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James thinks you can’t see him now.
You are learning about...
You are learning to...
• Piaget’s preoperational
• Compare and criticise ways
stage (pre-conceptual
of investigating infant
period)
cognition
• Tests of egocentric thinking
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Today’s session
Stage
Sensorimotor stage
Preoperational stage
Characteristics
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Piaget’s Stage Theory of Cognitive Development
Typical Age
Substages 1-3
Ability to deal with situations is
0-8 months
limited to:
i) Having sensations and producing
actions; ii) The ‘here and now’
Substages 4-6
Intentional actions emerge; trial
and error behaviour; object
concept – object permanence
develops; simple pretend play;
language acquisition
8-24 months
Preconceptual
period
Symbolic thought develops;
egocentrism; animism; centration
2-4 years
Intuitive period
Judgements based on appearance 4-7 years
not logical thought; less egocentric;
unable to conserve
Concrete operational stage
Conservation; seriation;
transitivity; class inclusion
7-11 years
Formal operational stage
Abstract concepts; hypothetical
thinking; flexibility in thinking
12+ years
• 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
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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
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Pre-operational stage
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Egocentrism
• 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.
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According to Piaget...
• Three mountains task (Piaget & Inhelder, 1956)
• Turntable task (Borke, 1975)
• Boy and policemen task (Hughes, 1975)
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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?
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Three tests of egocentrism
• 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?
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Compare the tests
• Involves unfamiliar materials and situation
• Makes heavy demands on working memory
• Requires the child to respond in a difficult way
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Three mountains task
• Children have a chance to practise
• Uses familiar characters, materials & situation
• Makes it easy for the child to respond
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Turntable 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)
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Boy and policemen task
• 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
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Tests of egocentrism
• 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
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Homework