Theorist Jean Piaget, though not entirely accurate, revolutionized our perception of how children reason by categorizing key cognitive developments into schemes (stages). Working largely with his own kids, Piaget observed typical steps young minds make in the growth to more advanced logic and awareness. Generally, between the ages of 2 and 7, preschoolers make great leaps of logic in representational activity. Piaget refers to this phase as the “preoperational stage.” The term preoperational means before a child is able to perform some complex mental operations and relies instead on the way things appear. Piaget then created conservation tasks which test a child’s limitations of preoperational thought.
In my Human Growth and Development class on Tuesday (Apr. 15, 2008), with the help of some adorable volunteers, we observed the difference in success, depending on age, of children performing the conservation tasks. Our group of youngsters consisted of 5 year old triplet boys – Austin, Brandon, and Cody – 6 year old Brianna, and 7 year old Bailey. From youngest to oldest, the children came up one at a time to do various conservation tasks. Brandon was the first of the boys to “play” with Dr. B At almost 6, Brandon was able to count in his head (representational activity) both rows with four blocks each. When the rows were back to back, he agreed that both had the same number of blocks. However, when Dr. B spaced out the back row of blocks, Brandon thought the spaced out row of four had more blocks than the row with four side-by-side. This reflects Piaget’s theory of irreversibility, or a young child’s inability to mentally reverse the steps and return to the starting point (both rows have the same number of blocks).
Cody, the second of the triplets, also exhibits Piaget’s concept of irreversibility, but in a different way. An interesting point is that a child may get one task right and fail another, showing that the cognitive process is not a single step. Also, one triplet may fail a test, while another succeeds, illustrating that age is not the only factor. Cody was given 5 pennies and one nickel. After Dr. B explained that 5 pennies equal one nickel, Cody agreed they were the same. Dr. B then took away 2 pennies, leaving 3 pennies and a nickel. Cody was then asked, would he rather have all the pennies or one nickel. Successfully answering the conservation task, Cody said he’d rather have the nickel because, “Three pennies won’t buy anything.”
Austin, the last of the triplets, was given two equal balls of playdough. After understanding that both were the same, Dr. B rolled out one of the balls into four “snakes.” Austin believed that the four snakes had more playdough than the other ball. When asked how the snakes got more playdough, Austin didn’t know. Again, this is an example of irreversibility. Five year olds just don’t remember that the 4 snakes were an equal ball only a few minutes before.
The most telling conservation task was the cup test. It truly showed the vast reasoning differences between 5 year olds and a 7 year old. Both girls (ages 6 and 7) and all three boys (age 5) were presented with two identical cups with equal amounts of juice. Dr. B poured one of the cups into a tall, skinny glass, raising the level of liquid above that of the other cup. He asked everyone if one cup had more juice. Both girls understood that the skinny glass had the same amount as the original cup, and were able to explain the logic. All the boys, however, demanded that the skinny glass had more juice. When Dr. B poured the contents of the tall glass back into its first cup, the boys were shocked to see it had the same amount of juice. Through Piaget’s conservation tasks, we can observe the incredible differences a mere couple of years can make on the minds of children.
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