Transcript Samuel, J. and Bryant, P. (1984) Asking only one question

Samuel, J. and Bryant, P.
(1984) Asking only one
question in the
conservation experiment
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Background
Samuel and Bryant's experiment is one
of many studies which have attempted
to challenge Piaget's theory of
cognitive development through
criticising his methods. It is important
that we firstly understand Piaget's
theory of cognitive development.
Samuel, J. and Bryant, P. (1984) Asking
only one question in the conservation
experiment

Piaget believes that
it is not just the
amount of
knowledge which
distinguishes a
young child from an
older child. There is
actually a
qualitative
difference in their
thoughts.
Development of Intellect
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Piaget thought that
intellectual development
happened in stages, and
that a child would only
go on to the next stage
once it had completely
mastered the first one.
Each stage is seen as a
kind of 'building block'
for the next stage to
rest on.
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive
Development
Piaget outlined four stages of cognitive
development, and gave approximate ages at
which children reached those stages. He
stressed, though, that these ages are only
averages; individual children might go
through the stages at a different speed but
they would always go through the stages in
the same order.
Sensory Motor Stage
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1. Sensory motor
stage (birth to 2
years)
During this stage
the child gains
understanding of its
environment by
using its senses in
combination with
movement.
Pre-Operational Stage
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2. Pre-operational stage (2 years to
about 7 years).
During this stage the child becomes
able to represent objects or events
by symbols or signs. The child is
now able to use language and
express ideas.
Pre-Operational Stage
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Piaget devised numerous tests which
highlighted the errors children make
with certain problems. These errors
demonstrated the different quality of
thought children have in different
stages.
One of the most well known tests
Piaget used to show the limitations of
child thinking in the pre-operational
stage was the conservation experiment.
Conservation Tasks - Volume
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In one of his conservation tests Piaget
demonstrated that if you show a child two
beakers of water, one of which is tall and
thin, the other short and fat, and ask the
child which beaker contains the most water,
the pre-operational child (i.e. child under 7)
will say 'the tall one', even though they
both contain the same amount of water.
Conservation Tasks - Volume
Conservation Tasks - Volume
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Piaget argued that this is because the
child has not developed the ability to
conserve volume, which does not
develop until the child is in the concrete
operational stage.
Conservation of volume is the ability to
realise that something may have the
same volume, even though it is a
different shape.
Conservation Tasks - Mass
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Similarly he demonstrated that if you roll a
piece of clay into a ball, show it to a preoperational child and then roll it into a
sausage shape, the child will say that there is
more clay in the sausage shape.
“Are they the
same?”
Roll one of the play dough balls
into a sausage shape
“Are they the
same?”
Conservation Task - Number
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Piaget also demonstrated that, if you present a preoperational child with a row of five buttons spread
out and a row of five buttons close together, the child
will say that the spread-out row contains more
buttons
“Are they the
same?”
“Are they the
same?”
What is conservation?
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Piaget argued that the inability to conserve is
due to the child's failure to understand that
things remain the same (constant) despite
changes in their appearance (how they look).
Piaget believes this is an example of
centration. The pre-operational child has not
decentred and is therefore centring on just one
dimension. For example, the child is centring on
just one dimension of the beaker, usually its
height, and so fails to take width into account
Concrete Operational Stage
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3. Concrete operational stage (7 to around 11
years)
During this stage the child is able to use more
sophisticated mental operations. For example,
the child is said to have decentred.
Decentring simply means being able to take
account of more than one aspect of a
situation. However the child is still limited in a
number of ways, for example, they tend to
think about the world in terms of how it is,
and find it hard to speculate on how it might
be.
Formal Operational Stage
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4. Formal operational stage (12 years and
above). This stage is mainly governed by
formal logic and abstract thought and is the
most sophisticated stage of thinking.
“What would happen if there was no sun?”
“Dog is to hair as bird is to feathers”
If all animals have four legs, and if this table has four legs, then is
this table an animal?
Summary
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Piaget – children’s thinking is
qualitatively different to adults.
Children’s intellect develops through
stages.
4 stages – Sensory Motor, PreOperational, Concrete Operational and
Formal Operational.
Conservation Tasks used.