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Cognitive development Piaget Children’s thought processes are QUALITATIVELY different to adult thought processes Jean PIAGET Piaget is a famous writer on children’s cognitive development Piaget was a SWISS zoologist who studied his own children and their friends Schema A schema is an internal representation of a specific physical or mental action. It is a basic building block or unit of intelligent behaviour which enables the individual to interact with and understand the world. Cognitive Development: the transformation of initial inborn schema by the twin processes of Assimilation = adding new information to an existing schema Accommodation = changing a schema to fit in the new information Cognitive Development takes place through FOUR fixed age related stages Stage 1- the sensorimotor stage Birth to 2 years Child learns from interaction with environment Only at about 6 months does OBJECT permanence occur

Object Permanence Piaget said that when something is out of sight it ceases to exist to a baby. It takes time for a baby to develop object permanence. Piaget would show a toy to a child, then the toy would be covered with a cloth. The child did not make any effort to get the toy from under the cloth.

Stage 2 - Preoperational stage 2 to 7 years Child is egocentric - unable to understand the world from another’s perspective Child unable to CONSERVE

Ego Centrism - The Three Mountains experiment

A model of three mountains is placed on a table. A child is seated in a chair on one side of the table and a doll is seated on a chair on another side. The child is given cards with different views of the three mountains and is asked to pick the view that the doll can see. the child picks the view that they have. Piaget concluded that the child could not de-center and see things from another's point of view.

What does CONSERVE mean? Children can CONSERVE when they understand that quantity does not change when appearance changes
Classical Conservation test stage 1 The child is asked are there the same number of counters in each row?

	Classical Conservation test stage 2 One row of counters is then spread out. The child is asked are there the same number of counters in each row? The child who says NO cannot conserve number

Conservation of Mass test 2 rolls of plasticine - The child is asked is there the same amount in each?

	One piece of plasticine is rolled out while child watches The child is asked if there is the same amount in each? the child who says NO is unable to conserve MASS

Conservation of volume test 2 containers of liquid - The child is asked is there the same amount in A as in B?

	The child watches while B is poured into C The child is asked is there the same amount in A as in C? The child who says NO is unable to conserve VOLUME
According to Piaget - in all these cases the child can only take into consideration ONE aspect of the physical world at a time (what it looks like)

THUS if it LOOKS different it MUST BE different!
Stage 3 - CONCRETE operational stage 7 - approx 11 years child now able to conserve and can perform quite complex operations but only if ‘real’ objects are ‘at hand’ the child cannot perform mental operations (transformations)

If Bill is taller than Jim and shorter than John who is the tallest? Without real figures to manipulate the child cannot answer
	If Bill is taller than Jim and shorter than John who is the tallest?
Stage 4 ‘Formal Operations’ Aged 11+ this is where the 11+ came from! The child can now perform logical operations and abstract reasoning According to Piaget not all achieve the stage of FORMAL OPERATIONS
Criticisms
Hughes Policeman doll experiment. A doll was placed in one of the lettered areas and the child was asked whether the policeman could see it. The child was then asked to hide the doll from the policeman Hughes found that the children could manage this task well. Showing that children can de-center and see things from another's point of view.

McGarrigle (1974) used a 'naughty teddy' to 'mess up the experiment'. He could rearrange the counters in exactly the same way that Piaget had. He found that far more children in the age group 2-4 conserved than with Piaget's experiments.