Piagetian Stages Research Articles

Logical Operations and Metaphor Interpretation: A Piagetian Model

COMETA, MICHAEL S., and ESON, Momus E. Logical Operations and Metaphor Interpretation: A Piagetian Model. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1978, 49, 649-659. Children's developmental ability to interpret metaphors was analyzed in terms of the gradual operationalization of intersectional classification, as outlined in Piagetian theory. A group of 60 children, matched on IQ, from grades K, 1, 3, 4, and 8, were assessed via a battery of Piagetian tasks to determine stages of cognitive development and were then asked to interpret a number of metaphors ranging in frequency of occurrence in adult speech from to rare. Data analysis via the ordering-theoretic method (0.01 tolerance level) indicated that the development of intersectional classification serves as a necessary, logical precondition to the ability to paraphrase and explain metaphors in a manner acceptable to adults. The commonness of a metaphor in daily adult speech had a significant (p < .01) impact upon children's interpretative abilities, less common items being the most difficult to comprehend at all stages. Results were viewed as supporting the utility of a Piagetian stage model of semantic development, wherein language acquisition is seen to reflect the growth of underlying logical operations.

Piagetian-styled and process-based physics lecture course for liberal arts majors

The recent surge of evidence that a good percentage of incoming college students have not fully reached the Piagetian stage of intellectual development necessary for scientific abstraction has prompted the reorganization of a ten-week introductory physics course for liberal arts majors at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Without a formal laboratory, this course now attempts, through a specific scheme of lecture demonstrations and homework problems, to involve the students with the material of the discipline in a manner consistent with Piagetian developmental psychology. The developmental scheme is maintained within an instructional framework that emphasizes the historical processes involved in concept formation as well as the humanistic side of the physics discipline. The initial results, obtained through a student questionnaire and departmental survey, suggest physics understanding and appreciation.

The stage question in cognitive-developmental theory

AbstractThe term “stage” appears to be used in three general senses in theories of behavioral development: (a) as a metaphor: (b) as a description of behaviors that undergo age change; (c) as an explanation of age-related changes in behavior. Although most existing stage models are purely descriptive, a few of them purport to have explanatory power. One such model, Piaget's stages of cognitive development, is considered in this paper.To be viewed as potentially explanatory, a stage model must describe some behaviors that undergo age change, posit antecedent variables believed to cause the changes, and provide procedures whereby the behavioral changes and the antecedent variables can be independently measured. Piaget's stages seem to satisfy some but not all of these requirements. Piaget's stages describe many agerelated changes in behavior, and some antecedent variables have been proposed. However, procedures do not exist for measuring the two factors independently. In lieu of such procedures, Piaget has outlined a “program” of five empirical criteria whereby the reality of his stages can ostensibly be verified. Some objections to these criteria are considered.The five criteria in Piaget's program are invariant sequence, cognitive structure, integration, consolidation, and equilibration. Three of the criteria (invariant sequence, integration, and consolidation) lead to the same sorts of empirical predictions (culturally universal sequences in the acquisition of certain behaviors). Such predictions are subject to the objection that Piagetian invariant sequences are often measurement sequences. A measurement sequence is said to occur when some late-appearing behavior consists of some earlier-appearing behavior plus additional things. The cognitive structure criterion is subject to at least three criticisms: First, it yields, at most, descriptions of behavior; second, these are often nothing more than descriptions of task structure; third, they cannot be regarded as unique to the given stages for which they are posited. The fifth criterion, equilibration, generates some predictions that might be considered as prima facie evidence for the existence of stages. However, these predictions conflict with the current data base on Piaget's stages.It is concluded that there is no compelling support for Piaget's hypothesis that his cognitive stages do more than describe age-related changes in behavior. Since explanatory statements involving stages appear with some regularity in Piagetian and neo-Piagetian writings, there are grounds for supposing this conclusion to be nontrivial.

Cortical maturation: an antecedent of Piaget's behavioral stages

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Moral judgment in retarded and nonretarded school age children.

