cognitive development
• Adaptation: The tendency to respond to the
demands of the environment to meet one’s
goals
• Organization: The tendency to integrate
particular observations into coherent
knowledge
Preoperational Stage
• Takes place from ages 2 to 7
• Child’s mind takes on symbols (including images
and words)
• Development of egocentrism, centration, and
inability to follow transformations
• Development of language, child use words as
symbols
• Children fail to conserve different objects
• Transductive reasoning, shifting from particular to
particular, appears
Concrete Operations Stage
• Takes place from ages 7 to 11
• Characterized by the appropriate use of logic.
• Important processes during this stage are:
seriation, classification, reversibility,
conservation, and elimination of egocentrism
• Only solve problems that apply to actual
(concrete) objects or events
Egocentrism
• It is the inability to distinguish one’s own perspective
from that of others.
• Encourages centration, tendency of the child to focus
attention on one aspect of situation and ignore all others.
• Found primarily in the preoperational stage (2-7 yrs).
Three-Mountain Task
Guiding Questions
• Will children in the same stage of development
have the same perspective as their peers?
• Will there be a difference in stage development
between older children and younger children?
• Can a child identify an image from the
perspective of another person or thing?
• Can a child identify their own perspective of the
image?
• Does a child’s egocentrism continue throughout
the different development stages or does should
it end at a particular stage of development?
Participants
• 17 1st graders (6-7yrs) from Holy Family of Nazareth
Elementary School-Irving, TX
• 23 4th graders (9-11yrs) from Lavaland Elementary
School- Albuquerque, NM
Procedure
• The children were sat down at one end of the
table containing four chairs on each side of the
table. There were three different sized squares
on top the table. Then each child was given a
piece of paper with four different images of the
squares. Then I sat next to the child and asked
them to circle the view that was in front of me, or
my view of the squares.
• I continued moving around the table counterclockwise until all of the three images were
selected by the child.
Hypothesis
• The preoperational child will not be able to
identify all of the images from that of
another person’s perspective, but they will
be able to pick their own view.
• The older children tested (9-10 yrs) will be
able to identify all of the images and their
own view
NAME______________________________________
AGE_________________________________
View 1
View 3
View 2
View 4 (Child’s View)
Data Collection Tool
• The children’s egocentrism will be examined by using a one-point
scale for each correct image identified.
• The child will receive an automatic one point for not identifying the
last image, (view 4). This is their own view.
• One point is given for every correct image that is identified.
• There is a total of four points possible for each child during the test.
• A four-score is the highest of the totals meaning that the child has
completely gone through the preoperational stage into the concrete
operational stage of development and are no longer egocentric.
• If a child reaches a three-score then the child is near the end of the
preoperational stage, and able to think concretely, but is still
egocentric.
• If a child reaches a two, one, or zero score, they have yet to have
concrete operational thoughts and are still in the preoperational
stage of development and are still egocentric; they cannot perceive
the perspective of others just quite yet.
DATA
1st graders of Holy Family
Elementary School
6- 4 points
0- 3 points
5- 2 points
4- 1 point
2- 0 points
Name
Gender
Age
View 1
View 2
View 3
View 4
Total
Sarah
Girl
7
1
1
1
1
4
Andrew
Boy
6
1
1
1
1
4
Freddie
Boy
7
0
1
1
0
2
Jaelen
Boy
6
1
1
1
1
4
Sarah L.
Girl
6
1
1
1
1
4
Tony
Boy
6
1
1
1
1
4
Steven
Boy
6
1
0
0
1
2
Emanuel
Boy
6
1
0
0
0
1
Matthew
Boy
6
1
1
1
1
4
Maddie
Girl
7
1
0
0
0
1
Marianne
Girl
6
1
0
0
0
1
Pablo
Boy
6
0
0
0
0
0
Makayla
Girl
6
1
0
0
0
1
Sydney
Girl
7
1
0
1
0
2
Kevin
Boy
6
1
0
1
0
2
Carlos
Boy
6
1
0
1
0
2
Andy
Boy
7
0
0
0
0
0
4th graders of
Lavaland
Elementary School
10- 4 points
0- 3 points
13- 2 points
0- 1 point
0- 0 points
Name
Gender
Age
View 1
View 2
View 3
View 4
Total
Vivian
Girl
9
1
1
1
1
4
Makayla
Girl
9
1
1
1
1
4
Benjamin
Boy
9
1
1
1
1
4
Danielle
Girl
10
1
1
1
1
4
Marisa
Girl
9
1
1
1
1
4
David
Boy
11
1
0
0
1
2
Miranda
Girl
9
1
1
1
1
4
Eli
Boy
9
1
1
1
1
4
Geneveive
Girl
9
1
0
0
1
2
Alex
Boy
10
1
1
1
1
4
Rocio
Boy
9
1
1
1
1
4
Samuel
Boy
9
1
0
0
1
2
Deiago
Boy
9
1
0
0
1
2
Pilar
Girl
10
1
0
0
1
2
Jessica
Girl
9
0
1
0
1
2
Jose
Boy
10
1
0
0
1
2
Aileen
Girl
9
1
0
0
1
2
Charles
Boy
9
0
1
0
1
2
Yuren
Girl
8
1
0
0
1
2
Karla
Girl
10
1
0
0
1
2
Adam
Boy
9
1
1
1
1
4
Crystal
Girl
10
1
0
0
1
2
Kimberly
Girl
10
1
0
0
1
2
Results
1st Graders
1st Graders
4
3
Total points
2
earned
1
0
1
Children
Sarah,7
Andrew,6
Freddie,7
Jaelen, 6
Sarah L, 6
Tony, 6
Steven, 6
Emanuel,6
Matthew,6
Maddie,7
Marianee,6
Pablo,6
Makayla,6
Sydney,7
Kevin,6
Carlos,6
Andy,7
Series18
Results
4th Graders
Vivian,9
4th Graders
M akayla,9
B enjamin,9
Danielle,10
M arisa,9
4
David,11
3.5
M iranda,9
Eli,9
3
Geneveive,9
2.5
A lex,10
Ro cio ,9
Samuel,9
Deiago ,9
P ilar,10
Jessica,9
Jo se,10
A ileen,9
Charles,9
Yuren,8
Karla,10
A dam,9
Crystal,10
Kimberly,10
Total Points
Earned
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
1
Children
Results
Average of both 1st and 4th Grades
Number of Points Possible
Average scores
4
3.5
2.869565217
3
2.5
2.235294118
2
Average score
1.5
1
0.5
0
1st Graders
4th Grades
Conclusions
• My hypothesis was FALSE!!
• A majority of the 1st graders were able to pick
all of the images, but were not able to pick their
own view of the squares.
• A majority of the 4th graders were not able to
pick all of the images, but all of the 4th graders
were able to pick their own view.
Problems
• Data collection tool was a little broad and
was hard deciding what the stages were
that the child should fall into.
• At times the images on the testing sheet
seemed too confusing for both 1st and 4th
graders.