Piaget's theory of cognitive development

Two mothers are discussing their babies. Sunny is 3 months old and Gina is several months older. Sunny’s mother says, “He can wave his arms around and kick his legs. He loves the noise when he hits his rattle. He used to do it by accident, now he’s starting to do it on purpose.”

Gina’s mother says, “She can get hold of things now. She keeps getting her teddy and throwing it for me to pick up. If I hide it, she reaches under the cushion to get it.”

Discuss Piaget’s theory of cognitive development in the sensorimotor stage. Refer to Sunny and Gina in your answer.

To analyse the results, the psychologist calculated the median conservation score for the participants in each group. The results are shown in the following table.

Table 4 Median conservation scores for Group 1 and Group 2

What conclusion could the psychologist make from the results in Table 4 ? Justify your answer.

Briefly suggest two examples of a conservation task that the psychologist might have used in the study.

Outline what Piaget meant by conservation.

Outline one strength and one limitation of Piaget’s research into conservation.

Leonard and Felix are primary school teachers. They discuss the methods they use in their classrooms.

Leonard says, “Children need to experiment with the right sort of task. They learn well if they make mistakes until they get it right.”

Felix says, “Children need various levels of guidance to achieve their potential. The more able children can really help the ones who are struggling.”

Use your knowledge of theories of cognitive development to explain the comments made by Leonard and Felix.

Describe what Piaget meant by equilibration.

Discuss what psychological research has told us about children’s understanding of object permanence.

Which one of the following best describes Piaget’s concept of conservation? Write the correct letter in your answer book.

A Understanding that things are different even though they look the same.

B Understanding that things are different when they look different.

C Understanding that things are the same even though they look different.

D Understanding that things are the same when they look the same.

Describe and evaluate Piaget’s research in relation to the pre-operational stage of intellectual development.

Briefly outline what Piaget meant by ‘class inclusion’.

Two mothers are describing how their respective babies, Billy and Milo play.

Billy’s mum says, ‘When you give him anything he puts it straight in his mouth. He seems to think everything is for eating. I gave him a rattle the other day and he just chewed on it.’

Milo’s mum says, ‘Milo used to do just the same, but now he knows the difference between toys that make a rattle noise and toys that don’t. So he knows which ones to shake and which ones to chew.’

Referring to the comments about Billy and Milo, outline Piaget’s theory about schema development.