The moral judgment of 135 normal, educable retarded, and trainable retarded boys and girls (ages 6-10, 11-13, and 14-16) was individually assessed to determine the significance of chronological age and IQ on moral development. The results indicated significant differences in mean normal judgment between the groups and each age level. The findings were interpreted as substantiating Piaget's stage theory of moral development and suggesting that within the retarded population, level of intellectual ability is also significantly related to moral judgment.

Concrete and formal piagetian stages and science concept attainment

Concrete and formal piagetian stages and science concept attainment

The Colored Blocks Test

A recently developed test of basic Piagetian stage abilities is described, and new data collected in rural Hawaii and in a working-class Chicago suburb are used to defend its validity. The test makes use of familiar test stimuli-blocks of different colors and shapes-which are reasonably salient cross-culturally. The use of (1) identical materials in assessment of all levels of cognitive development and (2) minimal verbal cues of simple construction serve to enhance (a) the internal consistency of the measure in tapping the child's full potential and (b) the measure's practical utility in a cross-cultural testing situation. The subtasks are designed to correspond to a theoretical description of the stages of cognitive development as defined by Piaget. In order to provide validation for the test, some preliminary empirical confirmation of the correspondence between the abilities tapped by the present test and those tapped by standard Piagetian tests is presented. Finally, data from all of the measures are used to argue that a stage of thinking with some, but not all, of the characteristics of formal operations may in fact be a universal development.

Developmental Stages in Children's Aesthetic Responses

For some time we have been trying to identify developmental stages in children's responses to paintings. This article is primarily a description of our findings to date. Although the findings are still tentative, the line of thought presented might nevertheless be of interest to readers of this journal. A few explanatory remarks seem necessary before we present our findings, though we keep them to a minimum here in order to save space for the descriptive material. The responses of individuals to paintings differ on many dimensions. Our central problem has been to discover which of these many kinds of differences are cognitive-developmental in character. In looking for answers we have had in mind a parallel with the work of Piaget, Kohlberg, and Selman: we were seeking a cognitive-developmental account of aesthetic response. One motivation was a conviction about the autonomous character of aesthetic experience, i.e., a belief that it is sui generis in an important sense. Aesthetic experience is not moral experience, just as morality is not science. Many philosophers have regarded these three as basically different modes of experience.1 This suggests, to a cognitive-developmentalist, that each of the three will have its own developmental history, distinct in the way that Kohlberg's stages of moral judgment are distinct from Piaget's stages of scientific

Eliciting Formal Operations

There is considerable disagreement concerning the age of onset and universality ,..)f attainment of Piaget's stage of formal operations. This study examines developmental differences in response to brief prompts in the use of a formal operational approach to the solution of two tasks. The subjects were 10 males and 10 females from each of Grades 5, 8, and 12. Three tasks requiring the formal operational skill of separating and testing variables were given to each subject. Results suggest that almost all the subjects could readily'understand and utilize the approach of separating variables and tescing each one while holding all others constant. Furthermore, the results support Piaget's claim that formal operations are available to nearly all normal young adults. Implications for the development of logical competence are discussed. (SJL) *********************************************************************** Documents acquired by ERIC include many informal unpublished * materials not available from other sources. ERIC makes every effort * * to obtain the best copy available. Nevertheless, items of marginal * * reproducibility are often encountered and this affects the quality * * of the microfiche and hatdcopy reproductions ERIC makes available * * via the ERIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS). EDRS is not * responsible for the quality of the original document. Reproductions * * supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original. *********************************************************************** ^ Eliciting Formal Operations Fred W. Danner and Mary Carol Day Learning Research and Developrnent Center University of Pittsburgh U S. OEPARTME NT OF HEALTH, EOUCATION & WELFARE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION THIS 00CUMENT HAS BEEN REPRODUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATING IT POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS STATED CIO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EOUCATION POSITION OR POLICY Two formal operations tasks were presented to children from grades five, eight, and twelve--first, in the open-ended fashion used by Inhelder and Piaget and then with prompts in the use of a formal operational strategy. None of the young subjects and less than half of the older subjects were able to solve the first task on their own. A few of the younger subjects and nearly all of the adolescents, however, performed at a formal operational level on a transfer task. Eliciting formal operations by prompting and then measuring transfer appears to be a promising method for assessing logical compe-

