psychlotron org uk James thinks you cant see

psychlotron. org. uk 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 psychlotron. org. uk Today’s session

Stage Sensorimotor stage Preoperational stage Characteristics psychlotron. org. uk 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 8 -24 months and error behaviour; object concept – object permanence develops; simple pretend play; language acquisition Preconceptual period Symbolic thought develops; egocentrism; animism; centration Intuitive period Judgements based on appearance 4 -7 years not logical thought; less egocentric; unable to conserve 2 -4 years 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 psychlotron. org. uk Pre-operational stage

• Limitations on a pre-operational child’s thinking include: – Egocentrism – Animism – Centration he t n i d e m a n s i e n ow n k This o o t d ee n u o y o spec s t. i t u o b a lots • Children continue to develop their internal representations of the world through adaptation and accommodation of new experiences psychlotron. org. uk Pre-operational stage

psychlotron. org. uk 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. psychlotron. org. uk According to Piaget. . .

• Three mountains task (Piaget & Inhelder, 1956) • Turntable task (Borke, 1975) • Boy and policemen task (Hughes, 1975) psychlotron. org. uk 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? psychlotron. org. uk 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? psychlotron. org. uk Compare the tests

• Involves unfamiliar materials and situation • Makes heavy demands on working memory • Requires the child to respond in a difficult way psychlotron. org. uk Three mountains task

• Children have a chance to practise • Uses familiar characters, materials & situation • Makes it easy for the child to respond psychlotron. org. uk 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) psychlotron. org. uk 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 7 yrs but they start to do so much earlier psychlotron. org. uk 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 psychlotron. org. uk Homework