• Born in Switzerland
• When he was 11 he wrote a notice over an albino
sparrow, the start of hundreds of articles and over
60 books
• His interest for psychoanalysis began when he was
at the University of Zurich
• Inspired by the wrong answers
• He obsereved his three children: Jacqueline,
Lucienne and Laurent
• 1896-1980
• Switzerland
• Extensive research
in psychology
amongst other
fields
• Written many
articles and books
• Erasmus Prize and
11 other
international
prizes
• 1993• America
• AP Psychology,
Child Growth
and
Development
• Written zero
articles and
essays
• Zero
international
prizes
I chose this experiment
because of the different
studies I found while
researching the three
mountain task. Some modern
day experiments showed kids
were egocentric and other
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=play
showed that kids are not.
er_embedded&v=OinqFgsIbh0
Some said you just had to find
an experiment kids could
understand.
I knew that my test subject
Martin Hughes (1975) was exceptionally bright for
Policeman Doll Study
his age, so I decided to try
Piaget’s task and other
modernized versions to test
egocentrism.
“These experiments were carried out on a hundred children, 21 between 4
and 6; 6 years, 30 between 6; 7 and 8 years, 33 8 and 9; 6 years, and 16
between 9; 6 and 12 years.”
Stage II: “child distinguished hardly or not at all between his own viewpoint and
that of other observers”
Stage III: “on the other hand (7-8 to 11-12 years), shows a progressive
discrimination and co-ordination of perspective...(about 9-10 years), at which
point the mastery of simple perspective is complete…” (Chapter Eight The CoOrdination of Perspectives)
My test subject will be able to pass the
egocentric experiments.
My test subject is very advanced academically and does
not show the normal signs of being egocentric. For
example, my test subject understands other points of
view like someone else’s feelings. Another example is
that when asked how his toy feels, he does not give it
the same feelings as he has.
Periods of Development
I.
Sensorimotor Motor: birth-2 years
I. Scheme- pattern or action for dealing with the environment: looking grasping, hitting or
kicking
II. Primary circular reactions- organization of two previously separate body movements or
schemes: baby brings her hand to her face to look at
III. Thought begins- begin to think before they act
II. Preoperational Thought: 2-7 years. “Children learn to think-to use symbols and internal
images- but their thinking is unsystematic and illogical. It is very different from that of
adults.” (Theories of Development)
I. Conservation of Continuous Quantities
II. Make believe play develops
III. Animism- personification, they don’t separate nonliving and living, so give inanimate
objects life like qualities
III. Concrete Operations: 7-11 years
I. Think systematically but need concrete objects and activities
IV. Formal Operations: 11- adulthood
I. Piaget did not do much for this stage, this was basically unchartered territory until
Erikson. Refer to chapter 12 on Erikson
Egocentrism- the inability for children to see another’s perspective
If a child is egocentric, then they believe everyone else feels, sees and hears what
they do.
“One must, nonetheless, ask whether the
child is completely aware of how to
communicate his thought and is capable of
taking the point of view of others” (page
20 of Six Psychological Studies)
In his book Six Psychological Studies, Piaget says that adults often have a hard time
understanding children between 2-7 because of this egocentricity- “lack of
differentiation between his own point of view and that of others.” (29)
Piaget says that children during this stage do not support assertions with facts due to
egocentrism. “In questioning children under seven years one is struck by the poverty
of their proofs, by their incapacity to find ground for their statements, and even by
the difficulty they experience in recapitulating through retrospection how they
reached their conclusion.
Boy
Bunny
A
When asked what he sees, boy chose each of the cardboard
cutout: first the green mountain, then the brown mountain and
lastly the grey mountain
B
When asked what Mr. Bunny sees, my nephew chose the grey
mountain. I asked him again to make sure that the bunny did
not see anything else and he pointed to the grey mountain
again.
C
Said he saw grey mountain; When asked if he saw anything
else he moved his hear around to see the brown mountain
because knew from his spot he could not see all the mountains
unless he moved
A
What does bunny see? Pointed to all the cardboard cut outs at
once. “This and this and this”
B
Grey mountain, brown mountain, green mountain
C
For the bunny I had the models on a stool in between boy and
the bunny so when I asked what bunny could see, bunny could
see the cardboard cut outs. My mom who was filming pointed
this out. Therefore, I moved the stool on the other side of boy.
Then asked which mountains bunny saw. Boy picked grey and
brown mountain.
Boy
Bunny
A
“Pick a picture of what you see”
Match? No, repeat this.
Started guessing and then start
choosing mts (still with other “game”
of choosing mts.
Found one that matches, 2nd best, grey
and green; I picked up the right one
and asked if it matched and he said no.
Wanted to move on.
C
“What bunny sees?”
Picks grey mt.
Picks pic of mt with little green
mt (2nd best)
C
Picked grey mt.
Picked same pic as what bunny saw
I decided to hold up right pic with the
he saw and picked the one he originally
chose
A
Chose correct one, with grey
mountain on the left, green in
the background and brown on
the right
My mom was filming and the
boy said “Nama I’m all done
with this game”
B
Chose wrong one but immediately knew
it was wrong and chose the right
answer
C
Refers back to grey mt with
small green mt on the left
I was supposed to ask my test subject to choose a picture used
during the second part of the experiment and to place the bear in
the position at the table that gives him that view
However, he got so frustrated with part two that I just moved on. I
did not want him to shut down and not do anymore experiments.
Boy
Me
Dog, Pig
Frog, Horse
Alligator, Bear
Owl, Duck
Boy
Me
Little Einstein Rocket
Caillou
Caillou
Little Einstein Rocket
Boy
Me
Mater and Lightning McQueen Minnie, Mickey, Pluto, Daisy,
Goofy and their at the park
Mickey and Minnie
Mater and Lightning McQueen
The boy I tested passed all the tests until it came to the pictures. He clearly
showed that he was not egocentric, so I conclude that Piaget simply tested
egocentrism in the wrong way. Children had such a hard time
understanding the experiment that they showed the signs of egocentrism.
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http://www.piaget.org/index.html
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http://www.simplypsychology.org/preoperational.html#sthash.0kyRYIpI.dpbs
http://www.sk.com.br/sk-piage.html
http://www.primroseschools.com/curriculum/staff-training
http://wps.ablongman.com/ab_slavin_edpsych_8/38/9951/2547688.cw/content/
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