Developmental inter-relationships among concrete operational tasks: An investigation of Piaget's stage concept

One hundred and one primary school children were tested on eight concrete operational tasks. Each child's performance on each task was classified as either preoperational, transitional, or fully operational. Cross-classification tables were constructed showing the joint classification of children's performance on all possible pairs of the eight tasks. Two models of intertask relations, Wohlwill's ( The study of behavioral development. New York: Academic Press, 1973 ) divergent-decalage and reciprocal-interaction patterns, were evaluated for their fit to the cross-classification data using χ 2 goodness-of-fit procedures. Instances of both these patterns were identified in the data. The findings give some support to Flavell and Wohlwill's modification of Piaget's stage concept, in which individual groupings (e.g., seriation) are the structural basis of the interrelationships among concrete operational tasks. Tasks based on the same rule showed a degree of developmental interdependence (reciprocal-interaction patterns), while tasks based on different rules appeared to develop independently (divergent-decalage patterns). However, only one-half of the cross-classification tables were adequately described by either the divergent-decalage or the reciprocal-interaction patterns.

Moral Reasoning of Nigerian and Pakistani Muslim Adolescents

Abstract Two studies were conducted to test the universality of Piaget's and Kohlberg's stages of the development of moral judgment in Nigerian and Pakistani cultures. For the first study, 120 Nigerian Muslim Hausa secondary school adolescents (60 boys and 60 girls), whose ages ranged between 14 and 16, were questioned individually about two of Piaget's moral judgment situations, representing two different moral attributes, clumsiness and equality. In the second study, 90 subjects (30 Nigerian Muslim Hausa, 30 Nigerian Muslim Yoruba, and 30 Pakistani Muslim Punjabi adolescents), whose ages ranged between 12 and 13, were questioned about one of Kohlberg's moral dilemmas. The nature of the subjects’ responses suggested that moral reasoning of Nigerian and Pakistani Muslim adolescents are greatly affected by their cultural values.

Object disappearance and error in Piaget's Stage IV task

Piaget attributes perseverative error in infant manual search to the failure of the infant to conceive of objects as permanent entities which retain their identity when hidden at successive locations A and B. An experiment was performed to test this explanation in which search was compared under three conditions: when the object was hidden at A and B, when the object was covered but visible at A and B, and when the object was visible and uncovered at A and B. Errors occurred under all three conditions taking the form of a conflict in which infants searched persistently either at A or at B. The conflict was at a maximum when the object was hidden, but was evident even when the object was visible but covered. It is suggested that errors may reflect lack of coordination between egocentric and visual frames of reference in relation to which the object is located.

SPECIFIC FACTORS IN THE PERCEPTION OF FILM AND TELEVISION

ABSTRACT In the light of previous research, the author concludes that general comparison of the relative effectiveness of instructional media, either with each other or with class teaching, is likely to be inconclusive and should be abandoned in favour of investigation of individual characteristics of the media in relation to specific audiences. Two examples of such specific investigations are given, both with respect to childen of infant school age. In the first it is indicated that the loss of the third dimension inherent in all pictorial presentations is a serious handicap to the communication of information, especially with the youngest children and that verbal cues offer no help in overcoming the difficulty. In the second, it is shown that children have difficulty in following the use of close‐ups, necessitated by the low definition of television and that cutting to the close‐up is harder to follow than zooming. In both cases, no link is found with the Piagetian stage of development and hence hope is held out that the difficulties might be reduced by appropriate pre‐instructional training programmes

Relationship Between Performance on a Piagetian Liquid Conservation Task and Reading Achievement in Seven Year Old Children

The relationship of a Piagetian measure of liquid conservation in children with reading ability was obtained to determine the predictive ability of such a task. A six-step conservation-of-fluid task, yielding a score of 0-6, was individually administered to 52 middle-class white children of CA 73-87 months. Reading was assessed 8 weeks later with the Stanford Achievement Test, Reading. A non-significant r of .13 was obtained. Mean reading scores of 3 groups of subjects divided by Piagetian stage of nonconservation-conservation did not significantly differ. Results confirmed most previous studies in finding that Piagetian task scores are not predictive of early academic achievement.

