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, actionstructures
 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 Reactions
1-4 months: a baby tries to repeat an experience that occurred by accident
3. Secondary Circular Reactions
4-8 months: Master the ability to repeat an experience
4. Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions
8-12 months: can combine two schemas for an intended result.
5. Tertiary Circular Reactions
12-18 months: explore new actions for new results
6. Beginning of Thought
can 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.”
Conservation
Variety of Conservation
Typical Age
Number
6-8
Liquid
7-8
Mass
7-8
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.