Samuel & Bryant

Samuel & Bryant

1. Background

   • Piaget, a very famous psychologist did a lot of research with children, he suggested that the world of a child is very different to an adult. Piaget developed a theory of cognitive development, which suggested that children develop thinking in materational stages: The sensory motor (this is from birth to 18 months) matching actions to sensations- learning senses. The second is the pre-operational (this is between 18 months and 7 years) this is when the child has the ability to understand that when an object is not infront of them, it still exists. the next is concrete operational and this occurs from 7 t0 12 years this is when the child no longer finds it difficult to see things from other peoples perspective. They can decentre
     • the stage we are interested in is the pre- operational stage. This is when the child lacks conservation. This is because they cannot understand that when you change the shape of something, you are not always changing the mass.

2. Aim

   • challenge Piaget's findings by adjusting the procedure used to test conservation

3. Method

   • The sample consisted of 252 children from various schools in Devon, between the ages 5 and 8.5. They were divided into 4 age groups: 5 years 3 months, 6 years 3 months, 7 years 3 months and 8 years 3 months.

4. Procedure

   • This was a controlled lab experiment, each of the 4 groups was divided into sub groups of the 3 conditions: Standard, one judgement and fixed
     • Standard: This is when they did the test in the same was as piaget- to see if this way gave false results. This involved asking the child the conservation questions twice; once before and once after.
     • One judgement: This is when the question is only asked once- after the children had seen the transformation
     • Fixed-array control: This is when the child doesn't see the transformation take place and they are only asked 1 question.
   • Independent measures design as no child takes part in 2 conditions
   • there were 3 different conservation tasks: Mass, Number and Volume
     • Mass: In this test, plasticine was used, To identical rolls were shown and they then changed the shape and asked the conservation question.
     • Number: In this test, counters were used, to rows were shown, with the same amount of counters, one was stretched out and the conservation question asked.
     • Volume: In this test, water was used. The child saw 2 beakers, the shape was changed and then the conservation question asked.
   • There are 3 independent variables of Age, Condition and Type of conservation task

5. Results/Findings

   • Age: Supports Piaget. there was a significant difference between the age groups. Each group made fewer errors as they got older.
   • Condition: Challenges Piaget. The children made fewer errors in the one judgement condition than the other 2.
   • Type of task: Children made fewer errors in the number task that the other two

6. Evaluation

   • strengths: Amount of control they had over confounding variables. Counter balancing the order of conservation tasks controlled for order effects, eg fatigue and practise
   • Strengths: ability to check for reliability as each task was repeated 4 times. this shows accuracy
   • weakness: number task can we regarded as invalid as the children could have been counting
   • weakness: children may feel nervous during these tests- especially younger years. this could mean that results are spontaneous rather than thought out.