Piagetian Stages in Causality: Children's Answers to "Why?"

read Piaget, only a small number ever read The Child's Conception of Physical Causality. To compound these obstacles, books about Piaget's theories rarely discuss the ideas in this particular work. The present article seeks to make accessible some interesting and helpful ideas from this little-known book by Piaget. The most widely discussed features of Piaget's theory usually involve large, organizational constructs or small details about attainments in particular areas. These features are helpful to teachers in constructing an overall model for cognitive growth or in testing and teaching specific concepts. However, the features do not help a teacher understand children's actions or thoughts. The first part of this article discusses the progression of children's thought from realism to objectivity, to reciprocity, and to relativity. An awareness of this progression can help teachers understand many aspects of children's behavior. The second part of this article describes seventeen types of explanations children give to explain the causality of physical occurrences in the world. The types should be of interest to elementaryschool teachers, for children use explanations of this kind every day. Teachers of adolescents and adults might also take note of the early types of explanations, for they

Video-Taped Feedback and Children's Learning to Flutter Kick

The relative effect of video-taped feedback on the acquisition of a swimming skill was investigated for 2 groups of children ( N = 36), aged 4.5 to 6.4 and 6.5 to 8.5 yr. A significant difference was found between the means of the video-taped and auditory groups for the older group, while differences were not significant for the younger ages. Older children were more able to analyze their own performances relative to the criterion movement. The results are discussed in relation to Piaget's stages of development.

Asymmetrical Search Errors in Infancy

BUTTERWORTH, GEORGE. Asymmetrical Search Errors in Infancy. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1976, 47, 864-867. To establish the spatial generality of perseverative errors in infant manual search, a group of infants age 8-11 months performed Piaget's Stage IV task with an object hidden at successive locations in the vertical plane. When the object was first hidden at the upper location and then at the lower, infants made a greater number of errors than when the sequence of locations was reversed. The asymmetry of error to up increased with age. It is suggested that the pattern of error may reflect an asymmetry within an egocentric spatial frame of reference.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF PIAGETIAN STAGES OF THINKING IN BRITISH MIDDLE AND SECONDARY SCHOOL CHILDREN

Summary. The proportion of children showing early and late concrete operational thinking, and early and late formal operational thinking was measured in a sample of 10,000 children between the ages of 9 and 14. The test instruments were a form of group test called Class Tasks, derived from the individual interview situations described by Piaget. These tests indicated that most children in early adolescence showed rapid development in concrete thinking, but that only one‐fifth of the children showed the further development of formal operational thought. The representativeness of these findings was ensured by relating the distribution of Piagetian stages at each age‐level to the norms of a standardised non‐verbal reasoning test.

Relation of two Piagetian stage transitions to IQ.

Relation of two Piagetian stage transitions to IQ.

Hypothesis sampling systems among preoperational and concrete operational kindergarten children

Groups of 60 preoperational and 60 concrete operational kindergarten children received stimulus differentiation training either with feedback (experimental groups) or without (control groups), prior to a series of discrimination-learning problems in which a blank-trial probe, used to detect the child's hypothesis, followed each feedback trial. The concrete operational children manifested significantly better performances than the preoperational on seven of eight dependent measures examined. There were also significant differences in favor of the experimental groups on three dependent measures. While the results were generally consistent with predictions derived from Piagetian stage theory, it was suggested that this theory must be elaborated to include a perspective derived from conventional developmental learning theory in order to adequately account for these and other data.